Exodus 15

EXODUS 15 [1]

Israel’s first psalm [2]

Sing to Yahweh (vv.1-5)

1 Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said,

“I will sing to Yahweh, for He is highly exalted [lit.”risen risingly];	The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.
2 “Yah [3] is my strength and song,	And He has become my salvation; [4]
This is my God, and I will praise Him;	My father’s God, [5] and I will extol Him.
3 “Yahweh is a warrior;	Yahweh is His name.
4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;	And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.
5 “The deeps [6] cover them;	They went down into the depths like a stone.

Description of the Redeemer and His redemption (vv.6-12)

6 “Your right hand, O Yahweh, is majestic in power,			Your right hand,[7] O Yahweh, shatters the enemy.
7 “And in the greatness of Your excellence			You overthrow those who rise up against You;
You send forth Your burning anger,			and it consumes them as chaff.
8 “At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up,	The flowing waters stood up like 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 spoil;			My desire shall be gratified against them;
I will draw out 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 among the gods, O Yahweh?		Who is like You [8], majestic in holiness,		Awesome/Fearful in praises, working wonders?
12 “You stretched out Your right hand,			The earth swallowed them.[9]

God shepherds/guides His people to His sanctuary (vv.13-19)

13 “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed;		In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation.
14 “The peoples have heard, they tremble; [10]		Anguish [11] has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 “Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; [12]	The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them;		All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16 “Terror and dread fall upon them;		By the greatness of Your arm[13] they are motionless as stone;
Until Your people pass over, O Yahweh,		Until the people pass over whom You have purchased.
17 “You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance,	The place, O Yahweh, which You have made for Your dwelling,			The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. [14]

18 “Yahweh shall reign forever and ever.”

19 For the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea,

and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them,

but the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea.

Sing to Yahweh (vv.20-21)

20 Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took the timbrel in her hand,	and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing.
21 Miriam answered (echoed?) them, ““Sing to Yahweh, for He is highly exalted [lit.”risen risingly];	The horse and his rider He has hurled into the sea.”[15]

[1] Exodus 15 is very influential in the language and meditation of the Psalms (see especially Psalm 77-78; Psalm 89:6-8,14-15; 105-106; 118:14-18).

[2] Other songs predating the Psalms include:

The Song of the Ark (Numbers 10:35–36)

The Song of the Well (Numbers 21:17)

The Oracles of Balaam (Numbers 23–24)

The Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32)

The Blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 33)

The Song of Deborah (Judges 5)

The Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1–10; 1 Samuel 2:8//Psalm 113:7-8a)

[3] This is the first occurrence of the contracted form of Yahweh in Scripture. Yah occurs 50x in the Hebrew Scriptures, 43 of which are in the Psalms. Psalm 68 is the first song in the Psalter that Yah occurs (vv.4,18).

[4] Verse 2ab is repeated word for word in Psalm 118:14 and nearly so in Isaiah 12:2b. In Isaiah 11:2b God is referred to as “Yah Yahweh.”

[5] See Exodus 2:24-25; 6:2-3,15-17.

[6] “Deeps” first occurs in Genesis 1:2, “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” The deeps also burst open when water flooded the earth, “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened” (Genesis 7:11). The term occurs 11x in the Psalms (33:7; 36:6; 42:7; 71:20; 77:16; 78:15; 104:6; 106:9; 107:26; 135:6; 148:7).

[7] The repetition of “your right hand” in this verse is an example of staircase parallelism. Staircase parallelism is also found in vv.11 (“Who is like You), 16b (until…people passover).

[8] See Psalm 35:10; 71:19; 77:13; 89:6; 113:5; Micah 7:18.

[9] “To say that the netherworld swallowed them is to say that they were sent to their graves. It should also be remembered that in Egyptian concepts of afterlife the wicked are devoured by the “Swallower” when they fail to convince the judges of their goodness.” (Matthews, Chavalas, Walton, The IVP Bible background commentary: Old Testament; Ex 15:12).

[10] The trembling of the nations at the power of God is also found in Psalm 99:1. The Psalms also speak of the earth and waters and mountains “trembling” before Yahweh (Psalm 18:7; 77:16,18).

[11] Psalm 48:6 speaks of the kings of the earth being in anguish “as of a woman in childbirth.”

[12] The Psalms also speak of the dismay of Yahweh’s enemies (Psalm 2:5; 6:10; 48:5; 83:15,17; cf. Psalm 90:7).

[13] The “arm” of Yahweh is a metaphor for His power and strength to save. It is used this way 9x in the Psalms (44:3; 71:18; 77:15; 79:11; 89:10,13,21; 98:1; 136:12).

[14] Victorious kingship in Scripture is followed by house building (Exodus 15:7-10,13,17; 2 Samuel 7:1-2,12-13; Psalm 98; 118; Ezekiel 36-48; Matthew 16:13-28; Ephesians 2; Hebrews 3:2-6; Revelation 12; 20:7-22:5). “[T]he literary unity of the Book of Exodus is evidenced by the identification of its comprehensive thematic structure with the pattern of divine triumph and house-building…Victorious kingship followed by palace building is discovered as a thematic pattern within the briefer unity of the Song of Triumph at the sea (Exod. 15:1-18)…The Song first celebrates the glorious triumph of redemptive judgment, the demonstration that Yahweh in his majestic holiness and wondrous working was without parallel among the gods (vv.1-12). Then the Snog moves on prophetically to Yahweh’s establishment of his sanctuary on the mountain of his abode and the arrival there of his redeemed people through his irresistible might at the site of his everlasting reign (vv.13-18)” (M. G. Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority [Eugene Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 1997] 80-81).

[15] Repetition of refrains in Psalms are found in: 42:5,11 with 43:5; 46:7,11; 49:12,20; 56:4,11; 57:5,11; 59:6, 14; 59:9, 17; 62:2,6; 80:3,7,19; 99:5, 9; 107:8,15,21,31; 107:6,13,19,28; see also Psalm 8:1,9.