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From El Markha there are three modes of reaching the Wady Feiran, where Rephidim is placed by most critics. One route (the shortest) is from the northern part of El Markha by Wady Shellal and Wady Magharah, where there was an important Egyptian settlement. This the Israelites would probably have avoided. Another, from the central part of El Markha, leads through the Wady Seih Sidreh to Magharah, and would, therefore, have been equally inconvenient. The third is circuitous, but has the advantage of being very open, and therefore suitable for a vast host. It passes through the whole of El Markha, and then, skirting the mountain, enters Wady Feiran at its south-western extremity. The probability seems on the whole to be that the Israelites pursued this last route.<p><span class= "bld">After their journeys.</span>—We find from <a href="/context/numbers/33-12.htm" title="And they took their journey out of the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah.">Numbers 33:12-13</a>, that Rephidim was reached from the wilderness of Sin by three journeys—from Sin to Dophkah, from Dophkah to Alush, and from Alusb to Rephidim. The distance by the route which we have supposed the Israelites to have taken is about fifty miles.<p><span class= "bld">Rephidim </span>means <span class= "ital">rests, </span>or <span class= "ital">resting-places, </span>and is an appropriate name for the central part of the Wady Feiran—the most fertile spot in the whole peninsula, where there is usually abundant water, rich vegetation, and numerous palm-trees. (Lepsius, <span class= "ital">Tour from Thebes to Sinai, </span>pp. 21, 37; Stanley, <span class= "ital">Sinai and Palestine, </span>pp. 40, 41.) According to Dean Stanley, “the oldest known tradition of the peninsula” identifies Rephidim with Paran—the seat of an early bishopric—undoubtedly the same word with Feiran.<p><span class= "bld">There was no water.</span>—Though Feiran is usually watered by a copious stream, there have been occasions when the brook has been dried up. Graul found it dry in March, 1858. (Stanley, p. 40, Note 3.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-2.htm">Exodus 17:2</a></div><div class="verse">Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?</div>(2) <span class= "bld">The people did chide.</span>—Water is scanty along the route by which we have supposed Rephidim to have been reached. Such a supply as the people may have brought with them from Elim would have been exhausted. They would have looked forward to Rephidim both for their immediate necessity and for replenishing their water-skins. They would be suffering both from thirst and disappointment. The needs of their children and their cattle (<a href="/exodus/17-3.htm" title="And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why is this that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?">Exodus 17:3</a>) would be an aggravation of their pain. They would see no hope in the future. Under the circumstances we cannot be surprised at their “chiding.” Nothing but a very lively faith, or an utter resignation to the will of God, could have made a people patient and submissive in such an extremity.<p><span class= "bld">Give us water.</span>—It was not faith that spoke in these words, but wrath. They had no belief that Moses could give them water, and <span class= "ital">“</span>were almost ready to stone” him (<a href="/exodus/17-4.htm" title="And Moses cried to the LORD, saying, What shall I do to this people? they be almost ready to stone me.">Exodus 17:4</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-3.htm">Exodus 17:3</a></div><div class="verse">And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore <i>is</i> this <i>that</i> thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?</div>(3) <span class= "bld">To kill us.</span>—This was no exaggeration. Thirst kills as surely as hunger, and more quickly. Whole armies have died of it. (Herod. iii. 26.) Ships’ crews have perished of it on the ocean, with “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” Unless a supply could somehow or other have been provided speedily, the whole people must have been exterminated.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-4.htm">Exodus 17:4</a></div><div class="verse">And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">They be almost ready to stone me.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">Yet a little and they will stone </span>me. On tumultuary stoning, see the second Note on <a href="/exodus/8-26.htm" title="And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: see, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?">Exodus 8:26</a>.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-5.htm">Exodus 17:5</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Go on before the people.</span>—The people were probably in no condition to move. They were exhausted. with a long day’s march—weary, faint, nerveless. Moses and the elders, who probably journeyed on asses, would have more strength.<p><span class= "bld">Take with thee of the elders</span>—as witnesses. Each miracle had an educational value, and was designed to call forth, exercise, and so strengthen the faith of the people.<p><span class= "bld">The rock in Horeb </span>must necessarily designate some particular rock of the Horeb region already known to Moses during his previous stay in these parts. It cannot possibly, however, have been the traditional “rock of Moses” in the Seil Leja, under Ras Sufsafeh, since that rock is a long day’s journey from the site of Rephidim, near which the miracle must have been performed. (See Stanley, <span class= "ital">Sinai and Palestine, </span>pp. 46-48.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-7.htm">Exodus 17:7</a></div><div class="verse">And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Massah </span>means <span class= "ital">trial, </span>or <span class= "ital">temptation, </span>being formed from the root used in <a href="/exodus/17-2.htm" title="Why the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why chide you with me? why do you tempt the LORD?">Exodus 17:2</a> (“Wherefore do ye <span class= "ital">tempt </span>the Lord ?”) It is the word translated by “trial” in <a href="/job/9-23.htm" title="If the whip slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.">Job 9:23</a>, and by <span class= "ital">“</span>temptation” in <a href="/deuteronomy/4-34.htm" title="Or has God assayed to go and take him a nation from the middle of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?">Deuteronomy 4:34</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/7-19.htm" title="The great temptations which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD your God brought you out: so shall the LORD your God do to all the people of whom you are afraid.">Deuteronomy 7:19</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/29-3.htm" title="The great temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:">Deuteronomy 29:3</a>, and <a href="/psalms/95-8.htm" title="Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:">Psalm 95:8</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Meribah </span>means <span class= "ital">chiding, </span>or <span class= "ital">quarrel, </span>and is from the root <span class= "ital">rub, </span>or <span class= "ital">rib, </span>translated “chide” in <a href="/exodus/17-2.htm" title="Why the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why chide you with me? why do you tempt the LORD?">Exodus 17:2</a>, and rendered elsewhere generally by “strive,” or “contend.” The name Meribah was given also to the place where water was again produced miraculously by Moses striking the rock (<a href="/numbers/20-13.htm" title="This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.">Numbers 20:13</a>.) It is this latter “Meribah” to which reference is made in <a href="/deuteronomy/33-8.htm" title="And of Levi he said, Let your Thummim and your Urim be with your holy one, whom you did prove at Massah, and with whom you did strive at the waters of Meribah;">Deuteronomy 33:8</a>, and <a href="/psalms/81-7.htm" title="You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder: I proved you at the waters of Meribah. Selah.">Psalm 81:7</a>, and which is called by way of distinction in <a href="/deuteronomy/32-51.htm" title="Because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of MeribahKadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you sanctified me not in the middle of the children of Israel.">Deuteronomy 32:51</a>, “Meribah-Kadesh.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-8.htm">Exodus 17:8</a></div><div class="verse">Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Then came Amalek.</span>—The Amalekites had not been previously (except in the anticipatory notice of <a href="/genesis/14-7.htm" title="And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelled in Hazezontamar.">Genesis 14:7</a>) mentioned as a nation. Their name marks them for descendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau (<a href="/genesis/36-12.htm" title="And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife.">Genesis 36:12</a>; <a href="/genesis/36-16.htm" title="Duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah.">Genesis 36:16</a>); and it would seem that they early became the predominant people in the Sinaitic peninsula. Balaam speaks of them as “the first of the nations” (<a href="/numbers/24-20.htm" title="And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.">Numbers 24:20</a>); and though we do lot meet with the name in the Egyptian records, yet it is probable that they were among the hostile nations whom we find constantly contending with the Egyptians upon their north-eastern frontier. Though Edomitesn they are always regarded as a distinct race, and one especially hostile to Israel (<a href="/exodus/17-16.htm" title="For he said, Because the LORD has sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.">Exodus 17:16</a>). Their present hostility was not altogether unprovoked. No doubt they regarded the Sinaitic region as their own, and as the most valuable portion of their territory, since it contained their summer and autumn pastures. During their absence in its more northern portion, where there was pasture for their flocks after the spring rains, a swarm of emigrants had occupied some of their best lands, and threatened to seize the remainder. Naturally, they would resent the occupation. They would not understand that it was only temporary. They would regard the Israelites as intruders, robbers, persons entitled to scant favour at their hands. Accordingly, they swooped upon them without mercy, attacked their rear as they were upon the march, cut off their stragglers, and slew many that were “feeble, faint, and weary” (<a href="/context/deuteronomy/25-17.htm" title="Remember what Amalek did to you by the way, when you were come forth out of Egypt;">Deuteronomy 25:17-18</a>). They then encamped in their neighbourhood, with the design of renewing the struggle on the next day. It was under these circumstances that Moses had to make his arrangements.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-9.htm">Exodus 17:9</a></div><div class="verse">And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Moses said unto Joshua.</span>—This is the first mention of Joshua. He was an Ephraimite, the son of a man called Nun, and the tenth in descent from Joseph (see Note on <a href="/exodus/6-16.htm" title="And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years.">Exodus 6:16</a>), in the prime of life—about 45 years old—and probably known as possessing military capacity. His actual name at the timo was Hoshea, which might have been viewed as a good omen, since the word meant “Saviour.” Moses afterwards changed his name to Jehoshua (<a href="/numbers/13-16.htm" title="These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.">Numbers 13:16</a>), which became by contraction Joshua. We find him, later in Exodus, acting as Moses’ personal attendant, or “minister” (<a href="/numbers/24-13.htm" title="If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of my own mind; but what the LORD said, that will I speak?">Numbers 24:13</a>; <a href="/numbers/32-17.htm" title="But we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land.">Numbers 32:17</a>; <a href="/numbers/33-11.htm" title="And they removed from the Red sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.">Numbers 33:11</a>), accompanying him to the top of Sinai, and placed by him in charge of the first “Tabernacle.” Afterwards he, with Caleb, was the only one of the spies who brought back a true report of Canaan. (<a href="/context/numbers/14-6.htm" title="And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:">Numbers 14:6-9</a>.) His choice as leader to succeed Moses resulted naturally from his antecedents, and is related in <a href="/context/numbers/27-18.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, Take you Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him;">Numbers 27:18-23</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Choose us out men.</span>—The weakness of Israel was in its unwieldy numbers. Moses saw this, and, after deciding that he was himself unfit for battle, and passing the command on to Joshua, made the one suggestion that a select body of troops should be employed against the assailants. The advice was good, and “Joshua did as Moses had said to him” (<a href="/exodus/17-10.htm" title="So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.">Exodus 17:10</a>).<p><span class= "bld">I will stand on the top of the hill.</span>—A particular “hill” was no doubt meant—a “hill,” and not a mountain. But the <span class= "ital">exact </span>scene of the battle is too uncertain to make it possible to fix on any one particular eminence.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-10.htm">Exodus 17:10</a></div><div class="verse">So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up.</span>—Moses, we know, was eighty years of age (<a href="/exodus/7-7.htm" title="And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.">Exodus 7:7</a>); Aaron was eighty-three; Hur, the <span class= "ital">grandfather </span>of Bezaleel (<a href="/exodus/31-2.htm" title="See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:">Exodus 31:2</a>), the architect of the Tabernacle, can scarcely have been less. Unfit for battle themselves, they felt it was by prayer and intercession that they could best help forward a good result, and so withdrew themselves from the actual conflict to a place where they could command it.<p><span class= "bld">Hur.</span>—According to Jewish tradition (Joseph., <span class= "ital">Ant. Jud., </span>iii. 2, § 4) Hur was the husband of Miriam, and so the brother-in-law of Moses and Aaron. He was a descendant of Judah through Pharez and Hezron. (<a href="/context/1_chronicles/2-3.htm" title="The sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and Shelah: which three were born to him of the daughter of Shua the Canaanitess. And Er, the firstborn of Judah, was evil in the sight of the LORD; and he slew him.">1Chronicles 2:3-20</a>.) Moses left him joint regent with Aaron When he ascended up into Sinai (<a href="/exodus/24-14.htm" title="And he said to the elders, Tarry you here for us, until we come again to you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come to them.">Exodus 24:14</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-11.htm">Exodus 17:11</a></div><div class="verse">And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">When Moses held up his hand . . . Israel prevailed, </span>&c.—In order to teach the lesson of the value of intercessory prayer, God made the fortunes of the fight to vary according as Moses “held up his hand,” or allowed it to sink down. It is not probable that the Israelites were <span class= "ital">directly </span>affected by the bodily movements of Moses, or indeed could discern them, but Moses, Aaron, and Hur were struck by the fact that the fluctuations in the battle coincided with the motions of Moses’ hands.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-12.htm">Exodus 17:12</a></div><div class="verse">But Moses' hands <i>were</i> heavy; and they took a stone, and put <i>it</i> 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 other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Moses’ hands were heavy.</span>—Moses writes with a clear remembrance of his feelings at the time. His hands, long stretched to heaven, grew weary, “heavy,” feeble; he could no longer raise them up, much less stretch them out, by his own muscular energy. They sank down, and dropped by his sides. If the battle was not to be lost, it was necessary to find some remedy. Apparently, Aaron and Hur bethought themselves of an effective remedy, none being suggested by Moses.<p><span class= "bld">They took a stone.</span>—Partly to give him a certain amount of rest, but, perhaps, mainly to enable them the better to sustain his hands. The fact is one of those “little” ones, which none but one engaged in the transactions would have been likely to have been acquainted with. (See “Introduction,” § <span class= "ital">5</span>)<p><span class= "bld">Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands.</span>—Left to himself, Moses had become exhausted both mentally and bodily, and when his hands dropped, had ceased to pray. Sustained physically by his two companions, his mind recovered itself, and was able to renew its supplications and continue them. The result was the victory.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-14.htm">Exodus 17:14</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this <i>for</i> a memorial in a book, and rehearse <i>it</i> in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Write this for a memorial in a book.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">in the book. </span>That “book” existed long prior to Moses is implied in his quotation of them (<a href="/genesis/5-1.htm" title="This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;">Genesis 5:1</a>; <a href="/numbers/21-14.htm" title="Why it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,">Numbers 21:14</a>), and has of late years been abundantly proved by the discoveries made of Egyptian papyruses dating from a time long anterior to the Jewish lawgiver. The expression used in the present place, if it may be trusted,<span class= "note">[59]</span> “<span class= "ital">the </span>book,” is remarkable, and seems to imply that a book already existed at the date of the engagement, in which God’s dealings with His people were entered from time to time. (See Introduction to <span class= "ital">Speaker’s Commentary, </span>vol. i., p. 1.) This book was probably the germ of the existing Pentateuch, which was composed in many portions, and at intervals, as occasion arose.<p><span class= "note">[59] <span class= "ital">Bĕsêpher, </span>“in a book,” and <span class= "ital">bassêpher. </span><span class= "bld">“in </span>the <span class= "bld">book, </span>differ only in the pointing, which, resting solely on tradition cannot be entirely depended on. The LXX. omit the article.</span><p><span class= "bld">I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek.</span>—The extermination of Amalek, here prophesied, was afterwards laid as a positive command upon the Israelites (<a href="/deuteronomy/25-19.htm" title="Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget it.">Deuteronomy 25:19</a>), and was accomplished in part by Saul and David (<a href="/1_samuel/14-48.htm" title="And he gathered an host, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of them that spoiled them.">1Samuel 14:48</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/15-7.htm" title="And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until you come to Shur, that is over against Egypt.">1Samuel 15:7</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/27-8.htm" title="And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as you go to Shur, even to the land of Egypt.">1Samuel 27:8</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/30-17.htm" title="And David smote them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode on camels, and fled.">1Samuel 30:17</a>; <a href="/2_samuel/8-12.htm" title="Of Syria, and of Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek, and of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah.">2Samuel 8:12</a>), but finally and completely in the reign of Hezekiah (<a href="/1_chronicles/4-43.htm" title="And they smote the rest of the Amalekites that were escaped, and dwelled there to this day.">1Chronicles 4:43</a>). Amalek’s sin was, that after all the signs and wonders which had shown the Israelites to be God’s peculiar people, he braved God’s displeasure by attacking them (<a href="/deuteronomy/25-18.htm" title="How he met you by the way, and smote the hindmost of you, even all that were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he feared not God.">Deuteronomy 25:18</a>). To this audacity and contempt of Jehovah’s power he added a cruel pitilessness, when he fell upon the rear of an almost unarmed host, at a time when they were “faint and weary.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-15.htm">Exodus 17:15</a></div><div class="verse">And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Moses built an altar.</span>—Primarily, no doubt, to sacrifice thank-offerings upon it, as an acknowledgment of the Divine mercy in giving Israel the victory. But secondarily as a memorial—a monument to commemorate Israel’s triumph.<p><span class= "bld">And called the name of it Jehovah-nissi.</span>—Jacob had named an altar “El-Elohe-Israel” (<a href="/genesis/33-20.htm" title="And he erected there an altar, and called it EleloheIsrael.">Genesis 33:20</a>); but otherwise we do not find altars given special names. When an altar was built as a memorial, the purpose would be helped by a name, which would tend to keep the event commemorated in remembrance. Jehovah-nissi—“the Lord is my banner”—would tell to all who heard the word that here there had been a struggle, and that a people which worshipped Jehovah had been victorious. It is not clear that there is any reference to “the rod of God” (<a href="/exodus/17-9.htm" title="And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.">Exodus 17:9</a>) as in any sense the <span class= "ital">“</span>banner” under which Israel had fought. The banner is Jehovah Himself, under whose protection Israel had fought and conquered.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/17-16.htm">Exodus 17:16</a></div><div class="verse">For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn <i>that</i> the LORD <i>will have</i> war with Amalek from generation to generation.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek.—</span>Heb,, <span class= "ital">because </span>(<span class= "ital">his</span>)<span class= "ital"> hand is against the throne of Jehovah, </span>(<span class= "ital">there shall be</span>) <span class= "ital">war to Jehovah with Amalek, </span>&c. The Hebrew can scarcely be said to be “obscure.” It gives plainly enough the sense which our translators have placed in the margin. Amalek, by attacking Israel, had lifted up his hand against the throne of God, therefore would God war against him from generation to generation.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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