Exodus 17:16

For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek.—Heb,, because (his) hand is against the throne of Jehovah, (there shall be) war to Jehovah with Amalek, &c. The Hebrew can scarcely be said to be “obscure.” It gives plainly enough the sense which our translators have placed in the margin. Amalek, by attacking Israel, had lifted up his hand against the throne of God, therefore would God war against him from generation to generation.

Benson Commentary

Exodus 17:16. Because the Lord hath sworn, &c. — The original of this passage is variously rendered. There are two senses which appear most plausible. The one of them we have here in our text, the other in the margin. The words כי יד על כס יהchi jad gnall ches Jah, are literally, Because the hand upon the throne of Jah, Or Jehovah. The text considers it as an oath: Because he (Jehovah) hath lifted up his hand upon (that is, hath sworn by) his throne. So the Chaldee paraphrast. Others apply it to Moses: Because I have lifted up my hand, or sworn, by the throne of Jehovah. There is, however, no verb in the original answering to lifted up.

Therefore, some of the interpreters prefer the sense of the margin. Because the hand (the hand of Amalek) was against the throne of Jehovah, (the verb was being often understood,) therefore Jehovah will have war with Amalek, &c. — His hand is said to have been against the throne of Jehovah, because the throne of God was then among the Israelites, whose King he was in a peculiar manner; on which account Jerusalem is called his throne, Jeremiah 3:17.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:8-16 Israel engaged with Amalek in their own necessary defence. God makes his people able, and calls them to various services for the good of his church. Joshua fights, Moses prays, both minister to Israel. The rod was held up, as the banner to encourage the soldiers. Also to God, by way of appeal to him. Moses was tired. The strongest arm will fail with being long held out; it is God only whose hand is stretched out still. We do not find that Joshua's hands were heavy in fighting, but Moses' hands were heavy in praying; the more spiritual any service is, the more apt we are to fail and flag in it. To convince Israel that the hand of Moses, whom they had been chiding, did more for their safety than their own hands, his rod than their sword, the success rises and falls as Moses lifts up or lets down his hands. The church's cause is more or less successful, as her friends are more or less strong in faith, and fervent in prayer. Moses, the man of God, is glad of help. We should not be shy, either of asking help from others, or of giving help to others. The hands of Moses being thus stayed, were steady till the going down of the sun. It was great encouragement to the people to see Joshua before them in the field of battle, and Moses above them on the hill. Christ is both to us; our Joshua, the Captain of our salvation, who fights our battles, and our Moses, who ever lives, making intercession above, that our faith fail not. Weapons formed against God's Israel cannot prosper long, and shall be broken at last. Moses must write what had been done, what Amalek had done against Israel; write their bitter hatred; write their cruel attempts; let them never be forgotten, nor what God had done for Israel in saving them from Amalek. Write what should be done; that in process of time Amalek should be totally ruined and rooted out. Amalek's destruction was typical of the destruction of all the enemies of Christ and his kingdom.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Because the Lord hath sworn - This rendering is incorrect. Our translators regard the expression as a solemn asseveration by the throne of God. However, to this the objections are insuperable; it has no parallel in Scriptural usage: God swears by Himself, not by His Throne. As the Hebrew text now stands the meaning is more satisfactorily given in the margin.

An alteration, slight in form, but considerable in meaning, has been proposed with much confidence, namely, נס nês, "standard" for כסא kı̂ssê', "throne"; thus connecting the name of the altar with the sentence. Conjectural emendations are not to be adopted without necessity, and the obvious a priori probability of such a reading makes it improbable that one so far more difficult should have been substituted for it. One of the surest canons of criticism militates against its reception. As it stands, the text was undoubtedly that which was alone known to the Targumists, the Samaritan, the Syriac, the Latin and the Arabic translators. The Septuagint appears to have had a different reading: ἐν χειρὶ κρυφαίᾳ πολεμεῖ en cheiri kruphē polemeō.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14-16. Write this for a memorial—If the bloody character of this statute seems to be at variance with the mild and merciful character of God, the reasons are to be sought in the deep and implacable vengeance they meditated against Israel (Ps 83:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

For, or, and, as the Hebrew particle properly signifies; for these words are not a reason of the passage next preceding, but an additional sentence.

Because, or, surely, (as that particle is oft used, as Job 8:6 20:20 Psalm 10:14 44:22, &c.) Heb. the hand upon the throne of the Lord, for the hand of the Lord upon his throne, which is perfectly the same thing, only the order of the words is a little varied after the manner of the Hebrew tongue. These words then are a paraphrastical description of a solemn oath, by the usual posture of it, viz. the lifting up the hand, which is usually put for swearing, and in that sense is ascribed both to men, as Genesis 14:22, and to God, as Deu 32:40. And this hand of God lifted up upon his throne, where his majesty doth peculiarly and gloriously dwell, signifies that God swears by himself, as is said Hebrews 6:13. And thus the Chaldee and Arabic interpreters understand it. Others render the place thus, Because the hand (or, his hand, the pronoun being here understood, as it frequently is in the Hebrew language, of which several instances have been given before, i.e. the hand of Amalek, which may easily be understood out of the following clause, in which Amalek is named) was against the throne of the Lord, i.e. was stretched out against God himself; for so God esteems it, because it was done against that people among whom God had placed his throne, or seat, or dwelling, according to his covenant made with them; which also was well known to the Amalekites by the relation of their progenitors, who in all probability had acquainted them with their own rights, and with Jacob’s arts, whereby he robbed Esau, the father of Amalek, Genesis 36:15,16, of his birthright and blessing, and consequently of the land of Canaan, to which now God was bringing them, that he might plant them there, and set up his throne among them. And the Amalekites doubtless heard, as the other neighbours also did, in what a miraculous manner God had brought them out of Egypt, and over the Red Sea. And they knew better than others, by tradition from their parents, that God had promised Canaan to them, and now they saw that he was conducting them thither, and therefore to prevent this they now commence a war against them, and against God or his throne, whose presence with and conduct over them was most manifest; which was a great aggravation of their sin. And this latter translation and interpretation seems most probable,

1. Because it exactly agrees with the Hebrew words, and the order in which they are placed.

2. It makes the coherence more clear than our translation doth, the former part of the verse containing a reason of the latter, to wit, of that severe curse and everlasting war denounced against Amalek, because they attempted by force to overthrow God’s throne and people, and that with so many aggravating circumstances; of which see Deu 25:17,18.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For he said, because the Lord hath sworn,.... So some Jewish writers (b) take it for an oath, as we do; or "because the hand is on the throne of the Lord" (c); which the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, interpret of the hand of the Lord being lifted up, of his swearing by the throne of his glory; but, as Drusius observes, it is not credible that God should swear by that which is prohibited by Christ, Matthew 5:24 rather the words are to be rendered, "because the hand", that is, the hand of Amalek, "is against the throne of the Lord" (d); against his people, among whom his throne was, and over whom he ruled, so against himself, and the glory of his majesty; because he was the first that made war upon Israel, when the Lord brought them out of Egypt, and unprovoked fell upon their rear, and smote the hindmost, faint and weary among them: therefore

the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation; until they are utterly destroyed; and so in fact he had, and thus it was. The Targum of Jonathan is,"he by his word will make war against those that are of the house of Amalek, and destroy them to three generations, from the generation of this world, from the generation of the Messiah, and from the generation of the world to come;''and Baal Hatturim on the place observes, that this phrase, "from generation to generation", by gematry, signifies the days of the Messiah. Amalek may be considered as a type of antichrist, whose hand is against the throne of God, his tabernacle, and his saints; who, with all the antichristian states which make war with the Lamb, will be overcome and destroyed by him.

(b) R. Sol. Urbin. fol. 95. 1.((c) "quia manus super thronum Domini", Pagninus, Montanus; "sublata manu super solium Dei (juro)", Tigurine version. (d) "Quia manus (Hamaleki) fuit contra solium Jah", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth.

Geneva Study Bible

For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. A solemn poetical utterance of Moses, swearing war for ever on Jehovah’s part against Amalek.

Yah hath sworn] This rendering cannot be right. The Heb. is A hand upon (or to [as Exodus 9:22-23 Heb.]) the throne of Yah! i.e. I (Moses) swear, with my hand raised to Jehovah’s throne in heaven (see on Exodus 6:8). So Ew. (Hist. i. 251), Di. But many scholars, as Clericus, J. D. Mich., Ges., Kn., Bäntsch, read nçs ‘banner’ for the otherwise unknown kçs (for kissç’, ‘throne’), i.e. A hand on the banner (v. 15) of Yah! let it ever be faithful to this banner, and ready to bear it in the future battles against Amalek. This reading has the advantage of bringing Moses’ words into direct relation with the name of the altar in v. 15.

This unfriendliness of Amalek to Israel was remembered afterwards with some bitterness. In 1 Samuel 15:2 f. it is assigned as the ground for Saul’s expedition against them; and in Deuteronomy 25:17-19 Moses is represented as exhorting Israel to remember it, and, when their possession of Canaan is secured, to be careful to recollect the injunction of Exodus 17:14, and ‘blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’ Cf. also Numbers 24:20. Saul’s raid, however, in spite of the terms used in 1 Samuel 15:8, did not exterminate the entire tribe: see 1 Samuel 27:7; 1 Samuel 30:1 ff. (where a band of them make a raid upon Ziklag, and are smitten afterwards by David, though 400 escape, v. 17), 2 Samuel 8:12, 1 Chronicles 4:43 (the remnant of them smitten by 500 Simeonites, in the time of Hezekiah).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 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 throne," therefore should there be war against Amalek from generation to generation.



Exodus 17:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

To praise God for His help, Moses built an altar, which he called "Jehovah my banner," and said, when he did so, "The hand on the throne (or banner) of Jah! War to the Lord from generation to generation!" There is nothing said about sacrifices being offered upon this altar. It has been conjectured, therefore, that as a place of worship and thank-offering, the altar with its expressive name was merely to serve as a memorial to posterity of the gracious help of the Lord, and that the words which were spoken by Moses were to serve as a watchword for Israel, keeping this act of God in lively remembrance among the people in all succeeding generations. כּי (Exodus 17:16) merely introduces the words as in Genesis 4:23, etc. The expression יהּ על־כּס יד is obscure, chiefly on account of the ἁπ λεγ. כּס. In the ancient versions (with the exception of the Septuagint, in which יה כץ is treated as one word, and rendered κρυφαία) כּס is taken to be equivalent to כּסּה (1 Kings 10:19; Job 26:9) for כּסּא, and the clause is rendered "the hand upon the throne of the Lord." But whilst some understand the laying of the hand (sc., of God) upon the throne to be expressive of the attitude of swearing, others regard the hand as symbolical of power. There are others again, like Clericus, who suppose the hand to denote the hand laid by the Amalekites upon the throne of the Lord, i.e., on Israel. But if כּס signifies throng or adytum arcanum, the words can hardly be understood in any other sense than "the hand lifted up to the throne of Jehovah in heaven, war to the Lord," etc.; and thus understood, they can only contain an admonition to Israel to follow the example of Moses, and wage war against Amalek with the hands lifted up to the throne of Jehovah. Modern expositors, however, for the most part regard כּס as a corruption of נס, "the hand on the banner of the Lord." But even admitting this, though many objections may be offered to its correctness, we must not understand by "the banner of Jehovah" the staff of Moses, but only the altar with the name Jehovah-nissi, as the symbol or memorial of the victorious help afforded by God in the battle with the Amalekites.