Exodus 17:14

14. Write This is the first time that this word occurs in the Bible . Until quite recently the existence of the art of writing in the time of Moses was frequently disputed by the opponents of revelation; but it is now settled that the Phenicians, whose alphabet was the same as that of the Hebrews, practiced writing at least as early as the time of Moses . The best idea of the form of the letters can be obtained from the fac simile of the famous Moabite stone discovered in 1868, which contains an inscription of Mesha, king of Moab, (2 Kings 3:4, which see,) vaunting his victories over Omri, king of Israel, in the tenth century B . C . , the oldest alphabetic inscription as yet known . (“The Moabite Stone,” by Dr . Ginsburg, London, 1871.) Writing is here spoken of as if familiar to the Israelites, and it will be noticed, not mere monumental writing, as of a few words upon a stone, but in a book, upon papyrus, which denotes much advancement in the art.

In a book In the (well-known) book; our translation improperly omits the article. (Gesenius, Gr., § 109, 3, Rem. 1; Ewald, Lehrb., § 277, a.) It was the book wherein was kept the record of this wonderful history, wherein all God’s statutes were written down. It was doubtless the book used by Moses, or his scribes, in the composition of the Pentateuch, if not the Pentateuch itself.

In the ears of Joshua Because he was to be the military leader, and to execute this commission upon Amalek.

I will utterly put out Literally, wiping I will wipe out; fearfully graphic words. Amalek was a nation which had “filled the measure of its iniquities,” and God appointed Israel to blot it from being.