AMALEK OVERCOME.

JUST after the miraculous supply of water obtained by Moses for the Israelites, by smiting the rock in Horeb, the king of Amalek came upon that timid people with a mighty army and threatened to exterminate them. Moses, accompanied by Aaron and Hur, the latter supposed to be the husband of Miriam and consequently their brother-in-law, "went up to the top of the hill," in order to see the battle and encourage the children of Israel. He bore in his hand the miraculous rod, the mysterious ensign of the Divine agency, and to which is supposed to have been attached the Hebrew banner; so that when he lifted it up, the Israelites were encouraged and exerted themselves with redoubled energy; but when he dropped it, in consequence of his arms declining from fatigue, their spirits drooped and the enemy, taking advantage of their panic, obtained a momentary ascendency. In order, therefore, to sustain the courage of God's chosen people and secure the victory, Aaron and Hur "took a stone, and put it under Moses, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." The artist has represented the Jewish lawgiver, in accordance with the views of many respectable commentators, as raising his hands in solemn supplication to Heaven. He is seen "on he top of the hill," probably Horeb, which was in this neighbourhood, with Aaron and Hur on either side of him sustaining his hands, which he had lifted up in prayer for the success of the Israelites who appear in the plain below, discomfiting "Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." An altar was eventually raised on the spot where Moses sat, in commemoration of this signal victory, and was called Jehovah-nissi, or "The Lord, my banner."