Exodus 15

Exodus 15

Exodus 15:1 At that time, Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to Yahveh, and this is what he sang, “I will sing to Yahveh, for victoriously he has achieved victory; the horse and his rider he has shot into the sea.

Exodus 15:2 Yahveh is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Exodus 15:3 Yahveh is a man of war; Yahveh is his name.

Exodus 15:4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he shot into the sea, and his elite officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

Exodus 15:5 The depths covered them; they went down into the deep sea like a stone.

Exodus 15:6 Your right hand, LORD, made glorious by power, your right hand, LORD, smashes the enemy.

Exodus 15:7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your burning anger; it consumes them like stubble.

Exodus 15:8 At the breath of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the depths solidified in the heart of the sea.

Exodus 15:9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my throat will be satisfied over them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

Exodus 15:10 You puffed your breath; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the grand waters.

Exodus 15:11 “Who is like you, LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, great in holiness, awesome in praiseworthy deeds, doing miracles?

Exodus 15:12 You stretched out your right hand; the land swallowed them.

Exodus 15:13 “You have led by your covenant faithfulness[1] these people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your sacred dwelling.

Exodus 15:14 The peoples have heard; they shudder; anguish has taken hold of the those who dwell in Philistia.

Exodus 15:15 At that time the chiefs of Edom became disturbed; trembling has taken hold of the leaders of Moab; all who live in Canaan have melted.

Exodus 15:16 Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they keep still as a stone, till your people, Yahveh, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have bought.

Exodus 15:17 You will bring them in and place them on your own mountain, the place, LORD, which you have made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have set up.

Exodus 15:18 Yahveh will reign permanently and continually.”

Exodus 15:19 Because when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, Yahveh brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.

Exodus 15:20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out behind her with tambourines and dancing.

Exodus 15:21 And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to Yahveh, because he has achieved victory; the horse and his rider he has shot into the sea.”

Exodus 15:22 Then Moses pulled up Israel from the Red Sea, and they went into the Shur open country. They went three days in the open country and could not find water.

Exodus 15:23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore, it was named Marah.

Exodus 15:24 And the people complained about Moses, and this is what they said, “What will we drink?”

Exodus 15:25 And he cried out to Yahveh, and Yahveh showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There Yahveh made for them a prescribed task and a judgment,[2] and there he tested them,

Exodus 15:26 saying, “If you will carefully listen to the voice of Yahveh your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his prescribed tasks, I will put none of the maladies on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am Yahveh, your healer.”

Exodus 15:27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they set up camp there by the water.

[1] חֶסֶד = covenant faithfulness. Exodus 15:13; 20:6; 34:6, 7.

[2] מִשְׁפָּט = judgment, justice, justly. Exodus 15:25; 21:1, 9, 31; 23:6; 24:3; 26:30; 28:15, 29, 30.

Exodus 15 quotes:

“This poem is a lyrical outpouring of emotional praise of the God who had delivered them. It enters that praise assuming that we know the story, and tells it from an alternative point of view. Rather than focusing on the human side of the story, it focuses on the spiritual and heavenly side and it does so with evocative language that has God at its centre. So, where Exodus 14:21 told us that the sea parted when a strong east wind blew through the night, Exodus 15:8 tells us that it was by the blast of God’s nostrils that the waters piled up.”

Reid, Andrew. Out of Darkness : Exodus 1- 18. Matthias Media, 2005. p. 56.

“Miriam’s Song appears at the end of a Hebrew poem about God’s deliverance at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1-21). The entire poem is known in Judaism as Shirat ha-Yam, “The Song of the Sea.”? John I. Durham proposes that this song was “stimulated by an exceptional moment in Israel’s history.” * Israel had just witnessed God’s power through the 10 plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, walked across the seabed on dry land, and watched the complete destruction of Egypt’s pursuing army (14:21-29). Their response is summarized in verse 31: “Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.””

Guy, Cynthia Dianne. Struggle Seek Grow: How 12 Women in Scripture Sought Spiritual Maturity. Gospel Advocate Company, 2011. p. 136.

“So here is a hymn that looks back to a miraculous event fresh in the minds of all the Israelites, and yet looks forward to a promise of a land the people have not yet seen (Exodus 15: 17). It is a song both of experience and of faith, of proof and yet of trust. Most of all it is a people’s song, expressing praise to their God, Yahweh, the Lord, who was leading them — by displays of great power where necessary— every step of their journey.”

Stuart, Douglas K. Favorite Old Testament Passages : A Popular Commentary for Today. 1st ed, Westminster Press, 1985. p. 27.