Exodus 15 - Introduction

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 metreand strophical arrangementof 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 -enhûin v.2, and "êmấthâhin 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. 11 b) 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 [Exodus 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), Psalms 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 oak2 Samuel 18:14, and (לבב) with heavenDeuteronomy 4:11); הריק -draw" (the sword), lit. empty out(v.9), recurs only Leviticus 26:33 (7th cent.), Psalms 35:3; Psalms 35:5 times in Ezek the pron. zû(vv.13, 16) recurs 13 times, first in Psalms 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.), Psalms 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 -momight 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 Psalms 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); Psalms 74:2 (v.16d -purchased"); Psalms 77:13 (-was in holiness," v.11b; -Who, &c.," v.11a), Psalms 77:14 (vv.11c, 2a), Psalms 77:15 a (v.13a), Psalms 77:16 b, c -were in pangs …, trembled" (v.14 -trembled, Pangs"), Psalms 77:16 c -depths" (-deeps," vv.5a, 8c Heb.), Psalms 77:20 (v.13a -Thou leddest the people"); Psalms 78:13 b, Psalms 78:53 b, Psalms 78:54 RVm. (vv.8b, 10a, 13 end, 16 end, 17a); Psalms 106:12 b (note 12a = ch. Exodus 14:31 b, shewing that the author of the Psalm read Exodus 15 in its present connexion); Psalms 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; Psalms 66:6 a, Psalms 74:13-14; Psalms 81:7 a, b, Psalms 89:10; Psalms 106:9-12; Psalms 114:3 a, Psalms 114:5 a, Psalms 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 (Judges 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 13:16; Exodus 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).