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The Song of Moses


Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the L ord:

“I will sing to the L ord, for he has triumphed gloriously;

horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.


The L ord is my strength and my might,

and he has become my salvation;

this is my God, and I will praise him,

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.


The L ord is a warrior;

the L ord is his name.



“Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea;

his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea.


The floods covered them;

they went down into the depths like a stone.


Your right hand, O L ord, glorious in power—

your right hand, O L ord, shattered the enemy.


In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries;

you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble.


At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up,

the floods stood up in a heap;

the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.






You blew with your wind, the sea covered them;

they sank like lead in the mighty waters.



“Who is like you, O L ord, among the gods?

Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

awesome in splendor, doing wonders?


You stretched out your right hand,

the earth swallowed them.




you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.


The peoples heard, they trembled;

pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.


Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed;

trembling seized the leaders of Moab;

all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.


Terror and dread fell upon them;


until your people, O L ord, passed by,

until the people whom you acquired passed by.



the place, O L ord, that you made your abode,

the sanctuary, O L ord, that your hands have established.


The L ord will reign forever and ever.”

19 When the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his chariot drivers went into the sea, the L ord brought back the waters of the sea upon them; but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.

The Song of Miriam


“Sing to the L ord, for he has triumphed gloriously;

horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

Bitter Water Made Sweet

22 Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah. 24And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25He cried out to the L ord; and the L ord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the L ord made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he put them to the test. 26He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the L ord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the L ord who heals you.”


4. Pharaoh’s chariots. Moses in these words only meant to assert, that the drowning of Pharaoh was manifestly God’s work. Therefore, he now illustrates in more glowing terms the transaction which he had before simply narrated; as also when he compares the Egyptians to stones and lead, as if he had said that they were hurled by God’s mighty hand into the deep, so that they had no power to swim out. On this score, he repeats twice the mention of God’s “right hand;” as much as to say that such a miracle could not be ascribed either to fortune or to the efforts of man. We must take notice of what he soon after says, that the Egyptians “rose up against” God; because they had treated His people with injustice and cruelty. Thence we gather, that God’s majesty is violated by the wicked, whenever His Church, whose safety He has undertaken to preserve by His faithful patronage, is assailed by them. “Thou sentest forth thy wrath,” and “with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together,” are to be read in conjunction; for their meaning is that God, without any instrumentality, but by His simple volition, and in manifestation of His wrath, had brought the enemy to. destruction.

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