Why did you lead us out of Egypt to come to this awful place? Nothing grows here—no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates. And there's no water to drink!”
Go and announce to the people of Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: I remember when you were young how devoted to me you were. I remember how you loved me when you were my bride. I remember how you followed me in the desert, in a land where nothing is grown.
They didn't ask themselves, “Where is the Lord who led us from Egypt, who led us through the wasteland, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land of drought and darkness, a land that no one travels through and where no one lives?”
On top of that you haven't taken us to a land flowing with milk and honey or given us fields and vineyards to own. Do you really think you can fool everyone? No, we will not attend!”
“Aaron will shortly join his forefathers in death. He will not enter the country I have given the Israelites, because you both disobeyed my command at the waters of Meribah.
because when the Israelites complained in the Desert of Zin, you both rebelled against my instructions to show my holiness before them in regard to providing water.” (These were the waters of Meribah in Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.)
He guided you through the immense and terrifying desert with its poisonous snakes and scorpions—a dried up, waterless land. He brought water for you out of a flint rock.