Matthew Henry

He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

“They do, in effect, suppose that Moses was an impostor, Aaron a deceiver, the pillar of cloud and fire a mere sham and illusion, which imposed upon their senses, that long series of miracles which had rescued them, served them, and fed them, a chain…”

After this, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.

“The Amalekites were the posterity of Esau, who hated Jacob because of the birthright and blessing, and this was an effort of the hereditary enmity, a malice that ran in the blood, and perhaps was now exasperated by the working of the promise towards an…”

So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites.

“When the Egyptians pursued them Israel must stand still and see what God would do; but now it was required that they should bestir themselves. Note, God is to be trusted in the use of means.”

When Moses’ hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it.

“No doubt it was a great encouragement to the people to see Joshua before them in the field of battle and Moses above them upon the top of the hill: Christ is both to us--our Joshua, the captain of our salvation who fights our battles…”

So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his army with the sword.

“Note, Weapons formed against God's Israel cannot prosper long, and shall be broken at last. The cause of God and his Israel will be victorious.”

‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

“They were brought not only into a state of liberty and honour, but into covenant and communion with God.”

Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

“The reasonableness of this demand is, long after, pleaded with them, that in the day he brought them out of the land of Egypt this was the condition of the covenant, Obey my voice ( Jer. vii.”

And all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has spoken.” So Moses brought their words back to the LORD.

“Thus Christ, the Mediator between us and God, as a prophet reveals God's will to us, his precepts and promises, and then as a priest offers up to God our spiritual sacrifices, not only of prayer and praise, but of devout affections and pious resolutions…”

and the LORD said to him, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the LORD, lest many of them perish.

“Note, In divine things we must not covet to know more than God would have us know; and he has allowed us as much as is good for us. A desire of forbidden knowledge was the ruin of our first parents.”

Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them.”

“Even the priests or princes, the heads of the houses of their fathers, who officiated for their respective families, and therefore are said to come near to the Lord at other times, must now keep their distance, and conduct themselves with a great deal of…”

And God spoke all these words:

“They were not only spoken audibly (so he owned the Redeemer by a voice from heaven, Matt. iii. 17 ), but with a great deal of dreadful pomp.”

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.

“Those that name the name of Christ, but do not depart from iniquity, as that name binds them to do, name it in vain; their worship is vain ( Matt. xv. 7-9 ), their oblations are vain ( Isa. i.”

You shall not commit adultery.

“This commandment forbids all acts of uncleanness, with all those fleshly lusts which produce those acts and war against the soul, and all those practices which cherish and excite those fleshly lusts, as looking, in order to lust, which, Christ tells us, is forbidden in…”

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sounding of the ram’s horn, and the mountain enveloped in smoke, they trembled and stood at a distance.

“It was an indication of the terror of those convictions which the law brings into conscience, to prepare the soul for the comforts of the gospel.”

“Speak to us yourself and we will listen,” they said to Moses. “But do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”

“Once God tried the expedient of speaking to the children of men immediately, but it was found that they could not bear it; it rather drove men from God than brought them to him, and, as it proved in the issue, though it terrified them…”

And the people stood at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

“Thus it is said of the great Mediator, I will cause him to draw near ( Jer. xxx. 21 ), and by him it is that we also are introduced, Eph. iii. The Law Concerning Altars.”

You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle.

“This rule being prescribed before the establishment of the ceremonial law, which appointed altars much more costly, intimates that, after the period of that law, plainness should be accepted as the best ornament of the external services of religion, and that gospel-worship should not be…”

If what was stolen is actually found alive in his possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—he must pay back double.

“Thus he must both satisfy for the wrong and suffer for the crime. But it was afterwards provided that if the thief were touched in conscience, and voluntarily confessed it, before it was discovered or enquired into by any other, then he should only make…”

If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged in marriage and sleeps with her, he must pay the full dowry for her to be his wife.

“If she was betrothed to another, it was death to debauch her ( Deut. xxii. 23, 24 ); but the law here mentioned respects her as single.”

You must not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.

“Princes and magistrates are our fathers, whom the fifth commandment obliges us to honour and forbids us to revile. St.”

Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.

“They must not only not be swayed by a gift to give an unjust judgment, to condemn the innocent, or acquit the guilty, or adjudge a man's right from him, but they must not so much as take a gift, lest it should have a…”

Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

“It is an instance of the equity and goodness of our law, that, if an alien be tried for any crime except treason, the one half of his jury, if he desire it, shall be foreigners; they call it a trial per mediatatem linguae, a…”

You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.

“They must not only not worship their gods, but they must utterly overthrow them, in token of their great abhorrence of idolatry, their resolution never to worship idols themselves, and their care to prevent any other from worshipping them; as the converted conjurors burnt their…”

and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

“They saw the place where the God of Israel stood (so the LXX.), something that came near a similitude, but was not; whatever they saw, it was certainly something of which no image nor picture could be made, and yet enough to satisfy them that…”

But God did not lay His hand on the nobles of Israel; they saw Him, and they ate and drank.

“They feasted upon the sacrifice, before God, in token of their cheerful consent to the covenant now made, their grateful acceptance of the benefits of it, and their communion with God, in pursuance of that covenant.”