The children of Israel coming to Rephidim, want water, and chide with Moses about it, who, crying to the Lord, is bid to smite the rock, from whence came water for them, and he named the place from their contention with him, Ex.

And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin Where they had stayed some time, at least a week, as it should seem, from the gathering the manna there six days, and resting on the seventh: after their journeys: first from the wilderness of Sin to Dophkah,…

Wherefore the people did chide with Moses Contended with him by words, expostulating with him in a very angry and indecent manner for bringing them thither; loading him with reproaches and calumnies, wrangling and quarrelling with him, and using him very ill, giving hard words and bad language: and…

And the people thirsted there for water They saw there was no water when they first came thither, and therefore chid Moses for bringing them to such a place, where they could not subsist; and having stayed some little time here, and all the water they brought with them from Alush being spent, and…

And Moses cried unto the Lord. &c.] Or prayed unto him, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; which shows the distress he was thrown into, the vehemence of his prayer, and perhaps the loud and lamentable tone in which he expressed it: this was the method he always took, and the refuge he fled…

And the Lord said unto Moses Out of the pillar of cloud: go on before the people, lead them on nearer to Mount Sinai or Horeb, within sight of which they now were.

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, &c.] Or “upon that rock” [[9]], a particular rock which was pointed unto, where the Lord in the pillar of cloud would stand; not as a mere spectator of this affair, but as a director of Moses where to smite the rock; and to exert his…

And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah The former signifies “temptation”, and the latter “contention”: the reason of which names being given by Moses, or whoever was the name of the place, follows: “because of the chiding of the children of Israel”; that was the reason why it was…

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, who dwelt in the desert, to the south of Judea, beyond the city Petra, as you go to Aila, as Jerom says [[18]]; and so the Targum of Jonathan describes them…

And Moses said unto Joshua The son of Nun, who was his minister, and was a man of war from his youth, trained up in the art of war, and afterwards succeeded Moses, and was captain of the armies of Israel, and fought at the head of them, and subdued the Canaanites.

So Joshua did as Moses had said to him He singled out some proper persons for the battle, and arrayed them with armour, and led them forth out of the camp, and went forth at the head of them: and fought with Amalek; upon both armies meeting, a battle ensued: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur, went up to…

And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed With his rod in it as a banner displayed, as some think, which inspired the Israelites with courage to fight, and they had the better of it; though Aben Ezra rejects that notion, observing, that if that had been the case, Aaron…

But Moses’s hands were heavy And hung down through weariness, holding up the rod first in one hand, and then in another, for so long a time; and thus sometimes, through infirmity, the best of men grow remiss in prayer, their hands are weak and hang flown through the corruptions of their hearts, the…

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…

And the Lord said unto Moses After the battle was over, and the Israelites had got the victory: write this for a memorial in a book: not in loose papers, but in a book, that it might continue; meaning that the account of this battle with Amelek should be put down in the annals or journal of Moses,…

And Moses built an altar On Horeb, as Aben Ezra; on the top of the hill, as Ben Gersom, where sacrifices of thanksgiving were offered up for the victory obtained, or however a monument erected in memory of it: and he called the name of it Jehovahnissi; which signifies either “the Lord is my…

For he said, because the Lord hath sworn So some Jewish writers [[1]] take it for an oath, as we do; or “because the hand is on the throne of the Lord” [[2]]; which the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, interpret of the hand of the Lord being lifted up, of his swearing by the throne of his…