Psalms 106:7-10

106:7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds,

they failed to remember your many acts of loyal love,

and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea. ¹ 

106:8 Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation, ² 

that he might reveal his power.

106:9 He shouted at ³  the Red Sea and it dried up;

he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.

106:10 He delivered them from the power ⁴  of the one who hated them,

and rescued ⁵  them from the power ⁶  of the enemy.

Exodus 14:12

14:12 Isn’t this what we told you ⁷  in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, ⁸  because it is better for us to serve ⁹  the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” ¹⁰ 

Exodus 14:30-31

14:30 So the Lord saved ¹¹  Israel on that day from the power ¹²  of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead ¹³  on the shore of the sea. 14:31 When Israel saw ¹⁴  the great power ¹⁵  that the Lord had exercised ¹⁶  over the Egyptians, they ¹⁷  feared the Lord, and they believed in ¹⁸  the Lord and in his servant Moses. ¹⁹ 

[106:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Reed Sea” (also in vv. 9, 22). “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.

[106:8]  ² tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[106:9]  ³ tn Or “rebuked.”

[106:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “hand.”

[106:10]  ⁵ tn Or “redeemed.”

[106:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “hand.”

[14:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is not this the word that we spoke to you.”

[14:12]  ⁸ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 164) explains this statement by the people as follows: “The question appears surprising at first, for we have not read previously that such words were spoken to Moses. Nor is the purport of the protest of the Israelite foremen (v 21 [5:21]) identical with that of the words uttered now. However, from a psychological standpoint the matter can be easily explained. In the hour of peril the children of Israel remember that remonstrance, and now it seems to them that it was of a sharper character and flowed from their foresight, and that the present situation justifies it, for death awaits them at this moment in the desert.” This declaration that “we told you so,” born of fright, need not have been strictly accurate or logical.

[14:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “better for us to serve.”

[14:12]  ¹⁰ tn Since Hebrew does not use quotation marks to indicate the boundaries of quotations, there is uncertainty about whether the Israelites’ statement in Egypt includes the end of v. 12 or consists solely of “leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians.” In either case, the command to Moses to leave them alone rested on the assumption, spoken or unspoken, that serving Egypt would be less risky than what Moses was proposing. Now with the Egyptian army on the horizon, the Israelites are sure that their worst predictions are about to take place.

[14:30]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term וַיּוֹשַׁע (vayyosha’) is the key summation of the chapter, and this part of the book: “So Yahweh saved Israel.” This is the culmination of all the powerful works of God through these chapters.

[14:30]  ¹² tn Heb “the hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for power.

[14:30]  ¹³ tn The participle “dead” is singular, agreeing in form with “Egypt.”

[14:31]  ¹⁴ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces a clause that is subordinate to the main points that the verse is making.

[14:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the great hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for work or power. The word play using “hand” contrasts the Lord’s hand/power at work on behalf of the Israelites with the hand/power of Egypt that would have killed them.

[14:31]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “did, made.”

[14:31]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the people feared.”

[14:31]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is the Hiphil preterite of אָמַן (’aman).

[14:31]  ¹⁹ sn Here the title of “servant” is given to Moses. This is the highest title a mortal can have in the OT – the “servant of Yahweh.” It signifies more than a believer; it describes the individual as acting on behalf of God. For example, when Moses stretched out his hand, God used it as his own (Isa 63:12). Moses was God’s personal representative. The chapter records both a message of salvation and of judgment. Like the earlier account of deliverance at the Passover, this chapter can be a lesson on deliverance from present troubles – if God could do this for Israel, there is no trouble too great for him to overcome. The passage can also be understood as a picture (at least) of the deliverance at the final judgment on the world. But the Israelites used this account for a paradigm of the power of God: namely, God is able to deliver his people from danger because he is the sovereign Lord of creation. His people must learn to trust him, even in desperate situations; they must fear him and not the situation. God can bring any threat to an end by bringing his power to bear in judgment on the wicked.