15. And Moses built an altar. The purpose of this was that not he alone, but the whole people should testify, by solemn sacrifice, their gratitude; which the very name of the altar proves. For neither did he wish to erect a statue to God, nor to honor the altar by God’s name, but he shows that this was the object he proposed to himself, that the Israelites, being inflated by their good success, should not boast of their own strength, but glory only in God. I see not why some should translate it “miracle,” for the word נס, (193) nis, is undoubtedly always rendered “banner.” Yet I do not deny that the word is here used metaphorically for “exaltation;” as if Moses had said, that the God who had sustained His people was worthy only to be exalted among them.
(193) It was in S M ’s version that C. found this clause rendered Dominus miraculum meum; and Munster cites Onkelos, the Chaldee paraphrast, as his authority for so translating the word נסי; but the text of that paraphrase, as given in Elias Hutter’s Heptateuch, does not justify this singular rendering. — W