Exodus 15
Big idea: The first song in the Bible, and then the first complaint after it. Moses and Israel sing the sea: Yahweh is a man of war, his right hand glorious in power, the enemy's boast — I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil — answered by one line, you blew with your wind. Its centre is a question: who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? And its horizon runs past the sea to a mountain God will plant them in, and a reign forever. Miriam takes a tambourine and the women answer. Then three days into the wilderness with no water, and what water there is at Marah is bitter — and the people who just sang murmur. A tree thrown in makes it sweet, and God gives a statute and a name: I am Yahweh who heals you.
Chapter 15 ends at Elim with twelve springs and seventy palm trees — abundance, briefly. Chapter 16 leaves Elim for a wilderness with no food at all, and the murmuring turns to hunger.
15:1–12 — I will sing to Yahweh
Moses and the children of Israel sing: I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. Yah is my strength and song; he has become my salvation — this is my God, and I will praise him. Yahweh is a man of war; Yahweh is his name. Pharaoh's chariots cast into the sea, his chosen captains sunk, the deeps covering them, going down like a stone. Your right hand is glorious in power. The enemy's boast is quoted in full — I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my hand shall destroy them — and answered in a single line: you blew with your wind, the sea covered them, they sank like lead. Then the question at the song's heart: who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods?
1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, “I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea. 2 Yah is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3 Yahweh is a man of war. Yahweh is his name. 4 He has cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea. His chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea. 5 The deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone. 6 Your right hand, Yahweh, is glorious in power. Your right hand, Yahweh, dashes the enemy in pieces. 7 In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send out your wrath. It consumes them as stubble. 8 With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword. My hand will destroy them.’ 10 You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11 Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them.
15:13–21 — You will bring them in
The song turns from what God has done to what he will do: in your loving kindness you have led the people you have redeemed; you have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. The peoples have heard and tremble — Philistia, Edom, Moab, Canaan — until your people pass over, the people you have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place you have made for yourself to dwell in, the sanctuary your hands have established. Yahweh will reign forever and ever. Then the narrator returns to the fact — Pharaoh's horses went in and Yahweh brought the waters back — and Miriam the prophetess takes a tambourine, and all the women follow with tambourines and dancing, and she answers them with the song's first line.
13 “You, in your loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. 14 The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16 Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone, until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people you have purchased pass over. 17 You will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, Yahweh, which you have made for yourself to dwell in: the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have established. 18 Yahweh will reign forever and ever.” 19 For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the middle of the sea. 20 Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances. 21 Miriam answered them, “Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea.”
15:22–27 — Marah, and Elim
Moses leads Israel from the Red Sea into the wilderness of Shur, and they go three days without finding water. At Marah the water is undrinkable because it is bitter — hence the name — and the people murmur against Moses: what shall we drink? He cries to Yahweh, who shows him a tree; he throws it into the waters and they become sweet. There God makes a statute and an ordinance for them and tests them: if you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God's voice and do what is right in his eyes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians — for I am Yahweh who heals you. Then they come to Elim, where there are twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and camp by the waters.
22 Moses led Israel onward 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. 23 When they came to Marah, they couldn’t drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah. 24 The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 Then he cried to Yahweh. Yahweh showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them. 26 He said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.” 27 They came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. They encamped there by the waters.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).