Commentaria in Exodum
Chapter 17
Again the people murmur: whence Moses, by God’s command, striking the rock in Raphidim, draws waters from it. Secondly, verse 8, Amalec attacks the Hebrews; but Josue routs him, Moses praying.
1. Then all the multitude of the children of Israel setting forward from the desert of Sin, by their mansions, according to the word of the Lord, encamped in Raphidim, where there was no water for the people to drink. 2. And they chode with Moses, and said: Give us water that we may drink. And Moses answered them: Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? 3. So the people were thirsty there for want of water, and murmured against Moses, saying: Why didst thou make us go forth out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our beasts with thirst? 4. And Moses cried to the Lord, saying: What shall I do to this people? Yet a little more and they will stone me. 5. And the Lord said to Moses: Go before the people, and take with thee of the ancients of Israel: and take in thy hand the rod wherewith thou didst strike the river, and go. 6. Behold I will stand there before thee, upon the rock Horeb: and thou shalt strike the rock, and water shall come out of it that the people may drink. Moses did so before the ancients of Israel: 7. And he called the name of that place Temptation, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and for that they tempted the Lord, saying: Is the Lord amongst us, or not? 8. And Amalec came and fought against Israel in Raphidim. 9. And Moses said to Josue: Choose out men: and go out and fight against Amalec: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill, having the rod of God in my hand. 10. Josue did as Moses had spoken, and he fought against Amalec: but Moses, and Aaron, and Hur went up upon the top of the hill. 11. And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame: but if he let them down a little, Amalec overcame. 12. And Moses’ hands were heavy: so they took a stone and laid under him, and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides. And it came to pass that his hands were not weary until sunset. 13. And Josue put Amalec and his people to flight, by the edge of the sword. 14. And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the ears of Josue: for I will destroy the memory of Amalec from under heaven. 15. And Moses built an altar: and called the name thereof, The Lord my exaltation, saying: 16. Because the hand of the throne of the Lord, and his war shall be against Amalec from generation to generation.
Verse 1. 1. BY THEIR MANSIONS.—The Hebrew: by their journeyings or itineraries, that is, the ends of the journeys, that is, the mansions or stations, which in the desert were in all 42, and all are recounted in order in Num. 33; for otherwise in the whole of Exodus, Numbers (except chapter 33) and Deuteronomy only fifteen mansions are numbered: Moses did not intend in his history to enumerate them all, but only those which became memorable by some event or deed. So he omits here two mansions, namely the ninth, which was at Daphca, and the tenth, which was at Alus: for the eleventh was at Raphidim, of which what follows treats; that these two were interposed, and are omitted here, Moses insinuates when he says they came by their mansions into Raphidim.
ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF THE LORD.—In Hebrew it is, according to the mouth of the Lord, who indicated, not by sounding voice, but by the motion of the pillar of the cloud, when and whither the camp was to be moved. This is plain from the end of the last chapter of Exodus, and Num. 9:18, where the Hebrews are said to have set out “at the commandment of the Lord,” or, as the Hebrew has it, at the mouth of the Lord, because they set out at the motion of the pillar, as is explained in the same place.
THEY ENCAMPED IN RAPHIDIM.—This eleventh station was near mount Sinai, in which the rock gave waters, and Amalec was conquered: this place was also called Massa, that is, temptation, from the temptation and murmuring of the Hebrews, verse 7.
2. WHY TEMPT YOU THE LORD?—Why, distrusting the protection and help of God, which you have so often experienced, do you wish to learn again by miracle whether God is in you? as appears verse 7. As if to say: Not by murmuring, but by praying, and firmly hoping in God, ask waters of him with humility; and doubt not that he will, as is his wont, relieve your thirst.
5. TAKE THE ROD WHEREWITH THOU DIDST STRIKE THE RIVER,—by the hand of thy brother Aaron, when he turned the river Nile into blood, chap. 7, verse 20. So St. Augustine, Questions 64. Others understand by the river the Red Sea, which Moses divided with his rod. But the sea is not a river.
6. BEHOLD I WILL STAND THERE BEFORE THEE, UPON THE ROCK HOREB.—“I will stand,” namely in the pillar of the cloud which I shall fix upon the rock Horeb, as if to say: I shall be present by the pillar of the cloud, and shall bring forth waters from the rock Horeb, that the thirsty people may drink of them; and so cease from murmuring. The Septuagint render: I stand before thee, or, before thou comest. For the Hebrew lephaneca can be rendered both before thee and in thy presence, as if to say: Before thou comest to the rock, I am already there standing, ready to draw forth the water at thy bidding.
THE ROCK HOREB.—Horeb is Sinai; this rock was therefore in the desert of Sinai, whence it is called the rock of Horeb, or of Sinai; yet it was nearer to Raphidim than to mount Sinai; for in Raphidim these things happened, as appears from the following verse: for the Hebrews had not yet come to mount Horeb, or Sinai; they came thither in the next station, which was the twelfth: for that was in Sinai.
AND WATER SHALL COME OUT OF IT.—That this rock still endures, and continually pours forth waters, the Cosmographers relate, says Abulensis, of which more on Num. 20:8 and 11. Nay Abulensis adds in Num. chap. 20, Question 3, that Arabia, by this perennial water and rock of Moses, was made habitable, whereas before it was uninhabitable through excessive dryness. Gaspar Sanchez thinks the same on Isaias chap. 43, n. 28. Allegorically, the rock is Christ, 1 Cor. 10:4; the rod striking the rock is the cross, by which Christ, struck and wounded, gave water, that is blood, for us, and left it in the Eucharist for all to drink. So Theodoret. And St. Ambrose, book 5 On the Sacraments, chap. 1: “Behold,” he says, “the mystery: Moses, that is the Prophet; the rod, that is the word of God: and the priest of God touches the rock, and water flows, and the people of God drinks, who have obtained the grace of God.” Secondly, Tertullian, book On Baptism, chap. 9, understands by the water baptism, whose virtue flows from the cross of Christ. Thirdly, Isidore and Rupert understand by the water grace and the Holy Ghost and his gifts. Beautifully of this mystical rock St. Bernard, sermon 61 on the Canticles, on that of Cant. 2: “My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall”: “This,” he says, “the spouse hears, that she should dwell with all devotion in the wounds of Christ, and abide in them by constant meditation. Hence the endurance of martyrdom, hence the great confidence before God; the Martyr has no cause to fear to lift his bloodless and naked face to him by whose bruising he has been healed: for he will not feel his own wounds while he beholds those of Christ. The Martyr stands exulting and triumphant, though his whole body be torn; and while the iron searches his sides, he looks round not only bravely but joyfully to see the sacred blood bubble from his flesh. Where then is the soul of the Martyr? Surely in safety, surely in the rock, surely in the bowels of Jesus. Dwelling in the rock, what wonder if he has become hard like a rock? And this is done not by insensibility, but by love; for the sense is submitted, not lost; nor is pain wanting, but it is overcome, it is despised. Therefore from the rock is the fortitude of the Martyr, pleasing no less to the commander looking on than to the soldier triumphing.” The same Bernard, sermon 66 among the Parvi: “That from the very fountain of virtue (that is, from the Spirit of God) waters of support in torments are drawn, those three children also show, set in the burning of the blazing furnace, to whom the very flame grew cool; and especially that illustrious Martyr Vincent, who, when grievously tortured, is said not only to have endured, but even to have constantly provoked his tormentor, with these words: Rise up, and rage with all the spirit of malice; you shall see that I can do more by the power of God, while I am tortured, than you who torture me.”