Exodus 15:13-23

13 In your love, you led the people you redeemed; in your strength, you guided them to your holy abode.

14 The peoples have heard, and they tremble; anguish takes hold of those living in P'leshet;

15 then the chiefs of Edom are dismayed; trepidation seizes the heads of Mo'av; all those living in Kena'an are melted away.

16 Terror and dread fall on them; by the might of your arm they are still as stone until your people pass over, ADONAI, till the people you purchased pass over.

17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain which is your heritage, the place, ADONAI, that you made your abode, the sanctuary, Adonai, which your hands established.

18 ADONAI will reign forever and ever.

19 For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and with his cavalry into the sea, but ADONAI brought the sea waters back upon them, while the people of Isra'el walked on dry land in the midst of the sea!"

20 Also Miryam the prophet, sister of Aharon, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines, dancing,

21 as Miryam sang to them: "Sing to ADONAI, for he is highly exalted! The horse and its rider he threw in the sea!"

22 Moshe led Isra'el onward from the Sea of Suf. They went out into the Shur Desert; but after traveling three days in the desert, they had found no water.

23 They arrived at Marah but couldn't drink the water there, because it was bitter. This is why they called it Marah [bitterness].

Exodus 15:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 15

This chapter contains the song of Moses, and of the children of Israel, on the banks of the Red sea; in which they celebrate their passage through it, the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in it, and the glory of the divine perfections displayed therein, interspersed with prophetic hints of things future, Ex 15:1-19 which same song was sung by the women, with Miriam at the head of them, attended with timbrels and dances, Ex 15:20,21, an account is given of the march of the children of Israel from the Red sea to the wilderness of Shur, and of the bitter waters found at Marah, which occasioned a murmuring, and of their being made sweet by casting a tree into them, Ex 15:22-25 when they were told by the Lord, that if they would yield obedience to his commandments, they should be free from the diseases the Egyptians had been afflicted with, Ex 15:26, and the chapter is concluded with their coming to Elim, where they found twelve wells of water, and seventy palm trees, and there encamped, Ex 15:27.