Exodus 17:13

_AND JOSHUA DISCOMFITED AMALEK AND HIS PEOPLE WITH THE EDGE OF THE SWORD._ Joshua discomfited. Victory at length decided in favour of Israel, and the glory of the victory was by an act of national piety ascribed to God (cf. 1 John 5:4). Josephus states ('Antiquities,' b. 3:, ch. 2:, sec. 5) that 'not one of the Hebrews was slain; but the slain of the enemy's army were too many to be enumerated.' He also adds, that on the day after the battle the Israelites stripped the dead bodies of the Amalekites of their ornaments, and collected the armour of those that had fled, which was doubtless another source of the abundance of the useful and precious metals which the Israelites appear at Sinai to have possessed....

13._And Joshua discomfited Amalek. _The copula is here used instead of the _illative particle_; for Moses here concludes that the Israelites overcame their enemies, because he had continually persevered in prayer. There is, too, an implied antithesis between the firmness of his hands and the weakness of the enemy, that we may know that they were discomfited or conquered, not so much by the sword as by the uplifting of the rod, and by the intercession of the holy man....

8-16 Israel engaged with Amalek in their own necessary defence. God makes his people able, and calls them to various services for the good of his church. Joshua fights, Moses prays, both minister to Israel. The rod was held up, as the banner to encourage the soldiers. Also to God, by way of appeal to him. Moses was tired. The strongest arm will fail with being long held out; it is God only whose hand is stretched out still. We do not find that Joshua's hands were heavy in fighting, but Moses' hands were heavy in praying; the more spiritual any service is, the more apt we are to fail and flag in it. To convince Israel that the hand of Moses, whom they had been chiding, did more for their safety than their own hands, his rod than their sword, the success rises and falls as Moses lifts up or lets down his hands. The church's cause is more or less successful, as her friends are more or less...

Verse Exodus 17:13. _JOSHUA DISCOMFITED AMALEK AND HIS PEOPLE_] _Amalek_ might have been the name of the ruler of this people continued down from their ancestor, (Exodus 17:8, Exodus 17:8,) as _Pharaoh_ was the name of all succeeding kings in Egypt. If this were the case, then _Amalek and his people_ mean the _prince_ and the _army_ that fought under him. But if _Amalek_ stand here for the _Amalekites_, then _his people_ must mean the confederates he had employed on this occasion....

WITH THE EDGE OF THE SWORD - This expression always denotes a great slaughter of the enemy....

EXPOSITION THE WAR WITH AMALEK. The Amalekites seem to have been descendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:12). They separated themselves off from the other Edomites at an early date, and became the predominant tribe in the more northern parts of the Sinaitic peninsula, claiming and exercising a sovereignty over the whole of the desert country between the borders of Palestine and Egypt. We do not find the name Amalek in the Egyptian records; but the people are probably represented by the Mentu, with whom so many of the early Egyptian kings contended. The Pharaohs dispossessed them of the north-western portion of the mountain region; but they probably claimed the suzerainty of the central hills and valleys, which the Egyptians never occupied; and on these they no doubt set a high value as afford

AND JOSHUA DISCOMFITED AMALEK AND HIS PEOPLE WITH THE EDGE OF THE SWORD. Amalek being distinguished from "his people", has led some to think that Amalek was the name of the king, or general of the army, and that it was a common name to the kings of that nation, as Pharaoh was to the kings of Egypt; but for this there is no foundation in the Scriptures: as Amelek signifies the Amalekites, his people may design the confederates and auxiliaries, the other people, as Ben Gersom expresses it, they brought with them to fight against Israel. And so Jerom z says, by him another Canaanite dwelt, who also fought against Israel in the wilderness, of whom it is so written, and Amalek and the Canaanite dwelt in the valley, Numbers 14:25 and who were all, the one as the other, at least the greatest part of them, cut to pieces by the edge of the sword of Joshua and the Israelites, who obtained a comple...

CHAPTER 17 AT REPHIDIM _ 1. The water from the rock (Exodus 17:1)_ 2. The conflict with Amalek (Exodus 17:8) From Sin they went to Dophkah and Alush before they came to Rephidim (Numbers 33:12). Again there was no water and Moses feared they might stone him. Without following the historical record we point out some of the most interesting lessons of the two events at Rephidim. The Rock is a type of Christ. Jehovah stood upon the rock to be smitten, even as “God was in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:19). The smiting by the rod, used in judgment upon the river of Egypt, is the type of the death of Christ. There

EXODUS 27. WATER FROM THE ROCK (Exodus 17 :1 P (Rephidim), Exodus 17:1 b - Exodus 17:2 a (strove, strive) E, Exodus 17:3 and Exodus 17:2 b (tempt) J, Exodus 17:4 E, Exodus 17:5 a (people) J, Exodus 17:5 bd (and go) E, Exodus 17:5 c, Exodus 17:6 a J,...

EDGE. Hebrew mouth. Figure of speech _Prosopopoeia._ App-6. sword in the Plain: Rod of God on the mount (Exodus 17:9): Jehovah above all (Exodus 17:6)....