“And deliver it,” he says, “to the ears of Joshua.” In the Hebrew and Greek these words can be taken [as] connected with the following — so that Joshua, namely, is bidden (it is Moses [who says] this) [that] it shall be that the Lord will blot out the memory of Amalek. For if you refer [them] to the preceding, the sense will be [that] this war and victory are to be narrated to Joshua. But this [is] in vain. For why should we teach him the [things] which he saw, at which he was present — nay, over which he presided? That, indeed, is [like] narrating one’s dream to someone. But it concerned him very much to know those future [things], so that thereafter he might hope [that] there would be a divine imprecation [cursing] against these and all other enemies: [so] that, with so great a leader — who was to lead the people of God into the promised land — he might bear a spirit worthy [of the task], and might be terrified by no adverse chances and hostile forces. Nay, there is also a type of future things [in this], while [he] who is the saviour of the Israelites is, by that very [fact], shown [to be] the overthrower of the adversary nations. For [he] who saves us — CHRIST JESUS — [is] the same [who] cuts off all the unbelieving and ungodly, and drives them headlong into the abyss. Yet the Latin [translator] referred [it] to the preceding. For the Hebrews’ כי and the Greeks’ ὅτι he renders not by the continuative “that” [quod], but by the causal “for” [enim]. And rightly indeed. For this [is] the more usual force of those particles: and [it is] not simply the war and victory that are to be narrated to Joshua (for that, as was objected, [is] by no means necessary, and almost ridiculous), but the manner of the war and victory — namely, how this [victory was] divinely granted
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and obtained by prayers. And then, nonetheless, those reasons have force which showed [that] it was expedient for Joshua to be made more certain of those future [events]. But yet, what cause does that “for” signify? What is [the meaning of] “Write these things, O Moses; say these things to Joshua. For I will blot out Amalek”? [It] seems [that] more, indeed, is signified than we see at first sight: namely, [that it was] obtained by those prayers, not only that Amalek should now be conquered, but that thereafter [he] should also be plucked out root and branch. And of how great import [it is] that Joshua know these [things], [and] that all posterity [know them], by discourses and by the monuments of books?