Matthew Poole and continuators on Numbers 21:17

17 Then Israel sang this song , Spring up , O well, Sing ye unto it .

To praise God for giving them such a seasonable blessing before they asked it or complained for the want of it.

Give forth thy waters that we may drink. Heb. ascend, i. e. let thy waters, which now lye hid below in the earth ascend for our use. It is either a prediction that it should spring up, or a prayer that it might, or a command in the name of God directed to the well, by an usual Prosopopaeia, as when God bids the heavens hear and the earth give ear, Isa. 1. 2. Any of these ways it shews their faith.

Or, sing ye of it, or, answer to it or concerning it; it being the manner of the Iewish singers, that one should answer to another, of which see Exod. 15. 21. 1 Sam. 18. 7.

Marginal references: Heb. ascend.; Or, answer.