The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 69

EXPOSITION. Vers. 8-16.-THE WAB WITH AMA.LEK. the_ ~ekites would h~ve been passing the The Ame.lekites seem to have been descendants spnng 1n the lower plams, where herbage is of Ame.lek, the grandson of Esau (Gen. xxxTi. abundant after the early rains, while later in the year it dries up. They would hear of the 12). They separated themselves off from the threatened occupation of their precious sum- other Edomites at an early date, and became mer pastures by the vast host of the Hebrews, the predominant tribe in the more northern and would seek to prevent it by blocking the parts of the Sinaitic peninsula, claiming and way. Hence they are said to have "come"- exercising a sovereignty over the whole of the i.e., to have marched into a position where they were not previously, though it was one situated desert country between the borders of Pe.les- within their country. We must remember tine and Egypt. We do not find the name that they were nomads. And fought with A.malek in the Egyptian records ; but the Israel For the nature of the fighting on the people are probably represented by the Mentu, first day, see Dent. xxv. 18; by which it ap- with whom so many of the early Egyptian pears that *he original attack was made on kings contended. The Pharaohs dispossessed the rear of the Jong column, and was successful. The Ame.lekites "smote the hindmost'' of them of the north-western portion of the moun- the Israelites, " even all that were feeble be- tain region ; but they probably claimed the hind them, when they were faint and weary." suzerainty of the centre.I hills and valleys, Ver. 9.-.&.nd Moses said to J"oshaa. Ou which the Egyptians never occupied; and on hearing what had happened, Moses summoned these they no doubt set a high ve.lue as afford- to his presence an Ephrai.mite in the prime of life-about 45 years old-and devolved on ing water and pasture for their flocks during him the military command. The man's name the height of summer. When the Israelites at the time was Hoshea or Oshea (Num. xiii. pressed forward into these parts, the A.me.le- 8). He was the son of a certain Nun (ibid.) kites, in spite of the fact that they were a or Non (1 Chr. vii. 27), and the tenth in kindred race, determined on giving them descent from Ephraim, the son of J osepb ( ib. 23--27). Some forty years later Mos~ battle. They began by "insidiously attacking changed his name from Hoshea to Jehoshua the rear of the Hebrew army, when it was ex- which became contracted into Joshua. The hausted and weary" (Deut. xxv. 18). Having occurrence of this form in the present cut off many stragglers, they attacked the passage may be acconnted for. I. By Moses main body at Rephidim, in the Wady- having written ( or reviewed) Exodus late in his life ; or 2. By a later authorised reviser Feiran, ancf fought the long battle which the (Ezra?) having e.ltered the text. Choose out text describes (vers. 10-13). The result was for us men-i.e. " Select from the congrega- the complete discomfiture of the assailants, tion such a number of fit men as appear to who thenceforth avoided all contact with Israel thee sufficient, and with them fight Amalek. ·• until attacked in their tum at the southern To-morrow. It was probably evening, when Moses heard of the attack on his rear, and frontier of Canaan, when, in conjunction with there was consequently no possibility of re- the Canaa.nites, they were victorious (Num. trieving the disaster till the next day. He xiv. 45). A bitter and long continued enmity could but make his arrangements for retriev- followed. A.m.alek, "the first of the nations" ing it. I will stand on the top of the hill. to attack Israel (ib. xxiv. 20), was pursued It is implied that there was a conspicuous hill (gibeah ), not a rock (tsur) in the near vicinity with unrelenting hostility (Deut. xxv. 17-19), of Rephidim, whence Moses could see the defeated repeatedly by Saul and David (1 Sam. fight, and be seen by those engaged in it. xiv. 48; xv. 7; xxvii. 8; xxx. 17; 2 Sam. Dean Stanley finds e.11 the conditions answered viii. 12); the last remnant of the nation being by an eminence on the south side of the Wady finally destroyed by the Simeonites in the Feiran (Si11ai and Palestine, p. 41). Others suggest the J ebel Tahuneh north of the same reign of king Hezekiah, as related by the wady. With the rod of God in my hand. nuthor ol Chronicles (1 Chr. iv. 41-43) Mos~s meant to indicate bv this. that he Ver. 8 -Then oame Amalek. Tlic bulk o looked fur victory lo God alone, and did not  THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [vn. xvn. 8-lG.