Commentaires bibliques

In this chapter, I. Israel looks back upon Egypt with a song of praise for their deliverance. Here is, 1. The song itself, Ex 15:1-19. 2. The solemn singing of it, Ex 15:20,21. II. Israel marches forward in the wilderness (Ex 15:22), and there, 1. Their discontent at the waters of Marah (Ex 15:23,24), and the relief granted them, Ex 15:25,26. 2. Their satisfaction in the waters of Elim, Ex 15:27.

Moses and the Israelites sing a song of praise to God for their late deliverance, in which they celebrate the power of God, gloriously manifested in the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, Exodus 15:1; express their confidence in him as their strength and protector, Exodus 15:2, Exodus 15:3; detail the chief circumstances in the overthrow of the Egyptians, Exodus 15:4-8; and relate the purposes they had formed for the destruction of God's people, Exodus 15:9, and how he destroyed them in the imaginations of their hearts, Exodus 15:10. Jehovah is celebrated for the perfections of his nature and his wondrous works, Exodus 15:11-13. A prediction of the effect which the account of the destruction of the Egyptians should have on the Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites, Exodus 15:14-16. A prediction of the establishment of Israel in the promised land, Exodus 15:17. The full chorus of praise, Exodus 15:18. Recapitulation of the destruction of the Egyptians, and the deliverance of Israel, Exodus 15:19. Miriam and the women join in and prolong the chorus, Exodus 15:20, Exodus 15:21. The people travel three days in the wilderness of Shur, and find no water, Exodus 15:22. Coming to Marah, and finding bitter waters, they murmur against Moses, Exodus 15:23, Exodus 15:24. In answer to the prayer of Moses, God shows him a tree by which the waters are sweetened, Exodus 15:25. God gives them statutes and gracious promises, Exodus 15:26. They come to Elim, where they find twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and there they encamp, Exodus 15:27.

INTRODUCTION TO Exodus 15

This chapter contains the song of Moses, and of the children of Israel, on the banks of the Red sea; in which they celebrate their passage through it, the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in it, and the glory of the divine perfections displayed therein, interspersed with prophetic hints of things future, Exodus 15:1 which same song was sung by the women, with Miriam at the head of them, attended with timbrels and dances, Exodus 15:20, an account is given of the march of the children of Israel from the Red sea to the wilderness of Shur, and of the bitter waters found at Marah, which occasioned a murmuring, and of their being made sweet by casting a tree into them, Exodus 15:22 when they were told by the Lord, that if they would yield obedience to his commandments, they should be free from the diseases the Egyptians had been afflicted with, Exodus 15:26, and the chapter is concluded with their coming to Elim, where they found twelve wells of water, and seventy palm trees, and there encamped, Exodus 15:27.

Moses’ Song of Triumph. The journey of the Israelites to Marah and Elim

The ode of triumph (Exodus 15:1-18) is one of the finest products of Hebrew poetry, remarkable for poetic fire and spirit, picturesque description, vivid imagery, quick movement, effective parallelism, and bright, sonorous (‘Klangvoll,’ Bäntsch) diction. V. 1b states the theme: the praise of Jehovah for the glorious overthrow of Israel’s foe. The theme is developed in the verses following: first (vv. 2–5) the poet praises the mighty God, who had brought His people deliverance, and overwhelmed their enemies in the sea; then (vv. 6–10) he dwells on the details of the deliverance, how by the blast of His nostrils, the waters had parted to let the Israelites pass through, and then, at another blast, had closed upon the pursuing Egyptians, and snatched from them the prize, when it seemed already in their grasp; lastly (vv. 11–18), after once again (vv. 11–12) celebrating Jehovah as their deliverer, he describes how in His goodness He had led Israel through the wilderness, and planted it securely in its home in Canaan, while neighbouring nations looked on in silent amazement, powerless to arrest His people’s advance. The song is thus virtually the poetical development of two thoughts: (1) the destruction of the Egyptians in the sea, vv. 1b–12; (2) Jehovah’s guidance of Israel, till it was settled in Canaan, and a sanctuary established in its midst, vv. 12–18.

As regards the metre and strophical arrangement of the poem, there is at present little unanimity among scholars (see particulars in Haupt, AJSL. 1904, p. 150 f.). Haupt himself, p. 155 f., with several omissions of words and some additions, and also one or two transpositions, arranges it very systematically into three strophes, each strophe consisting of three stanzas, each stanza of two couplets, each couplet (as v. 1b, v. 6, v. 7) of two lines, and each line, in the Heb., having 2 + 2 accented syllables or ‘beats.’ As the poem stands, the lines, it is true, do mostly fall naturally into couplets (vv. 1b, 3, 4, &c.); sometimes, however, they form triplets (vv. 8, 9, 15, 17), twice quatrains (vv. 2, 16), and one stands by itself (v. 18): they also (in the Heb.) consist usually (but not always) of four words (forming two clauses, each of two words), with 2 + 2 accented syllables, or ‘beats.’ We cannot be sure that greater uniformity than this was designed by the original poet. It is wisest, under the circumstances, to leave the poem as it stands; and, so far as he strophes are concerned, simply to divide it, after v. 1, as Di. and Bä. do, in accordance with the natural breaks in the development of the thought, into three paragraphs, vv. 2–5, 6–10, 11–18.

There are several examples of alliteration or assonance in the poem: the fuller forms of the pron. suffix to the verb (-âmô, -çmô), for the usual -âm, -çm, are another poetical ornament which the author loves (9 times; cf. also -enhû in v. 2, and ’êmấthâh in v. 16): while the quick, short clauses,—generally of two words each,—which are not common in Heb. poetry, each suggesting some vivid image, give the poem a force and brightness of its own.

Is the poem, however, Mosaic? That vv. 12–17 are later than Moses’ time is admitted by even such a conservative scholar as Strack: as he says, it clearly presupposes the conquest of Canaan, and it refers to this conquest, not in a tone of prediction, but as an accomplished fact (cf. on vv. 13–17). ‘In its present form,’ says Strack, ‘it is a festal hymn, perhaps,’ as Ewald suggested (see below), ‘composed for a passover at the sanctuary shortly after the conquest of Canaan, to keep alive the recollection of Israel’s great deliverance’; vv. 11–17 are, however, older than the time of David, and vv. 1–10 are Mosaic. Dillm., agreeing substantially with Ewald (Dichter des alten Bundes, i. 1, p. 175; cf. Hist. ii. 354), doubts whether vv. 11–17 can be separated from vv. 4–10, on the ground that v. 10 forms no proper close, and the whole poem seems by its structure to be designed for its present compass: hence he considers that the ode, as we have it, is the poetical development, made at the time and for the object just stated, of an older Mosaic nucleus, to which in any case v. 1b belonged, if not vv. 2, 3 as well. More recent scholars (as Wellh. Hist., p. 352, Bä., Moore, EB. ii. 1450 f., Duhm, EB. iii. 3797, Haupt; cf. Budde, DB. iv. 11b) go further; and while allowing v. 1b—or rather v. 21—to be ancient, and even Mosaic, argue that vv. 2–18 are written in the style of the Psalms, lack the personal and local colouring, such as appears so distinctly in the older historical poems, Judges 5, 2 Samuel 1:19 ff., Numbers 21, and have many affinities, both literary and religious, with the later Heb. literature: ‘the emphatic assertion of Jehovah’s eternal sovereignty in v. 18,’ for instance, ‘implies an advanced stage of the doctrine of the Divine Kingship, such as had found fresh expression during and after the exile, (Carpenter, The Hexateuch, i. 160 [ed. 2, p. 307 f.]). Those who argue thus suppose accordingly that the whole of vv. 2–18 is the poetical expansion of v. 1b, composed at a relatively late date, not earlier that c. 600 b.c.

It is true, there are several words and forms in the poem, which otherwise occur first c. 600 b.c., and are most frequent in Psalms and other writings which are, certainly or probably, later than this. Thus the plur. ‘deeps’ (vv. 5, 8) occurs elsewhere 12 times, first in Deuteronomy 8:7 (7th cent.), then Isaiah 63:13, and in later writings (Pss., Proverbs 3, 8.); ‘depths’ (v. 5) recurs 11 times, first in Micah 7:19, then in Pss., Zechariah 10:11, Job, Jon., Neh. [a quotation from here]; ‘floods’ (v. 8) recurs 6 times, first in Jeremiah 18:14, Song of Solomon 4:15 (of uncertain date), then in Isaiah 44, Pss., Proverbs 5; ‘heart’ (fig. for ‘midst’), v. 8, occurs besides, with sea(s), Psalm 46:2, Proverbs 23:34; Proverbs 30:19, Ezekiel 27:4; Ezekiel 27:25-27; Ezekiel 28:2; Ezekiel 28:8, Jonah 2:3 (לבב) (but cf. with oak 2 Samuel 18:14, and (לבב) with heaven Deuteronomy 4:11); הריק ‘draw’ (the sword), lit. empty out (v. 9), recurs only Leviticus 26:33 (7th cent.), Psalm 35:3; Psalm 35:5 times in Ezek the pron. zû (vv. 13, 16) recurs 13 times, first in Psalm 32:8, or Habakkuk 1:11, then only in II. Isa. and Pss.; the rare term. -enhû (v. 2) appears elsewhere only in Jeremiah 5:22, Deuteronomy 32:10 (7th cent.), Psalm 72:15; the verbal suff. -âmô,-çmô (here 9 times) occurs elsewhere 14 times, once in prose (Exodus 23:31), otherwise only in the Pss. (2, 5, 21, 22, 45, 59, 73, 80, 83, 140). (The only ἅπαξ εἰρημένα are הִנְוָה v. 2 (text very dub.), נֶעֱרַם v. 8, and (perhaps) צָלַל v. 10.)

With Habakkuk 3 before us, it cannot be denied that a fine ode might be written in the 6th cent b.c.: at the same time in poetic freshness and power, and absence of conventional phrases, this ode seems to resemble the earlier Psalms (such as 18, 24, 29, 46), rather than the later ones: where the same occasion is referred to, the parallels in the later Pss. seem to be reminiscences of this; and though it is curious that several of the words found here do not recur till the 6th cent. b.c. or later, it must be remembered that, if (as the present writer also thinks) there are very few Psalms earlier than the age of Jeremiah, the pre-exilic poetry with which this ode could be compared is small in amount, and words not otherwise represented in the extant poems might easily have been in use: the forms in -mo might also have been chosen by the poet as a rhetorical ornament. On the whole, while acknowledging in the poem a combination of features pointing to a relatively late date, the present writer, in view of the considerations just urged, especially the freshness of vv. 3–10, hesitates to regard them as conclusive; and thinks it more probable that vv. 2–18 are not later than the early years of the Davidic dynasty (cf. on v. 17d). V. 18, also, might easily be a subsequent addition.

Reminiscences of the ode are not met with certainly before the 7th cent. b.c.; they cannot consequently be taken to prove more than its relative antiquity. The following are the principal ones:—Isaiah 12:2 b (ch. 12 is probably later than Isaiah), and Psalm 118:14 (v. 2a, b); Joshua 2:9 b (‘and that,’ &c.), Joshua 2:24 b [both additions of the Deut. editor] (vv. 15c, 16a); Psalm 74:2 (v. 16d ‘purchased’); Psalm 77:13 (‘was in holiness,’ v. 11b; ‘Who, &c.,’ v. 11a), Psalm 77:14 (vv. 11c, 2a), Psalm 77:15 a (v. 13a), Psalm 77:16 b, c ‘were in pangs …, trembled’ (v. 14 ‘trembled, Pangs’), Psalm 77:16 c ‘depths’ (= ‘deeps,’ vv. 5a, 8c Heb.), Psalm 77:20 (v. 13a ‘Thou leddest the people’); Psalm 78:13 b, Psalm 78:53 b, Psalm 78:54 RVm. (vv. 8b, 10a, 13 end, 16 end, 17a); Psalm 106:12 b (note 12a = ch. Exodus 14:31 b, shewing that the author of the Psalm read Exodus 15 in its present connexion); Psalm 118:28 (v. 2c, d); Nehemiah 9:11 b, (v. 5b; cf. v. 10 end [but in Neh. עזים, not אדידים]).

To the latest times, the passage of the Red Sea was remembered with a glow of triumph and enthusiasm, as a signal example of the power of Israel’s God: see Deuteronomy 11:4, Joshua 24:6-7, Isaiah 51:10; Isaiah 63:11-13, Psalm 66:6 a, Psalm 74:13-14, Psalm 81:7 a, b, Psalm 89:10, Psalm 106:9-12, Psalm 114:3 a, Psalm 114:5 a, Psalm 136:13-15; also, for expressions or imagery suggested by it, Isaiah 10:26 b, Isaiah 11:11 RVm., Isaiah 11:15-16, Isaiah 43:16 f., Nahum 1:4 a. Cf. also Revelation 15:3.

The Exodus, in the broader sense of the term, was also ever afterwards regarded as the birthday of the nation, and as the event which secured the nation’s independence: hence it is often referred to as the beginning of the national (Jdg 19:30, 1 Samuel 8:8, 2 Samuel 7:6 al.) and religious (Hosea 12:9; Hosea 13:4) life of Israel; and the deliverance from ‘the house of bondage’ was appealed to both as the great event of which Israel should ever be mindful, and for which it owed gratitude to its God (see, besides many of the passages already quoted above, Exodus 12:27; Exodus 13:8 f., Exodus 13:14; Exo 13:16, Exodus 20:2, Exodus 34:18, Amos 2:10; Amos 3:1, Hosea 11:1; Hosea 12:13, Micah 6:4, Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 6:21-23; Deuteronomy 7:8; Deuteronomy 7:19; Deuteronomy 11:3 f., Exodus 15:15, Exodus 16:1; Exodus 16:3; Exodus 16:6, Exodus 26:8, Nehemiah 9:9-12); also as the basis of an appeal to God (Exodus 32:11 f., Deuteronomy 9:26-29, Jeremiah 32:21), and as the guarantee of deliverance in subsequent troubles (Micah 7:15, Isaiah 63:11-14).

With the deliverance of Israel is associated the development of the national poetry, which finds its first and perfect expression in this magnificent hymn. It was sung by Moses and the people, an expression which evidently points to him as the author. That it was written at the time is an assertion expressly made in the text, and it is supported by the strongest internal evidence. In every age this song gave the tone to the poetry of Israel; especially at great critical epochs of deliverance: and in the book of Revelation Exo 15:3 it is associated with the final triumph of the Church.

The division of the song into three parts is distinctly marked: Exodus 15:1-5; Exodus 15:6-10; Exodus 15:11-18 : each begins with an ascription of praise to God; each increases in length and varied imagery unto the triumphant close.

Exodus 15:1

He hath triumphed gloriously - Literally, He is gloriously glorious.

The horse and his rider - The word "rider" may include horseman, but applies properly to the charioteer.

Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song - Poetry has been cultivated in all ages and among all people, from the most refined to the most barbarous; and to it principally, under the kind providence of God, we are indebted for most of the original accounts we have of the ancient nations of the universe. Equally measured lines, with a harmonious collocation of expressive, sonorous, and sometimes highly metaphorical terms, the alternate lines either answering to each other in sense, or ending with similar sounds, were easily committed to memory, and easily retained. As these were often accompanied with a pleasing air or tune, the subject being a concatenation of striking and interesting events, histories formed thus became the amusement of youth, the softeners of the tedium of labor, and even the solace of age. In such a way the histories of most nations have been preserved. The interesting events celebrated, the rhythm or metre, and the accompanying tune or recitativo air, rendered them easily transmissible to posterity; and by means of tradition they passed safely from father to son through the times of comparative darkness, till they arrived at those ages in which the pen and the press have given them a sort of deathless duration and permanent stability, by multiplying the copies. Many of the ancient historic and heroic British tales are continued by tradition among the aboriginal inhabitants of Ireland to the present day; and the repetition of them constitutes the chief amusement of the winter evenings. Even the prose histories, which were written on the ground of the poetic, copied closely their exemplars, and the historians themselves were obliged to study all the beauties and ornaments of style, that their works might become popular; and to this circumstance we owe not a small measure of what is termed refinement of language. How observable is this in the history of Herodotus, who appears to have closely copied the ancient poetic records in his inimitable and harmonious prose; and, that his books might bear as near a resemblance as possible to the ancient and popular originals, he divided them into nine, and dedicated each to one of the muses! His work therefore seems to occupy the same place between the ancient poetic compositions and mere prosaic histories, as the polype does between plants and animals. Much even of our sacred records is written in poetry, which God has thus consecrated to be the faithful transmitter of remote and important events; and of this the song before the reader is a proof in point. Though this is not the first specimen of poetry we have met with in the Pentateuch, (see Lamech's speech to his wives, Genesis 4:23, Genesis 4:24; Noah's prophecy concerning his sons, Genesis 9:25-27; and Jacob's blessing to the twelve patriarchs, Genesis 49:2-27 (note)), yet it is the first regular ode of any considerable length, having but one subject; and it is all written in hemistichs, or half lines, the usual form in Hebrew poetry; and though this form frequently occurs, it is not attended to in our common printed Hebrew Bibles, except in this and three other places, (Deuteronomy 32, Judges 5, and 2 Samuel 22)., all of which shall be noticed as they occur. But in Dr. Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, all the poetry, wheresoever it occurs, is printed in its own hemistich form.

After what has been said it is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe, that as such ancient poetic histories commemorated great and extraordinary displays of providence, courage, strength, fidelity, heroism, and piety; hence the origin of Epic poems, of which the song in this chapter is the earliest specimen. And on the principle of preserving the memory of such events, most nations have had their epic poets, who have generally taken for their subject the most splendid or most remote events of their country's history, which either referred to the formation or extension of their empire, the exploits of their ancestors, or the establishment of their religion. Hence the ancient Hebrews had their Shir Mosheh, the piece in question: the Greeks, their Ilias; the Hindoos, their Mahabarat; the Romans, their Aeneid; the Norwegians, their Edda; the Irish and Scotch, their Fingal and Chronological poems; the Welsh, their Taliessin and his Triads; the Arabs, their Nebiun-Nameh (exploits of Mohammed) and Hamleh Heedry, (exploits of Aly); the Persians, their Shah Nameh, (book of kings); the Italians, their Gerusalemme Liberata; the Portuguese, their Lusiad; the English, their Paradise Lost; and, in humble imitation of all the rest, (etsi non passibus aequis), the French, their Henriade.

The song of Moses has been in the highest repute in the Church of God from the beginning; the author of the Book of The Wisdom of Solomon attributes it in a particular manner to the wisdom of God, and says that on this occasion God opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the tongues of infants eloquent; The Wisdom of Solomon 10:21. As if he had said, Every person felt an interest in the great events which had taken place, and all labored to give Jehovah that praise which was due to his name. "With this song of victory over Pharaoh," says Mr. Ainsworth, "the Holy Ghost compares the song of those who have gotten the victory over the spiritual Pharaoh, the beast, (Antichrist), when they stand by the sea of glass mingled with fire, (as Israel stood here by the Red Sea), having the harps of God, (as the women here had timbrels, Exodus 15:20), and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, the Son of God," Revelation 15:2-4.

I will sing unto the Lord - Moses begins the song, and in the two first hemistichs states the subject of it; and these two first lines became the grand chorus of the piece, as we may learn from Exodus 15:21. See Dr. Kennicott's arrangement and translation of this piece at the end of this chapter. See Clarke's note on Exodus 15:26.

Triumphed gloriously - כי גאה גאה ki gaoh gaah, he is exceedingly exalted, rendered by the Septuagint, Ενδοξως γαρ δεδοξασται, He is gloriously glorified; and surely this was one of the most signal displays of the glorious majesty of God ever exhibited since the creation of the world. And when it is considered that the whole of this transaction shadowed out the redemption of the human race from the thraldom and power of sin and iniquity by the Lord Jesus, and the final triumph of the Church of God over all its enemies, we may also join in the song, and celebrate Him who has triumphed so gloriously, having conquered death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord,.... Which is the first song recorded in Scripture, though no doubt before this time songs of praise were sung to the Lord; the people of God having occasion in all ages more or less to sing his praises. The Jews (n) speak of ten songs, the first of which was sung by Adam, when his sins were forgiven him, and this song of Moses is the second; though sometimes they say (o), from the creation of the world to the standing of Israel by the Red sea, we do not find that ever any man sung a song but Israel; God created the first man, but he sang no song: however, this is the first on record, and is a typical one; Moses the composer of it, and who bore a principal part in it, and was the deliverer of the people of Israel, was a type of Christ, the Redeemer of his church: and Israel that joined with him in it, and were the persons delivered, were typical of the spiritual Israel of God redeemed by Christ; and the deliverance here celebrated bore a great resemblance to the redemption wrought out by him; and Christ, the Angel of the Lord, that went before the Israelites through the Red sea, and fought for them, is the principal person concerned in it, and who is meant by the Lord throughout the whole of it, and to whom it is sung; and a song upon a similar occasion to this will be sung in the latter day, upon the destruction of spiritual Egypt, or antichrist, and is called the song of Moses and the Lamb in allusion to it, Revelation 15:3 The Jews (p) say, this shall be sung at the time, when the wicked shall perish out of the world, and observe that it is not written "then sung", but "then shall sing", &c. Moses had reason to sing, since God had heard his prayer, and had done him honour before the people, and he was both an instrument of and a sharer in the salvation wrought; and the children of Israel had reason to sing, inasmuch as they were a people chosen of God, and distinguished by him; were redeemed from bondage, called out of Egypt, and now saved out of the hands of their enemies, who were all destroyed, and they brought safely through the Red sea, and landed on firm ground. And the time when they sung this song was then, when they had passed through the sea on dry land; and when they had seen the Egyptians their enemies dead on the sea shore; and when they were in a proper frame of spirit to sing, when they had taken notice of and considered what great and wonderful things the Lord had done for them, and their minds were suitably impressed with a sense of them; when they were in the exercise of the graces of the fear of God, and faith in him, and which is necessary to the performance of all religious duties, and particularly this of singing the praises of God:

and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord: that went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire; who had led them safely through the Red sea, and troubled and destroyed the host of the Egyptians; even the same Jehovah, who has undertook the salvation of his people, is become the author of it, and to whom the song of redeeming grace is due:

for he hath triumphed gloriously; over Pharaoh and all the Egyptians, the enemies of Israel, as Christ has over sin, in the destruction of it by his sacrifice, and over Satan, and his principalities and powers, when he spoiled them on the cross, and over death the last enemy, and all others; over whom he has made his people more than conquerors, through himself: or, "in excelling he excels" (q); all the angels of heaven, in his name, and nature, relation, and office; and all the sons of men, even the greatest among them, being King of kings, and Lord of lords; in the wonderful things done by him, no such achievements having ever been wrought by any of them: or, "in magnifying, he is magnified" (r); appears to be what he is, great in his nature, perfections, and works; and to be magnified, or declared to be great, and extolled as such by all that know and fear him:

the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea; the horses and horsemen of Pharaoh; and which is not amiss allegorically applied, by Tertullian (s), to the world and the devil; the world is the horse, and the rider the devil; that being under his power and direction, he being the god of it, and working effectually in it; spurring and exciting the men of it to every sinful lust and pleasure; and may be put for all the spiritual enemies of God's people, especially their sins; which are cast by the Lord into the midst of the sea, never to be seen and remembered any more, and which is to them matter of a song of praise and thanksgiving.

(n) Targum in Cant. i. 1. (o) Shemot Rabba, sect. 23. fol. 107. 3.((p) Tikkune Zohar, correct. 10. fol. 20. 2.((q) "excellendo excelluit", Piscator. (r) "Magnificando magnificatus est", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus. (s) Contr. Marcion, l. 4. c. 20.

Moses and the people praise the Lord, Exodus 15:1-21. They want water, Exodus 15:22. The waters of Marah are bitter, Exodus 15:23. The people murmur against Moses, Exodus 15:24. He crieth unto the Lord; the waters are sweetened, Exodus 15:25. They come to Elim, where they find twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees, Exodus 15:27.

Moses composed the song, and he, together with the Israelites, sung it, unto the honour and praise of God.