Commentaria in Exodum
In the Lives of the Fathers, book 7, chap. 17, a similar pattern is given in two holy monks, one of whom was Arsenius, a solitary, silent and contemplative; the other Moses, familiar, kind and beneficent to all. And when a certain man asked God to reveal to him which of the two was holier and more perfect: “Lo, in an ecstasy two ships were shown him on a river, and in one he saw the Holy Spirit, with silence and rest, sailing together with Abbot Arsenius; in the other ship he saw Abbot Moses and the angels of God, putting honey and honeycomb into his mouth,
Verse 12. 12. AND MOSES’ HANDS WERE HEAVY,—as if to say: The hands of Moses, as of one growing old, were both of themselves heavy, and by long extension on high were weighed down with weariness: therefore they made Moses sit upon a stone, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands; there is no doubt that these also prayed with Moses praying. Josephus relates that this Hur was the husband of Mary the sister of Moses; but Scripture rather intimates that Mary was a virgin than married, as I said chap. 15, verse 20.
AND IT CAME TO PASS THAT HIS HANDS WERE NOT WEARY UNTIL SUNSET,—In Hebrew it is, there was firmness or steadiness to his hands, that is, as the Chaldee has it, his hands were firmly stretched out in prayer; because, as the Septuagint render, his hands were upheld; namely by Aaron and Hur.
Symbolically Philo: “The actions of an evil man,” he says, “are unstable and light; but those of Moses, that is of the wise man, are weighty and unshaken; therefore Hur, that is, from the light, that is from truth; as if to say: The actions of the wise man are propped up by reason and truth,” especially that by which he attentively considers divine and eternal things.
Philo adds that this lightness, now this heaviness, was sent upon the hands of Moses not by nature but by a prodigy, and adds: “As often,” he says, “as the hands of Moses were weighed down, the enemy’s line prevailed, God signifying that of the one party the proper inheritance is the earth, the weak part of the world; of the other the most sacred ether, and as in the universe of things heaven is better than earth, so also his people would overcome the adverse line in war.” Finally he concludes: “While therefore for some time the hands, after the manner of a balance, were now lifted up, now sank down, and the contest was fought with doubtful Mars; at length suddenly, as though having wings for fingers, lifted up they hovered in the air, remaining aloft, until a sure victory befell the Hebrews, the enemies being destroyed with utter slaughter.” But this does not sufficiently agree with the narration of Holy Scripture, which asserts that the hands of Moses were upheld not by miracle, but by Aaron and Hur.
13. AND JOSUE PUT AMALEC AND HIS PEOPLE TO FLIGHT, BY THE EDGE OF THE SWORD.—For “put to flight,” the Hebrew is vaiachalos, that is, weakened, cast down, prostrated, routed, killing these, driving those to flight; for thence chalas signifies weary, weakened, cast down.
The Jews relate, or rather in their usual way fable, that the Amalecites by their incantations wished to fly, and so to fly into and rush upon the camp of the Hebrews; but Josue, showing the tetragrammaton name of God, prostrated them. Josephus asserts that this victory was plainly bloodless to the Hebrews, none of themselves being missed. Here the name Josue is first found; whence Origen, Lactantius and others think that in this place, from this victory, Osee was called Josue, that is “Saviour of the people,” of which more Num. chap. 13, verse 17.
BY THE EDGE OF THE SWORD,—literally “by the mouth of the sword,” in the edge of the sword: for so our Interpreter renders it in Hebrews chap. 11, verse 34: whence a two-edged sword is called distomos, as though having two mouths, that is, two edges, Hebrews chap. 4, verse 12. Hence because the edge of the sword, being most sharp, penetrates, cuts or kills whatever it strikes, therefore when it is said in Scripture: “He struck them with the mouth of the sword,” it commonly signifies that he destroyed them to utter slaughter; for so also the French say of a slaughter without quarter: Il les a passés au fil de l’épée. So Vatablus.
Secondly, “by the mouth of the sword,” that is, in the devouring, or consuming of the sword: whence the Septuagint render en phonō machairēs, in the slaughter of the sword, so that there is a double figure: the first, by which mouth is put metonymically for eating, which is done by the mouth; the second, by which the eating of an animal is metaphorically attributed to an inanimate thing, namely the sword that kills: for as we eat bread, so war and the sword devour men. Whence the Hebrews call war milchama, that is, eating, as if to say: Josue put Amalec to flight by the slaughter of the sword, or with the sword killing, pursuing him on this side and that.
Thirdly, Francis Ribera on Osee chap. 10, num. 37: Mouth, he says, in Scripture is often taken for will; so to reap in the mouth of mercy, that is, to reap according to the will of mercy, as much as mercy wishes, that is, to reap most abundantly. So to strike by the mouth of the sword, is to kill all, and spare none, which is, to strike as much as the sword wills to strike; as if to say: He struck them by the mouth (by the will of the sword), that is, he struck at the sword’s command, he struck as many as it pleased the sword and the swordsman to strike.
14. WRITE THIS FOR A MEMORIAL IN A BOOK, AND DELIVER IT TO THE EARS OF JOSUE,—as if to say: Write it in the chronicles, and signify it to Josue, that he may signify to the leaders and judges of the people following him, and these to those who follow, the will and decree of God concerning the vengeance to be taken, and the blotting out of Amalec, and that until there arise that very leader, or king, Saul, who shall in fact exercise this vengeance; for Josue by the destination of God was to be the successor of Moses, and leader of the people: whence also in this war against Amalec he was chosen leader, and gave a prelude of his future principate. Furthermore God commands this to be signified to Josue, lest, the promised land being subdued, he should join or admit treaties with the Amalecites.
FOR I WILL DESTROY THE MEMORY OF AMALEC FROM UNDER HEAVEN.—The Hebrew is, destroying I will destroy, that is, utterly and altogether I will destroy; this is my fixed and certain will, which Samuel renewed to Saul, 1 Kings chap. 15, where Saul, for neglecting and not fully accomplishing this will of God, was rejected by God, and lost kingdom and life. Wherefore some Jews wrongly excuse Saul by ignorance, on the ground that the Hebrew zachar signifies male; but if with segol, so as to make zecher, it signifies that the memory of Amalec is to be destroyed and abolished.
Furthermore God passed so severe a sentence on Amalec, because the Amalecites had assailed with so savage a war the innocent and wavering Hebrews, who were novices in their calling, to frighten them from following God’s leading into Chanaan, and because, as is said Deut. chap. 25, verse 18, they had cut off the rear of the army, weary and spent with hunger and labour. Whence let us learn how grave an offence against God it is to turn away the tender and recent followers of God from his calling and following, namely from the true faith, or from Religion and the state of perfection; on which matter see Jerome Platus, book 3 On the Good of the Religious State, chap. 35.
15. AND MOSES BUILT AN ALTAR, AND CALLED THE NAME THEREOF, THE LORD MY EXALTATION.—The Hebrew is, Adonai nissi, which our version first renders The Lord (is) my exaltation. Secondly, it may be rendered, The Lord is my standard, that is, The Lord was to me in place of a standard, he himself bore the victorious ensigns against the enemy. Whence Josephus says that Moses set up this altar to God the victor, as the Romans set up an altar to Jove the Victor. Thirdly, it may be rendered, The Lord is my sign, or my miracle, because he conferred on me a miraculous victory, and so many other miracles. So the Chaldee.