THE STRIKING OF THE BOOK. 129
smitten thee,' * but God let him live to proclaim His power and might, even as it is written in Exodus, ix. 16."
On the occasion of the striking of the Eock Muhammad makes twelve streams gush out, so that each individual tribe 2 had its own particular stream. Apparently this is a confusion of the events at Eaphidim, where the rock was struck, 3 with those at Blim where the Israelites found twelve wells. 4 On these wells the commentator Eashi, probably following earlier expositors says : 5 " They found them ready for them, in number as the twelve Tribes." When it came at last to the giving of the Law, the Israelites are said to have rebelled; but God threatened them that He would overturn the mountain 6 upon them if they would not accept the Law. The Jews also say that God threatened to cover them with the mountain as with a basin turned upside down. 7 But now the Israelites demanded that they themselves should see God; they died at the sight of Him, but were afterwards raised again. 8 The corresponding Eabbinical statement may be trans- lated as follows : 9 " The Israelites desired two things of
1 Exodus, ix. 15.
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2 &>\ not lap* although the twelve sons of Jacob are also called L\$\ by Muhammad. Still in Sura VII. 160 lQ\ and ^\ are used side by side in an entirely similar sense, so that one recognizes the identical meaning of the two, and therefore one may with perfect right
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translate &*\ as " tribe."
3 Exodus, xvii. 6.
4 Exodus, xv. 27. Comp, also the two recensions of Jerusalem Targum.
5 Dnb W3t? D^EDtp -1ES9 D^.tp 1^3
6 Suras II. 60/87, VII. 170.
7 Abodah Zarah II. 2. n^3? -in^TlW D^b? ^ n.Q3
8 Sura II. 52 ff. IV. 152.
9
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