Matthew Poole and continuators on Deuteronomy 33:8

8 And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one , whom thou didst prove at Massah , and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;

The Thummim and the Urim, which are thine, O Lord by special institution and consecration, by which he understands the Ephod in which they were put, Exod. 28. 30. by a synecdoche and the High-Priesthood, to which they were appropriated, by a Metonymie, and withal the gifts and graces signified by the Urim and Thummim, and necessary for the discharge of that highoffice, shall be with thy holy one, i. e. with that Levite, that Priest, which thou hast consecrated to thy self, and which is holy in a more peculiar manner than all the people were, i. e. The Priesthood shall be confined to and continued in Aarons Family.

This seems added by way of anticipation, Although thou didst try him, and rebuke him, and shut him out of Canaan for his miscarriage about fetching water out of the rock, yet thou didst not therefore take away the Priesthood from him.

Not at that Massah mentioned Exod. 17. which is also called Meribah where neither Moses nor Aaron are reproved, nor is Aaron so much as named, but at that other Meribah, Numb. 20. where this is expressed, which as it is called by one of the names of that place, Exod. 17. to wit, Meribah, Numb. 20. so it may be here called by its other name, Massah; and well may the same names be given to those two places, because the occasion of them was in a great measure one and the same. Though this place may be otherwise rendred, whom thou didst try in trying or with tryal, i. e. whom thou didst exactly and thoroughly try, such repetitions being very frequent and elegant in the Hebrew language. And it may be observed, that in the Hebrew text here are two several prepositions, though the English translation render them both by at, here, beth, in or with, and in the next branch, al, at or near or concerning the waters of Meribah; which may seem to intimate that the former is not the name of the place as the latter is: why else should they not have been expressed by the same preposition?

Or, contend, i. e. whom thou didst reprove and chastise, as that phrase signifies, Isa. 49. 25. Ier. 2. 9.

Marginal references: Exod. 28. 30.; Num. 20. 13.