Exodus Chapter 17

From The Open Bible Project

17:1 All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh's commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.

• (a) Moses does not note every place where they camped as in Numbers 33, but only those places where some notable thing was done.

17:2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?"

• (b) Why do you distrust God? Why do you not look for comfort from him without complaining to us?

17:3 The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"

17:4 Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, "What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."

• (c) How ready the people are to slay the true prophets for their own purposes and how slow they are to take up God's cause against his enemies and false prophets.

17:5 Yahweh said to Moses, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.

17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

• (d) When in adversity we think God is absent, then we neglect his promise and make him a liar.

17:7 He called the name of the place [14] Massah, [See Exodus Footnotes 14] and [15] Meribah, [See Exodus Footnotes 15] because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, "Is Yahweh among us, or not?"

17:8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

• (e) Who came from Eliphaz, son of Esau, Ge 36:12.

17:9 Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God's rod in my hand."

• (f) That is, Horeb, which is also called Sinai.

17:10 So Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

17:11 It happened, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

• (g) So that we see how dangerous a thing it is to cease in prayer.

17:12 But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.

17:13 Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

17:14 Yahweh said to Moses, "Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky."

• (h) In the book of the law.

17:15 Moses built an altar, and called its name [16] Yahweh our Banner. [See Exodus Footnotes 16]

• (i) That is, the Lord is my banner as he declared by holding up his rod and his hands.

17:16 He said, "Yah has sworn: 'Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.'"