Chapter 17

1 The whole community of the Israelites traveled on their journey from the wilderness of Sin according to the Lord’s instruction, and they pitched camp in Rephidim. Now there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So the people contended with Moses, and they said, “Give us water to drink!”⁠ Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people were very thirsty there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world did you bring us up from Egypt—to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” 4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What will I do with this people?—a little more and they will stone me!” 5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing before you there on the rock in Horeb,⁠ and you will strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.”⁠ And Moses did so in plain view of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the Israelites and because of their testing the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”⁠ 8 Amalek came and attacked Israel in Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua fought against Amalek just as Moses had instructed him, and Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses would raise his hands, then Israel prevailed,⁠ but whenever he would rest his hands, then Amalek prevailed. 12 When the hands of Moses became heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other, and so his hands were steady until the sun went down. 13 So Joshua destroyed Amalek and his army with the sword. 14 The Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in the book, and rehearse it in Joshua’s hearing; for I will surely blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”⁠ 15 Moses built an altar, and he called it “The Lord is my Banner,” 16 for he said, “For a hand was lifted up to the throne of the Lord—that⁠ the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 17:11 and Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.186

Hebrew Bible · Classical

Summary

Exodus 17 links Israel’s victory over Amalek to Moses keeping his hands raised. Philo interprets the battle as a struggle within the soul, where the mind gains strength when lifted up and desire wins when it sinks.

Passages

Exodus 17:11

Hebrew Bible

8 Amalek came and attacked Israel in Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua fought against Amalek just as Moses had instructed him, and Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses would raise his hands, then Israel prevailed, but whenever he would rest his hands, then Amalek prevailed. 12 When the hands of Moses became heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other, and so his hands were steady until the sun went down. 13 So Joshua destroyed Amalek and his army with the sword.

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.186

Classical

And their warfare is plain to see. When the mind is victorious, devoting itself to immaterial things, its proper object, passion leaves the scene: and on the other hand, when passion has won an evil victory, the mind gives in, kept from attending to itself and to all its own occupations. Moses elsewhere says, “Whenever Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed, but when he dropped them, Amalek prevailed” (Exod. xvii. 11), showing that when the mind lifts itself up away from mortal things and is borne aloft, the one that sees God, which is Israel, gains strength, but when it has lowered its special powers and grown weak, immediately passion, named “Amalek,” which means “a people licking out,” will become strong: for it truly eats up the whole soul and licks it out, leaving behind in it no seed or spark of virtue. The words “Amalek the first of the nations” (Numb. xxiv. 20) are in keeping with this, because passion rules and lords it over promiscuous hordes that have drifted together without purpose or meaning. Through passion all the war of the soul is fanned into flame, and so God promises the minds to which He grants the gift of peace that He will blot out “the memorial of Amalek from under heaven” (Exod. xvii. 14).

20–50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Philo, Allegorical Interpretation

References

“... Exod 17:8-16 tells how Moses prayed for Israel when watching the battle between Israel and Amalek and how Aaron and Hur had to hold his hands up. Philo deals with the story twice in the third book of Legum allegoriae. In Alleg. Interp. 3,45 the context is that a soul finds in God the spring and aim of its own doings. Moses did find it, and consequently his hands were heavy unlike those of evil men, and he was steadied by "Aaron, the Word, and Hur, which is 'Light.'"168Another view is offered later in the same book (Alleg. Interp. 3,186). Now he pays attention to the fighting nations and compares the battle to ethical life. Philo explains Gen 3:15, interpret ing the war between the snake's seed and the woman's seed as the war be tween passion's seed (pleasure) and the mind's seed (sense). The story about Amalek follows this pattern; the combatants are no longer two peo ples, but mind and passion. The diaeresis in Alleg. Interp. 3,185 follows the pattern described by Christiansen, and the war between the two peoples is only a detail in Philo's interpretations, although this time he also defines Amalek etymologically. "...'Whenever Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed, but when he dropped them, Amalek prevailed', showing that when the mind lifts itself up away from mortal things and is borne aloft, that which sees God, which is Israel, gains strength, but when it has lowered its special powers and grown weak, immediately passion, named 'Amalek', which means 'a people licking out', will become strong: for in very deed it eats up the whole soul and licks it out, leaving behind in it no seed or spark or virtue." ...”

Erkki Koskenniemi, The Old Testament Miracle-Workers in Early Judaism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), 141.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Exodus40 chapters

Compare Exodus 17:11 and Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.186

Summary

Passages

Exodus 17:11

Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.186

References

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