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From: Exodus 17:8-13

A battle against the Amalekites

[8] Then came Amalek and fought with Israel at Rephidim. [9] And Moses said
to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” [10] So Joshua did
as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went
up to the top of the hill. [11] Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel pre-
vailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. [17] But Moses’
hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon
it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the
other side; so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. [13] And
Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

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Commentary:

17:8-16 In addition to the shortages of food and water the Israelites also had to
cope with attacks from other groups in the desert over rights to wells and pas-
tures. Their confrontation with the Amalekites shows that the same God as alle-
viated their more pressing needs (hunger and thirst) will protect them from ene-
my attack.

The Amalekites were an ancient people (cf. Num 24:20; Gen 14:7; 36:12, 16;
Judg 1:16) who were spread all over the north of the Sinai peninsula, the Negeb,
Seir and the south of Canaan; they controlled the caravan routes between Ara-
bia and Egypt. In the Bible they appear as a perennial enemy of Israel (cf. Deut
25:17-18; 1 Sam 15:3; 27:8, 30) until in the time of Hezekiah (1 Chron 4:41-43)
the oracle about blotting out their memory finds fulfillment (v. 14). The mention
of Joshua leading the battle and of Aaron and Hur helping Moses to pray point
to the fact that after Moses political-military and religious authority will be split,
with the priests taking over the latter.

With the rod in his hand, Moses directs the battle from a distance, but his main
involvement is by interceding for his people, asking God to give them victory. The
Fathers read this episode as a figure of the action of Christ who, on the cross
(symbolized by the rod), won victory over the devil and death (cf. Tertullian, Ad-
versus Marcionem, 3, 18; St. Cyprian, Testimonia, 2, 21).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.