Exodus 17:6

Horeb] see on 31. Tradition identifies the rock with a great detached fragment under the ridge of Ras es-Sufsafeh. This, however, is a long way from the supposed site of Eephidim. At the same time Moses and the elders are represented as going on before the people, so that the people obtained the water not at the rock, but some distance down the stream that flowed from it. If the stream continued to flow for some time, as seems natural to suppose, perhaps during the eleven months of the sojourn in that neighbourhood, the people would drink it at various points. This is probably the origin of the rabbinical legend, alluded to by St. Paul (1 Corinthians 10:4), that the rock followed the Israelites on their march. The apostle spiritualises the rock, making it a type of Christ, from whom flows a perennial stream of grace to Hi people.