Skeptic's Annotated Bible
17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
17:2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
Why do you tempt the LORD? Sounds like God is admitting to being tempted here. (To do what? Retaliate against the chiding?)
Sounds like we're going to get a rehash of the story from the last chapter, except that was about food, and this will be about water. Let's see, I can predict that we will NOT solve the water problem by having water fall from the sky, because that would actually make sense.
17:3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
17:4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
17:5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
17:6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
God will stand on a rock, Moses will hit the rock, and water will flow from the rock. Because just making it rain would be, presumably, too easy.
17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah,
"Massah" means "testing."
and Meribah,
"Meribah" means "quarreling."
because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
17:8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
17:9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
17:10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
17:11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
Because God would only look favorably upon the Hebrews when Moses raised his hand? Really? When Moses lowers his hand, God suddenly decides that the Hebrews can die in battle and lose their cause; but when Moses raises his hand, suddenly God remembers that he wants the Hebrews to win? Really, if you believe this stuff, please explain to me how this makes any sense.
17:12 But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it 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.
So it apparently didn't even matter whether Moses held up his hands of his own volition, just that they were up in the air. So it couldn't have been some test of Moses' will or physical strength (remember, he's 120 years old at this point, itself a ridiculous claim). Just a meaningless observation of the relative location of his hands, however they achieved whatever position they were in.
17:13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
This is an unusual usage of the verb "discomfit," which means "make someone feel uneasy or embarrassed." Doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd say when someone has defeated another party in battle.
17:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
Because what you want to do when you don't want anyone to remember something is to memorialize it in a book.
17:15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:
Uncertain meaning of "nissi" in Jehovahnissi. It could be derived from nus "flee for refuge" or nasas "hoist or lift up." Depending on which you prefer, Jehovahnissi could be rendered "Jehovah my Refuge" or "Jehovah my Exaltation."
17:16 For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
Yay! Let's build an alter (and memorialize in books) because God has won a battle and sworn to continue the conflict for generations!
(Doesn't sound like something worth celebrating to me....)
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