Exodus 13:17

Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, “The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.”

Rabbeinu Bahya

Shemot, Chapter 13:17

Rabbeinu Chananel wrote that G’d had a different reason for leading the Israelites through the desert. He needed an excuse for demonstrating miracles for the people. Had G’d led the Jewish people by the most direct route and had influenced the Philistines to let them travel through their country unmolested, this would have been such a minor miracle that it would not have impressed the people with an appreciation of how G’d had exerted Himself on their behalf. G’d’s desire to demonstrate His power and ability to triumph over what appeared to be insurmountable difficulties made it necessary for Him to lead the people through an inhospitable desert. By leading the people through the desert G’d forced Himself to come up with the heavenly manna as the solution to their food problems, with the extraction of water from a rock and the traveling well as the solution to their water problems, with the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire as the solution to problems of an inhospitable climate, etc., etc. The further the Israelites traveled from civilization the greater were the miracles required to keep them alive and well.

It is characteristic of G’d’s השגחה פרטית, benevolent providence for the righteous, that He performs miracles within miracles. We find, for instance, that when Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah were thrown into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar because they refused to accept him as a deity and to bow before his golden image, G’d could have saved them by the simple expedient of extinguishing the fire in that furnace (Daniel 3,27). Instead, G’d’ troubled Himself not only to allow these men to walk around within that flaming kiln as if they and their garments were totally oblivious to the infernal heat, but He visibly increased the heat and the fire within that kiln; He showed Nebuchadnezzar a vision of three unbound men enjoying themselves within that flaming kiln totally unperturbed by what Nebuchadnezzar thought he had accomplished. Nebuchadnezzar was enabled to look through opaque thick walls, another miracle. When G’d saved Daniel from the den of lions (Daniel 6,23), He also could have done so by means of lesser miracles such as simply killing the lions in that den. Instead, G’d chose to leave the lions alive but to prevent them from harming Daniel. In other words, the miracle within the miracle was that G’d interfered with the lions’ instincts in order to demonstrate His power.

We find something similar in the Book of Judges when Gideon was commanded to fight the Midianites. Seeing that the Midianites were described as "as numerous as the sand of the sea," (Judges 7,12) G’d could have allowed ten or twenty thousand men to fight them and their victory would surely have been credited to G’d seeing that even such a number of men would have been greatly outnumbered by their opponents. However, G’d chose to allow only three hundred men to go to war against Midian thus increasing the miracle and as a result His reputation. The prophet states that G’d wanted to ensure that no Israelite would be able to take credit for the victory (Judges 7,2). Actually, in response to the call that the faint-hearted Israelites should return home, ten thousand remained after twenty-two thousand had departed. G’d told Gideon specifically that the remaining ten thousand men were still far too numerous to fight against Midian! (7,4). They were to be tested by the manner in which they would lap up water to drink from a pond or river. The people who lapped up water like a dog were chosen as soldiers in G’d’s army, whereas those that drank like human beings, i.e. bringing the water to their mouths instead were sent home! (7,7).

Mahx note:

The further the Israelites traveled from civilization the greater were the miracles required to keep them alive and well.

God desired Israel to depend on him alone for all things and not on what they knew by experience. What they knew was Egypt. And depending on what they knew, even for their day to day needs, especially for an existential threat, being what they learned in Egypt, was a form of returning to Egypt, which was sufficiently opposite to what God desired for God to reject this easy path. But more, depending on what they had learned in Egypt would eventually lead to a movement to actually return to Egypt. Being far into the wasteland of the wilderness would leave them in the realm of the unknown and where they could learn to depend on God alone.

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Exodus 13:17-14:8

(17) Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, “The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.” (18) So God led the people roundabout, by way of the wilderness at the Sea of Reeds. Now the Israelites went up armed out of the land of Egypt. (19) And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, who had exacted an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will be sure to take notice of you: then you shall carry up my bones from here with you.” (20) They set out from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, at the edge of the wilderness. (21) The LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, that they might travel day and night. (22) The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. (1) The LORD said to Moses: (2) Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. (3) Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, “They are astray in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.” (4) Then I will stiffen Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue them, that I may gain glory through Pharaoh and all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD. And they did so. (5) When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his courtiers had a change of heart about the people and said, “What is this we have done, releasing Israel from our service?” (6) He ordered his chariot and took his men with him; (7) he took six hundred of his picked chariots, and the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in all of them. (8) The LORD stiffened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he gave chase to the Israelites. As the Israelites were departing defiantly,

Mahx note:

Israel went up armed... Moshe went up with the bones of Yoseph...

see https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/96430

Mahx note:

Then I will stiffen Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue them, that I may gain glory through Pharaoh and all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD. And they did so.

Pharaoh’s hardening was of his resolve to do with the children of Israel according to his own mind, his own plans, as in the Targum:

Targum Jonathan on Exodus 14:4

...And I will strengthen the design of Pharaoh's heart to pursue after them...

Although God had already defeated Pharaoh with the ten plagues, He was not finished using Pharaoh, in Pharaoh’s relationship to Israel, to reveal Himself. Pharaoh’s plans for Israel would not die with Pharaoh. While Pharaoh was already defeated, his plans were not yet completely defeated. His plans were that Israel should remain a slave in this world forever. Empire after empire would take up these plans until the end of time. Even though Pharaoh was already no more than a corpse before God, his plans for Israel would remain a threat so long as there was a threat of the children of Israel depending in their heart on the slavery they had learned in Egypt and not on the God who redeemed them. Therefore, God saw to it that the spiritual corpse of Pharaoh, as it were, was reanimated with the force of his plans for Israel, so that he suddenly rose up and went after them. Accordingly, God was able not only to demonstrate his power not only over Pharaoh personally but over the plans of Pharaoh by bringing Israel through the waters of the Red Sea and destroying Pharaoh and his armies in those same waters.

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Exodus 14:9-14

(9) the Egyptians gave chase to them, and all the chariot horses of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his warriors overtook them encamped by the sea, near Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon. (10) As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites caught sight of the Egyptians advancing upon them. Greatly frightened, the Israelites cried out to the LORD. (11) And they said to Moses, “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt? (12) Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us be, and we will serve the Egyptians, for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’?” (13) But Moses said to the people, “Have no fear! Stand by, and witness the deliverance which the LORD will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. (14) The LORD will battle for you; you hold your peace!”

Mahx note:

"Hashem will battle for you; you hold your peace!”

This is how it was always meant to be, should have always been and should always be! The word of God to Moshe when he sent him before Pharaoh to take Israel out of Egypt was not: "God only helps those who help themselves". God will help those who help themselves, but only if they first hold their peace before Him and allow Him to do all that must be done. For to need to trust God and one's self together is not to trust God, as God, at all. But one who trusts God alone can also trust one's self.

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Exodus 14:15-25

(15) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. (16) And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground. (17) And I will stiffen the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them; and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his warriors, his chariots and his horsemen. (18) Let the Egyptians know that I am LORD, when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” (19) The angel of God, who had been going ahead of the Israelite army, now moved and followed behind them; and the pillar of cloud shifted from in front of them and took up a place behind them, (20) and it came between the army of the Egyptians and the army of Israel. Thus there was the cloud with the darkness, and it cast a spell upon the night, so that the one could not come near the other all through the night. (21) Then Moses held out his arm over the sea and the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split, (22) and the Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. (23) The Egyptians came in pursuit after them into the sea, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen. (24) At the morning watch, the LORD looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. (25) He locked the wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Mahx note:

He locked the wheels of their chariots...

This is the "miracles within miracles" that Rabbeinu Bahya talks about (see above). As God looked down from a pillar of fire and cloud and locked the wheels of the chariots of the armies of Egypt in the midst of the waters that were parted for the children of Israel to cross through, so shall He look down from His Divine Presence and lock the wheels of the plans of Pharaoh in every empire that Israel should be a slave to this world.

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Exodus 14:26-15:26

(26) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Hold out your arm over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians and upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.” (27) Moses held out his arm over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal state, and the Egyptians fled at its approach. But the LORD hurled the Egyptians into the sea. (28) The waters turned back and covered the chariots and the horsemen—Pharaoh’s entire army that followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. (29) But the Israelites had marched through the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. (30) Thus the LORD delivered Israel that day from the Egyptians. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea. (31) And when Israel saw the wondrous power which the LORD had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD; they had faith in the LORD and His servant Moses. (1) Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD. They said: I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea. (2) The LORD is my strength and might; He is become my deliverance. This is my God and I will enshrine Him; The God of my father, and I will exalt Him. (3) The LORD, the Warrior— LORD is His name! (4) Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; And the pick of his officers Are drowned in the Sea of Reeds. (5) The deeps covered them; They went down into the depths like a stone. (6) Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the foe! (7) In Your great triumph You break Your opponents; You send forth Your fury, it consumes them like straw. (8) At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up, The floods stood straight like a wall; The deeps froze in the heart of the sea. (9) The foe said, “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall have its fill of them. I will bare my sword— My hand shall subdue them.” (10) You made Your wind blow, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the majestic waters. (11) Who is like You, O LORD, among the celestials; Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in splendor, working wonders! (12) You put out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them. (13) In Your love You lead the people You redeemed; In Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode. (14) The peoples hear, they tremble; Agony grips the dwellers in Philistia. (15) Now are the clans of Edom dismayed; The tribes of Moab—trembling grips them; All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast. (16) Terror and dread descend upon them; Through the might of Your arm they are still as stone— Till Your people cross over, O LORD, Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed. (17) You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain, The place You made to dwell in, O LORD, The sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands established. (18) The LORD will reign for ever and ever! (19) For the horses of Pharaoh, with his chariots and horsemen, went into the sea; and the LORD turned back on them the waters of the sea; but the Israelites marched on dry ground in the midst of the sea. (20) Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her in dance with timbrels. (21) And Miriam chanted for them: Sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea. (22) Then Moses caused Israel to set out from the Sea of Reeds. They went on into the wilderness of Shur; they traveled three days in the wilderness and found no water. (23) They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; that is why it was named Marah. (24) And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” (25) So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water and the water became sweet. There He made for them a fixed rule, and there He put them to the test. (26) He said, “If you will heed the LORD your God diligently, doing what is upright in His sight, giving ear to His commandments and keeping all His laws, then I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians, for I the LORD am your healer.”

Mahx note:

"I Hashem am your healer."

That is, He is the doctor of the soul and the body of the nation. If the body of the nation is taken out of slavery but the soul of the nation remains in slavery, thinking that it was only to Pharaoh and the Egyptians that they were enslaved, and not to sins of the heart and fears of the mind and a worldview that comes from the eyes and not from Above, then the nation is not yet healed. But if God has redeemed the body of the nation from slavery, He is the healer who can and will also redeem the soul of the nation from slavery.

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Exodus 15:27-16:10

(27) And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there beside the water. (1) Setting out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. (2) In the wilderness, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. (3) The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.” (4) And the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not. (5) But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they have brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day.” (6) So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “By evening you shall know it was the LORD who brought you out from the land of Egypt; (7) and in the morning you shall behold the Presence of the LORD, because He has heard your grumblings against the LORD. For who are we that you should grumble against us? (8) Since it is the LORD,” Moses continued, “who will give you flesh to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to the full, because the LORD has heard the grumblings you utter against Him, what is our part? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the LORD!” (9) Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole Israelite community: Advance toward the LORD, for He has heard your grumbling.” (10) And as Aaron spoke to the whole Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and there, in a cloud, appeared the Presence of the LORD.

Mahx note:

You put out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them.

We can read in Targum Jonathan:

"The sea spake to the earth, Receive thy children: but the earth spake to the sea, Receive thy murderers. And the sea was not willing to overwhelm them, and the earth was not willing to swallow them up. The earth was afraid to receive them, lest they should be required from her in the day of the great judgment in the world to come, even as the blood of Habel will be required of her: whereupon Thou, O Lord, didst stretch forth Thy right hand in swearing to the earth that in the world to come they should not be required of her. And the earth opened her mouth and consumed them."

And why is the assurance by the oath of the right hand? For at the left hand there is the divisions of discernment and the severity of strict justice and the fearsome display of the beauty of all-silencing sovereignty. But at the right hand is the unity of wisdom and the kindness of love and mercy and the beauty of grace for salvation. It was determined by the One who sits upon the Throne of thrones that מידה כנגד מידה, measure for measure, the force that planned that the children of Israel should be forever a slave to the earth should end by itself being swallowed up by the earth. This meant, therefore, that it was not from the left side, from the place of strict justice directly that the forces of Egypt were condemned, but rather from the right side, from the place of love and salvation for Israel that punishment came to the forces of Egypt.

And this also, a few verses later, we read in our parsha:

Terror and dread descend upon them; Through the might of Your arm they are still as stone— Till Your people cross over, O LORD, Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed.

And concerning this Targum Jonatan says:

"Through the power of Thy mighty arm, let the terrors of death fall upon them, let them be silent as a stone, till the time when Thy people, O Lord, shall have passed the streams of Arnona, till the time when Thy people whom Thou didst ransom shall have crossed the dividing current of Jabeka."

And still today an effort is being made by the children of Israel to pass the streams of Arnona and cross the dividing current of Jabeka completely. And the innermost heart of all the nations of the earth looks on and is silent as a stone in anticipation in the terror of death. For if such judgment as has been seen has come in the living tree of Israel, what shall come in the dry tree of the nations, that empire coveting the inheritance of God, planted by Pharaoh, in which there is heard no word of life?

They came to Mara...

It is in this way that:

"You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain, The place You made to dwell in, O LORD, The sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands established."

And here as Targum Jonatan says:

"Thou wilt bring them in, and plant them on the mountain of Thy sanctuary, the place which Thou hast provided before the throne of Thy glory, the house of Thy holy Shekinah, which Thou, O Lord, hast prepared, Thy sanctuary that with both hands Thou hast established."

For then, in that end, it shall be with both hands that God judges the world and creates "a new heaven and a new earth," Isaiah 65:17. As it is written,

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil,” Jeremiah 23:7.

For in that day the nations will be divided, and those who bless themselves in Abraham will know that their punishments are for the chastisements of salvation from the right hand, and those who curse Israel with the final Pharaoh will sit in darkness awaiting strict justice without hope.

But the children of Israel shall step out of the waters of death to serve God in the Temple of His light so soon as they cast the dry wood of slavery to self-reliance into the bitter waters of the wilderness. For all the miraculous provisions of God in the wilderness appear to the unbelief of self-reliant eyes to be bitter waters. But when the dry wood of unbelief is cast into the bitter waters at God's command they become waters of life.

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Exodus 16:11-36

(11) The LORD spoke to Moses: (12) “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Speak to them and say: By evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I the LORD am your God.” (13) In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp; in the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp. (14) When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. (15) When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”—for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. (16) This is what the LORD has commanded: Gather as much of it as each of you requires to eat, an omer to a person for as many of you as there are; each of you shall fetch for those in his tent.” (17) The Israelites did so, some gathering much, some little. (18) But when they measured it by the omer, he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered little had no deficiency: they had gathered as much as they needed to eat. (19) And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” (20) But they paid no attention to Moses; some of them left of it until morning, and it became infested with maggots and stank. And Moses was angry with them. (21) So they gathered it every morning, each as much as he needed to eat; for when the sun grew hot, it would melt. (22) On the sixth day they gathered double the amount of food, two omers for each; and when all the chieftains of the community came and told Moses, (23) he said to them, “This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy sabbath of the LORD. Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.” (24) So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered; and it did not turn foul, and there were no maggots in it. (25) Then Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath of the LORD; you will not find it today on the plain. (26) Six days you shall gather it; on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.” (27) Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing. (28) And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you men refuse to obey My commandments and My teachings? (29) Mark that the LORD has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you two days’ food on the sixth day. Let everyone remain where he is: let no one leave his place on the seventh day.” (30) So the people remained inactive on the seventh day. (31) The house of Israel named it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers in honey. (32) Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: Let one omer of it be kept throughout the ages, in order that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.” (33) And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, put one omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD, to be kept throughout the ages.” (34) As the LORD had commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the Pact, to be kept. (35) And the Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a settled land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. (36) The omer is a tenth of an ephah.

Mahx note:

Place a jar of mana before the Pact, הָעֵדֻ֖ת, to be kept.

Targum Jonatan says:

"before the testimony" to be kept.

This was in obedience to the instruction to place it before the LORD.

Rashbam explains this to mean:

"לפני העדות, in front of the Holy Ark"

The unusual syntax, starting the verse in a way of stating that it was in accordance with the LORD's commandment, that does not clearly seem to be needed following the verse before, seems to be added in order to place strong emphasis upon the relationship in God's mind between the testimony of the mana and the testimony of the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat upon the ark, where the LORD's presence was manifested. It is as if God is making a point of saying that both of these are one testimony. In Hebrew the verse is:

כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיַּנִּיחֵ֧הוּ אַהֲרֹ֛ן לִפְנֵ֥י הָעֵדֻ֖ת לְמִשְׁמָֽרֶת׃

Which can literally be read, "As which commanded Hashem to Moshe, rested it Aaron before the testimony to be preserved."

The testimony of the mana is the testimony that has come from the beginning of the redemption, when God would not take Israel out of Egypt the easy way, by way of the territory of the Philistines, because the temptation would be too great to trust in the slavery of all that they knew and had learned in Egypt. Instead, He brought them through the wilderness, where they had no one to trust in but Him. And this finally led them to where all their provision was mana. The jar of mana, therefore, has the power to indicate to us that this also is the testimony of the ark and the cover of the ark. Even as the mana was provided as food for those who are redeemed, not the easy way but, through the wilderness experience, so the Torah was provided, and is provided in the wilderness, for those who, through a harsh life experience, are being redeemed from slavery to this world and to what they know and have learned from the slavery of this world. For redemption is to live and think and have all ones consciousness and feeling together with God and not in isolation and alienation from God, according to the slavery of Egypt, according to the slavery of this world.

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Exodus 17:1-16

(1) From the wilderness of Sin the whole Israelite community continued by stages as the LORD would command. They encamped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. (2) The people quarreled with Moses. “Give us water to drink,” they said; and Moses replied to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you try the LORD?” (3) But the people thirsted there for water; and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” (4) Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do with this people? Before long they will be stoning me!” (5) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take along the rod with which you struck the Nile, and set out. (6) I will be standing there before you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will issue from it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. (7) The place was named Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and because they tried the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD present among us or not?” (8) Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. (9) Moses said to Joshua, “Pick some men for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.” (10) Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. (11) Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. (12) But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady until the sun set. (13) And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek with the sword. (14) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!” (15) And Moses built an altar and named it Adonai-nissi. (16) He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of the LORD!’ The LORD will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”

Mahx note:

"It will not be long before they stone me!"

When Amalek came as an army of flesh and blood it was because Amalek was already there, having gained entrance through the slavery in the hearts of the people to what they could see with their eyes, the dryness of the desert. Amalek had first come in the form of a spirit of animosity toward God and toward Moshe, a spirit of fear and unbelief, a spirit of "seeing is believing". Because of this the children of Israel had to take up arms and fight in a war for their very survival. For had they been strong in faith in Hashem this never would have been necessary. To this we have the testimony of Moshe's own hands. For it was only when he raised up his hands, not with a sword but, to place his hands in God's hands that Israel won the battle.

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Exodus 17:14-16

(14) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!” (15) And Moses built an altar and named it Adonai-nissi. (16) He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of the LORD!’ The LORD will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”

Mahx note:

He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of the LORD!’ The LORD will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”

Targum Jonatan has this:

"And he said, Because the Word of the Lord hath sworn by the throne of His glory, that He by His Word will fight against those of the house of Amalek, and destroy them unto three generations; from the generation of this world, from the generation of the Meshiha,(Mashiach), and from the generation of the world to come."

Sanhedrin 20b:11 has this:

"It is taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yosei says: Three mitzvot were commanded to the Jewish people upon their entrance into Eretz Yisrael: To establish a king for themselves, and to cut off the seed of Amalek in war, and to build for themselves the Chosen House in Jerusalem. But I do not know which one they are obligated to do first."

Sanhedrin 20b:12 has this:

"When the verse states: “The hand upon the throne [kes] of the Lord: The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16), you must say that this means they are obligated to establish a king for themselves first, before waging war with Amalek, and the verse is interpreted as follows: “Throne of the Lord” is nothing other than a symbolic name for a king, as it is stated: 'Then Solomon sat on the throne [kisei] of the Lord as king' (I Chronicles 29:23), indicating that a king sits on 'the throne of the Lord.'"

Indeed, Amalek is the one cut off through condemnation by strict justice directly. For whereas this nation and all nations under its spell could have accepted the merciful verdict rendered upon Egypt, that the Pharaoh Adam was cut off for the sake of Hashem Elohim's redemption of Israel, His chosen Humanity, and accordingly sought mercy through Israel's mercy, they refused to accept this and were left with nothing but war with God, the Judge of all the world.

It is not possible, then, that Israel should be able to overcome Amalek unless it first overcomes the temptation to lean on the knowledge and experience of this world, which is all that it learned in slavery in Egypt, instead of leaning only on God. And this is not possible without the reign of Mashiach, without the children of Israel making Mashiach their king in Jerusalem, like David his father. Only then can Amalek be utterly removed from the world. And only then can Israel serve Hashem in the Temple of His light.