Paterius : Nothing like this is ever found in Scripture in the literal sense, even if one reviews the whole body of the Old Testament. People never sucked honey or oil from a rock. But since, according to Paul, the rock was Christ, they did suck honey from a rock, because they beheld the deeds and miracles of that same Redeemer of ours. They did suck oil from a solid rock, because after his resurrection they deserved to be anointed with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Lord gave them honey in the solid rock when he, still subject to death, showed his disciples the sweetness of his miracles. And the solid rock poured forth oil, because after his resurrection, when he became impassible, he founded the house of holy anointing by the outpouring of the Spirit. The prophet says of this oil, "The yoke will fall from before the oil." We were held under the yoke of demonic domination, but we have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit. And because the grace of liberty has anointed us, the yoke of demonic domination has fallen. — EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, Deuteronomy 21 Philoxenus of Mabbug : Even as also the prophet Moses hath taught us that through this cause the people forgot their God, and that through the lust of the belly they went forth unto idolatry, and from eating meat they were led into blasphemies, and from dainty foods they arrived at all wickedness, saying, "He made him to dwell upon the strength of the earth, and He made him to eat of the produce of the field. He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the rock of flint: butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with the fat of stalled beasts, rams, the offspring of ibexes, and kids, with the fat and fatty parts of wheat, and He made him to drink wine of the blood of grapes. And Israel waxed fat and kicked, he grew fat, and became thick, and acquired riches." And what happened unto him because of these things? and to what pass did he come by reason of these desirable things? and what country did he possess through these dainties with which he delighted himself? and into what sicknesses did the overfeeding of the belly, and the superfluity of meats cast him? Now Moses himself hath explained and made known unto us what the people obtained from these possessions: "He forgot the God Who made him, and he blasphemed the Might which redeemed him. He moved Him to jealousy with strange things, and provoked Him to wrath with idols. They sacrificed unto devils which were not gods, and unto gods which they had not known." These are the things which the people obtained from dainty foods, and this is the inheritance of the worship of devils which they inherited from the overabundance of the body. And from the table which was rich in meats they were drawn unto the unclean tables of idols, and from dainty foods they went forth to cast stinking things before graven images, and through the lust which taketh away the strength from nature they came to unclean thoughts which are alien unto nature. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 -- On Gluttony