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Exodus

About this book
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 17:16 and LXX Exodus 17:16

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Hebrew version of Exodus shows Moses raise a hand toward the throne of God in an oath of war against Amalek. The Greek Septuaint reads the same difficult word as ‘hidden,’ so God instead fights Amalek with a secret hand.

Passages

Exodus 17:16

Hebrew Bible
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.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

LXX Exodus 17:16

Septuagint
13 And Joshua routed Amalek and all his people with the slaughter of the sword. 14 And the Lord said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and speak this in the ears of Joshua; for I will utterly blot out the memorial of Amalek from under heaven. 15 And Moses built an altar to the Lord, and called the name of it, The Lord my Refuge. 16 For with a secret hand the Lord wages war upon Amalek to all generations.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Exodus

References

... For example, the Greek of Exodus 17:16 provided an opportunity for patristic theologians to develop an important aspect of their Logos’ doctrine. The Hebrew text can be translated as following: ‘and he [i.e. Moses] said: “for a hand [is] against the throne of Yah (kes yah), war for YHWH with Amalek from generation to generation”’. The Hebrew kes is a hapax and is often said to be identical to kisse’ (throne). But various emendations have been suggested. The Septuagint does not have the introductory ‘and he said’ and reads: ‘For, with a hidden (κρυφαία) hand, the Lord makes war against Amalek from generation to generation.’ Instead of kes yah, it seems that the translators read kesuyah, from the root k-s-h, ‘to hide’. The ‘hidden hand’ is specific to the Septuagint. Justin identifies it with God’s Son (Dialogue with Trypho 19, 8). ...
Gilles Dorival, The Septuagint from Alexandria to Constantinople: Canon, New Testament, Church Fathers, Catenae (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 130.

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

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Exodus 17:16 and LXX Exodus 17:16

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