על חיי משה, ספר א ל״חOn the Life of Moses, Book I 38
א׳
1[210] Though this supply of food never failed and continued to be enjoyed in abundance, a serious scarcity of water again occurred. Sore pressed by this, their mood turned to desperation, whereupon Moses, taking that sacred staff with which he accomplished the signs in Egypt, under inspiration smote the steep rock with it.
ב׳
2[211] It may be that the rock contained originally a spring and now had its artery clean severed, or perhaps that then for the first time a body of water collected in it through hidden channels was forced out by the impact. Whichever is the case, it opened under the violence of the stream and spouted out its contents, so that not only then did it provide a remedy for their thirst but also abundance of drink for a longer time for all these thousands. For they filled all their water vessels, as they had done on the former occasion, from the springs that were naturally bitter but were changed and sweetened by God’s directing care.
ג׳
3[212] If anyone disbelieves these things, he neither knows God nor has ever sought to know Him; for if he did he would at once have perceived—aye, perceived with a firm apprehension—that these extraordinary and seemingly incredible events are but child’s-play to God. He has but to turn his eyes to things which are really great and worthy of his earnest contemplation, the creation of heaven and the rhythmic movements of the planets and fixed stars, the light that shines upon us from the sun by day and from the moon by night, the establishment of the earth in the very centre of the universe, the vast expanses of continents and islands and the numberless species of animals and plants, and again the widespreading seas, the rushing rivers, spring-fed and winter torrents, the fountains with their perennial streams, some sending forth cold, other warm, water, the air with its changes of every sort, the yearly seasons with their well-marked diversities and other beauties innumerable.
ד׳
4[213] He who should wish to describe the several parts, or rather any one of the cardinal parts of the universe, would find life too short, even if his years were prolonged beyond those of all other men. But these things, though truly marvellous, are held in little account because they are familiar. Not so with the unfamiliar; though they be but small matters, we give way before what appears so strange, and, drawn by their novelty, regard them with amazement.