Deuteronomy 4:34

4:34 Or has God ¹  ever before tried to deliver ²  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ³  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ⁴  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Psalms 114:1-6

Psalm 114 ⁵ 

114:1 When Israel left Egypt,

when the family of Jacob left a foreign nation behind, ⁶ 

114:2 Judah became his sanctuary,

Israel his kingdom.

114:3 The sea looked and fled; ⁷ 

the Jordan River ⁸  turned back. ⁹ 

114:4 The mountains skipped like rams,

the hills like lambs. ¹⁰ 

114:5 Why do you flee, O sea?

Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?

114:6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,

like lambs, O hills?

Psalms 136:10-15

136:10 to the one who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,

for his loyal love endures,

136:11 and led Israel out from their midst,

for his loyal love endures,

136:12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,

for his loyal love endures,

136:13 to the one who divided ¹¹  the Red Sea ¹²  in two, ¹³ 

for his loyal love endures,

136:14 and led Israel through its midst,

for his loyal love endures,

136:15 and tossed ¹⁴  Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea,

for his loyal love endures,

Isaiah 51:9-11

51:9 Wake up! Wake up!

Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ¹⁵ 

Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity!

Did you not smash ¹⁶  the Proud One? ¹⁷ 

Did you not ¹⁸  wound the sea monster? ¹⁹ 

51:10 Did you not dry up the sea,

the waters of the great deep?

Did you not make ²⁰  a path through the depths of the sea,

so those delivered from bondage ²¹  could cross over?

51:11 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return;

they will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ²² 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ²³  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 63:11-12

63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. ²⁵ 

Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,

along with the shepherd of ²⁶  his flock?

Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, ²⁷ 

63:12 the one who made his majestic power available to Moses, ²⁸ 

who divided the water before them,

gaining for himself a lasting reputation, ²⁹ 

[4:34]  ¹ tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).

[4:34]  ² tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”

[4:34]  ³ tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).

[4:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”

[114:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 114. The psalmist recalls the events of the exodus and conquest and celebrates God’s kingship over his covenant people.

[114:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the house of Jacob from a nation speaking a foreign language.” The Hebrew verb לָעַז (la’at, “to speak a foreign language”) occurs only here in the OT.

[114:3]  ⁷ sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).

[114:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Jordan” (also in v. 5). The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[114:3]  ⁹ sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 3:13, 16).

[114:4]  ¹⁰ sn The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. This may recall the theophany at Sinai when the mountain shook before God’s presence (Exod 19:18).

[136:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “cut.”

[136:13]  ¹² tn Heb “Reed Sea” (also in v. 15). “Reed Sea” (or “Sea of Reeds”) is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew expression יָם סוּף (yam suf), traditionally translated “Red Sea.” See the note on the term “Red Sea” in Exod 13:18.

[136:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “into pieces.”

[136:15]  ¹⁴ tn Or “shook off.”

[51:9]  ¹⁵ tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.

[51:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Are you not the one who smashed?” The feminine singular forms agree grammatically with the feminine noun “arm.” The Hebrew text has ַהמַּחְצֶבֶת (hammakhtsevet), from the verbal root חָצַב (khatsav, “hew, chop”). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has, probably correctly, המחצת, from the verbal root מָחַץ (makhats, “smash”) which is used in Job 26:12 to describe God’s victory over “the Proud One.”

[51:9]  ¹⁷ tn This title (רַהַב, rahav, “proud one”) is sometimes translated as a proper name: “Rahab” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). It is used here of a symbolic sea monster, known elsewhere in the Bible and in Ugaritic myth as Leviathan. This sea creature symbolizes the forces of chaos that seek to destroy the created order. In the Bible “the Proud One” opposes God’s creative work, but is defeated (see Job 26:12; Ps 89:10). Here the title refers to Pharaoh’s Egyptian army that opposed Israel at the Red Sea (see v. 10, and note also Isa 30:7 and Ps 87:4, where the title is used of Egypt).

[51:9]  ¹⁸ tn The words “did you not” are understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line). The rhetorical questions here and in v. 10 expect the answer, “Yes, you certainly did!”

[51:9]  ¹⁹ tn Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannin) is another name for the symbolic sea monster. See the note at 27:1. In this context the sea creature represents Egypt. See the note on the title “Proud One” earlier in this verse.

[51:10]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made…?”

[51:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “the redeemed” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “the ransomed.”

[51:11]  ²² tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.

[51:11]  ²³ tn Heb “overtake” (so NIV); NASB “they will obtain.”

[51:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee.”

[63:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he remembered the days of antiquity, Moses, his people.” The syntax of the statement is unclear. The translation assumes that “his people” is the subject of the verb “remembered.” If original, “Moses” is in apposition to “the days of antiquity,” more precisely identifying the time period referred to. However, the syntactical awkwardness suggests that “Moses” may have been an early marginal note (perhaps identifying “the shepherd of his flock” two lines later) that has worked its way into the text.

[63:11]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form, which if retained and taken as a numerical plural, would probably refer to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite tribal leaders at the time of the Exodus. Most prefer to emend the form to the singular (רָעָה, ra’ah) and understand this as a reference just to Moses.

[63:11]  ²⁷ sn See the note at v. 10.

[63:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “who caused to go at the right hand of Moses the arm of his splendor.”

[63:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “making for himself a lasting name.”