17:1 VA YIS'U KOL ADAT BENEY YISRA-EL MI MIDBAR SIN LE MAS'EYHEM AL PI YHVH VA YACHANU BI REPHIYDIM VE EYN MAYIM LISHTOT HA AM
וַיִּסְעוּ כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּדְבַּר סִין לְמַסְעֵיהֶם עַל פִּי יְהוָה וַיַּחֲנוּ בִּרְפִידִים וְאֵין מַיִם לִשְׁתֹּת הָעָם
KJ (King James translation): 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.
BN (BibleNet translation): And the entire congregation of the Beney Yisra-El journeyed from the desert of Sin, by stages, according to the instructions of YHVH, and camped at Rephiydim; and there was no water for the people to drink.
We know from maps as well as ancient references precisely where Rephiydim is located, and again it is not on the far side of the Red Sea, though it is on the south-eastern side of the Sea of Reeds; on the route that YHVH said he did not want them to go (Exodus 13:17), lest from there they encounter the Pelishtim and get frightened at the prospect of war; and yet, here they are, if slightly south (only slightly; the map at Exodus 15:15 has it way too far south). During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Rephiydim provided the main military base and hospital for the Sinai campaign. It is also known as Bir Gifgafa. It is here that the Amalekites will attack them (in Exodus 17:8-16, below); and the story that follows now will be repeated, with some important differences, in Numbers 20 (where the place will be named Merivah; as it will in verse 7 below); as the attack by the Amelekites will be repeated in Numbers 24 (making the map at Exodus 15:15 even more wrong; for the Numbers text it needs to move about two hundred miles east rather than sixty miles north - but this is the problem of multiple legends superimposed one upon the others, and then the need of the faith-scholars to locate Mount Sinai physically at the Red Sea end of the Sinai desert).
We know from maps as well as ancient references precisely where Rephiydim is located, and again it is not on the far side of the Red Sea, though it is on the south-eastern side of the Sea of Reeds; on the route that YHVH said he did not want them to go (Exodus 13:17), lest from there they encounter the Pelishtim and get frightened at the prospect of war; and yet, here they are, if slightly south (only slightly; the map at Exodus 15:15 has it way too far south). During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Rephiydim provided the main military base and hospital for the Sinai campaign. It is also known as Bir Gifgafa. It is here that the Amalekites will attack them (in Exodus 17:8-16, below); and the story that follows now will be repeated, with some important differences, in Numbers 20 (where the place will be named Merivah; as it will in verse 7 below); as the attack by the Amelekites will be repeated in Numbers 24 (making the map at Exodus 15:15 even more wrong; for the Numbers text it needs to move about two hundred miles east rather than sixty miles north - but this is the problem of multiple legends superimposed one upon the others, and then the need of the faith-scholars to locate Mount Sinai physically at the Red Sea end of the Sinai desert).
In the Numbers version, the place where they stopped to eat the charoset is called Alush (see Numbers 33:13/14), before returning to Rephiydim.
17:2 VA YAREV HA AM IM MOSHEH VA YOMRU TENU LANU MAYIM VE NISHTEH VA YOMER LAHEM MOSHEH MAH TERIYVUN IMADI MAH TENASUN ET YHVH
וַיָּרֶב הָעָם עִם מֹשֶׁה וַיֹּאמְרוּ תְּנוּ לָנוּ מַיִם וְנִשְׁתֶּה וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם מֹשֶׁה מַה תְּרִיבוּן עִמָּדִי מַה תְּנַסּוּן אֶת יְהוָה
KJ: 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?
BN: And the people argued with Mosheh, and said: "Give us water that we may drink." And Mosheh said to them: "Why are you arguing with me? If you must argue, argue with YHVH?"
As before, slightly colloquialised to catch the tone, Mosheh refuses to accept responsibility for any of this, abrogating all responsibility upwards to YHVH; which must leave us wondering why we have always regarded him as such an outstanding, indeed the model leader. But of course what he is really saying is: "There isn't any water in a desert, in the early weeks of summer. I can't change Nature. Pray. YHVH does not respond to moans, he responds to sincere prayer." But the point is, he is their prayer-leader, so what they are really asking is: "can you please organise a prayer service for us".
VA YAREV: Yet one more example of prefiguration - the root of this verb also yields the name MERIVAH, of which more very shortly.
VA YAREV: Yet one more example of prefiguration - the root of this verb also yields the name MERIVAH, of which more very shortly.
17:3 VA YITSMA SHAM HA AM LA MAYIM VA YALECH HA AM AL MOSHEH VA YOMER LAMAH ZEH HE'ELIYTANU MI MITSRAYIM LE HAMIYT OTI VE ET BANAI VE ET MIKNAI BA TSAMA
וַיִּצְמָא שָׁם הָעָם לַמַּיִם וַיָּלֶן הָעָם עַל מֹשֶׁה וַיֹּאמֶר לָמָּה זֶּה הֶעֱלִיתָנוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם לְהָמִית אֹתִי וְאֶת בָּנַי וְאֶת מִקְנַי בַּצָּמָא
KJ: 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?
BN: And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Mosheh, and said: "Why have you brought us out of Mitsrayim, to kill me and my children and my cattle with thirst?"
So many bad translations! The verse employs HA AM as a compound singular, and therefore uses a singular verb for VA YALECH and VA YOMER; the inference is a communal prayer. The actual words of the liturgy then personalise this, so that each member of the congregation is asking individually: LEHAMIYT OTI VE ET BANAI VE ET MIKNAI - "to kill ME and MY children and MY cattle"; precisely the mode used in the Haggadah a thousand and more years later, "because YHVH brought ME out of Mitsrayim", as a means of establishing empathy. As soon as we translate this correctly, the form can only be liturgical. And so we recognise that Rephiydim is the next station on their pilgrimage; and obviously it is another shrine to Mir-Yam, the water-goddess (which may be a theological way of saying: they went from known oasis to known oasis, and because these were places in the desert where water could be found, local wayside shrines had grown up at each of them; they may even have been tended and nurtured and managed by the priests and priestesses...)
17:4 VA YITS'AK MOSHEH EL YHVH LEMOR MAH E'ESEH LA AM HA ZEH OD ME'AT U SEKALUNI
וַיִּצְעַק מֹשֶׁה אֶל יְהוָה לֵאמֹר מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה לָעָם הַזֶּה עוֹד מְעַט וּסְקָלֻנִי
KJ: And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
BN: And Mosheh cried to YHVH, saying: "What shall I do to this people? They are almost ready to stone me."
SEKALUNI: a complex grammatical construction; the verb is לסקול = "to stone", conveyed as a gerund, with a dative pronoun suffixed; but the tone is comparable with other lines that I have rendered colloquially: "any minute now and I'm going to be stoned" is on this occasion rather more precisely literal than merely colloquial.
The back and forth between YHVH and Mosheh becomes, after a while, almost comic, each shouting the same complaint at each other, each expecting the other to take charge. "What shall I do to this people?" "How long must I endure them?" The problem for both of them, as YHVH is about to realise in the next verse, is that each is trying to manage this alone, and you can't, you need a team, you need to share out the responsibility, you need collective engagement and support. But it will take until the arrival of father-in-law Yitro some way further along this journey, before Mosheh will learn this most basic lesson of management. YHVH to this day still has not.
17:5 VA YOMER YHVH EL MOSHEH AVOR LIPHNEY HA AM VE KACH IT'CHA MI ZIKNEY YISRA-EL U MAT'CHA ASHER HIKIYTA BO ET HA YE'OR KACH BE YADCHA VE HALACHTA
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה עֲבֹר לִפְנֵי הָעָם וְקַח אִתְּךָ מִזִּקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמַטְּךָ אֲשֶׁר הִכִּיתָ בּוֹ אֶת הַיְאֹר קַח בְּיָדְךָ וְהָלָכְתָּ
KJ: 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.
AVOR: The root that gives the name IVRIM or "Hebrews".
The ceremonial staff of the priest-prophet. We are at a water-shrine; water is there naturally, whether in a spring or a well or a fountain, but it requires a blessing and a benediction before anyone may drink. What we are about to witness is, yet again, liturgical, not miraculous.
BN: And YHVH said to Mosheh: "Pass before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Yisra-El; and your sceptre, the one with which you struck the river; take it in your hand, and go...
AVOR: The root that gives the name IVRIM or "Hebrews".
The ceremonial staff of the priest-prophet. We are at a water-shrine; water is there naturally, whether in a spring or a well or a fountain, but it requires a blessing and a benediction before anyone may drink. What we are about to witness is, yet again, liturgical, not miraculous.
HA YE'OR: We explored the meaning of Ye'or at the time of the plagues (chapter 7:15 ff in particular), so I shall not repeat the etymology; suffice it to say that a Ye'or is a river, even a very large river such as the Nile, but not a waterway of the scale of the Gulf of Suez, which is the part of the Red Sea that the legend would have us believe was the route out of Mitsrayim (Egypt). Yet again, for the umpteenth time, the text itself confirms that the legend of later times, powerful and significant though it may have become, was not what happened, nor even what was written down as having happened.
17:6 HINENI OMED LEPHANEYCHA SHAM AL HA TSUR BE CHOREV VE HIKIYTA BA TSUR VA YATSU MIMENU MAYIM VE SHATAH HA AM VA YA'AS KEN MOSHEH LE EYNEY ZIKNEY YISRA-EL
הִנְנִי עֹמֵד לְפָנֶיךָ שָּׁם עַל הַצּוּר בְּחֹרֵב וְהִכִּיתָ בַצּוּר וְיָצְאוּ מִמֶּנּוּ מַיִם וְשָׁתָה הָעָם וַיַּעַשׂ כֵּן מֹשֶׁה לְעֵינֵי זִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ: 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.
BN: "Here I am, standing before you, there, on the rock in Chorev; and you shall smite the rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink." And Mosheh did so in the sight of the elders of Yisra-El.
HINENI: One more example of this so-significant word for our collection.
HINENI: One more example of this so-significant word for our collection.
Translating this verse is almost impossible, so we can forgive the King James even while showing its errors. HINENI does not mean "Behold" - the term that becomes that in English is HINEH. OMED is present tense, not future. SHAM = "there" suggests that YHVH is at his Olympus on Mount Chorev even while Mosheh is at Rephiydim (either that, or these various stories really have got themselves mixed up!), but which TSUR (= rock) is intended is unclear, especially in the light of the repeated story in Numbers (see my note above), where Merivah here becomes Merivah at Kadesh Barne'a there..
CHOREV: Is the rock then at Chorev, or is YHVH standing on the top of Chorev, and Mosheh striking a rock at Rephiydim? Or have we suddenly changed versions, and transported Mosheh and the people into Midyan? We know from the earliest passages in Exodus that YHVH's "home" is Chorev, that he is the god of Chorev, quite probably a volcano-god. The inference seems to be that Mosheh takes some of the elders with him, as witnesses, passes before the people, to see if they will indeed stone him, and goes to a rock from which he can see Mount Chorev - or at least the plumes of volcanic smoke issuing from its mouth. But nowhere is there any text that suggests that Rephiydim and Chorev are the same place; indeed, we know that they are a very long way apart.
Which leaves us reading this as an act of abstract prayer, which we are accustomed to in our world - speaking to an imaginary deity in an imaginary heaven somewhere beyond the skies of reality - but which is not the understanding of some kind of physical presence that the Tanach tales have given up till now, and will continue to do.
TSUR: The town of Tyre, of course, takes its name from the same root, and TSUR YISRA-EL, the "Rock of Israel", will later become an epithet for the deity.
Remember this business of striking the rock to draw forth water, as it will become immensely significant later on; and in fact, that later significance will be profoundly confused by what comes in the very next verse here.
17:7 VA YIKRA SHEM HA MAKOM MASAH U MERIYVAH AL RIYV BENEY YISRA-EL VE AL NASOTAM ET YHVH LEMOR HA YESH YHVH BE KIRBENU IM AYIN
וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם הַמָּקוֹם מַסָּה וּמְרִיבָה עַל רִיב בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל נַסֹּתָם אֶת יְהוָה לֵאמֹר הֲיֵשׁ יְהוָה בְּקִרְבֵּנוּ אִם אָיִן
KJ: And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
BN: And he named the place "Masah", and "Meriyvah", because of the striving of the children of Yisra-El, and because they tested YHVH, saying: "Is YHVH among us, or not?"
As noted above, the version in Numbers (chapter 20) appears to record a variation of the same episode; probably, as we have seen several times in Genesis, each version gives the place a different name, but the Redactor felt obliged to record both. This version does, however, somewhat undermine the second version, because here Mosheh is acting on YHVH's instruction, and is approved, but there he is apparently acting on his own initiative, and is prohibited from entering Kena'an as a consequence - and both cannot be historically accurate.
MASAH: From the root NASAH = "to try" or "to prove" or "to tempt", it is used in Deuteronomy 4:34, 7:19 and 29:2 in this sense. However, there is also MASAH = "to flow", as in Psalm 6:6 where David wets his pillow with tears. MASAH was probably the actual name of the rock, and the shrine was a natural spring of water; not YHVH but the shrine-priestess of MASAH showed Mosheh where to find water; the rest is liturgical.
MERIYVAH: Does this mean they came to Meriyvah twice? Apparently yes, and it alters yet again the conventional map of the route of the Exodus that you will find if you look online.
AL RIYV: "Strive" is not the best modern translation, though it is is technically correct, because we use "strive" as a generally positive word - the struggle that leads to success. LARIYV really means "to quarrel" and is used in the sense of a quarrel that leads to a falling out, for which we might say "strife" but not "strive", though actually these are the same. And of course the "quarrel that leads to a falling out" is what will happen between Mosheh and YHVH, the next time they come to Meriyvah (Numbers 20 20:13 ).
But nobody gives a place two names at the same time. "And he named the place New Amsterdam, and New York" would fail to work in precisely the same way. "And he named the land Persia, and Iran" ditto. Recognition that names change over time. Probably caused here by a need to appease all participants in the new nation by retaining each of the tribal names.
But nobody gives a place two names at the same time. "And he named the place New Amsterdam, and New York" would fail to work in precisely the same way. "And he named the land Persia, and Iran" ditto. Recognition that names change over time. Probably caused here by a need to appease all participants in the new nation by retaining each of the tribal names.
pey break
17:8 VA YAVO AMALEK VA YILACHEM IM YISRA-EL BI REPHIYDIM
וַיָּבֹא עֲמָלֵק וַיִּלָּחֶם עִם יִשְׂרָאֵל בִּרְפִידִם
KJ: Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
BN: Then came Amalek, and fought with Yisra-El at Rephiydim.
AMALEK: Making even more nonsense of Exodus 13:17!
Among the many complications that the Bible presents, few are more complex than the genealogical tables, and the tribal and the familial interconnections and animosities that arise from them. Amalek is a prime example, for at one point he is Esav's grandson, through his wife Adah, the daughter of Elon the Beney Chet (Hittite): "These are the chiefs of the sons of Esav; the sons of Eli-Phaz the first-born of Esav: the chief of Teyman, the chief of Omar, the chief of Tsepho, the chief of Kenaz, the chief of Korach, the chief of Gatam, the chief of Amalek. These are the chiefs that came of Eli-phaz in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Adah." (Genesis 36:15-16). All of which clearly renders the Amalekites as an Edomite tribe, and Edom is far away on the eastern bank of the Dead Sea (though exactly where we will find Meriyvah in Numbers 20). However Genesis 14:7 makes them a Bedou tribe, occupying the south-western Negev desert around Kadesh Barne'a, precisely the area in which we find them fighting Mosheh and the Beney Yisra-El now. Can they be both?
Among the many complications that the Bible presents, few are more complex than the genealogical tables, and the tribal and the familial interconnections and animosities that arise from them. Amalek is a prime example, for at one point he is Esav's grandson, through his wife Adah, the daughter of Elon the Beney Chet (Hittite): "These are the chiefs of the sons of Esav; the sons of Eli-Phaz the first-born of Esav: the chief of Teyman, the chief of Omar, the chief of Tsepho, the chief of Kenaz, the chief of Korach, the chief of Gatam, the chief of Amalek. These are the chiefs that came of Eli-phaz in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Adah." (Genesis 36:15-16). All of which clearly renders the Amalekites as an Edomite tribe, and Edom is far away on the eastern bank of the Dead Sea (though exactly where we will find Meriyvah in Numbers 20). However Genesis 14:7 makes them a Bedou tribe, occupying the south-western Negev desert around Kadesh Barne'a, precisely the area in which we find them fighting Mosheh and the Beney Yisra-El now. Can they be both?
This armed conflict with the Amalekites will become a key story at several later points of the Tanach, involving two other leaders, Yehoshua (Joshua) and Sha'ul (Saul), both of whom will attempt, unsuccessfully, to fulfill the divine edict issued in verse 14 below (and reiterated even more strongly in Deuteronomy 25:17-19, so that it is now included in the 613 Commandments), "to remember what Amalek did to the Beney Yisra-El", "to wipe out the descendants of Amalek" and "not to forget Amalek's atrocities and ambush on our journey from Mitsrayim in the desert".
However... Numbers 14 brings the Beney Yisra-El back to Rephiydim-Masah-Meriyvah, where an outbreak of murmuring and muttering remarkably similar to this one leads to an exchange of moans by YHVH and Mosheh that is remarkably similar to this one, in the midst of which the Beney Yisra-El are caught in a surprise attack remarkably similar to this one, by the same Amalekites, in which, in a manner remarkably similar to this one, it is Yehoshua (Joshua) who becomes the central military figure in dispersing the enemy. The language of both texts is also remarkably similar. Are they in fact the same incident, told twice? Or even the same piece of liturgy, prayed twice? And yet they happen in very different places and forty years apart. I strongly suspect that the battle with Amalek was a part of the Ach-Mousa story, and nothing to do with the pilgrimage, the covnenant-renewal, the Passover, or the volcano.
The Amalekites will appear again in Judges 3:12 ff as an ally of the king of Mo-Av against Yisra-El, in Judges 6 when Gid'on (Gideon) defeats them, in 1 Samuel 15, when Sha'ul almost destroys them in battle but saves their king, Agag, much to the anger of the prophet Shemu-El (Samuel), who hacks off Agag's head himself (1 Samuel 15), annuls Sha'ul's semicha, and points at the young harpist David serenading the group in the corner of the tent at Gil-Gal, and declares him to be the "companion" who will take the throne in Sha'ul's place. David will himself fight against the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 27 and 30, while he is king at Tsiklag. 1 Chronicles 4:41 has members of the tribe of Shim'on raiding the Amalekites during the reign of King Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah).
17:9 VA YOMER MOSHEH EL YEHOSHU'A BECHAR LANU ANASHIM VE TSE HILACHEM BA AMALEK MACHAR ANOCHI NITSAV AL ROSH HA GIV'AH U MATEH HA ELOHIM BE YADI
וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בְּחַר לָנוּ אֲנָשִׁים וְצֵא הִלָּחֵם בַּעֲמָלֵק מָחָר אָנֹכִי נִצָּב עַל רֹאשׁ הַגִּבְעָה וּמַטֵּה הָאֱלֹהִים בְּיָדִי
KJ: 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.
BN: And Mosheh said to Yehoshu'a: "Choose men and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the sceptre of Ha Elohim in my hand."
We seem to have changed versions rather suddenly. The deity here is Ha Elohim, not YHVH.
YEHOSHU'A: His first mention. In Numbers 13:16 we will be told that his name was Hoshe'a bin Nun (הוֹשֵׁעַ בִּן-נוּן), but that Mosheh changed it, after the 12 spies come back, to Yehoshua (יהוֹשֵׁעַ). This is the same name and spelling as the 8th century BCE prophet Hoshe'a (Hosea), and is understood to mean "deliverance" or "salvation". The prefictual Yud added by Mosheh is generally understood as an adding of the name of the deity; which it may well be, but the evidence of every other comparable name in the Bible is that the deity in question would then be Yah and not not YHVH, and Yah is not usually associated with the concepts of "deliverance" and "salvation", which belong theologically to the homotheistic period, post-exile, the time when she was no longer regarded as a deity, and when the concept of Messiah was becoming significant; the probable reason for adapting the Egyptian Passover pilgrimage, and the other annual festival pilgrimages, as the heroic tale of deliverance from Egypt by the Messianic Mosheh and his equally Messianic successor Yehoshu'a as the tale that we now have.
It should be noted, however, that Mashiy'ach is written with a final Chet (ח), not Ayin (ע), and as such not connected with the names Hoshe'a and Yehoshu'a at all, though many Jewish and Christian commentators fail to notice that distinction and so do connect them. The name of Jesus, on the other hand, which would have been written Yeshu (ישו), almost certainly was connected to Hoshe'a and Yehoshu'a, though he is usually reckoned to have his name from Jesse, the father of King David, which was written Yishai (ישי), and therefore is not connected with the concept of "deliverance" or "salvation" at all; all very confusing, and probably explainable by the fact that the four gospelists are unlilkely to have known any, or at best only a smattering, of Yehudit (Hebrew), and therefore probably heard three similar-sounding words and assumed they were from the same root (American English does this all the time: no distinction between "story", which is "a tale", and "storey", which is "a level of a building" - Americans drop the "e"; or between "kerb", which is the edge of the sidewalk, and "curb", which is a way of stopping somebody from repeatedly doing something, where Americans only have the latter spelling).
GIV'AH: Mosheh standing on the top of the hill with his sceptre in his hand is a parallel of the scene just passed, which is probably why it has been put in here. But a Giv'ah is not just any hill. Key Yisra-Eli shrines will be found at Geva and Giv-On (Gibeon), while Giv'ah (Gibeah) was the shrine where the Holy Tabernacle would be housed in the time of David and Shelomoh (Solomon). Geb was the Egyptian god of the Earth, the consort of Nut and the father of Osher (Osiris), Eshet (Isis), Set, Nephthys, and (in some versions) Hor. His shrines in Yisra-El belong to several different periods of Egyptian rule, and the many years afterwards when garrisons were left behind, but most particularly the conquest by Ach-Mousa, which is probably the military-historical part of the Mosheh and especially the Yehoshu'a story. He was frequently depicted as a bull (Hor, his son, was the golden calf), though also as a ram and a crocodile. Earthquakes were said to be the result of his laughter.
Geb was often depicted as the fertile earth or the barren desert, and as the latter was understood to be the guardian of the dead, the one who decided who would remain buried in the earth,and who were worthy to make the journey across the desert to the Field of Reeds, a variation of Yam Suph and an equivalent of the Elysian Fields; which, coincidental to the specified direction in which the Beney Yisra-El are travelling, and the geographical relation of Kena'an to Mitsrayim, was in the north-east. Field of Reeds is thus a synonym for the "land of milk and honey" (and probably "The Valley of the Pine" in the Egyptian "Tale of the Two Brothers"), and we can state with near certainty that it was Geb who was the principal deity of the original tales on which the Mosaic legends are based, once Mosheh reaches adulthood. Near certainty - because Geb is also identified with Hor, often interchangeably, and we have seen the presence of Hor (Hor in the Egyptian, Horus is Greek) repeatedly in these legends, usually in the part played by Aharon, whose name may in fact be derived from Hor. And having mentioned him...
Why is Yehoshu'a chosen to lead the military engagement? He is not a tribal chieftain, nor even a clan chieftain? Presumably this was an addition to history by his later followers and admirers. Or are Yehoshu'a and Mosheh, mythologically speaking, the same person?
Geb was often depicted as the fertile earth or the barren desert, and as the latter was understood to be the guardian of the dead, the one who decided who would remain buried in the earth,and who were worthy to make the journey across the desert to the Field of Reeds, a variation of Yam Suph and an equivalent of the Elysian Fields; which, coincidental to the specified direction in which the Beney Yisra-El are travelling, and the geographical relation of Kena'an to Mitsrayim, was in the north-east. Field of Reeds is thus a synonym for the "land of milk and honey" (and probably "The Valley of the Pine" in the Egyptian "Tale of the Two Brothers"), and we can state with near certainty that it was Geb who was the principal deity of the original tales on which the Mosaic legends are based, once Mosheh reaches adulthood. Near certainty - because Geb is also identified with Hor, often interchangeably, and we have seen the presence of Hor (Hor in the Egyptian, Horus is Greek) repeatedly in these legends, usually in the part played by Aharon, whose name may in fact be derived from Hor. And having mentioned him...
Why is Yehoshu'a chosen to lead the military engagement? He is not a tribal chieftain, nor even a clan chieftain? Presumably this was an addition to history by his later followers and admirers. Or are Yehoshu'a and Mosheh, mythologically speaking, the same person?
17:10 VA YA'AS YEHOSHU'A KA ASHER AMAR LO MOSHEH LEHILACHEM BA AMALEK U MOSHEH AHARON VE CHUR ALU ROSH HA GIV'AH
וַיַּעַשׂ יְהוֹשֻׁעַ כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמַר לוֹ מֹשֶׁה לְהִלָּחֵם בַּעֲמָלֵק וּמֹשֶׁה אַהֲרֹן וְחוּר עָלוּ רֹאשׁ הַגִּבְעָה
KJ: 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.
BN: So Yehoshu'a did as Mosheh had said to him, and fought with Amalek; and Mosheh, Aharon, and Chur went up to the top of the hill.
CHUR... and having mentioned Hor, here indeed he is not, though every English transliteration makes the error. His name is CHUR, not HOR, or HUR, and his even more famous "son", Ben Hur, whom Shelomoh (Solomon) appointed as one of the twelve military governors of Yisra-El (1 Kings 4:8), and whom Lewis Wallace turned into the biggest-selling American novel of the 19th century, and then Sam Zimbalist for MGM Studios into a movie starring Charlton Heston, should also have been Ben Chur. More detailed notes on "our" Chur below. The link here is to the even more dreadful 2016 remake of the movie.
17:11 VE HAYAH KA ASHER YARIM MOSHEH YADO VE GAVAR YISRA-EL VE CHA ASHER YANIYACH YADO VE GAVAR AMALEK
וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר יָרִים מֹשֶׁה יָדוֹ וְגָבַר יִשְׂרָאֵל וְכַאֲשֶׁר יָנִיחַ יָדוֹ וְגָבַר עֲמָלֵק
KJ: And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
BN: And it came to pass, when Mosheh held up his hand, that Yisra-El prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
KA ASHER YARIM MOSHEH: When Mosheh held up his hand? Or when Chur and Aharon held up his hand, or even hands? The distinction is significant, because it determines whether the human or the divine was in control here. So we can answer our own question from the evidence of the previous chapters!
And then, equally significantly, which hand, the one that held the MATEH HA ELOHIM (verse 9), so that he could use it as a magic wand, as he did before Pharaoh? Or the one without the MATEH, which he is merely using a shepherd's crook to keep himself upright, while his empty hand is held up? And if it is only one hand, why does it need two assistants?
CHUR: Who is he? According to Sotah 11b, a tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, he was the son of Mir-Yam (Miriam) and Kalev (כָּלֵב - Caleb), her husband, a claim derived from the First Book of Chronicles 2:50 , though actually the text is not clear whether he is Kalev's father or son; the language is sufficiently ambiguous that different interpretations are possible. The King James Version of the Bible states "These were the sons of Caleb the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah; Shobal the father of Kiriat Ye'arim...." The New International Version has "These were the sons of Caleb. The sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, were Shobal the father of Kiriat Ye'arim...." The second version places Hur as the first child of Kalev by his second wife Ephrath. He is also said to be the grandfather of Betsal-El (Exodus 31:2) who will make the Ark and Tabernacle later on.
Chur, to correct that error once again, had three sons, according to 1 Chronicles 2; these do not include Uri, the father of Betsal-El, but are Shoval (שׁוֹבָל and therefore SHOVAL, not Shobal), Salma (שַׂלְמָא) and Hareph (חָרֵף and therefore CHAREPH, not Hareph), who are said to have been the founders of the towns of Kiryat Ye'arim, Beit Lechem, and Beit Gader respectively, or of sons bearing those town-names. However, 1 Chronicles elsewhere calls Chur himself the father of Beit Lechem.
Josephus, in "Antiquities of the Jews", states that Hur (or possibly Chur, I do not have a copy of Josephus in the original to check this) was the husband of Mosheh's sister Mir-Yam, rather than her son. However, in the Targum to 1 Chronicles 2:19, iv. 4 (see my note on the Babylonian Talmud above), Mir-Yam is said to be Chur's mother, asserting that Ephrat was another name for Miriam - which would be wonderful, because of course the full name of Beit Lechem (Bethlehem), is Beit Lechem Ephratah, which means "the shrine of the corn-god of the Euphrates", who is Tammuz; Lavan's daughter Rachel, the third wife of Ya'akov, is already associated with the city, as will David and Jesus be later, and now we are told that Mosheh's own sister was too, and in addition that Mir-Yam was married to Kalev, who will be the heir of Chevron (Hebron), where David will serve as King of Yisra-El for the first time. All of which may have been historical, or simply a later attempt to attach all the key figures to what by then was the second most important shrine in Yisra-El - after Yeru-Shalayim obviously.
What may have been a different but was probably the same Chur was killed with four other Midyanite kings during the time of Mosheh in a Yisra-Eli expedition led by Pinchas, the son of El-Azar the priest, and therefore a grandson of Aharon. Bil'am ( Ba'alam) ben Be'or was also slain by the Beney Yisra-El in this expedition (told in Numbers 31; remembered in Joshua 13:21).
As so often with these Egyptian stories which would have been known through hieroglyphs or pictographs, we need to imagine a frieze discovered by the ancients, in which the god, probably Hor or Geb, stands with his trident (Mosheh's sceptre) on the mountaintop, holding his hands aloft, and two other gods stand beside him, probably Osher and Set, proclaiming the Creation of the world, or some such divine ordinance; interpreted as this by the Redactor. The picture here is most likely "The Papyrus of Nesitanebtashru" from the Egyptian "Book of the Dead", (21st or 22nd Dynasty, around the time of King David, circa 950 BCE), also known as the Greenfield Papyrus, which shows Shu, the god of the air, holding up the body of Nut, the goddess of the heavens, while the earth-god Geb reclines beneath.
17:12 VIYDEY MOSHEH KEVEDIM VA YIKCHU EVEN VA YASIYMU TACHTAV VA YESHEV ALEYH VE AHARON VE CHUR TAMCHU VE YADAV MIZEH ECHAD U MIZEH ECHAD VE YEHI YADAV EMUNAH AD BO HA SHAMESH
וִידֵי מֹשֶׁה כְּבֵדִים וַיִּקְחוּ אֶבֶן וַיָּשִׂימוּ תַחְתָּיו וַיֵּשֶׁב עָלֶיהָ וְאַהֲרֹן וְחוּר תָּמְכוּ בְיָדָיו מִזֶּה אֶחָד וּמִזֶּה אֶחָד וַיְהִי יָדָיו אֱמוּנָה עַד בֹּא הַשָּׁמֶשׁ
KJ: 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.
BN: But Mosheh's hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aharon and Chur kept up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands remained steady until the sun went down.
Completing the picture painted above, except for one error. BO HA SHEMESH means "the coming of the sun", which is surely sunrise, not sunset. So what the god is proclaiming is the dawn. So again, as with Ya'akov at Penu-El, the "striving" is by night, and this may explain why Mosheh, who is an agent of YHVH, the sun god, needs so much assistance; indeed, we can compare the roles of Chur and Aharon here to the pillars in the tale of Shimshon (Samson) in Judges 16:26, which he uses for support before bringing down the temple of the Pelishtim altogether; in the Temple in Yeru-Shalayim those two pillars will be named, symbolically, as Bo'az and Yachin.
17:13 VA YACHALOSH YEHOSHU'A ET AMALEK VE ET AMO LE PHI CHAREV
וַיַּחֲלֹשׁ יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אֶת עֲמָלֵק וְאֶת עַמּוֹ לְפִי חָרֶב
KJ: And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
BN: And Yehoshu'a pushed Amalek and his people back with the edge of the sword.
The mountain is called CHOREV (חרב); a sword here is CHAREV (חרב). The two are indistinguishable in the Yehudit. See my note to CHOREV at Exodus 3:1, which includes the comment that CHOREV derives "From the same root that yields ET LAHAT HA CHEREV in Genesis 2:24. The 'flaming' sword on that occasion". But that flaming sword is also supported on each arm, by a KERUV, another version of the same Bo'az and Yachin.
YACHALOSH does not mean "discomfited, it means "weakened". Either way, they are not defeated, only pushed back. More importantly, Yehoshu'a has established his credentials as the military commander; later he will be picked as one of the 12 spies, and only he and Kalev will come back speaking positively, further enhancing his credentials. So he will be appointed Mosheh's successor.
pey break
17:14 VA YOMER YHVH EL MOSHEH KETOV ZOT ZIKARON BA SEPHER VE SIM BE AZNEY YEHOSHU'A KI MACHOH EMCHEH ET ZECHER AMALEK MI TACHAT HA SHAMAYIM
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה כְּתֹב זֹאת זִכָּרוֹן בַּסֵּפֶר וְשִׂים בְּאָזְנֵי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ כִּי מָחֹה אֶמְחֶה אֶת זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם
KJ: And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse itin the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
BN: And YHVH said to Mosheh: "Write this for a memorial on a scroll, and rehearse it in the ears of Yehoshu'a: for I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens."
Many problems here. First, what "book"? Alphabetical writing had not been invented yet, and books were still hundreds of years in the future. A scroll of parchment maybe, but where would they acquire such a thing in the desert (if the oases were also shrines, as I have posited, maybe the priests and priestesses, like mediaveal monks, kept papyrus to make copies of what we now call "The Book of the Dead")? Some among the Beney Yisra-El would know how to carve hieroglyphs on stone, because they spent years in Egypt in the building trade; but no more than that - the Ten Commandments were most likely hieroglyphs carved on those famous tablets. Secondly, if you write something in a book for a memorial, then the intention is for the thing to be remembered forever, which is to say immortalised; somewhat of an oxymoron if your goal is to "blot them out from under the heavens"! (see my story "The Conflagration" in "The Captive Bride").
But of course, what else does a sun-god seek in his daily battle with the moon-goddess, but total supremacy. Hence the tale of Shimshon-Samson (shemesh = the sun) and Delilah (lailah - night).
What then does this tale really amount to? A cosmological myth, rendered as liturgy. A very primitive form of Shacharit.
17:15 VA YIVEN MOSHEH MIZBE'ACH VA YIKRA SHEMO YHVH NISI
וַיִּבֶן מֹשֶׁה מִזְבֵּחַ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ יְהוָה נִסִּי
KJ: And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:
BN: And Mosheh built an altar, and he named it "YHVH Nisi".
YHVH NISI: meaning either "YHVH is my miracle", from NES = MIRACLE, or possibly "YHVH is my banner". Isaiah 5:26, 11:12, 18:3 and 62:10 all use it to mean "a banner", as does Jeremiah 4:6 and 4:21, and Psalm 60:6. The root infers "something lifted up" or "something that can be seen from afar". Ezekiel 27:7 uses it for "a ship's standard", mounted on a flagpole; as does Isaiah 33:23, while Numbers 21:8 and 9 use it for "a column" or "a lofty pole", bringing all of these together in this verse as a prefiguration of Mosheh's own banner, Nechushtan - the sceptre that becomes a serpent, as per the illustration. Given that "YHVH is my miracle" does not mean anything, the frequency of the other usage is convincing, especially in the context of this verse.
YHVH NISI: meaning either "YHVH is my miracle", from NES = MIRACLE, or possibly "YHVH is my banner". Isaiah 5:26, 11:12, 18:3 and 62:10 all use it to mean "a banner", as does Jeremiah 4:6 and 4:21, and Psalm 60:6. The root infers "something lifted up" or "something that can be seen from afar". Ezekiel 27:7 uses it for "a ship's standard", mounted on a flagpole; as does Isaiah 33:23, while Numbers 21:8 and 9 use it for "a column" or "a lofty pole", bringing all of these together in this verse as a prefiguration of Mosheh's own banner, Nechushtan - the sceptre that becomes a serpent, as per the illustration. Given that "YHVH is my miracle" does not mean anything, the frequency of the other usage is convincing, especially in the context of this verse.
Assume then that the altar was already there, or if Mosheh did build it, then he built it for the dawn-prayers (Shacharit) that we have just witnessed; and quite probably the picture of him sitting on the rock was actually the carving of the image of the god upon that altar, and the picture of him with his arms raised is actually his banner, which we will learn shortly will be a serpent, just like his sceptre, or Caduceus Pole in fact, which is both the serpent and the rod - Nechushtan by name. Not to be mistaken for the single-serpented Rod of Asclepius, which is pictured here.
17:16 VA YOMER KI YAD AL KES YAH MILCHAMAH LA YHVH BA AMALEK MI DOR DOR
וַיֹּאמֶר כִּי יָד עַל כֵּס יָהּ מִלְחָמָה לַיהוָה בַּעֲמָלֵק מִדֹּר דֹּר
KJ: For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
BN: And he said: "The hand upon the throne of Yah; YHVH will make war on Amalek from generation to generation."
My translation rather different from King James'!
And explaining why should provide the final proof, if proof is needed. Let us allow KES to stand as correct, even though it is probably an error for NES, and means that the banner of YHVH will triumph over the banner of YAH: day will defeat night (and then be defeated in its turn; but this is the Shacharit not the Ma'ariv liturgy). But allow KES = "throne" (from KISEH = "chair"). Whose KES? The text is unequivocal: YAH. The moon-goddess. "YHVH will place his hand upon the throne of YAH, and rule her in every generation." The first alarum of a war that began with the Big Bang, and will continue until the final whimper - the night versus the day, the moon versus the sun, the female versus the male, the summer versus the winter - and which will lead to this deeply Bowdlerised Bible!
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