Exodus 15
The song of Moses
1Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: I will sing to the LORD, because he is great and powerful. He threw horses and the men who ride them into the sea. 2The LORD makes me strong and he gives me a song. He has saved me. He is my God and I will praise him. He is my father’s God and I will praise him. 3The LORD is like a great soldier. The LORD is his name. 4He threw Pharaoh’s chariots and armies into the sea. Pharaoh’s best officers drowned in the Red Sea. 5The deep waters have covered them. They fell to the floor of the sea, like a stone. 6Your right hand, LORD, was great and very powerful. Your right hand, LORD, killed the enemy. 7With your powerful authority, you killed your enemies. You were very angry with them. You killed them, like a fire burns dry grass. 8You blew on the water and it became like a wall. The deep waters stood up and they did not move. 9The enemy said: ‘I will go after them. I will catch them. I will take good things from these Israelites and I will give them to my army. I will be very happy to do this! I will pull out my sharp knife and I will kill them.’ 10But you blew on the waters and the sea covered your enemies. They went down like heavy metal in the great waters. 11Oh LORD, there is nobody like you among the gods! There is nobody like you anywhere! You are so great and so holy. You frighten us with your bright light. You do great and powerful things. 12You lifted up your right hand. You caused a hole to open in the ground. Your enemies fell into it. 13Because your love never changes, you have led your people. They are the ones that you have saved. With your strong hand, you will be their guide to your holy home. 14The people in other countries will hear and they will be very afraid. You will frighten the people in Philistia with a great pain. 15The rulers of Edom will feel weak and very afraid. The leaders of Moab cannot stand. They are so much afraid. All the people in Canaan will run away. 16They are very afraid of your powerful authority. They cannot move. They have become like stones that do not move. And they will remain like that, until your people pass by them, LORD. They will not move, until your own people have passed by them. 17You will bring in your people. You will bring them to live on your own mountain. LORD, it is the place that you have prepared for your home. It is the holy place, Lord, that you yourself have built. 18The LORD will rule for all time. 19Pharaoh’s horses and his chariots had gone into the sea, with the men who drove them. Then the LORD had made the waters of the sea come back over them. But the Israelites had walked through the sea on dry ground. 20Then Miriam, Aaron’s sister, who was a female prophet, took a tambourine in her hand. All the other women followed Miriam, with tambourines in their hands. They danced when Miriam sang to them. ▼▼15:20 A tambourine is a thing with which we can make music. To make a tambourine, you fix leather to a circle of wood. You hold the tambourine with one hand. With the other hand, you hit the leather, to make a sound.
21This is the song that she sang: ‘Sing to the LORD! He is great and powerful. He threw into the sea the horse and the man who rides it!’ The waters of Marah and Elim
22Then Moses led the Israelites away from the Red Sea. They travelled into the desert called Shur. They walked into the desert for three days and they could not find any water. 23Then, when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there. They tasted the water, but it was bad. That is why they called that place ‘Marah’. Marah means ‘it tastes bad’. 24Then the people were not happy and they spoke against Moses. They said: ‘What can we drink?’ 25Then Moses prayed to the LORD and the LORD showed Moses a special piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water and then the water became clean and good. In that place, the LORD made a rule and a law for the Israelites. He checked them there, in that place. 26He said: ‘Be careful to listen to the voice of the LORD, your God. Do what he says is right. Obey his commands and all his rules. Then I will not bring on you the illnesses that I gave to the Egyptians. I am the LORD. I make you well again.’ 27Then they came to Elim. There they found 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees. And the Israelites stayed there, by the water.
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