Numbers 27:14

For ¹  in the wilderness of Zin when the community rebelled against me, you ²  rebelled against my command ³  to show me as holy ⁴  before their eyes over the water – the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.”

Ex 17:7; Nu 20:1,13,24; Nu 20:8-13; De 1:37; De 32:51,52; Ps 106:32,33

¹ tn The preposition on the relative pronoun has the force of “because of the fact that.”

² tn The verb is the second masculine plural form.

³ tn Heb “mouth.”

⁴ sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.