Exodus 15

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD. They said: I will sing to the LORD, because he has won a glorious victory. He has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea.

1Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

NoteVerses 1–18 are a poem, usually called the Song of the Sea, and its Hebrew is archaic, many scholars think it is among the oldest surviving Hebrew poetry. "LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH, which Jewish readers traditionally do not pronounce aloud. The KJV's "triumphed gloriously" renders a Hebrew phrase that literally says "he has risen up high" or "he is highly exalted."

2The LORD is my strength and my song. He has become the one who saves me. He is my God, and I will prepare a home for him. He is my father's God, and I will lift him high.

2The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

NoteThe second half of this line is genuinely uncertain. The Hebrew verb can be read as "I will make a dwelling for him" (the KJV's "prepare him an habitation") or, from a similar-looking root meaning "beautify," as "I will praise him." Modern translations split between the two. "My strength and song" may also mean "my strength and my protection"; the second noun is rare and disputed.

3The LORD is a fighting man. The LORD is his name.

3The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

Note"A man of war" is a Hebrew set phrase, not a comment on gender or humanity: it is the ordinary term for a soldier or warrior. The line pairs it with "the LORD is his name": that is, the God who bears this name is the one who fights.

4He has thrown Pharaoh's chariots and his army into the sea. Pharaoh's best officers were drowned in the Red Sea.

4Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.

NoteChariots were the elite arm of an Egyptian army (fast, expensive, and manned by the nobility), so losing them was losing the best of the force. "Red Sea" translates Hebrew *yam suph*, which literally means something like "sea of reeds"; which body of water it refers to has been argued over for centuries.

5The deep waters covered them. They sank down to the bottom like a stone.

5The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.

6Your right hand, LORD, has shown its glorious power. Your right hand, LORD, has smashed the enemy to pieces.

6Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

Note"Right hand" is a standard ancient idiom for a person's strength and power, the hand that holds the weapon. It says nothing about God having a body; the poem uses it the way English uses "a strong arm."

7In your great majesty you threw down those who rose up against you. You sent out your anger, and it burned them up like dry stalks left in a field.

7And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.

8At the blast of air from your nose the waters piled up. The moving waters stood up straight like a heap. The deep waters turned solid in the middle of the sea.

8And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.

NoteIn Hebrew the same word means both "nose" and "anger," and another single word covers "breath," "wind," and "spirit", so this image of snorting breath piling up the water is also an image of anger, and picks up again in verse 10.

9The enemy said, I will chase them. I will catch them. I will divide up what I take from them. I will have all I want of them. I will pull out my sword. My hand will destroy them.

9The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.

NoteDividing the spoil means sharing out captured goods and people after a battle, the normal payoff for an ancient army. The KJV's "my lust shall be satisfied" uses "lust" in its older, general sense of appetite or desire; the Hebrew word is *nephesh*, "throat" or "appetite," so the boast is roughly "I will gorge myself on them."

10You blew with your wind, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the powerful waters.

10Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.

11Who among the gods is like you, LORD? Who is like you? You are glorious in your holiness. You are to be feared when you are praised. You do wonderful things.

11Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

Note"Among the gods" is how the poem's first hearers would have framed a claim of supremacy, measuring their God against the gods the surrounding nations worshiped. "Fearful in praises" is ambiguous in the Hebrew as well as the English: it can mean "awesome in praiseworthy deeds" or "to be held in awe while being praised."

12You reached out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them.

12Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.

NoteThe Hebrew word for "earth" also serves as a name for the underworld, the realm of the dead. So the line can be heard as the ground opening or as the grave taking them in; the ambiguity is in the original.

13In your mercy you have led out the people you set free. In your strength you have guided them to your holy home.

13Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.

Note"Redeemed" translates a legal term: to buy something back, or to pay the price to free a slave or a captive relative. It was an ordinary commercial and family word before it was a religious one. "Your holy home" is left open, readers have taken it as Sinai, as the land of Canaan, or as the future sanctuary.

14The peoples will hear of it and be afraid. Pain will grip those who live in Philistia.

14The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.

NotePhilistia (the KJV's "Palestina") is the coastal strip of what is now southern Israel and Gaza, home to the Philistines, a people of Aegean origin who settled there and were Israel's rivals for centuries.

15Then the chiefs of Edom will be shocked. The strong men of Moab will start to shake. Everyone who lives in Canaan will lose all their courage.

15Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.

NoteThe KJV's "dukes" simply means chiefs or clan leaders and has nothing to do with European nobility. Edom, Moab and Canaan name the peoples and territories lying along the route between Egypt and the land Israel is heading for. "Melt away" is an idiom for courage draining out of a person, the way English says someone's nerve dissolved.

16Fear and terror will fall on them. Because your arm is so strong, they will be as still as a stone, until your people pass by, LORD, until the people you have bought pass by.

16Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.

Note"The greatness of thine arm" is the same bodily idiom as "right hand" in verse 6, sheer strength. "Purchased" or "bought" uses a commercial verb for acquiring property, echoing the "redeemed" of verse 13; the picture is of a people bought out of slavery.

17You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain that belongs to you. That is the place, LORD, that you made for yourself to live in. It is the holy place, Lord, that your hands set up.

17Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O LORD, which thy hands have established.

Note"Inheritance" is a land term: the portion allotted to a family or a people as their permanent holding. "The mountain" and "the sanctuary" are not identified here, and readers have disagreed for a long time over whether the poem means Sinai, the hill country of Canaan generally, or the temple mount at Jerusalem.

18The LORD will rule as king forever and ever.

18The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.

19For Pharaoh's horses went into the sea with his chariots and his horsemen, and the LORD brought the waters of the sea back over them. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the middle of the sea.

19For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

Note"Horsemen" may mean chariot crews rather than riders on horseback; cavalry in the modern sense was not yet the standard way armies used horses in this period.

20Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand drum, and all the women went out after her with hand drums and dancing.

20And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

NoteA prophetess is a woman who speaks on God's behalf; Miriam is the first woman in the Bible given the title. The timbrel was a small hand-held frame drum, and drumming and dancing by women was the customary way to greet an army returning victorious. Calling her "the sister of Aaron" is the ordinary way of placing a person in a family.

21And Miriam sang back to them: Sing to the LORD, because he has won a glorious victory. He has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea.

21And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

Note"Answered them" describes call-and-response singing: one voice leads a line and the group sings it back. Miriam's words repeat the opening of the song in verse 1, so she is likely leading the refrain rather than starting a new song.

22So Moses led Israel away from the Red Sea, and they went out into the desert of Shur. They traveled three days in the desert and found no water.

22So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

NoteShur is a desert region east of Egypt, on the edge of the Sinai peninsula. Three days was a standard span for a journey stage, and three days without water is close to the limit of survival in that country.

23When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there, because it was bitter. That is why the place was named Marah.

23And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

NoteThe point is a pun that English loses: *marah* is the Hebrew word for "bitter," so the place is called Bitter because the water is bitter. Naming a site after what happened there is common in these narratives.

24The people complained against Moses. They said, What are we going to drink?

24And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

25Moses called out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became sweet. There the LORD gave them a rule and a law, and there he tested them.

25And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

Note"Statute and ordinance" is a standard legal pair in Hebrew for a fixed ruling and a binding decision, the vocabulary of law codes. "Proved them" in the KJV means tested them, put them to the test; it does not mean demonstrated anything.

26He said, If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in his eyes, and pay attention to his commands, and keep all his rules, then I will not put on you any of the diseases I put on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.

26And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Note"The diseases I put on the Egyptians" points back to the plagues of chapters 7–12, particularly the boils. "Give ear" is simply "listen"; the whole verse stacks four near-synonyms for obeying, which is normal Hebrew legal style rather than four separate demands.

27Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there beside the water.

27And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

NoteElim is an oasis; twelve springs and seventy palms mark it as unusually well watered after the desert of Shur. The KJV's "threescore and ten" is an older way of saying seventy, a score is twenty.