TESTING and STRIFE — a double place-name built from two different roots, one event named twice over. MASSAH is from nissah, TO TEST; MERIBAH is from riv, STRIFE, CONTENTION, the same verb the people are accused of at v2 ('why do you STRIVE with me'). ⚠ The location recurs: Numbers 20 tells an almost identical story — no water, a rock struck — at a DIFFERENT Meribah, late in the wilderness years, and that second incident costs Moses his own entry into the land. Deuteronomy 6:16 and Psalm 95:8 both look back on 'Massah' as the type-case for testing God and hardening the heart. → first discussed at Exod 17:7