The Lord is my Banner
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So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”
And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-Lord-Is-My-Banner;
for he said, “Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
Victory over the Amalekites
Victory over the Amalekites
and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.”
Before Israel reached Sinai, the Amalekites came to fight them at Rephidim.
-Amalek was a grandson of Esau...
Joshua led the battle effort while Moses went atop a nearby hill. As long as Moses raised his arms in supplication and reverence to God, Joshua and his soldiers prevailed.
Supplication, Intercession, and Reliance on God.
But when Moses arms fell, the Israelites would be overcome.
Aaron and Hur supported him
Set him on a rock
Supported his arms
We need one another!
We need one another!
Exodus (Excursus: Israelite Holy The patriarchs also sometimes named altars, particularly in the case of Jacob (Gen 33:20; 35:7). Moses here follows that example as well, by including a divine name in the name of the altar just as Jacob, for example, had done. Moses chose the name, lit., “Yahweh is my Signal Pole” (NIV “The LORD is my Banner”). The Hebrew word nēs, here translated “banner” in the NIV, does have that meaning in later Hebrew in the sense of a ship’s ensign (Ezek 27:7), but in all earlier texts it refers not to something made of fabric or cloth but of a decorated pole held high and used as a signal marker or signal pole (Isa 5:26; 11:10, 12; 13:2; 18:13; 30:17 [where it is parallel to a word meaning “flag staff”]; 31:9; 49:22; 62:10; Jer 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27; Ps 60:4). It can also have the more generic sense of “sign/warning” (Num 26:10) and can as well mean just “pole” (Num 21:8) or “ship’s mast” (Isa 33:23). Most often it is used in military contexts, where the nēs is a signal pole around which an army or army unit can rally, regroup, or return for instructions
The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Biblical Relevance)
Several hundred years later, God commanded King Saul to fight against the Amalekites as punishment for their attack at Rephidim (1 Sam 15:1–35). A victory would secure Judah’s southern border and its settlements in the Negev. Although God ordered all the people and goods of the Amalekites to be destroyed, Saul spared at least their king, Agag, as well as the best of the livestock. This act of disobedience was so severe that God rejected Saul as king and dispatched Samuel to anoint David as Israel’s new king (Rainey, Bridge, 146–147).
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Biblical Relevance
Later, when David was hiding from Saul in the Negev with his men and their families, Amalekites attacked and plundered the camp while the soldiers were away. David pursued and defeated them. First Samuel 30:1–31 records that “only” 400 men got away, implying either that Saul had left many more survivors than just the king, or that there were other Amalekites that Saul did not confront.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Biblical Relevance)
In the book of Esther, the villian Haman is repeatedly called an “Agagite” (e.g., Esth 3:1), linking back to the Amalekite king spared by Saul. Haman tried to exterminate the Jews through an edict of King Xerxes of Persia. If not for the actions of Esther, the people would have been destroyed.
Jericho
Jericho
The New King James Version Chapter 6
7 And he said to the people, “Proceed, and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the LORD.”
The New King James Version Chapter 6
And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
Sword of the Spirit
Sword of the Spirit
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”
And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-Lord-Is-My-Banner;
for he said, “Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
The NKJV Study Bible (Chapter 17)
17:16 The Hebrew translated as the LORD has sworn is somewhat obscure, but appears to mean “Surely there is a hand on the throne of the Lord.” In this phraseology, the Creator of the universe is pictured as seated on His throne while raising His hand in a solemn oath.
My hand was on the throne!
My hand was on the throne!
Exodus (Excursus: Israelite Holy War)
staff he had held high during the battle was the signal pole of Yahweh, a visible rallying point for the army of Israel in holy war.17:16 Moses then identified the staff as not merely a signal pole but as a symbol of Yahweh’s throne. The key words (translated in the NIV “as hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD”) are preserved in the text in the old Bronze Age orthography, which did not indicate any vowel letters (matres lectionis) of any kind. Thus yd; ʿālê, “my hand,” is spelled merely yd; ʾal, the old form of ʿal seen typically only in early poetry (which tends to preserve early orthography in some cases), is spelled just ʿl; kissê, the word for throne is spelled just ks, and the name Yahweh is represented by the common hypocoristicon yah. What Moses said, then, was “My hand was at/on [i.e., touching] Yahweh’s throne,” a way of saying, “When I held up that staff, I was symbolizing the presence of Yahweh right with us, sitting on his throne, [ruling over the battle and helping us to win].” The verse, and thus the account of the battle against Amalek, ends with a summary of what God had told Moses to relay to Joshua: “Yahweh has war with Amalek in every generation,” or as the NIV more idiomatically puts it, “The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”