_A.M. 2513. B.C. 1491._ In this chapter, (1,) _ Israel looks back upon Egypt with a song of praise for their deliverance. Here Isaiah, 1, The song itself, Exodus 15:1; Exodus 15:2, The solemn singing of it, Exodus 15:20; Exodus 15:21._ (2,) Israel marches forward in the wilderness, Exodus 15:22. T... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then sang Moses this song_ The first song recorded in Scripture, and, excepting perhaps the book of Job, the most ancient piece of genuine poetry extant in the world. And it cannot be too much admired. It abounds with noble and sublime sentiments, expressed in strong and lofty language. Its figures... [ Continue Reading ]
_Israel_ rejoiceth in God, as their _strength, song, and salvation_ Happy, therefore, the people whose God is the Lord: they are weak in themselves, but he strengthens them; his grace is _their strength:_ they are oft in sorrow, but in him they have comfort; he is _their song:_ sin and death threate... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord is a man of war_ Able to deal with all those that strive with their Maker. Houbigant renders the words _bellator fortis_, Jehovah is a _strong warrior_, or, _mighty in war_, a translation countenanced by the Samaritan Hebrew copy, and by the Septuagint, the Chaldee of Onkelos, the Syriac,... [ Continue Reading ]
_He hath cast_ With great force and velocity, as an arrow out of a bow, as the Hebrew word ירה, here used, signifies. The Egyptian cavalry was numerous, formidable, and covered whole plains. It would have required several days to have defeated and cut them to pieces: but God defeated them in an inst... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the greatness of thine excellency_ Thy great and excellent power. _Excellency_, or _highness_, (as the word גאון, here used, properly means,) belongs in the most eminent and unqualified sense to Jehovah, who is superlatively high and excellent in all his attributes.... [ Continue Reading ]
_With the blast of thy nostrils_ Or, _of thine anger_, as the Hebrew word is often rendered. He means that vehement east wind, (Exodus 15:10, and Exodus 14:21,) which was raised by God's anger in order to the ruin of his enemies. _The floods_ Hebrew, the _streams, or the flowing waters_, whose natur... [ Continue Reading ]
_The enemy said, I will pursue_ This verse is inexpressibly beautiful. Instead of barely saying, “The Egyptians, by pursuing the Israelites, went into the sea,” Moses himself, as it were, enters into the hearts of these barbarians, assumes their passions, and makes them speak the language which thei... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them_ What an idea does this give us of the power of God! He only _blows_, and he at once overwhelms a numberless multitude of forces! This is the true sublime. It is like, _Let there be light, and there was light._ Can any thing be greater? _The sea c... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?_ So called; the idols or princes. To the wonderful relation above mentioned, succeeds a wonderful expression of praise. And how, indeed, could the writer possibly avoid being transported, and carried, as it were, out of himself at the sight of such a w... [ Continue Reading ]
_The earth swallowed them up_ Their dead bodies sunk into the sands, on which they were thrown, which sucked them in.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou in thy mercy_, &c. This and the four following verses contain a prophetic declaration of the glorious protection which God would grant his people after having brought them out of Egypt. And the reader does not know which to admire most, God's tenderness for his people, whose guide and conducto... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt bring them in_ If he thus _bring them out_ of Egypt, he will bring them into Canaan; for he has begun, and will he not make an end? _Thou wilt plant them in the place made for thee to dwell in_ It is good dwelling where God dwells, in his church on earth, and in his church in heaven. _In... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord shall reign_, &c. This concludes the whole song, by which Moses not only expresses his own faith and that of the people in God's everlasting kingdom, but promises, in the name of them all, to bear eternally in mind the signal deliverance God had wrought out for them. _For ever and ever_ Th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Miriam the prophetess_ So called, either in a general sense, because she was an instructer of other women in the praise and service of God, or in a more special sense, because she had the spirit of prophecy, Numbers 12:2; Micah 6:4. _Miriam_ (or _Mary_, for it is the same name) now presided in an a... [ Continue Reading ]
_They went three days and found no water_ Here we see that deliverances, however great, do not exempt from future difficulties and trials. Never was a greater deliverance, of a temporal nature, wrought out for any people than that of the Israelites from Pharaoh and from Egypt. It is the most wonderf... [ Continue Reading ]
_He cried unto the Lord_ Moses did what they ought to have done. He made request unto the Lord for help in this distress. It is the greatest relief of the cares of magistrates and ministers, when those under their charge make them uneasy, that they may have recourse to God by prayer. He is the guide... [ Continue Reading ]
_If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God_, &c. He here states the substance of what he required of them. For as yet he did not load them with that grievous yoke of ceremonies, which he thought fit afterward to lay upon them, _for the hardness of their hearts_, or because the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Twelve wells of water_ One for each tribe, and the seventy palm-trees affording a cooling shade.... [ Continue Reading ]