Numbers 20:2

Numbers 20:2. And there was no water for the congregation— Here, almost all the commentators say, God permitted the water which flowed from the rock in Horeb, and followed the Israelites through the wilderness, to fail them; and that with a design to try them, as he had tried their forefathers. But in our notes on Exo 17:7 we have shewn the absurdity of the supposition of the waters following the people; and we must observe upon this miracle, that the same thing happened to the children at Kadesh, which had happened to the fathers at Rephidim: the water failed them, and they murmured; shewing the same unhappy disposition which their fathers had shewn.