Exodus 15:12

The song comes straight out of Exodus 14. The LORD parted the Red Sea, Israel crossed on dry ground, and the waters came back over the Egyptian chariots and horsemen. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore, saw the great work the LORD had done, feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and his servant Moses (Exodus 14:30–31). “Then sang Moses”: the song is their answer to what they had just seen.

It is often called the Song of the Sea or the Song of Moses, and it is among the oldest hymns in Scripture. It runs through Exodus 15:1–18 and moves in three stages. Verses 1–2 are personal praise, verses 3–12 tell what God did at the sea, and the rest of the song looks ahead to God leading his people to his holy habitation (Exodus 15:13, 15:17) and ends with his reign for ever (Exodus 15:18). It is the first great song of praise sung by the whole people of God, and it sets the pattern for all their later worship: God saves, and his people sing. The whole chapter, Exodus 15, goes on from the song into the wilderness.

Victories were celebrated in song in Israel’s later history too, as in Deborah’s song after the defeat of Sisera, and the kings of the nations sang of their conquests and the might of their gods. This song gives all the victory to the LORD. Israel’s only part at the sea was to walk through it.

Verse 2 is the heart of Israel’s confession. The LORD is named here by Yâhh, the shortened form of his name used in poetry, with the same meaning as the full name. He is “my strength”, ʻôz, which means strength or might and can also mean a stronghold. He is “my song”, zimrâth, a word for music and praise. So the God who gave them the power to stand is also the one they sing about. The victory and the praise both belong to him.

“And he is become my salvation.” The word yᵉshûwʻâh means deliverance, rescue or victory, and Strong’s also gives “something saved”. Scripture uses it for rescue brought about through people as well, and it traces every such rescue back to the LORD. Here Israel has watched it happen, and “is become” describes a salvation already accomplished. These words were sung again and again in Israel. A psalm repeats them exactly, “The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation” (Psalm 118:14), and Isaiah gives them to the redeemed of a later day: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2).

“He is my God” is literally “this is my God”, with zeh, “this one”, pointing to the God who has just acted. “God” here is ʼêl. “My father’s God” uses a different word, ʼĕlôhîym, the plural of majesty that names the true God. Both are translated “God” in English. With the second, the song joins this generation to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom the promises were made (Genesis 12:1–3), and to the burning bush, where God named himself to Moses as the God of his father (Exodus 3:6). The God who saved them at the sea is the God their fathers trusted. “And I will exalt him”: rûwm means to lift high, and Israel promises to lift up his name in praise.

“The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” The name Yᵉhôvâh, which Strong’s ties to hâyâh, “to be”, means the self-existent or Eternal One. It is God’s personal covenant name, revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14–15). ʼÎysh is a man, an individual, and milchâmâh is battle or war, so “a man of war” is a warrior. The song speaks of God in human terms to say that he fought this battle himself. Pharaoh’s army was beaten by the LORD in person.

The name shêm in Hebrew is a mark of who someone is, and by implication his honour, authority and character. “The LORD is his name” grounds the first line in God’s own identity. The warrior at the sea is the covenant God, the same God who had remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 2:24–25) and had already executed judgment on the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12). The nations around Israel pictured their own gods as warriors, but the LORD fought for a people in slavery, for justice and deliverance.

He goes on fighting for them. At the sea Moses told the people that the LORD would fight for them (Exodus 14:14), and he said the same as they faced the land (Deuteronomy 1:30, Deuteronomy 3:22). The psalms ask, “Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle” (Psalm 24:8), and Isaiah sees the LORD going out like a mighty warrior and stirring up his zeal (Isaiah 42:13).

Verses 4 and 5 say what happened to the army. “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea.” The verb yârâh means to throw or shoot, and also to flow as water or to rain, and here God throws the army into the sea. His “host”, chayil, is a word for strength, ability, wealth or an army, and it means the whole of Pharaoh’s force. Egypt was the great power of its day, its chariots were its pride, and Pharaoh himself was honoured as a god. Even “his chosen captains”, the best of his officers, “are drowned in the Red sea”. The verb ṭâbaʻ means to sink. The Hebrew name of the sea is Yam Suph, often translated “Sea of Reeds”, and it became the grave of Egypt’s power and the birthplace of Israel as a free nation.

“The depths have covered them.” The depths, tᵉhôwm, are the deep, the abyss, a great surging mass of water, and the word is plural here. It is the deep of creation, when “darkness was upon the face of the deep” before God set the waters in order, and now the God who ordered those waters uses them in judgment. “Covered”, kâçâh, means to cover, clothe or conceal, and also to overwhelm. “They sank into the bottom as a stone”: yârad is the ordinary verb for going down. A stone goes straight to the bottom, and so did they. Verse 10 says they “sank as lead”, where a different Hebrew verb shares the English “sank”.

The narrative tells the same thing plainly: the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen (Exodus 14:27–28). The psalms recall God’s power over the waters and the path he made through them as he led his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron (Psalm 77:16–20), and how he parted the sea and led Israel through (Psalm 78:13). Isaiah remembers this deliverance as he promises a new one (Isaiah 43:16–17). Israel would tell it for ever after as the work of God’s mighty hand (Deuteronomy 26:8).

The song describes the end of the army so vividly for a reason. The threat was gone completely, so Israel’s freedom was secure from any further pursuit. The judgment answered Pharaoh’s long defiance and the long oppression of Israel, and it showed God’s people and the nations around them that the LORD is the one true God who acts in history.

“Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.” The right hand, yāmîn, is the right hand or right side, and by extension the south. In Israel it stood for strength, authority and honour, and blessing was given with it, as when Jacob laid his right hand on Ephraim. God has no body of flesh, and the song speaks in human terms of his power in action.

“Glorious”, ʼâdar, means to be great or majestic. God’s power at the sea was shown in a way that drew wonder and worship. The same word comes back in verse 11, “glorious in holiness”. “Dashed in pieces”, râʻats, means to break in pieces or shatter, and also to harass. The line repeats “thy right hand, O LORD” so that the one who did all this is named twice.

Verse 12 returns to the picture: “Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.” Nâṭâh means to stretch or spread out, and used of God’s hand or arm it describes his deliberate act of power. God had promised in Egypt to redeem Israel with a stretched-out arm (Exodus 6:6), and he had told Pharaoh that he would display his power in him (Exodus 9:16). Here the promise is kept.

Israel’s songs come back to God’s right hand again and again. A psalm says that it was God’s right hand that brought his people salvation (Psalm 44:3), another sings that the right hand of the LORD does valiantly (Psalm 118:15–16), and Isaiah remembers how God led his people with his glorious arm (Isaiah 63:12) and calls on the arm of the LORD to awake as in the ancient days, when it cut Rahab and wounded the dragon (Isaiah 51:9–10). All of this belongs to the long story of the deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 1:1–15:21).

“And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.” Gâʼôwn, “excellency”, means majesty, loftiness and splendour, and it can also mean pride. Here it is God’s own greatness. Pharaoh’s army had risen up against Israel, and the song calls that rising up “against thee”, against God himself. “Overthrown”, hâraç, means to pull down, destroy and ruin.

“Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.” Chârôwn is a burning of anger, anger kindled like a fire. God’s anger is holy and just, his response to sin, rebellion and injustice, and a psalm says, “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7:11). Qash is stubble, the dry, light stalks left in a field after harvest, which farmers burned off. Stubble is a common picture in Scripture for something powerless before fire. Job asks whether God will pursue dry stubble (Job 13:25). Isaiah warns, “Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 5:24). Malachi says the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff in the day that burns like a furnace (Malachi 4:1), and Nahum asks, “Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him” (Nahum 1:6). The greatest army on earth burned like straw.

Verse 8 goes back to the moment the sea opened. “And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together.” “Blast” is rûwach, which means wind, breath or spirit. The song speaks of the breath of God’s nostrils to say that the power that parted the sea came from God himself. The waters were “gathered together”, collected into place. “The floods stood upright as an heap”: the floods are the flowing waters, nozlim, and nêd is a mound or pile. Flowing water stood up like a heap. “The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea”: qâphâʼ means to shrink, thicken or congeal, and the depths, tehomot, thickened and held still right in the middle of the sea, so that Israel could cross. The full account is told in Exodus 14:21–31.

Verse 10 uses the same word for the other half of the miracle. “Thou didst blow with thy wind”: rûwach again. The breath that opened the way closed it. “The sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” Tsâlal means to tumble down or settle by a waving motion, that is, to sink, and lead sinks fast and heavily. The waters, mayim, are ʼaddîyr, a word for what is wide or great and, by extension, mighty, excellent or glorious. The waters that saved Israel were the waters that judged Egypt.

Other scriptures speak of God’s power over the sea in the same way. A psalm describes the power of God’s breath in judgment (Psalm 18:15), Job speaks of God’s power over the sea (Job 26:12), and Nahum says that he rebukes the sea and makes it dry (Nahum 1:4). God did it again for the next generation at the Jordan (Joshua 3:13–17). The psalmist sings of the same creative power: “For he spake, and it was done” (Psalm 33:9). God needs only to breathe.

Between the two breaths of God, the song lets us hear the enemy. “The 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.” ʼÔyêb, “enemy”, is the participle of a verb meaning to be hostile, and it is the ordinary word for an enemy. Here it is Pharaoh and his army. The words may be their thoughts more than anything said aloud, and God knew them all.

Every verb is a boast. Râdaph, “pursue”, means to run after or chase, usually with hostile intent. Nâsag, “overtake”, means to catch up with. Châlaq, “divide”, means to divide, share or allot, and shâlâl, “spoil”, is the goods taken in war. “Satisfied” is mâlêʼ, to fill. “Draw” is rûwq, here to pull out the chereb, the sword. “My hand”, yâd, is the enemy’s own power. “Destroy”, yârash, means to occupy by driving out the people who were there, and so to seize, dispossess or ruin. The enemy wanted plunder and revenge and to get back the slaves Egypt had lost.

The six “I will”s and “my”s stand against everything the song has said about God’s right hand. Verse 10 answers them all in a single line: “Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them.” “Pride goeth before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18). The LORD foils the plans of the nations while his own counsel stands (Psalm 33:10–11), and when the LORD of hosts has purposed something, who will annul it (Isaiah 14:27)? Proud human plans have met God’s purpose before, as at Babel (Genesis 11), and they will meet it at the last (Revelation 20).

The first half of the song rises to a question that answers itself. “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” The LORD is Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name. “The gods” is the plural of ʼêl, a word that means god and above all God, and which Strong’s also gives the sense of strength or might. Egypt worshipped many gods, among them Ra, Amun and Osiris, and honoured Pharaoh himself as divine. The plagues and the sea were God’s judgments on them all. After the sea, Israel knows that the LORD stands alone, and the first commandment will say so: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

He is “glorious in holiness”. “Glorious” is ʼâdar, the same word as “glorious in power” in verse 6, and holiness, qôdesh, is his separateness, purity and moral perfection. His splendour and his holiness belong together. He is “fearful in praises”. Yârêʼ means to fear or revere, and the deeds for which God is praised are so great that praising him fills his people with holy awe. He is “doing wonders”: peleʼ means a wonder, a miracle, and the wonders are the plagues in Egypt, the opening of the sea and the end of Pharaoh’s army.

Moses says the same in his blessing of the tribes, that the God of Israel is beyond compare (Deuteronomy 33:26). David prays, “Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord” (Psalm 86:8), and through Isaiah God asks to whom he could be likened (Isaiah 40:25).

The victory at the sea points ahead to a greater one. In Revelation, the redeemed sing the song of Moses together with the song of the Lamb (Revelation 15:3). The deliverance from Egypt foreshadows the deliverance from sin, death and the devil that Christ won by his death and resurrection. Paul says of the cross that Christ “spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:13–15). Through death he destroyed the one who had the power of death, the devil, and set free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14–15).

Christ’s name itself echoes verse 2. “Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). His name, Yeshua, means “The LORD saves”, so the salvation Israel sang of has a name and a face. The enemy at the cross, like Pharaoh at the sea, looked as if he had won, and the cross was where he was defeated. The power God worked “in Christ, when he raised him from the dead” is “the working of his mighty power” (Ephesians 1:19–20). Death itself is answered: “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). Christ reigns until he has put all enemies under his feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:25–26). The gates of hell shall not prevail against his church (Matthew 16:18).

The wrath of verse 7 meets the cross as well. Christ bore God’s wrath against sin, and Paul says that, justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him (Romans 5:9). The God who was “glorious in holiness” at the sea is seen in Christ, the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). Even the unclean spirits knew his holiness (Mark 1:24), the crowds were astonished at the authority of his teaching (Matthew 7:28–29), and his greatest wonder is the love that gave the Son so that all who believe in him have eternal life (John 3:16). He is “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16).

Paul also sees the crossing itself as a picture of what happens to a believer. Israel’s passing through the sea was a baptism in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:1–2). Believers are baptized into Christ’s death and raised with him to newness of life (Romans 6:3–4), buried with him in baptism and raised with him through faith in the power of God (Colossians 2:12). By his blood we have “a new and living way” into God’s presence (Hebrews 10:19–20).

The song ends in Revelation as it began at the sea. The rider called “Faithful and True” judges and makes war in righteousness (Revelation 19:11–21), the accuser is cast down (Revelation 12:10–11), the devil meets his final judgment and the dead are judged (Revelation 20:10, Revelation 20:11–15), and God makes a new heaven and a new earth where death and sorrow are gone (Revelation 21:1–4).

This song gives us words for praise that God’s people have used ever since. Israel sang it before they had a tabernacle, a law or a land, with only the memory of one night at the sea, and that was enough. The God they sang about is the God who saves us in Christ, and the words still fit: “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation.”

The song shows us who God is. He fights for those who are helpless, he hears every boast of his enemies, and a breath from him is enough to answer them. His anger burns against oppression, and his right hand is glorious in power. He is also near, “my God”, the God who wants to dwell among his people. Paul speaks of believers “speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19–20), and he could say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). The strength and the song both still come from the LORD, and there is none like him.