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LXX Exodus

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 15

1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song to God, and spoke, saying, Let us sing to the Lord, for he is very greatly glorified: horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 He was to me a helper and protector for salvation: this is my God and I will glorify him; my father's God, and I will exalt him. 3 The Lord crushing wars, the Lord is his name.⁠ 4 He has cast the chariots of Pharaoh and his host into the sea, the chosen mounted captains: they were swallowed up in the Red Sea. 5 He covered them with the sea: they sank to the depth like a stone. 6 Your right hand, Lord, has been glorified in strength; your right hand, Lord, has broken the enemies. 7 And in the abundance of your glory you have broken the adversaries to pieces: you sent forth your fierce anger, it devoured them as stubble. 8 And by the breath of your anger the water parted; the waters were congealed as a wall, the waves were congealed in the midst of the sea. 9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the captured goods; I will satisfy my soul, I will destroy with my sword, my hand shall have dominion. 10 You sent forth your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty water. 11 Who is like you among the gods, Lord? who is like you? glorified in holiness, marvelous in glories, doing wonders. 12 You stretched forth your right hand, the earth swallowed them up. 13 You have guided in your righteousness this your people whom you have redeemed, by your strength you have called them into your holy resting-place. 14 The nations heard and were angry, pangs have seized on the dwellers among the Philistines. 15 Then the princes of Edom, and the chiefs of the Moabites hastened; trembling took hold upon them, all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away. 16 Let trembling and fear fall upon them; by the greatness of your arm, let them become as stone; till your people pass over, Lord, till this your people pass over, whom you have purchased. 17 Bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in your prepared habitation, which you, Lord, have prepared; the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have made ready. 18 The Lord reigns for ever and ever and ever. 19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with the chariots and horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought upon them the water of the sea, but the children of Israel walked through dry land in the midst of the sea. 20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and there went forth all the women after her with timbrels and dances. 21 And Miriam led them, saying, Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been very greatly glorified: the horse and rider he has cast into the sea. 22 So Moses brought up the children of Israel from the Red Sea, and brought them into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water to drink. 23 and they came to Marah, and could not drink of Marah, for it was bitter; therefore the name of that place was called Bitterness. 24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25 And Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, and he cast it into the water, and the water was sweetened: there he established for him ordinances and judgments, and there he tested him, 26 and said, If you will indeed hear the voice of the Lord your God, and do things pleasing before him, and will listen to his commands, and keep all his ordinances, no disease which I have brought upon the Egyptians I will bring upon you, for I am the Lord your God that heals you. 27 And they came to Elim, and there were there twelve fountains of water, and seventy stems of palm-trees;⁠ and they encamped there by the waters.

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Compare Exodus 15:3 and LXX Exodus 15:3

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Exodus 15 calls God a “man of war,” a human-like description. Later traditions softened the human description by changing “man” to “hero,” and the Greek Septuagint, likely misunderstanding this, changed it again to say that God “shatters wars.”

Passages

Exodus 15:3

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

LXX Exodus 15:3

Septuagint
1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song to God, and spoke, saying, Let us sing to the Lord, for he is very greatly glorified: horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 He was to me a helper and protector for salvation: this is my God and I will glorify him; my father's God, and I will exalt him. 3 The Lord crushing wars, the Lord is his name. 4 He has cast the chariots of Pharaoh and his host into the sea, the chosen mounted captains: they were swallowed up in the Red Sea. 5 He covered them with the sea: they sank to the depth like a stone.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Exodus

References

"... The “Song at the Sea,” contains Moses’ hymn to God, ostensibly sung just after the Egyptians are drowned. As is true of many hymns, the beginning contains multiple praises of YHWH. One such praise, reads differently in all three main extant texts type ... Did one or two of these descriptions develop by way of exegesis from an earlier reading or by way of textual mishap, and if so, which reading is the earliest of the three? Although not /certain, the MT seems the most ancient, reflecting a time when it was still possible to depict YHWH in the highly anthropomorphic image of “a man of war.” Nowhere else in Scripture is God depicted as a “man.” ... The unusual LXX reading, “who shatters wars,” does not fit a context in which YHWH is depicted in the next verses as an active warrior. The appearance of this rendering makes sense when we consider the likely Hebrew reconstruction, י־הוה שׁבר מלחמה. The word (shober) in LXX and (gibbor) in SP differ in only one letter (shin and gimel) in their base form, though admittedly, the two letters are not close graphically. In sum, it seems that we can trace the development of the text as follows: the MT’s “man of war” is the oldest text. It was modified by the pre-SP scribes for theological reasons to read “hero of war.” This text was, in turn, misread by the LXX translator or his Vorlage, who read or wrote שבר instead of גבר, yielding the present text of the LXX ..."
Emanuel Tov, God as a Warrior, Exodus 15:3 (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2023), 1–3.

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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