Exodus 17

Two events are recorded in this chapter: (1) Water from the Rock (Exodus 17:1-7); and (2) the repulsing of the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16). There is a remarkable likeness in the record of these episodes, despite the radical differences.

This strange likeness in the events could be the reason for Moses' placing them side by side at this point in his record. We have already noted that a chronological sequence was not always followed. Some support for such a conclusion comes from the fact that Joshua was still considered "a young man" (Exodus 33:11) almost forty years afterward, but he was the military commander here. Of course, another explanation might be found in the question of just how old, exactly, would have been a "young man" in the eyes of Moses at the time when Moses was about 120 years of age! If, in this first recorded military engagement with Joshua as Commander, he had been the age of Alexander the Great at the beginning of Alexander's career (about 30), then, Joshua's age near the time of the entry into Canaan would have been 69 or 70, and it is not hard to see why Moses (age 120) would have referred to him as a "young man." No matter how the passage is viewed, there is no reason whatever for rejecting any part of it, or for ascribing it to a later "editor" or "redactor."

The allegation that, in this narrative, "Moses is old and feeble,"[1] is not acceptable. Watch any of the strongest athletes struggle with their inability to hold up both hands even for a single hour. How blind is the view that even the youngest and strongest could have done what Moses needed help to do here. And besides, Moses never became old and feeble. See Deuteronomy 34:7 - "Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor was his natural force abated."