" in his hand, but as it is clear from v. 9, | sword in that of Joshua; the embattled that he took 'the rod of God' with him, host in the valley below, and the praythere can be no doubt that this was to ing band on the mount above, all were be held up as a kind of banner or signal necessary in the divine economy to the to be seen by the warring host below, grand result. In vain had Moses prayed and to operate as a continual incentive if Joshua had not fought; in vain had to their valor and prowess, while en- Joshua fought if Moses had not prayed. gaged in the contest. The sight of that The whole narrative, however, concluwonder-working wand, which had al- sively shows, that God designed to teach ready wrought such glorious things for Israel that the hand of Moses, with them, which had summoned the plagues whom they had just been chiding, conof Egypt, which had opened a path tributed more to their safety than their through the trackless waters, and which own hands; his rod more than their had so recently smitten the rock for weapons; and accordingly the success their refreshment, could not fail to nerve fluctuates as he lifts up or lets down his their arms with new vigor every time hands. What can more strikingly illustheir eye was turned towards it. Yet trate the principle, that the triumphs of a moment's reflection would convince the church depend upon the prayers of them, as it will us, that there was no its friends? Accordingly as they are intrinsic virtue in the rod to produce more or less strong in faith and fervent this effect; that it derived all its efficacy in supplication, the victory wavers to from the divine appointment, from its their side or that of their enemies. And being a visible symbol of that unseen the same holds true of the individual. succor and strength which God was The lesson here intended to be taught pleased to minister to his militant serv- is that men ought always to pray and ants fighting his own battle and main- not to faint;' it is, that men should taining his glory. But it was evident- pray every where, lifting up holy hands ly proper that, in order to secure the without wrath or doubting.' The Chrisdivine cooperation on such an occa- tian warfare will be attended with but sion, fervent prayer should be united little success, unless it be waged in the with external appliances; and accord- spirit and practice of unceasing, earnest ingly we have every reason to believe prayer. And in this struggle let us be that the uplifted rod was merely an cheered by the consideration that we accompaniment of the earnest interces- do not engage in this holy war unassistsions which breathed from the lips and ed and alone. The faithful servants of hearts of the venerable trio convened God, our brethren, have ascended the on the summit of the hill. Such also hill of spiritual prayer, and are imploris the view taken of the incident by ing blessings upon our efforts, And the Chal. and Jerus. Targums; 'When not only so; he who marshals the ranks Moses held up his hands in prayer, the of the sacramental host, who leads house of Israel prevailed; and when he them on to battle, and fights in their let down his hands from prayer, the behalf, sustains another office equally house of Amelek prevailed.' We have important. He has gone up to the sumhere then grouped together that hal- mit of the everlasting hills, and is there lowed combination of agencies which employed in prevalent intercessions for ought never to be separated, and in their success. A greater than Moses which safety and success are ever to be is mediating for them on the mount found; viz. the acknowledgment of above, and his hands never grow heavy heaven and the use of appointed means. and weary, and faint. Of him it can The rod in the hand of Moses, and the never be said, that though the spirit is 6 12 But Moses' hands were heavy ; | lek and his people with the edge and they took a stone, and put it of the sword. under him, and he sat thereon: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua discomfited Ama willing, the flesh is weak. 'He ever liveth to make intercession for us'. liveth in the spiritual undecaying vitality of his love, and the vigor of his advocacy for his people. 12. Moses' hands were heavy. That is, felt heavy to him, were wearied by being kept so long in the same uplifted posture. The infirmity of nature prevailed over the promptings of piety. In this emergency recourse is had to artificial supports. A stone is put under him for a seat, and Aaron and Hur become living stays for his arms. In performing this office, however, we do not suppose that both his hands were held up on either side at the same time; for in this case we cannot see but the arms of Aaron and Hur would eventually become as weary, and as much need support as those of Moses. The main object of holding up his arms was that the rod might be held up. This he no doubt shifted from time to time from one hand to the other, and Aaron and Hur each of them successively aided in holding that hand which was next to them, and thus relieved both him and each other. In our native feebleness and proneness to languish under the pressure of spiritual duties, recourse may be innocently had to adventitious aids in keeping alive the spirit of devotion. Were steady until the going down of the sun. Heb. 2 amunah, steadiness. Even though thus supported, yet so long a continuance in one fixed posture must have been a severe trial to his patience, and it impressively shows us to what a test our pious perse 14 And the LORD said unto Moses, p Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put P ch. 34. 27. 9 Numb. 24. 20. 1 Sam. 15. 3, 7. & 30. 1, 17. Ezra 9. 14. Deut. 25, 19. 2 Sam. 8. 12. verance may sometimes be brought. Of the occasions our consciences must judge, but there can be no doubt that circumstances do sometimes occur in Christian experience that call upon us for services equally trying to the flesh; occasions when we should be unfaithful to cur own souls did we not hold out in prayer and inward groanings far beyond the point where nature would plead for respite and repose. 13. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people. That is, the Amalekites and the people of other clans which had confederated with them in this assault. Junius and Tremellius, however, make the latter clause exegetical of the former; discomfited Amalek, even his people.' 14. Write this for a memorial in a book, &c. The memorandum or memorial which Moses was commanded to write, was undoubtedly the very words contained in the final clause of the verse, and therefore the Hebrew term translated 'for' should be rendered 'that;' 'Write and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua that I will utterly put out,' &c. Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. This record was especially to be impressed, and, as it were, engraven, upon the memory of Joshua, inasmuch as he was the destined successor of Moses, as head of the chosen people, and it was all important for him to be informed what particular tribes or nations they were with whom the Israel ites were not to make any treaties, but rather to devote to utter extermination. It would serve also as a very season out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. 16 For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will 15 And Moses built an altar, and have war with Amalek from gene. called the name of it JEHOVAH-ration to generation. nissi : able pledge and assurance that he should be victorious in the career of his future wars against the enemies of God's peo important item was the inscription, or rather, the appellation, by which it was to be known. The original term ple.¶ I will utterly put out the re-nës, signifying primarily lifting up, exmembrance, &c. Heb. ma-altation, is applied also to a banner or hoh emheh, wiping I will wipe out. The denunciation is awfully emphatic. It declares that in process of time Amalek should be totally ruined and rooted out, that he should be remembered only in history. This was but meting out to them the measure of destruction which they themselves had meditated against Israel, Their language was that reported by the Psalmist, Ps. 83. 4, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.' God therefore determines not only to disappoint them in that, but to cut off their name. It was to be known for the encouragement of Israel, whenever the Amalekites should be an annoyance to them, that sentence had irrevocably gone forth against them; they were a doomed people; and the chosen race should not fail at last to triumph over them. This sentence was executed in part by Saul, 1 Sam. 15, and completely by David, 1 Sam. 30. 2 Sam. 1. 1.-8. 12, after which we never read so much as the name of Amalek. Thus are the cunning taken in their own craftiness, and thus are designs of violence and blood turned back upon the heads of their contrivers. 15. Called the name of it Jehovah nissi. Heb. Yehovah nissi, the Lord my banner. This was a grateful acknowledgment to him to whom the glory of the recent victory was due. Instead of rearing a monument in honor of Joshua or his brave associates, an altar for sacrificial and thank-offerings is erected to God, of which the most 16. Because the Lord hath sworn, &c. Heb. Because the hand al kës Yah, upon the throne Yah. Very considerable doubt hangs over the true interpretation of this clause. It may be referred by the construction either to the hand of Amalek, or to the hand of the Lord. In the former case, the import is; 'Because the hand of Amalek is upon (or against) the throne of heaven, therefore the Lord will have war,' &c. In the latter, the Lord's hand being upon the throne is equiva. lent to the taking an oath declarative of a purpose of irrevocable hostility toward Amalek in all generations. If we adopt the former as the true sense, CHAPTER XVIII. heard of all that b God had done WHEN a Jethro, the priest of for Moses, and for Israel his people, Midian, Moses' father-in-law, a ch. 2. 16. & 3. 1. the implication is, that the attack made by the Amalekites upon the Israelites while they were under the tutelary conduct of the cloudy pillar, was a virtual assault upon that sacred symbol itself, which they were taught to regard as the seat, throne, or dwelling-place of Jehovah. This is by no means an improbable interpretation, although it is certain that the older versions incline rather in favor of the other. Thus, Chal. 'With an oath this is spoken from the face of the terrible (one), whose majesty is upon the throne of glory; that it shall come to pass that war shall be waged from the face of the Lord against the men of the house of Amalek; that he may consume them from the genera tions of the world.' Arab. 'Now have I cause to swear by the throne, that the Lord shall have war against the Amalekites, &c.' Syr. 'Lo, the hand upon the throne, the war of the Lord with Amalek.' This idea is still more explicitly enounced in the old rabbinical work, Pirke Eliezer, c. 44, 'When God would root out and destroy all Amalek's seed, he stretched forth his right hand, and took hold on the throne of his glory, and sware to root out and destroy all Amalek's seed out of this world and out of the world to come.' The Greek renders as if the reading of their text was different from what it is at present; 'And Moses built an altar to the Lord, and called the name of it, The Lord my refuge; because with a hidden hand (secretly) the Lord will war against Amalek from generation to generation.' Vulg. 'Because the hand upon the throne of the Lord, and the war of the Lord, shall be against Amalek.' It would seem, perhaps, that some of these renderings must yield the true sense, and yet we are not entirely satisfied with any of b Ps. 44. 1. & 77. 14, 15. & 78. 4. & 105. 5, 43. & 106. 2, 8. them. As it is clear that the lifting up of the rod in the hand of Moses was the prominent incident in the whole transaction, it is certainly natural to look for some allusion to that in the words of the present record. We would suggest then, with deference, whether the hand of Moses is not the hand intended in the passage. Because his hand was upon, or towards, as the orig. inalal will admit, the heavens, or perhaps the cloudy pillar, which may have been near, and was perseveringly sustained in that direction, therefore the Lord assumes this contest as his own, and declares perpetual war against the devoted race who have ventured to provoke his hostility. How far the proposed construction goes to free the passage from obscurity must be left to the judgment of the reader. CHAPTER XVIII. 1. When Jethro, the priest of Midian, &c. Lightfoot, in accordance with Aben Ezra and Jarchi, is of opinion that this account of Jethro's visit to Moses is inserted out of its chronological order, which would require its collocation be tween the tenth and eleventh verses of the tenth chapter of Numbers. That it does not properly pertain to this part of the narrative, he argues, (1.) From the fact mentioned verse 12, that 'Jethro took burnt-offerings and sacrifices for God,' whereas the law respecting these offerings was not yet given. (2.) From that mentioned in v. 13. 16, that 'Moses sat to judge the people, and made them know the statutes of God and his law,' whereas these statutes and laws not having yet been promulgated, Moses himself could not know them. (3.) It appears from Deut. 1. 9-15, that the judges and rulers here mentioned, were and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt: 2 Then Jethro, Moses' father-inlaw, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, cafter he had sent her back, 3 And her two sons; of which the e name of the one was Gershom; (for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land :) c ch. 4. 26. d Acts 7. 29. c ch. 2. 22. not appointed till after the departure from Sinai, and yet at this time they had not arrived at Sinai. The inference, therefore, plainly is, that this incident is transposed from its natural place in the order of the sacred story. The reason of the present arrangement, Lightfoot says, is to be sought for in the prophetic curse denounced against the Amalekites in the close of the preceding chapter; for as Jethro and his family were residing in the country of this devoted people, it was proper to afford the reader an intimation that he was not to be involved in their doom, and accordingly the incident of his visit to the camp of Israel, and his joining in the worship of the true God, is introduced in immediate connection with the mention of the curse; not that it actually occurred at that precise time, but to show that he once came, and evinced by his conduct that he was exempted from the denunciation. This view of the subject we consider on the whole the correct one. In regard to Jethro and his true relation to Moses, see Note on Ex. 2. 18. 2. Then Jethro took, &c. Neither time nor distance had alienated his af fection for the husband of his daughter, of which he gives decisive evidence in undertaking the present journey. He does not satisfy himself with sending by the mouth of another his congratulations to his son-in-law, neither will he permit Zipporah and her sons to go unaccompanied, unprotected through the wilderness, but aged and infirm as he 4 And the name of the other was Eliezer; (for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh :) 5 And Jethro, Moses' father-inlaw, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at f the mount of God: f ch. 3. 1, 12. is, choses himself to be their attendant and guardian. He had undoubtedly heard the report of the great and glori ous things which had been wrought for the deliverance of Israel, and though as a Midianite he was not to share with them in the promised land, yet as a descendant of Abraham and a worshipper of Israel's God, he feels a deep interest in their welfare, and sympathises with them in the joy of their deliverance. - After he had sent her back. That is, from the inn or lodging-place mentioned, Ex. 4. 26, where Moses' life had been endangered in the manner and for the reasons thus explained. He no doubt foresaw that the presence of his wife and children would be a hindrance instead of a help in the prosecution of his mission to Pharaoh. 3. The name of the one was Gershom. That is, stranger there; alluding thereby not only to his own condition at the time, but designing it as a memorial also to his son of his condition, as a stranger and pilgrim on earth, as all his fathers were. 4. The name of the other was Eliezer. That is, my God a help, as immediate. ly after explained.¶ Delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. The obvi ous deduction from this mode of render. ing is, that this deliverance from the sword of Pharaoh is no other than his escape from the royal vengeance after slaying the Egyptian. But in this case it would have been more natural, while that event was fresh upon his mind, to bestow such a commemorative name upon the |