Keluaran 17:8

Victory over the Amalekites

17:8 ¹ Amalek came ²  and attacked ³  Israel in Rephidim.

Keluaran 19:2

19:2 After they journeyed ⁴  from Rephidim, they came to the Desert of Sinai, and they camped in the desert; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. ⁵ 

Bilangan 33:15

33:15 They traveled from Rephidim and camped in the wilderness of Sinai.

[17:8]  ¹ sn This short passage gives the first account of Israel’s holy wars. The war effort and Moses’ holding up his hands go side by side until the victory is won and commemorated. Many have used this as an example of intercessory prayer – but the passage makes no such mention. In Exodus so far the staff of God is the token of the power of God; when Moses used it, God demonstrated his power. To use the staff of God was to say that God did it; to fight without the staff was to face defeat. Using the staff of God was a way of submitting to and depending on the power of God in all areas of life. The first part of the story reports the attack and the preparation for the battle (8,9). The second part describes the battle and its outcome (10-13). The final section is the preservation of this event in the memory of Israel (14-16).

[17:8]  ² tn Heb “and Amalek came”; NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV “the Amalekites.”

[17:8]  ³ tn Or “fought with.”

[19:2]  ⁴ tn The form is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive, “and they journeyed.” It is here subordinated to the next clause as a temporal clause. But since the action of this temporal clause preceded the actions recorded in v. 1, a translation of “after” will keep the sequence in order. Verse 2 adds details to the summary in v. 1.

[19:2]  ⁵ sn The mountain is Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, the place where God had met and called Moses and had promised that they would be here to worship him. If this mountain is Jebel Musa, the traditional site of Sinai, then the plain in front of it would be Er-Rahah, about a mile and a half long by half a mile wide, fronting the mountain on the NW side (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 169). The plain itself is about 5000 feet above sea level. A mountain on the west side of the Arabian Peninsula has also been suggested as a possible site.