Moses used "Amalek" to represent the Amalekites, as he often used "Israel" for the Israelites ( Exodus 17:8). The Amalekites were a tribe of Semites. They had descended from one of Esau"s grandsons ( Genesis 36:12) and had settled in the part of Sinai the Israelites now occupied. They also inhabited an area in southern Canaan (cf. Genesis 14:7). They evidently opposed Israel in battle because they felt Israel was a threat to their security. [source][source][source]
This is the first biblical reference to Joshua ( Exodus 17:9). Moses selected him to lead Israel"s warriors. Moses" staff was the means God used to accomplish miracles for Israel and to identify those miracles as coming from Himself (cf. Exodus 17:5, et al.). [source][source][source]
Hur was the son of Caleb ( Exodus 17:10; 1 Chronicles 2:19; not the Caleb of later fame in Numbers and Joshua) and possibly the grandfather of Bezalel, the architect of the tabernacle ( Exodus 31:2, et al.). Josephus said he was the husband of Miriam. [1] He was an important man in Israel (cf. Exodus 24:14). [source][source][source]
"Moses went to the top of the hill that he might see the battle from thence. He took Aaron and Hur with him, not as adjutants to convey his orders to Joshua and the army engaged, but to support him in his own part in connection with the conflict. This was to hold up his hand with the staff of God in it. To understand the meaning of this sign, it must be borne in mind that, although Exodus 17:11 merely speaks of the raising and dropping of the hand (in the singular), yet, according to Exodus 17:12, both hands were supported by Aaron and Hur, who stood one on either side, so that Moses did not hold up his hands alternately, but grasped the staff with both his hands, and held it up with the two." [2][source]
"Moses lifted his hands, in symbol of the power of Yahweh upon the fighting men of Israel, surely, but in some miraculous way Moses" upraised hands became also conductors of that power." [3][source]
Moses" actions suggest that he was engaging in intercessory prayer, though reference to prayer is absent in the text. The emphasis is on the rod that Moses held in his hand, the instrument of God"s power. [source][source][source]
"The lifting up of the hands has been regarded almost with unvarying unanimity by Targumists, Rabbins, Fathers, Reformers, and nearly all the more modern commentators, as the sign or attitude of prayer. ... The lifting up of the staff secured to the warriors the strength needed to obtain the victory, from the fact that by means of the staff Moses brought down this strength from above, i.e, from the Almighty God in heaven; not indeed by a merely spiritless and unthinking elevation of the staff, but by the power of his prayer, which was embodied in the lifting up of his hands with the staff, and was so far strengthened thereby, that God had chosen and already employed this staff as the medium of the saving manifestation of His almighty power. There is no other way in which we can explain the effect produced upon the battle by the raising and dropping ... of the staff in his hands.... God had not promised him miraculous help for the conflict with the Amalekites, and for this reason he lifted up his hands with the staff in prayer to God, that he might thereby secure the assistance of Jehovah for His struggling people. At length he became exhausted, and with the falling of his hands and the staff he held, the flow of divine power ceased, so that it was necessary to support his arms, that they might be kept firmly directed upwards ... until the enemy was entirely subdued." [4][source]
"The significance of this is that Israel"s strength lay only in a continuous appeal to the Lord"s power and a continuous remembrance of what He had already done for them ..." [5][source]
"Why do you fail in your Christian life? Because you have ceased to pray! Why does that young Christian prevail? Ah, in the first place, he prays for himself; but also, there are those in distant places, mothers, sisters, grandparents, who would think that they sinned, if they ceased to pray for him, and they will not fail to lift up their hands for him until the going down of the sun of their lives!" [6][source]
This battle was more important than may appear on the surface. [source][source][source]
"As the heathen world was now commencing its conflict with the people of God in the persons of the Amalekites, and the prototype of the heathen world, with its hostility to God, was opposing the nation of the Lord, that had been redeemed from the bondage of Egypt and was on its way to Canaan, to contest its entrance into the promised inheritance; so the battle which Israel fought with this foe possessed a typical significance in relation to all the future history of Israel. It could not conquer by the sword alone, but could only gain the victory by the power of God, coming down from on high, and obtained through prayer and those means of grace with which it had been entrusted." [7][source]
What was the immediate significance of this battle for Israel? Israel learned that God would give them victory over their enemies as they relied on Him. [source][source][source]
"Jehovah used the attack of Amalek on Israel, at the very beginning of their national history, to demonstrate to His chosen people the potency of intercession. The event reveals a mighty means of strength and victory which God has graciously afforded His people of all ages." [8][source]