who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint;
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 15. Breath. Hebrew saraphh, or the basilisk, as it is rendered, Isaiah 30:6. It destroys both the grass and animals, by the burning infection of its breath. Galen. Plin. viii. 19. See Numbers 21:6. Tirinus.—Scorpion stings with its tail.—Dipsas. A serpent whose bite causeth a violent thirst: from whence it has its name; for in Greek, dipsa signifies thirst. Challoner.—It is impossible to quench this thirst, ( Worthington.) and those who are bitten by this serpent can discharge no water. Calmet.—They drink till they burst, unless they can procure some treacle, or remedy against the poison. Dioscorides. Tirinus.—Some translate the Hebrew “scorpions, and (at the place of) drought, where there was no water: he brought,” and so forth whether Tsommaon be the name of a particular place, (Isaiah 35:7. Onkelos. Calmet.) or it may be applied to the greatest part of that desert, where the want of water so often occasioned the murmurs of the people. Bible.