The help nobody asked for
"So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword."
— Exodus 17:10-13
These people had been slaves in Egypt not long before, and they were not trained soldiers. Amalek was a raiding tribe from desert country south of Canaan, descended from Esau. Deuteronomy records their method: strike a column from behind and pick off stragglers, whoever is worn out and lagging. That raid came in this same camp, right after everyone quarreled over water. Things got ugly enough that their leader said this crowd was ready to stone him. Up on that ridge stands a man of eighty, holding the staff he once used at the Nile and at a rock. Hebrew uses an everyday word for what gave out in him: heavy, like a load, not sleepy. Of the two men who stepped in beside him, one is his own brother; the other appears in only a handful of verses in all of Scripture. Down below, a commander leads the fighting, and this is the first time in the Bible anyone writes his name. Even the strongest person gives out when nobody stands beside them.