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The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:8-13
The uselessness of fighting against God. Amalek was "the first of the nations" in audacity, in venturesomeness, perhaps in military qualities, but scarcely in prudence or longsightedness. Amalek must precipitate its qua…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:8-16
Victory through faith. I. IN THE WARFARE OF FAITH, PRAYER AND EFFORT MUST BE JOINED TOGETHER. 1. Arrangements are carefully made for both. 2. Joshua discomfited Amalek with the edge of the sword; but the battle was for…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:8-16
The discomfiture of Amalek in Rephidim. I. AMALEK'S IGNORANCE OF THE RESOURCES OF ISRAEL. Amalek attacked Israel in Rephidim. Rephidim stands very well as the type of all places and positions where human resources appea…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:8-16
Amalek. Various circumstances are to be noted in connection with this attack of Amalek on Israel. 1. It was unprovoked. "Then came Amalek" (Exodus 17:8). 2. It was unfriendly. The Amalekites were descended from a grands…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:8-16
Christ our Banner. "Jehovah-Nissi." Exodus 17:15. Historical introduction: The Amalekites—their territory—reasons why they barred Israel's way. 1. Fear. 2. Religious animosity—incidents of the engagement—the two memoria…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:9
And Moses said to Joshua. On hearing what had happened, Moses summoned to his presence an Ephraimite in the prime of life—about 45 years old—and devolved on him the military command. The man's name at the time was Hoshe…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:9-13
Diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS. The needs of life are various, and the gifts which God imparts to his saints are correspondingly diversified. In Moses, at the age of eighty (Exodus 7:7),…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:9
Thou hast given a banner unto them that fear thee. 1. THE ATTACK BY AMALEK. It was cowardly, malicious, merciless (cf. Deuteronomy 25:17; 1 Samuel 15:2); not open, straightforward enmity; cutting off the feeble and the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:10
Hur. Hur has not been mentioned hitherto. According to one Jewish tradition, he was the son, according to another, the husband of Miriam. Scripture only tells us of him, that he was descended from Judah, through Caleb t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:11
When Moses held up his hand,… Israel prevailed. The elevation of Moses' hand, with the rod held in it, was an appeal to God for aid, and must be supposed to have been accompanied by fervent prayer to God, that he would…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:12
But Moses' hands were heavy. Moses, no doubt, held the rod alternately with one hand and the other, until both were so tired that he could hold them up no longer. It is this natural weariness which is expressed by the w…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:13
Amalek and his people—i.e. "the Amalekites proper, and the tribes subject to them, who fought on their side."
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:14-16
God's mercies need memorial, and obtain it in several ways. Deliverance from Amalek was a great and noticeable mercy. It was. 1. UNDESERVED, as the people had just been murmuring against God, and threatening to stone hi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:14
Write this … in a book. The original has, "Write this in the book." It is clear that a book already existed, in which Moses entered events of interest, and that now he was divinely commanded to record in it the great vi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:15
Moses built an altar. An altar naturally implies a sacrifice, and Moses may well have thought that the signal victory obtained required to be acknowledged, and as it were requited, by offerings. In giving his altar a na…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 17:16
Because the Lord hath sworn. Rather, as in the margin, "Because the hand of Amalek was against the throne of the Lord"—"because," i.e; "in attacking Israel, Amalek had as it were lifted up his hand against God on his th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 18:1-12
The Consolations of those who suffer loss for the Kingdom of God. I. THE REUNION OF THE SEPARATED. To Moses, who had to leave behind him wife and children because God's errand would brook no delay, these are now restore…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 18:1
Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law. Rather, "Jethro, priest of Midian, Moses' brother-in-law." See the comment on Exodus 3:1; and note that the Seventy use the ambiguous word γαμβρός, while the Vulgate…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 18:1-12
JETHRO'S VISIT TO MOSES. EXPOSITION JETHRO'S VISIT TO MOSES. It has been noticed, in the comment on Exodus 4:1-31; that shortly after the circumcision of Eliezer, Moses' second son, he sent back his wife, Zipporah, to h…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 18:1-12
The blessedness of family reunions, when rightly ordered. The family is God's ordinance, and among the most sacred and blessed of his ordinances. All fatherhood is based upon his (Ephesians 3:15); and human family ties…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 18:1-13
The visit of Jethro. When Jethro "heard of all that God had done for Moses,"—a hint that the news of the great events of the past few weeks had spread far and wide through the Sinaitic peninsula,—and when he learned tha…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 18:1-5
The claims of home. "And Jethro, Moses' kinsnian (not father-in-law) came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God" (Exodus 18:5). I. CIRCUMSTANCES MAY JUSTIFY THE…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 18:1-12
Jethro's visit-Moses in his domestic relations. In this visit of Jethro three persons are brought prominently before us—Moses, Jethro, his father-in-law, and Zipperah, his wife. Let us consider the details of the visit…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 18:2
After he had sent her back. Literally "after her dismissal." It is curious that the fact of the dismissal had not been previously mentioned, yet is here assumed as known. Some commentators (as Knobel) find, in what is s…