Exodus 17 Footnotes

17:5-6 Providing enough water in a desert to quench the thirst of a group of more than six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, was a miracle of the highest order, all the more impressive considering that Israel spent forty years in the desert. Moses’s striking of the rock was not what produced the water but rather God standing with Moses at the rock (v. 6).

17:14 If God blotted out the remembrance of Amalek, why do we still know about them? Even the inclusion of this verse in the Bible ensures that Amalek would never be forgotten. It is clear that the phrase “completely blot out the memory” in this context means “to remove any concern that Amalek would pose a threat to another nation.” That promise was fulfilled during the days of King David (1Sm 30:16-17).