Exodus 15:1-8
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 15
The Song of Moses and Miriam.[a] 1 Moses and the children of Israel therefore sang this song to the Lord:
“I will sing in honor of the Lord, for he is gloriously triumphant,
horse and horseman he has cast into the sea.
2 My strength and my song is the Lord,
for he has saved me.
He is my God, and I wish to praise him,
the God of my father, and I wish to exalt him.
3 “The Lord is a warrior,
Lord is his name.
4 He has cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea.
His choice troops were drowned in the Red Sea.
5 The depths covered them
and they sank like a stone.
6 “Your right hand, O Lord, is glorious in its power.
Your right hand, O Lord, has destroyed the enemy.
7 With the greatness of your majesty you have overthrown those who rose up against you.
You sent forth your anger and it devoured them like straw.
8 At the breath of your nostrils, the waters piled up.
The flood waters piled up and stood like a mound;
the deep waters congealed in the midst of the sea.
Footnotes
- Exodus 15:1 Although this hymn is here put into the mouth of the leader, it shows the extent to which the biblical poets were determined to magnify the wonders that accompanied the crossing of the Red Sea (see Ps 106:9; Wis 19:6-9). The refrain attributed to Miriam, Moses’ sister (Ex 15:21), may be regarded as the seed out of which the poem grew; it was later expanded (vv. 4-5, 8) and subsequently completed, for the song also in fact extols the journey to the Promised Land (vv. 13-16) and the building of the Temple (v. 17), both of which were other signs of God’s merciful presence in the midst of his people.
