Exodus 17:8

_THEN CAME AMALEK, AND FOUGHT WITH ISRAEL IN REPHIDIM._ Then came Amalek. Some time probably elapsed before they were exposed to this new evil: and the presumption of there being such an interval affords the only ground on which we can satisfactorily account for the altered-the better and firmer-spirit that animated the people in this sudden contest. The miracles of the manna and the water from the rock had produced a deep impression and permanent conviction that the Lord was indeed among them; and with feelings elevated by the conscious experience of the Divine Presence and aid, they remained calm, resolute, and courageous under the attack of their unexpected foe, fought with Israel. The language implies that no occasion had been furnished for this attack; but, as descendants of Esau, the Amalekites entertained a deep-seated grudge against them, especially as the rapid prosperity and m...

8._Then came Amalek. _These were the first enemies whom God arrayed against Israel, after having delivered them from Egypt, and having kept them for some time in peace and quietness. It was principally for two reasons that He chose them now to be involved in war, either to punish them for their recent sin, or as a correction of their idleness, lest it should ensnare them into iniquity; for, as among soldiers sedition often arises from a cessation of labor, so also the more God spared this people and indulged them, the more did their forwardness increase. No wonder then that they were awakened by war, when they had taken occasion from their state of tranquillity to wax wanton. But some imagine that the Amalekites were impelled to take arms with this design; first, to avenge (190) the abdication of their ancestor; and secondly, because they were unwilling that the posterity of Jacob should...

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 17:8. _THEN CAME AMALEK, AND FOUGHT WITH ISRAEL_] The Amalekites seem to have attacked the Israelites in the same way and through the same motives that the wandering Arabs attack the caravans which annually pass through the same desert. It does not appear that the Israelites gave them any kind of provocation, they seem to have attacked them merely through the hopes of plunder. The Amalekites were the posterity of Amalek, one of the dukes of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, and consequently Israel's brother, Genesis 36:15-1. _FOUGHT WITH ISRAEL_] In the most treacherous and dastardly manner; for they came at the rear of the camp, _smote the hindmost_ _of the people, even all that were feeble behind, when they were_ _faint and weary_; see...

THEN CAME AMALEK - The attack occurred about two months after the Exodus, toward the end of May or early in June, when the Bedouins leave the lower plains in order to find pasture for their flocks on the cooler heights. The approach of the Israelites to Sinai would of course attract notice, and no cause of warfare is more common than a dispute for the right of pasturage. The Amalekites were at that time the most powerful race in the Peninsula; here they took their position as the chief of the pagans. They were also the first among the pagans who attacked God’s people, and as such were marked out for punishment (see the marginal references)....

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

THEN CAME AMALEK,.... The Amalekites, who were not the posterity of Amalek, a son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, by Timna the concubine of Eliphaz, Genesis 36:12 who dwelt in the desert, to the south of Judea, beyond the city Petra, as you go to Aila, as Jerom says t; and so the Targum of Jonathan describes them as coming from the south; and Aben Ezra interprets them a nation that inhabited the southern country. Josephus u calls them the inhabitants of Gobolitis and Petra; but they were the descendants of Cush, and the same with those who were in Abraham's time long before Amalek, the descendant of Esau, was in being, Genesis 14:7 and who bordered eastward on the wilderness of Shur: AND FOUGHT WITH ISRAEL IN REPHIDIM; so that this was before they came from hence to Sinai, very probably as t

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,...

THEN CAME AMALEK. See on Genesis 21:25 and Judges 5:11. Amalek came to fight for the water. Compare Deuteronomy 25:17; Deuteronomy 25:18. Amalek came behind and attacked the rear, and he "feared not God", Deuteronomy 25:8. AMALEK, Figure of speech _Synecdoche_ (of Part), App-6, put for Amalekites. At Rephidim, they got water plus Amalek; at Meribah, water plus Edom....