Exodus 14:13-14

14:13 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! ¹  Stand firm ²  and see ³  the salvation ⁴  of the Lord that he will provide ⁵  for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again. ⁶  14:14 The Lord ⁷  will fight for you, and you can be still.” ⁸ 

Exodus 15:1-2

The Song of Triumph

15:1 ⁹ Then Moses and the Israelites sang ¹⁰  this song to the Lord. They said, ¹¹ 

“I will sing ¹²  to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, ¹³ 

the horse and its rider ¹⁴  he has thrown into the sea.

15:2 The Lord ¹⁵  is my strength and my song, ¹⁶ 

and he has become my salvation.

This is my God, and I will praise him, ¹⁷ 

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

Psalms 68:7

68:7 O God, when you lead your people into battle, ¹⁸ 

when you march through the desert, ¹⁹  (Selah)

Psalms 68:19-23

68:19 The Lord deserves praise! ²⁰ 

Day after day ²¹  he carries our burden,

the God who delivers us. (Selah)

68:20 Our God is a God who delivers;

the Lord, the sovereign Lord, can rescue from death. ²² 

68:21 Indeed God strikes the heads of his enemies,

the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion. ²³ 

68:22 The Lord says,

“I will retrieve them ²⁴  from Bashan,

I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

68:23 so that your feet may stomp ²⁵  in their blood,

and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” ²⁶ 

[14:13]  ¹ tn The use of אַל (’al) with the jussive has the force of “stop fearing.” It is a more immediate negative command than לֹא (lo’) with the imperfect (as in the Decalogue).

[14:13]  ² tn The force of this verb in the Hitpael is “to station oneself” or “stand firm” without fleeing.

[14:13]  ³ tn The form is an imperative with a vav (ו). It could also be rendered “stand firm and you will see” meaning the result, or “stand firm that you may see” meaning the purpose.

[14:13]  ⁴ tn Or “victory” (NAB) or “deliverance” (NIV, NRSV).

[14:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “do,” i.e., perform or accomplish.

[14:13]  ⁶ tn The construction uses a verbal hendiadys consisting of a Hiphil imperfect (“you will not add”) and a Qal infinitive construct with a suffix (“to see them”) – “you will no longer see them.” Then the clause adds “again, for ever.”

[14:14]  ⁷ tn The word order places emphasis on “the Lord” (Heb “Yahweh”).

[14:14]  ⁸ tn The imperfect tense needs to be interpreted in contrast to all that Yahweh will be doing. It may be given a potential imperfect nuance (as here), or it may be obligatory to follow the command to stand firm: “you must be still.”

[15:1]  ⁹ sn This chapter is a song of praise sung by Moses and the people right after the deliverance from the Sea. The song itself is vv. 1b-18; it falls into three sections – praise to God (1b-3), the cause for the praise (4-13), and the conclusion (14-18). The point of the first section is that God’s saving acts inspire praise from his people; the second is that God’s powerful acts deliver his people from the forces of evil; and the third section is that God’s demonstrations of his sovereignty inspire confidence in him by his people. So the Victory Song is very much like the other declarative praise psalms – the resolve to praise, the power of God, the victory over the enemies, the incomparability of God in his redemption, and the fear of the people. See also C. Cohen, “Studies in Early Israelite Poetry I: An Unrecognized Case of Three Line Staircase Parallelism in the Song of the Sea,” JANESCU 7 (1975): 13-17; D. N. Freedman, “Strophe and Meter in Exodus 15,” A Light unto My Path, 163-203; E. Levine, “Neofiti I: A Study of Exodus 15,” Bib 54 (1973): 301-30; T. C. Butler, “‘The Song of the Sea’: Exodus 15:1-18: A Study in the Exegesis of Hebrew Poetry,” DissAb 32 (1971): 2782-A.

[15:1]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is יָשִׁיר (yashir), a normal imperfect tense form. But after the adverb “then” this form is to be treated as a preterite (see GKC 314-15 §107.c).

[15:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they said, saying.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:1]  ¹² tn The form is the singular cohortative, expressing the resolution of Moses to sing the song of praise (“I will” being stronger than “I shall”).

[15:1]  ¹³ tn This causal clause gives the reason for and summary of the praise. The Hebrew expression has כִּי־גָּאֹה גָּאָה (ki ga’oh ga’ah). The basic idea of the verb is “rise up loftily” or “proudly.” But derivatives of the root carry the nuance of majesty or pride (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 132). So the idea of the perfect tense with its infinitive absolute may mean “he is highly exalted” or “he has done majestically” or “he is gloriously glorious.”

[15:1]  ¹⁴ sn The common understanding is that Egypt did not have people riding horses at this time, and so the phrase the horse and its rider is either viewed as an anachronism or is interpreted to mean charioteers. The word “to ride” can mean on a horse or in a chariot. Some have suggested changing “rider” to “chariot” (re-vocalization) to read “the horse and its chariot.”

[15:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Yah.” Moses’ poem here uses a short form of the name Yahweh, traditionally rendered in English by “the LORD.”

[15:2]  ¹⁶ tn The word וְזִמְרָת (vÿzimrat) is problematic. It probably had a suffix yod (י) that was accidentally dropped because of the yod (י) on the divine name following. Most scholars posit another meaning for the word. A meaning of “power” fits the line fairly well, forming a hendiadys with strength – “strength and power” becoming “strong power.” Similar lines are in Isa 12:2 and Ps 118:14. Others suggest “protection” or “glory.” However, there is nothing substantially wrong with “my song” in the line – only that it would be a nicer match if it had something to do with strength.

[15:2]  ¹⁷ tn The word נָוָה (navah) occurs only here. It may mean “beautify, adorn” with praises (see BDB 627 s.v.). See also M. Dahood, “Exodus 15:2: ‘anwehu and Ugaritic snwt,” Bib 59 (1979): 260-61; and M. Klein, “The Targumic Tosefta to Exodus 15:2,” JJS 26 (1975): 61-67; and S. B. Parker, “Exodus 15:2 Again,” VT 21 (1971): 373-79.

[68:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “when you go out before your people.” The Hebrew idiom “go out before” is used here in a militaristic sense of leading troops into battle (see Judg 4:14; 9:39; 2 Sam 5:24).

[68:7]  ¹⁹ sn When you march through the desert. Some interpreters think that v. 7 alludes to Israel’s exodus from Egypt and its subsequent travels in the desert. Another option is that v. 7, like v. 8, echoes Judg 5:4, which describes how the God of Sinai marched across the desert regions to do battle with Sisera and his Canaanite army.

[68:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”

[68:19]  ²¹ tn It is possible to take this phrase with what precedes (“The Lord deserves praise day after day”) rather than with what follows.

[68:20]  ²² tn Heb “and to the Lord, the Lord, to death, goings out.”

[68:21]  ²³ tn Heb “the hairy forehead of the one who walks about in his guilt.” The singular is representative.

[68:22]  ²⁴ tn That is, the enemies mentioned in v. 21. Even if they retreat to distant regions, God will retrieve them and make them taste his judgment.

[68:23]  ²⁵ tc Some (e.g. NRSV) prefer to emend מָחַץ (makhats, “smash; stomp”; see v. 21) to רָחַץ (rakhats, “bathe”; see Ps 58:10).

[68:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “[and] the tongue of your dogs from [the] enemies [may eat] its portion.”