Exodus 17
1 Then the whole congregation of Israel left the Desert of Sin, moving from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So the people contended with Moses, “ Give us water to drink.” “ Why do you contend with me?” Moses replied. “ Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “ Why have you brought us out of Egypt — to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “ What should I do with these people? A little more and they will stone me!” 5 And the LORD said to Moses, “ Walk on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take along in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “ Is the LORD among us or not?” The Defeat of the Amalekites 8 After this, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 Joshua did as Moses had instructed him and fought against the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered them, Amalek prevailed. 12 When Moses ’ hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on each side, so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down. 13 So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his army with the sword. 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “ Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and named it The LORD Is My Banner. 16 “ Indeed,” he said, “ a hand was lifted up toward the throne of the LORD. The LORD will war against Amalek from generation to generation.”
✦ What the text says
## Summary
Exodus 17 narrates two crises after Israel's departure from the wilderness of Sin: the lack of water at Rephidim, resolved when Moses strikes a rock at Horeb, and an attack by Amalek, repelled while Moses' raised hands secure Israel's advantage. The chapter closes with the naming of an altar and a declaration of Yahweh's enduring conflict with Amalek.
## Key words
- *riv* ("to quarrel", H7378) — the verb describing the people's dispute with Moses (v2) and Israel's grumbling (v3); its cognate noun becomes the basis for the place name Meribah in v7.
- *nasah* ("to test", H5254G) — piel form used of Israel testing Yahweh (v2, v7); its infinitive underlies the second place name, Massah, in the same verse.
- *tzur* ("rock", H6697H) — the definite noun struck by Moses' staff to bring forth water (v6), the fixed point of the water episode.
- *yad* ("hand", H3027G) — appears in singular and dual forms throughout vv9-16: Moses' staff-hand, his raised hand during battle, and the "hand" lifted toward Yahweh's throne (v16).
- *macho 'emcheh* — infinitive absolute of *machah* ("wipe out", H4229A) doubled with the finite imperfect in v14, intensifying the statement "I will surely wipe out."
## What the text says
The chapter is built from sequential narrative-vav forms (*vayyisu*, "and they set out"; *vayyichanu*, "and they encamped"; *vayyavo*, "and it came") that chain episodes one after another. In v7, the naming formula *vayyiqra shem hammaqom* ("and he called the name of the place") ties two place names directly to two verbal roots already used earlier in the same chapter: *massah* to *nasah* ("test," used in v2 and v7) and *merivah* to *riv* ("quarrel," used in v2 and v7). The text supplies its own etymology by repeating the same roots as verbs and then as proper names.
In the battle account (vv11-12), the alternation between imperfect verbs (*yarim*, "he would lift," *yaniach*, "he would let rest") and sequential perfects (*gavar*, "he prevailed") describes a repeated, ongoing correlation between the position of Moses' hand and the battle's outcome, rather than a single event. The heaviness of Moses' hands, *yedei Mosheh kevedim* ("the hands of Moses were heavy," v12), is answered by Aaron and Hur physically supporting them, using the verb *tamakh* ("to support", H8551), one man on each side.
## Differences between versions
The Hebrew altar name in v15, *YHWH Nissi*, built on *nes* ("banner/standard", H5251), is rendered in the LXX as "the Lord my refuge" (κύριος καταφυγή μου), a different image than banner or standard. In v7 the LXX translates the two place names by meaning, "Πειρασμός" ("Trial") and "Λοιδόρησις" ("Reviling"), rather than transliterating "Massah" and "Meribah," while the Vulgate gives only one name, "Tentatio" ("Temptation"), collapsing the double naming found in the Hebrew. The LXX text of v1 renders the Hebrew phrase "al pi Yahweh" ("on the mouth of Yahweh," referring to the LORD's command) with the unexpected wording "διὰ ῥήματος Τυρίου," which does not correspond to the Hebrew's direct mention of Yahweh.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.