betrayed their faintheartedness, for instead of seeking advice from
their leader Moses, they began to murmur against him and against
God, even though at present they had not yet suffered from lack of
water. So poorly did they stand the test to which God has put them,
for in fact the very ground upon which they trod had running water
beneath it, but they were not aware of this. God had desired to see
how they would act under these conditions. [79]

The people were all the more exasperated because their joy, when
they sighted the springs and hastened to draw from the, turned to
keenest disappointment when they tasted of the water and found it
bitter. These deluded hopes cast them down spiritually as well as
physically, and grieved them, not so much for their own sakes as
for those of their young children, to whose pleas for water they
could not listen without tears. Some of the thoughtless and fickle
of faith among them uttered the accusation that even the former
kindness had been granted them so much as a benefit, but rather
with a view to the present and much greater privation. These said
that death by the hand of the enemy is to be thrice preferred to
perishing by thirst; for by the wise man, speedy and painless
departure from life is in no way to be distinguished from
immortality; the only real death, however, is slow and painful
dying, for the dread lies not in being dead, but in dying.

While they indulged in these lamentations, Moses prayed to God to
forgive the faint of heart their unseemly words, and, furthermore,
to supply the general want. [80] Mindful of the distress of the
people, Moses did not pray long, but uttered his request in a few
words; and quickly, as he had prayed, was his prayer answered.
God bade him take a piece of a laurel tree, write upon it the great