Nu. 33 12 And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, and pitched in Dophkah. And 13 they journeyed from Dophkah, and pitched in Alush. And they journeyed from 14 Alush, and pitched in Rephidim, where was no water for the people to drink.

Ex. 17 1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched 2 in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people strove with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said 3 unto them, Why strive ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our 4 cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto 5 this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said unto Moses, Pass on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, 6 wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the 7 sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not? 8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto 9 Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to-morrow I will stand

10 on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek : and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to

11 the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel

12 prevailed : and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy ; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon ; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the

13 other side ; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua

14 discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua : that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

15. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi : and he said, The LORD

16 hath sworn : the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

God was pleased wonderfully to represent the progress of his redeemed Church through the world to their eternal inheritance by the journey of the children of Israel through the wilderness, from Egypt to Canaan. Here all the various steps of the redemption of the Church by Christ were represented, from the beginning to its consummation in glory. The state they are redeemed from is represented by Egypt and their bondage there. The purchase of their redemption was represented by the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, which was offered up that night that God slew all the firstborn of Egypt. The beginning of the application of the redemption of Christ’s Church in their conversion was represented by Israel’s going out of Egypt, and passing through the Red Sea in so extraordinary and miraculous a manner. The travel of the Church through this world, and the various changes through which it passes in different stages, was represented by the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness. The manner of the Church’s being conducted by Christ was represented by the Israelites being led by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The manner of the Church’s being supported in their progress, supplied with spiritual food and continual daily communications from God, was represented by God’s supplying the children of Israel with manna from heaven, and water out of the rock. And innumerable other things they met with were lively images of things which the Church and saints meet with in all ages of the world. That these things are typical of things that pertain to the Christian Church is manifest from 1 Cor. 10 : 11. The apostle, speaking of those very things which we have now mentioned, says expressly, that they happened unto them for types, or ensamples, for our admonition. Edwards.

No. 33 : 11, 12. The next two encampments [not noted in Exodus], Dophkah and Alush, are mere names in the itinerary without any special description ; they were intermediate stations between the Wilderness of Sin and Rephidim. Wilson.—It is impossible to identify these stations. There are no existing names in the peninsula which correspond with them. They may be placed somewhere in Wady Feiran or Wady es Sheikh, up which Israel must have marched to Mount Sinai. Holland.

Ex. 17 : 1. Rephidim. As this is the only important locality between the Red Sea crossing and Sinai concerning which there is a difference of opinion between equally qualified explorers, it is deemed proper to present, on the one side, the view of Professor Palmer, Captain Wilson, and other members of the Ordnance Survey, accepted by President Bartlett ; and, on the other, that of Rev. F. W. Holland, in accord with Dr. Robinson before him. B.

1. The Oasis in Wady Feiran, as the Site of Rephidim.

At the base of Mount Serbal, in Wady Feiran, is a large and comparatively fertile tract, with a palm-grove which extends for miles along the valley. It is the most fertile part of the peninsula, and one which the Amalekites would be naturally anxious to defend against an invading force ; in this respect it answers to the position of Rephidim. [Mr. Palmer “discovered a rock which Arab tradition regards as the site of the miracle.”] The great objection to the identification of Feiran with Rephidim is that the Bible describes the next stage of the journey thus : “For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the Desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness ; and there Israel camped before the mount” (Ex. 19 : 2). Now, if Jebel Musa be Sinai, it could hardly be reached [from Feiran] in a single day’s journey by any large host with heavy baggage. The difficulty may be explained away on several hypotheses. The journey from Feiran to the Nagb Hawa may be considered as the last stage of the march, and when they had come to that pass which forms the gate of the Sinai district, they may be fairly said to have reached “the Desert of Sinai.” The words, “and there Israel camped before the mount,” seem to imply a separate operation. They had reached the wilderness of Sinai—that is, the Sinai district at the mouth of the Nagb Hawa; and here they began to look out for a suitable place for a permanent camp. The operation of pitching the camp for so protracted a stay would occupy a longer period than usual. If it be objected that the distance from Feiran to the Pass of Nagb Hawa is too long for a single day’s journey, I would answer that a day’s journey is not necessarily restricted to eight or nine hours. Prof. Palmer.

Captain Wilson states his reason for placing the site of Rephidim in Wady Feiran to be as follows: (1) He does not consider it necessary to place Rephidim within one day’s march of Mount Sinai, since he thinks that, in Ex. 19:2, there is an indication of a break in the march of the Israelites, the operations of “pitching in the wilderness” and “encamping before the mount” being separate and distinct. (2) Believing that the Amalekites would probably come out to oppose the march of the invaders of their country, he holds that the position in Wady Feiran would for military reasons be more naturally selected as the point of attack. Captain Wilson and the other members of the expedition consider Jebel Tahunah, which is situated opposite the mouth of Wady Aleyat, to be the hill on which Moses sat while Aaron and Hur supported his arms as he overlooked the battle. I have little doubt that this was believed to be the site of Rephidim when Serbal was held to be the traditional Mount Sinai; but its distance from Jebel Musa, about twenty-five miles even by the most direct road, seems to me to prove that the site of the battle must be looked for at a nearer point to that mountain. Holland.

2. El Watiyeh, in the Wady Es Sheikh.

The Wady Sheikh is the great valley of the western Sinai, which collects the torrents of a great number of smaller wadies. The Wady Feiran is a continuation [on the west] of Wady Sheikh. Burckhardt.—The Wady es-Sheikh, a broad open valley extending up to the base of Jebel Musa itself, cuts right through the granite wall, forming a narrow defile with a tolerably level floor and lofty precipitous rocks on either side. In this gorge, which is called El Watiyeh, the Arabs show a large detached rock, not unlike an arm-chair in shape, as the seat of the prophet Moses. Mr. Holland suggests that this may be the site of Rephidim. In many ways the situation answers well to the description given in the Bible. El Watiyeh is the only practicable pass into the fertile district around Jebel Musa, and one which the Amalekites would consequently be desirous of holding against an invading force. There is also ample room for the encampment of either host, and, the pass once crossed, abundance of water within easy reach. Prof. Palmer.—Captain Wilson and Captain Palmer (Ordnance Survey) both acknowledge the value of the pass of El Watiyeh as a strong military position that could be held with ease against a large force, and would certainly place the site of Rephidim there, if not at Wady Feiran. Holland.—The gorge of El Watiyeh was one of the grandest I had ever seen; the walls of red porphyry rising from eight hundred to one thousand feet above the remarkably level floor of the pass itself. On emerging we found ourselves in an open space, and in front of a succession of granitic heights and intervening valleys by which the ascent to Jebel Musa is made. Hull.

My reasons for arriving at the conclusion that the pass of El Watiyeh marks the site of the battle of Rephidim are, first, its nearness to Jebel Musa, from which it is distant only about twelve miles, and the Bible apparently speaks of Rephidim as within a day’s journey of Mount Sinai (Ex. 19:2; Nu. 33:15); secondly, my belief that all the requirements of the battle are to be found there. The pass consists of a narrow defile about three hundred yards in length, and from forty to sixty yards in breadth, with a level bed, but enclosed on either side by lofty perpendicular rocks. A very remarkable line of precipitous granite mountains stretches across the centre of the peninsula from the head of Wady Hibran, and presents an imposing barrier to an invading force. In this line of mountains are found only three passes, the most eastern being that of El Watiyeh, which affords an easy road, while the two western passes of Nagb Hawa and Wady T’lah are too narrow and rugged to allow even a laden camel to pass without great difficulty. This natural barrier defends on the north the high and well-watered central group of mountains which includes Jebel Musa, and the holding of the passes by the Amalekites would then secure to them the most fertile portion of the whole peninsula. Holland.

Rev. F. W. Holland [who made three tours through the peninsula] places Rephidim at the pass of El Watiyeh, at the eastern end of Wady es-Sheikh, to the north of the point where it joins the Wady Ed Deir. He believes that the Israelites passed through the Wady Feiran without encountering opposition, and that they then traversed the Wady ex-Shiikh to this point, which is shut in by perpendicular rocks on either side. The Amalekites holding this defile would be in a position of great strength; and their choice of this point for the attack is well accounted for, supposing the Israelites to have reached it without previous molestation. It commands the entrance to the wadies surrounding the central group of Sinai, on and about which the Bedouins pasture their flocks during the summer. All the requirements of the narrative appear to be satisfied by this assumption. On the north is a large plain destitute of water for the encampment of the Israelites; there is a conspicuous hill to the north of the defile commanding the battle-field, presenting a bare cliff, such as we may suppose the rock to have been which Moses struck with his rod. On the south of the pass is another plain sufficient for the encampment of the Amalekites, within easy reach of an abundant supply of water. At the foot of the hill on which Moses most probably sat, if this be Rephidim, the Arabs point out a rock, which they call “the seat of the prophet Moses.” The arguments appear to preponderate in favor of this view, which accepts all the facts ascertained by the Expedition of Survey, and presents a series of coincidences of great weight in the settlement of the question. Canon Cook.

The summary statement of Mr. Holland is as follows: “The features of the ground at El Watiyeh agree well with the short account which is given us of the battle of Rephidim. There is a large plain destitute of water for the encampment of the Israelites; a conspicuous hill on the north side of the defile commanding the battle ground and presenting a bare cliff, such as we may suppose the rock to have been which Moses struck; and another large open tract of country on the south of the pass for the encampment of the Amalekites, with abundance of water within easy reach.” We add, that in two other respects this location of Rephidim seems to be in closer accord with the narrative: (1) In its considerably greater distance from the Wilderness of Sin, ample space is allowed for the two intermediate stations mentioned in Nu. 33:11, 12, Dophkah and Alush. (2) By its nearer proximity to Horeb, it better accounts for the smiting of the rock in Horeb while the people were “pitched in Rephidim.” Obviously the nearer position to Horeb, whatever the extent of the region bearing that name, more fully meets this necessity of the narrative. B.

1. No water to drink. Before, Israel thirsted and was satisfied; after that, they hungered and were filled; now, they thirst again. God led them on purpose to this dry Rephidim: he could as well have conducted them to another Elim, to convenient waterings; or he, that gives the waters of all their channels, could as well have derived them to meet Israel; but God doth purposely carry them to thirst. This should have been a contentment able to quench any thirst: “God hath led us hither;” if Moses out of ignorance had misguided us, or we by chance fallen upon these dry deserts, though this were no remedy of our grief, yet it might be some ground of our complaint. But now the counsel of so wise and merciful a God hath drawn us into this want; and shall not he as easily find the way out? “It is the Lord, let him do what he will.” There can be no more forcible motive to patience, than the acknowledgment of a Divine hand that strikes us. It is fearful to be in the hand of an adversary; but who would not be confident of a Father? Bp. H.

2. They know that fountains and rivers cannot be created by mortal man; wherefore then do they quarrel with him, and not call directly upon God, in whose hand are the waters as well as all other elements? If there had been a spark of faith in them, they would have had recourse to prayer. Rightly does Moses expostulate, that in chiding with him they tempt God himself. Calv. — “Why contend you with me? Why tempt ye the Lord?” In the first expostulation he condemns them of injustice, since not he but the Lord had afflicted them: in the second, of presumption; that since it was God who tempted them by want, they should tempt Him by murmuring. In the one he would have them see their wrong; in the other their danger. As the act came not from him but from God, so he transfers it to God from himself: “Why tempt ye the Lord?” The opposition which is made to the instruments of God redounds ever to his person. He holds himself smitten through the sides of his ministers. Bp. H.

3,4. Their behavior is most flagrant; and the harshest judgment cannot estimate their offence too severely. They had lately seen their wants relieved in a similar emergency; and at this very time they were receiving, day by day, from heaven their daily bread. Yet so strangely unreasonable was their spirit, that they reproached Moses for having brought them out of Egypt, to kill them and their children and their cattle with thirst; and their violence of manner was such as led Moses to cry unto the Lord, saying, “What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.” Thus already—in one little month—were the ransomed people prepared to deal with their deliverer, all whose toil and thought was spent for their advantage. It seems to have been in order that Moses might not be plunged in deeper discouragement, that the Lord forbore to declare his own displeasure. He simply indicated the mode in which he meant to provide for their wants. Kit.

4. And Moses cried unto the Lord.** Moses has recourse to Him, who was able at once to quench their thirst and to curb their fury. It is the best way to trust God with his own causes. If we be sure we have begun our enterprises from Him, we may securely cast all events on His providence, which knows how to dispose, and how to end them. Bp. H.—Prayer moves the hand that moves the world. It secures for the believer the resources of Divinity. What battles has it not fought! what victories has it not won! what burdens has it not carried! what wounds has it not healed! what griefs has it not assuaged! It is the wealth of poverty; the refuge of affliction; the strength of weakness; the light of darkness. It has arrested the wing of time, turned aside the very scythe of death, and discharged heaven’s frowning and darkest cloud in a shower of blessings. Guthrie.

The familiarity of Moses’s pleadings with God, almost in the tone of one who had received injury at his hand, is worthy of observation. This repeated indulgence on the part of God, and the as oft-repeated ingratitude on the part of the Israelites, give a significance to that verse in one of our historical Psalms (106): “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” T. C.

Western Asia and its history are full of the name of Moses. Jews, Christians, and Mahometans style him the First Prophet, the Great Lawgiver, the Great Theologian; everywhere, in the scene of the events themselves, the places retain a memory of him. What did Moses do to obtain a renown so great and so enduring? He gained no battles; he conquered no territory; he founded no cities; he governed no state; he was not even a man in whom eloquence replaced other sources of influence and power. There is not in this whole history a single grand human action, a single grand event proceeding from human agency; all is the work of God; and Moses is nothing on any occasion but the interpreter and instrument of God. To this mission he has consecrated soul and life; it is only by virtue of this title that he is powerful, and that he shares, as far as his capacity as a man permits, a work infinitely grander and more enduring than that accomplished by all the heroes and all the masters that the world ever acknowledged. I know no more striking spectacle than that of the unshakable faith and inexhaustible energy of Moses in the pursuit of a work not his own, in which he executes what he has not conceived, in which he obeys rather than commands. Guizot.

SMITING OF THE ROCK IN HOREB (verses 5-8).

5. Moses was to take some of the elders as witnesses: the miracle was not to be seen by the people generally. The miracle was to be wrought not by any power of Moses, but by the special presence of God on the spot. Alf.—Moses must take his rod: God could have done it by his will, without a word; or by his word, without the rod; but he will do by means that which he can as easily do without. There was no virtue in the rod, none in the stroke; but all in the command of God. Means must be used, and yet their efficacy must be expected out of themselves. It doth not suffice God to name the rod, without a description: “Whereby thou smotest the river:” wherefore but to strengthen the faith of Moses, that he might well expect this wonder from that which he had tried to be miraculous. Bp. H.

God bears and forbears with them, gives them miracle upon miracle, and ever as they murmured, another miracle still. Truly judgment is his strange work. He might have retaliated; retribution was richly deserved; it was most deeply provoked; but instead of doing so, he whose ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts, said unto Moses, “Thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thy hand and go. Behold, I will” do what? Not smite the people with the rod that smote all Egypt, and that in my hand is still capable of terrible effect; but I will make the rod that was the executor of judgment upon Egypt to be only the opener of springs and fountains in the rock, for what was death to others shall be life to Israel. “Thou shalt smite the rock,” the most unlikely thing, “and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.” How gracious is the Lord! and, still the same, he delights in mercy. Oh, that we could only realize that God has infinitely more than a father’s love with omnipotence to wield it, and omniscience to see where, when, and by whom it is most needed; and ever ready, ever waiting, ever willing to bless! J. C.

They distrust Him after they had received such proofs of his power and goodness, for the confirmation of his promise : they do, in effect, suppose that Moses was an impostor—Aaron a deceiver—the pillar of cloud and fire a mere sham and illusion, which imposed upon their senses—that long series of miracles which had rescued them, served them, and fed them, a chain of cheats—and the promise of Canaan a banter upon them ; it was all so, if the Lord was not among them. Oh, the wonderful patience and forbearance of God toward provoking sinners ! He maintains those that are at war with him, and reaches out the hand of his bounty to those that lift up the heel against him. Thus he teaches us, if our enemy hunger to feed him, and if he thirst, as Israel did now, to give him drink. Will he fail those that trust him, when he was so liberal even to those that tempted him ? If God had only showed Moses a fountain of water in the wilderness, as he did Hagar, that had been a great favor ; but that he might show his power as well as his pity, and make it a miracle of mercy, he gave them water out of a rock. That Rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10 : 4). The graces and comforts of the Spirit are compared to rivers of living water (John 7 : 38, 39). These flow from Christ, who is the Rock smitten by the Law of Moses, for he was made under the Law. Nothing will supply the needs and satisfy the desires of a soul but water out of the rock, this fountain opened. H.—As Christ associated himself with the manna, the apostle associates him with the water at Rephidim : “ that Rock was Christ.” He does not say the water was Christ. So Christ himself, though he said, “ I am the Bread of life,” never said, “ I am the Water of life.” Again and again he spoke of giving, but never of being, the water of life. What is the reason of this ? Is it not that the water is the familiar symbol of the Holy Spirit ? (See as an illustration of this Isa. 44 : 3). The Rock was Christ, from whom, after he had been smitten on Calvary, there flowed the full and blessed pentecostal stream, that river of salvation which has ever since followed the Church in her journey through the wilderness. J. M. G.

The Personage who has always occupied the throne of heaven, against whom Satan conspired ; the voice that spoke to Moses ; the mysterious visitor whom Abraham entertained, and to whom he prayed ; the angel with whom Jacob wrestled and prevailed ; the form of the fourth that stood in the blazing furnace with the three trusty followers of God, and whose face the king declared was bright like that of the Son of God ; the Angel of the Covenant ; the man that spake as never man spake, and died upon a cross, is the same existence, the same Christ of God ! He was the manifestation of Deity throughout the Old Testament dispensation, and throughout all dispensations ; throughout the Christian era, and throughout all eras ; from everlasting to everlasting. Through all the journeyings of the children of men, as of the children of Israel, this personality is ever present in one form or another—the cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, or the rock from which gushes, at every turn of our journey, the waters of life. Townsend.

7. Wonderful things had Israel already experienced. The enemies of Jehovah had been overthrown in the Red Sea ; the bitter waters of Marah been healed ; and the wants of God’s people supplied in the wilderness. But a greater miracle than any of these—at least one more palpable—was now witnessed, for the purpose of showing Israel that no situation could be so desperate but Jehovah would prove “ a very present help in trouble.” That this was intended to be for all time its meaning to Israel, appears from the name Massah and Meribah, temptation and chiding, given to the place, and from the after references to the event in De. 6 : 16 ; Ps. 78 : 15 ; 114 : 8. A. E.

As the rock at Horeb comes into view not as something by itself, but simply as connected with the water which Divine power constrained it to yield, it might justly be spoken of as following them, if the waters flowing from it pursued for a time the same course. That this, to some extent, was actually the case may be inferred from the great profusion with which they are declared to have been given—“ gushing out,” it is said, “ like overflowing streams,” “ and running like a river in the dry places.” P. F.—The spring thus opened seems to have formed a brook, which the Israelites used during their whole sojourn near Sinai. P. S.

This occurrence must not be confounded with another considerably similar, of which an account is given in Nu. 20. This latter occurrence took place at Kadesh, and not till the beginning of the fortieth year of the sojourn in the wilderness, when the period of their abode there was drawing to a close. On account of the rebellious conduct of the people, Moses called the rock smitten, in both cases, by the name of Meribah, or Strife. The last was also unhappily distinguished from the first, in that Moses and Aaron so far transgressed as to forfeit their right to enter the promised land.

The points of instruction are chiefly the following : (1) Christ ministers to his people abundance of spiritual refreshment, while they are on their way to the heavenly inheritance. They need this to carry them onward through the trials and difficulties that lie in their way; and he is ever ready to impart it. “It any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” What he then did in the sphere of the bodily life, he cannot but be disposed to do over again in the higher sphere of the spiritual life; for there the necessity is equally great, and the interests involved are unspeakably greater. Let the believer, when parched in spirit, and feeling in heaviness through manifold temptations, throw himself back upon this portion of Israel’s history, and he will see written, as with a sunbeam, the assurance that the Saviour of Israel, who fainteth not, nor is weary, will satisfy the longing soul, and pour living water upon him that is thirsty. (2) In providing and ministering this refreshment, he will break through the greatest hindrances and impediments. If his people but thirst, nothing can prevent them from being partakers of the blessing. “He makes for them rivers in the desert;” the very rock turns into a flowing stream; and the valley of Baca (weeping) is found to contain its pools of refreshment, at which the travellers to Zion revive their flagging spirits, and go from strength to strength. How often have the darkest providences—events that seemed beforehand pregnant only with evil—become, through the gracious presence of the Mediator, the source of deepest joy and consolation! (3) “The rock by its water accompanied the Israelites—so Christ by his Spirit goes with his disciples even to the end of the world.” The refreshments of his grace are confined to no region, and last through all ages. Wherever the genuine believer is, there they also are. Within him he has “a well of water springing up to life everlasting.” P. F.

The smiting of a flinty rock, for the purpose of obtaining water, was a scheme of the Divine mind, whose ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts. It was certainly the last place to which Moses would have gone for water; and he might have expected the stroke to elicit sparks of fire rather than cool refreshing streams. What eye had not seen and ear had not heard, either of men or of angels—what had not entered into the heart of any created being to conceive, terrestrial or celestial—was, that the smiting of the Shepherd should save the sheep; that the condemnation of the just should bring the unjust to God; that the making of Messiah a curse should secure infinite blessings to mankind; that the poverty of Jesus should enrich us, and his death raise us to life eternal. Consuming flames of Divine indignation might have been expected to flash upon the guilty world from every wound of the thorns, the nails, and the spear, in the sacred person of Emmanuel; but, to the astonishment of men and angels, a tide of love and mercy ran freely from every bleeding vein to wash away the guilt and pollution of human crimes, according to the determinate counsel and immutable promise of our God. Christmas Evans.

BATTLE WITH AMALEK (verses 8-13).

8. It was in Rephidim that the new-formed nation fought their first great battle. As yet they have seemed alone in the desert; but now an enemy comes against them, their kinsman AMALEK, a nomad tribe descended from Eliphaz, the son of Esau. The range of the Amalekites seems to have been at this time over the south of Palestine and all Arabia Petraea. P. S.

From Ex. 3 we learn that Horeb was in the territory of the Midianites. These two tribes, Amalekites and Midianites, appear to have been both well organized, and to have lived side by side in the peninsula. Now there were two large mountain ranges in the peninsula, the Serbal on the west, and the Sinai on the east. In both of these water was to be found; and either of them answered admirably as the headquarters of a pastoral tribe. Dieterici.

A victory over so formidable a foe must have been of great importance, in kindling a spirit of manhood and nationality among the Hebrews, for Amalek was one of the greatest peoples of these remote ages. Even in Abraham’s time they are mentioned as inhabiting the regions southwest of the Dead Sea; and Balaam, a few years after this battle, speaks of them as “the first of the nations”—that is, as having been a mighty race from what was then a distant antiquity. Geikie.

9,10. We learn (Nu. 13:17) that JOSHUA’s original name was Hosea. The change in his name was no doubt connected with this victory over the Amalekites. Moses called Hosea Joshua (Jehovah is a help), because he had proved himself a help to Israel. The alteration in his name had also a prophetic signification. It was his ordination to a new course, which was to become more glorious in its future stages. Hur is mentioned as an assistant of Moses, and a man of great distinction. Josephus follows the Jewish tradition which describes him as the husband of Miriam, Moses’s sister. K.—Hur was the fourth in descent from Judah, and the grandfather of Bezaleel (31:2; 1 Ch. 2:9-

20). As he was the grandfather of a full grown man, and a member of the distinguished tribe of Judah, he was the meet companion of Aaron in attendance upon Moses. M.

Moses does nothing of himself, but occupies the station appointed him by God on the top of the hill, but he sends down the others to fight hand-to-hand before him, since it had pleased God thus to order the battle. That single rod was of more avail than as if they had gone into the field preceded by a thousand banners. It is sometimes called the rod of God, sometimes of Moses, sometimes of Aaron, according to circumstances; because God used it as an instrument to exercise his power through his ministers. So God does not detract from his own honor, when he works effectually by his ministers. Culv. —At other times, upon occasion of the plagues, the quails, and the rock, he was commanded to take the rod in his hand; now he doth it unbidden; he doth it not now for miraculous operation, but for encouragement; for when the Israelites should cast up their eyes to the hill and see Moses and his rod (the man and the means that had wrought so powerfully for them), they could not but take heart to themselves, and think, “There is the man that delivered us from the Egyptian, why not now from the Amalekite? There is the rod which turned waters to blood and brought varieties of plagues upon Egypt, why not now on Amalek?” Nothing can more hearten our faith than the view of the monuments of God’s favor; if ever we have found any word or act of God cordial to us, it is good to fetch it forth oft to the eye. The renewing of our sense and remembrance makes every gift of God perpetually beneficial.

11. Amalek rose, and Israel fell, with his hand falling; Amalek fell, and Israel rises, with his hand raised. Oh, the wondrous power of the prayers of faith! All heavenly favors are derived to us from this channel of grace; to this are we beholden for our peace, preservations, and all the rich mercies of God which we enjoy. We could not want, if we could ask. Bp. H. —It seems the scale wavered for some time before it turned on Israel’s side; even the best cause must expect disappointments as an allay to its success; though the battle be the Lord’s, Amalek may prevail for a time; the reason was, Moses let down his hands. The Church’s cause is, commonly, more or less successful, according as the Church’s friends are more or less strong in faith and fervent in prayer. H. —It is indisputably true, that while the hands are stretched out—that is, while the soul exerts itself in prayer and supplication to God, we are sure to conquer our spiritual adversaries; but if our hands become heavy, if we restrain prayer before God, Amalek will prevail: every spiritual foe, every internal corruption, will gain ground. Apostasy begins in the closet: no man ever backslid from the life and power of Christianity who continued constant and fervent, especially in private prayer. He who prays without ceasing is likely to rejoice evermore. A. C.

Then only can we pray with hope, when we have done our best. And though the means cannot effect that which we desire, yet God will have us use the likeliest means on our part to effect it. Where it comes immediately from the charge of God, any means are effectual: one stick of wood shall fetch water out of the rock, another shall fetch bitterness out of the water; but in those projects which we make for our own purposes we must choose those helps which promise most efficacy. In vain shall Moses be upon the hill, if Joshua be not in the valley. Prayer without means is a mockery of God. Here are two shadows of one substance; the same Christ, in Joshua fights against our spiritual Amalek, and in Moses spreads out his arms upon the hill; and in both conquests. Bp. H. —Christ is both our Joshua, the Captain of our salvation, who fights our battles, and our Moses, who, in the upper world, ever lives, making intercession that our faith fail not. H.

In the Targums we read that “when Moses held up his hands in prayer, the house of Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hands from prayer, the house of Amalek prevailed.” Here is that hallowed combination of agencies which ought never to be separated—the dependence upon heaven, with the use of appointed means. The rod in the hand of Moses, and the sword in that of Joshua; the embattled host in the valley below, and the praying band in the mount above—all were necessary in the Divine economy to the victory of Israel over his foes. So must it be in our own conflict with the Amalek which lies ambushed within, to hinder our progress to the mount of God. We may expect no manifestation of the Lord’s power, no interference of his goodness, but as the result of a blessing upon our own zealous conflict with temptation. “He who entreats deliverance from the onset and power of evil, yet never makes an effort in his own behalf, nor strives against the sin that wars within him, draws nigh to God with his lips, but is wholly estranged from the fervor of that supplication that issues from the depths of the heart.” It was most effectually taught by this example that the uplifted hand of Moses contributed more to their safety than their own hands—his rod more than their weapons of war; and accordingly, their success fluctuates as he raises up or lets down his hands. In like manner will the Christian warfare be attended with little success, unless it be waged in the practice of unceasing earnest prayer. It will never be known on this side the Lord’s second coming how much his cause and the work of individual salvation have been advanced by the effectual fervent prayer of righteous men. Let us take to ourselves all the encouragement derivable from the assured knowledge, that he who marshals the sacramental hosts, who leads them to battle and fights in their behalf, sustains another office equally important. He has ascended to the summit of the everlasting hills, and is there employed in prevalent intercession for their success; and we may well be consoled with the assurance that a greater than Moses is mediating for us in the mount above; and his hand is never weary, his love never faint, his voice never silent. Kit.

13. The battle was evidently protracted and obstinate. Beginning in the morning, it lasted to “the going down of the sun.” Amalek, “that first of the nations,” was no enemy to be vanquished in a skirmish. But in the end victory was gained; “Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.” E. V.

God’s Judgment against Amalek (verses 14-16).

The memory of so signal an event was not to be allowed to die out. An altar was built by Moses, probably on the spot on the summit of the hill where he had stood, inscribed with the words, “Jehovah-nissi,” “the Lord is my banner.” He was also expressly commanded by God to write an account of this battle in the book he was instructed to draw up, as a record of God’s dealings with his people, and “rehearse it in the ears of Joshua,” together with the command, to be transmitted through him to after ages, for the complete extermination of the Amalekites. Thus early was the intimation given that Joshua was to be the successor of Moses, and carry on the work that he had begun. E. V.

14. I will utterly put out the remembrance.** Hebrew, wiping I will wipe out. The denunciation is awfully emphatic. It declares that in process of time Amalek should be totally ruined and rooted out, that he should be remembered only in history. This was but meting out to them the measure of destruction which they themselves had meditated against Israel. Their language was that reported by the Psalmist (Ps. 83:4), “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.” God therefore determines not only to disappoint them in that, but to cut off their name. It was to be known for the encouragement of Israel, whenever the Amalekites should be an annoyance to them, that sentence had irrevocably gone forth against them; they were a doomed people; and the chosen race should not fail at last to triumph over them. This sentence was executed in part by Saul (1 Sam. 15); and completely by David (1 Sam. 30; 2 Sam. 1:1-8, 12), after which we never read so much as the name of Amalek. Bush.

These Amalekites were of the descendants of Esau, who allied himself with the Ishmaelites, and took possession of the great mountain range running from the south of Palestine toward the eastern horn of the Red Sea, in which region are still found the wonderful ruins of Petra excavated in the rocky cliffs, and also the ruins of other large cities. They were, no doubt, inspired in this attack by the hereditary hatred of Esau, their ancestor, toward Jacob. And this hatred is now aroused afresh as they perceive from current reports that the covenant promises to the children of Jacob are about to be fulfilled. This hereditary hate was fired by a desire to seize upon the rich spoils which Israel was bearing away from Egypt. It is important, also, as showing the ground of the dreadful curse denounced upon Amalek upon this occasion—of war to all generations against the Amalekites till their utter extinction—to note their special guilt in this attack upon Israel. In the first place, they had no plea of self-defence against Israel as invaders of their country, for Israel was passing far to the south of them, and the expression “then came Amalek” shows that the war was not only entirely offensive, but also that they were obliged to march some distance to reach the camp of Israel. In the second place, as we learn from De. 25:18, it was a wanton and cruel and unmanly attack; made by falling in a most cowardly manner upon their rear and smiting the weary and broken-down, who could neither resist nor escape. Forty years afterward, Moses, rehearsing to the people the story of all the way in which Jehovah had led them, reminds them, “Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; he feared not God.” And this last declaration suggests that this attack was in high-handed recklessness and contempt for Jehovah. “He feared not God.” These impious people, in face of all that had just occurred at the Red Sea—in face of the fact of the immediate presence of Jehovah before their eyes in the pillar of cloud and of fire for the protection of Israel, rushed on as it were to make attack upon Jehovah himself. Therefore the dreadful curse pronounced now and the exposition of the curse forty years afterward. “Therefore it will be when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven, thou shalt not forget it.” And accordingly the judgment was executed in part by Saul, and fully by David, after which the name of Amalek never reappears in the history. S. R.

Israel had in no way provoked the onset, and the Amalekites were, as descendants of Esau, closely related to them. But there is yet deeper meaning attaching both to this contest and to its issue. For, first, we mark the record of God’s solemn determination “utterly to put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,” and his proclamation of “war of Jehovah with Amalek from generation to generation.” Secondly, we have in connection with this the prophetic utterance of Balaam to this effect: “Amalek the firstfruits of the heathen” (the beginning of the Gentile power and hostility), “but his latter end even to destruction;” while, lastly, we notice the brief but deeply significant terms in which Scripture accounts for the cowardly attack of Amalek: “he feared not God.” The contest of Amalek therefore must have been intended, not so much against Israel simply as a nation, as against Israel in their character as the people of God. It was the first attack of the kingdoms of this world upon the kingdom of God, and as such it is typical of all that have followed. A. E.

15. Called the name of it Jehovah-nissi.** Hebrew, Yehovah-nissi, the Lord my banner. This was a grateful acknowledgment to him to whom the glory of the recent victory was due. It was, in fact, virtually adopting the language of Israel in the Psalms, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but unto thy name, give the glory.” “We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God will we set up our banners.” Bush.—That which is most carefully recorded is the inscription upon the altar, Jehovah-nissi—The Lord is my banner; which probably refers to the lifting up of the rod of God as a banner in this action. The presence and power of Jehovah were the banner under which they enlisted, by which they were animated and kept together, and therefore which they erected in the day of their triumph. In the name of our God we must always lift up our banners (Ps. 10:5). H.

As God is careful to maintain the glory of his miraculous victory, so is Moses desirous to second him; God by a book, and Moses by an altar and a name. God commands to enrol it in parchment; Moses registers it in the stones of his altar; which he raises not only for future memory, but for present use. That hand, which was weary of lifting up, straight offers a sacrifice of praise to God: how well it becomes the just to be thankful! O God, we cannot but confess our deliverances: where are our altars? Where are our sacrifices? Where is our Jehovah-nissi? I do not more wonder at thy power in preserving us, than at thy mercy, which is not weary of casting away favors upon the ungrateful. Bp. H.

The more I see of the desert, the more the miracle of the exodus grows upon me, and the more profound the reverence I feel for that stern old Hebrew Cromwell who was the leader of the Israelites in that great crisis of their history. In all our marches the past week, that presence has never been absent. The figure of Moses is the one great figure which gives supreme interest to this land of desolation. When we pass through deep mountain gorges, the cliffs on either hand take on a new interest as I think that they have looked upon Moses as he passed by, perhaps with a countenance grave and downcast, bearing the burden of a nation on his mighty heart. Often doubtless did he lie down in these dark mountain recesses, with only a stone for a pillow, and look up to the stars shining in this clear Arabian sky, and wonder if the God whom he worshipped would carry him through. In the battle which was fought more than three thousand years ago, it was not only the Israelites fighting with the Amalekites: it was the battle of civilization with barbarism. The exodus was the beginning of a series of events, unfolding through centuries, which marked a steady movement of the nations. When Moses fought with Amalek, he carried in his right hand the destiny of millions yet unborn. If he had perished on that fatal day, there would have been no Commonwealth of England, and no Commonwealths in

New England; the dial of human progress would have been set back a thousand years. Field.

NOTE.—Exodus 18 will be found in its chronological place at Section 155, with statement of reasons for the transfer. B.