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Exodus

About this book

The Song at the Sea

Chapter 15

1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.⁠ 2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.⁠ 3 The Lord is a man of war10—⁠ the Lord is his name.⁠ 4 The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he has thrown into the sea,⁠ and his chosen officers were drowned in the Red Sea.⁠ 5 The depths have covered them; they went down to the bottom like a stone.⁠ 6 Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic in power; your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy. 7 In the abundance of your majesty you have overthrown those who rise up against you. You sent forth your wrath; it consumed them like stubble.⁠ 8 By the blast of your nostrils the waters were piled up,⁠ the flowing water stood upright like a heap, and the deep waters were solidified in the heart of the sea.⁠ 9 The enemy said, ‘I will chase, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.’⁠ 10 But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11 Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?⁠ Who is like you—majestic in holiness, fearful in praises, working wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. 13 By your loyal love you will lead the people whom you have redeemed; you will guide them by your strength to your holy dwelling place. 14 The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will seize the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 Then the chiefs of Edom will be terrified, trembling will seize the leaders of Moab, and the inhabitants of Canaan will shake. 16 Fear and dread will fall on them; by the greatness of your arm they will be as still as stone until your people pass by, O Lord, until the people whom you have bought pass by. 17 You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance,⁠ in the place you made for your residence, O Lord, the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.⁠ 18 The Lord will reign forever and ever! 19 For the horses of Pharaoh came with his chariots and his footmen into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea on them, but the Israelites walked on dry land in the middle of the sea.” 20 Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand drum in her hand, and all the women went out after her with hand drums and with dances.⁠ 21 Miriam sang in response to them, “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.”⁠

Food, Water, and Conflict in the Wilderness

22 Then Moses led Israel to journey away from the Red Sea. They went out to the wilderness of Shur,⁠ walked for three days into the wilderness, and found no water.⁠ 23 Then they came to Marah, but they were not able to drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter. (That is why its name was Marah.) 24 So the people murmured against Moses, saying, “What can we drink?”⁠ 25 He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink.⁠ There the Lord made for them a binding ordinance, and there he tested them. 26 He said, “If you will diligently obey the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the Lord, am your healer.”⁠ 27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the water.

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 15:8 and Psalm 18:15

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Exodus portrays the sea driven back by the blast of God’s nostrils, turning chaotic waters into a wall. Psalm 18 uses this same nostril imagery when storms expose the depths of the earth. The idiom recalls the snorting of a bull prepared for combat.

Passages

Exodus 15:8

Hebrew Bible
6 Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic in power; your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy. 7 In the abundance of your majesty you have overthrown those who rise up against you. You sent forth your wrath; it consumed them like stubble. 8 By the blast of your nostrils the waters were piled up, the flowing water stood upright like a heap, and the deep waters were solidified in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, ‘I will chase, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.’ 10 But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Psalm 18:15

Hebrew Bible
13 The Lord thundered in the sky; the Most High shouted. 14 He shot his arrows and scattered them, many lightning bolts and routed them. 15 The depths of the sea were exposed; the inner regions of the world were uncovered by your battle cry, Lord, by the powerful breath from your nose. 16 He reached down from above and took hold of me; he pulled me from the surging water. 17 He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hate me, for they were too strong for me.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... In the Hebrew Bible, bull and horn imagery is applied to YHWH in two ways. The first is exactly what one might expect given the above description of the symbolic import of the bull. The author of Numbers 23:22 likens YHWH to the horns of a wild ox, protecting Israel against Egypt, and, similarly, Isaiah 10:13 likens him to a bull bringing down foreign kings who are enemies of Zion. Another analogy between YHWH and bulls is drawn by the most common idiom used to describe YHWH’s anger, and that is “his nostril(s) grew hot” (e.g., Exodus 15:8; 32:10; Isaiah 11:4; Psalm 18:15; Job 4:9). This idiom conjures the image of YHWH as a snorting bull with flared, if not steaming, nostrils, preparing for conflict. As with a bull, the metaphor of visible heat vaporizing from YHWH’s nostrils serves as a threat of violence to whomever has angered YHWH within that particular pericope, usually by endangering the well-being of Israel, even if sometimes the offender is Israel itself (e.g., Exodus 32:10). The imagery of a bull or a horn as a metaphor for YHWH’s power, particularly as it manifests in the destructive and protective elements of his personality, functions as an expression of that which is made clear in other parts of the Hebrew Bible, independent of such language: that YHWH is a deity who protects the well-being of those who serve him, even at the expense of others ..."
Amy L. Balogh, Moses among the Idols: Mediators of the Divine in the Ancient Near East (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2018), 176–177.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Exodus 15:8 and Psalm 18:15

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