Exodus 17:16
Because the hand of the throne of the Lord, and the war of the Lord shall be against Amalec, from generation to generation.
Open Exodus 17:16 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quia manus solii Domini, et bellum Domini erit contra Amalec, a generatione in generationem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὅτι ἐν χειρὶ κρυφαίᾳ πολεμεῖ Κύριος ἐπὶ Ἀμαλὴκ ἀπὸ γενεῶν εἰς γενεάς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כִּֽי יָד֙ עַל כֵּ֣ס יָ֔הּ מִלְחָמָ֥ה לַיהוָ֖ה בַּֽעֲמָלֵ֑ק מִדֹּ֖ר דֹּֽר
Haydock's commentary
Hand of the throne. The Lord hath lifted up his hand, and sworn on his throne, that war, &c., (Chaldean) or the hand of Amalec hath attacked the throne (Israel, the inheritance) of the Lord; therefore shall he pursue them for ever. The Septuagint have followed a different reading, "because with a secret hand the Lord will fight; and some suggest, that instead of ces, throne, we should read nos, signal, or standard." Since the hand has attacked the standard of the Lord, the war of the Lord is against Amalec. (Le Clerc.)
Or "the Lord has taken his standard into his hand to destroy the Amalecites for ever." (Chateillon.) (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book III, Chapter XVI. Proofs from the
4. But Simeon also, he who had received an intimation from the Holy Ghost that he should not see death, until first he had beheld Christ Jesus, taking Him, the first-begotten of the Virgin, into his hands, blessed God, and said, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: because mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel;” confessing thus, that the infant whom he was holding in his hands, Jesus, born of Mary, was Christ Himself, the Son of God, the light of all, the glory of Israel itself, and the peace and refreshing of those who had fallen asleep. …
St Augustine On the Holy Trinity, They are Proud Who Think They are Able, by Their Own Righteousness, to Be Cleansed So as to See God
20. There are, however, some who think themselves capable of being cleansed by their own righteousness, so as to contemplate God, and to dwell in God; whom their very pride itself stains above all others. For there is no sin to which the divine law is more opposed, and over which that proudest of spirits, who is a mediator to things below, but a barrier against things above, receives a greater right of mastery: unless either his secret snares be avoided by going another way, or if he rage openly by means of a sinful people (which Amalek, being interpreted, means), and forbid by fighting the passage to the land of promise, he be overcome by the cross of the Lord, which is prefigured by the holding out of the hands of Moses. …