Biblical commentators understood the refreshing, nurturing water that poured from the rock to symbolize the gift of God’s salvation. The rock was likened to Christ and the water that flowed from it to the blood from his wounds. Wtewael strengthened these connections through the figure of Moses’ brother, Aaron, who in his role as high priest was considered a precursor to Christ. The bishop’s mitre and the plaque around his chest—with twelve stones symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel—underscore Aaron’s role as pastor.

In his treatise from 1604, Karel van Mander advised that paintings of historical subjects should be filled with “a profusion of horses, dogs, and other domestic animals, as well as beasts and birds of the forest.” Wtewael dutifully illustrated a lively assortment of creatures in attendance at the miraculous moment. In the foreground a goat, dogs, and a cat lap up the water.

A camel, cattle, horses, and sheep also join the serpentine procession, which recedes into the far distance.

According to the book of Exodus, after the Israelites fled from Egypt, they wandered the wilderness for forty years before reaching the promised land of Canaan. The disk-shaped hat worn by several figures in this painting is called a bern and was commonly used in depictions of wanderers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.