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d

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b made the sea dry land, and the | Pharaoh's horses, his chariots,
waters were divided.
and his horsemen.
24 And it came to pass,
that in
the morning watch f the LORD looked unto the
host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of
fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host
of the Egyptians,

22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea, upon the dry ground and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.

23 And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all

Psalm lxvi. 6. C Chap. xv. 8; Josh. iii. 16; iv. 23; Neh. ix. 11; Psa. lxxiv 13; cvi. 9; cxiv. 3; Isa. lxiii. 12.- d Ver. 29; chap. xv. 19; Numbers xxxiii. 8; Psa. lxvi. 6; lxxviff. 13;

25 And took off their chariot wheels, that

Isaiah Ixiii. 13; 1 Cor. x. 1; Hebrews xi. 29. Hab. iii. 10. See Psalm lxxvii. 17, &c.- - Or, and made them to go heavily.

infidelity! how miserable and despicable are thy shifts

Verse 24. The morning watch] A watch was the fourth part of the time from sun-setting to sun-rising; so called from soldiers keeping guard by night, who being changed four times during the night, the periods came to be called watches.-Dodd.

As here and in 1 Sam. xi. 11 is mentioned the morning watch; so in Lam. ii. 19, the beginning of the watches; and in Judg. vii. 19, the middle watch is spoken of; in Luke xii. 38, the second and third watch; and in Matt. xiv. 25, the fourth watch of the night; which in Mark xiii. 35 are named evening, midnight, cock-crowing, and day-dawning.—Ainsworth.

appear to be employed, though the effect produced can be attributed to neither. By stretching out the rod the waters were divided; by the blowing of the vehement, ardent, east wind, the bed of the sea was dried. It has been observed, that in the place where the Israelites are supposed to have passed, the water is about fourteen fathoms or twenty-eight yards deep: had the wind mentioned here been strong enough, naturally speaking, to have divided the waters, it must have blown in one narrow track, and continued blowing in the direction in which the Israelites passed; and a wind sufficient to have raised a mass of water twenty-eight yards deep and twelve miles in length, out of its bed, would necessarily have blown the whole six hundred thousand men away, and utterly destroyed them and their cattle. I therefore conclude that the east wind, which was ever remarked as a parching, burning wind, was used after the division of the waters, merely to dry the bottom, and render it passable. For an account of the hot drying winds in the east, see the note on Gen. viii. 1. God ever puts the highest honour on his instrument, Nature; and where it can act, he ever employs it. No natural agent could divide these wa-lent thunders and lightning, which we are assured by ters, and cause them to stand as a wall upon the right hand and upon the left; therefore God did it by his own sovereign power. When the waters were thus divided, there was no need of a miracle to dry the bed of the sea and make it passable; therefore the strong desiccating east wind was brought, which soon accomplished this object. In this light I suppose the text should be understood.

As the Israelites went out of Egypt at the vernal equinox, the morning watch, or, according to the Hebrew, an beashmoreth habboker, the watch of day-break, would answer to our four o'clock in the morning.-Calmet.

The Lord looked unto] This probably means that the cloud suddenly assumed a fiery appearance where it had been dark before; or they were appalled by vio

the psalmist did actually take place, together with great inundations of rain, &c.: The clouds POURED OUT WATER; the skies sent out a SOUND: thine ARROWS also went abroad. The VOICE of thy THUNDER was in the heaven; the LIGHTNINGS LIGHTENED the world; the earth TREMBLED and SHOOK, Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters. Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron; Psa. lxxvii. Verse 22. And the waters were a wall unto them on 17-20. Such tempests as these would necessarily their right hand and on their left.] This verse demon- terrify the Egyptian horses, and produce general constrates that the passage was miraculous. Some have fusion. By their dashing hither and thither the wheels supposed that the Israelites had passed through, fa- must be destroyed, and the chariots broken; and foot voured by an extraordinary ebb, which happened at. that and horse must be mingled together in one universal time to be produced by a strong wind, which happened ruin; see ver. 25. During the time that this state of just then to blow! Had this been the case, there could horror and confusion was at its summit the Israelites not have been waters standing on the right hand and had safely passed over; and then Moses, at the comon the left; much less could those waters, contrary to mand of God, (ver. 26,) having stretched out his rod every law of fluids, have stood as a wall on either side over the waters, the sea returned to its strength; (ver. while the Israelites passed through, and then happen | 27;) i. e., the waters by their natural gravity resumed to become obedient to the laws of gravitation when the their level, and the whole Egyptian host were comEgyptians entered in !. An infidel may deny the reve-pletely overwhelmed, ver. 28. But as to the Israellation in toto, and from such we expect nothing better; ites, the waters had been a wall unto them on the right but to hear those who profess to believe this to be a hand and on the left, ver. 29. This the waters could Divine revelation endeavouring to prove that the pas- not have been, unless they had been supernaturally supsage of the Red Sea had nothing miraculous in it, is ported; as their own gravity would necessarily have really intolerable. Such a mode of interpretation occasioned them to have kept their level, or, if raised requires a miracle to make itself credible. Poor beyond it, to have regained it if left to their natural VOL. I. ( 25 ). 369.

EXODUS.

host of Pharaoh, that came into the sea after them; there refrom the face of Israel; for the mained not, so much as one of LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. them.

26 And the LORD said unto Moses, i Stretch 29 But the children of Israel walked upon out thine hand over the sea, that the waters dry land, in the midst of the sea; and the 'may come again upon the Egyptians, upon waters were a wall unto them, on their right their chariots, and upon their horsemen. hand, and on their left.

27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over 30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day the sea, and the sea returned to his strength out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel when the morning appeared; and the Egyp-saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. tians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew m 31. And Israel saw that great work which the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. the LORD did upon the Egyptians and the 28 And the waters returned, and covered people feared the LORD, and believed the the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the LORD, and his servant Moses.

|

1. THE events recorded in this chapter are truly astonishing; and they strongly mark what God can Verse 28. There remained not so much as one of do, and what he will do, both against his enemies and them.] Josephus says that the army of Pharaoh con-in behalf of his followers. In vain are all the forces sisted of fifty thousand horse, and two hundred thou sand foot, of whom not one remained to carry tidings of this most extraordinary catastrophe.

The triumphal song of

CHAP. XV.

Moses and the Israelites.

CHAPTER XV.

Moses and the Israelites sing a song of praise to God for their late deliverance, in which they celebrate the power of God, gloriously manifested in the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, 1; express their confidence in him as their strength and protector, 2, 3; detail the chief circumstances in the overthrow of the Egyptians, 4-8; and relate the purposes they had formed for the destruction of God's people, 9, and how he destroyed them in the imaginations of their hearts, 10. Jehovah is celebrated for the perfections of his nature and his wondrous works, 11-13. A prediction of the effect which the account of the destruction of the Egyptians should have on the Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites, 14-16. A prediction of the · establishment of Israel in the promised land, 17. The full chorus of praise, 18. Recapitulation of the destruction of the Egyptians, and the deliverance of Israel, 19. Miriam and the women join in and prolong the chorus, 20, 21. The people travel three days in the wilderness of Shur, and find no water, 22. Coming to Marali, and finding bitter waters, they murmur against Moses, 23, 24. In answer to the prayer of Moses, God shows him a tree by which the waters are sweetened, 25. God gives them statutes and gracious promises, 26. They come to Elim, where they find twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and there they encamp, 27.

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THEN sang Moses and the ing, I will sing unto the
b
children of Israel this song LORD, for he hath triumphed
unto the LORD; and spake, say- gloriously the horse and his

a

Judg. v. 1; 2 Sam. xxii. 1; Psa. cvi. 12; Wisd. x. 20. Ver. 21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XV.

Verse 1. Then sang Moses and the children of
Israel this song] POETRY has been cultivated in all
ages and among all people, from the most refined to
the most barbarous; and to it principally, under the
kind providence of God, we are indebted for most of
the original accounts we have of the ancient nations
of the universe. Equally measured lines, with a har-
monious collocation of expressive, sonorous, and some
times highly metaphorical terms, the alternate lines
either answering to each other in sense, or ending with
similar sounds, were easily committed to memory, and
easily retained. As these were often accompanied
with a pleasing air or tune, the subject being a con-
catenation of striking and interesting events, histories
formed thus became the amusement of youth, the
softeners of the tedium of labour, and even the solace
of age.
In such a way the histories of most nations
have been preserved. The interesting events cele-
brated, the rhythm or metre, and the accompanying
tune or recitativo air, rendered them easily transmis-
sible to posterity; and by. means of tradition they
passed safely from father to son through the times of
comparative darkness, till they arrived at those ages
in which the pen and the press have given them a sort
of deathless duration and permanent stability, by mul-
tiplying the copies. Many of the ancient historic
and heroic British tales are continued by tradition
among the aboriginal inhabitants of Ireland to the pre-
sent day; and the repetition of them constitutes the
chief amusement of the winter evenings. Even the
prose histories, which were written on the ground of
the poetic, copied closely their exemplars, and the
historians themselves were obliged to study all the
beauties and ornaments of style, that their works might
become popular; and to this circumstance we owe
not a small measure of what is termed refinement of
language. How observable is this in the history of
Herodotus, who appears to have closely copied the
ancient poetic records in his inimitable and harmonious

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prose; and, that his books might bear as near a resem-
blance as possible to the ancient and popular originals.
he divided them into nine, and dedicated each to one
of the muses! His work therefore seems to occupy
the same place between the ancient poetic compositions
and mere prosaic histories, as the polype does between
plants and animals. Much even of our sacred records
is written in poetry, which God has thus consecrated
to be the faithful transmitter of remote and important
events; and of this the song before the reader is a
proof in point. Though this is not the first specimen
of poetry we have met with in the Pentateuch, (see
Lamech's speech to his wives, Gen. iv. 23, 24; Noah's
prophecy concerning his sons, chap. ix. 25–27; and
Jacob's blessing to the twelve patriarchs, chap. xlix.
2-27, and the notes there,) yet it is the first regular
ode of any considerable length, having but one sub-
ject; and it is all written in hemistichs, or half lines,
the usual form in Hebrew poetry; and though this
form frequently occurs, it is not attended to in our
common printed Hebrew Bibles, except in this and
three other places, (Deut. xxxii., Judg. v., and 2 Sam.
xxii.,) all of which shall be noticed as they occur.
in Dr. Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, all
the poetry,.wheresoever it occurs, is printed in its
own hemistich form.

But

After what has been said it is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe, that as such ancient poetic histories commemorated great and extraordinary displays. of providence, courage, strength, fidelity, heroism, and piety; hence the origin of EPIC poems, of which the song in this chapter is the earliest specimen. And on the principle of preserving the memory of such events, most nations have had their epic poets, who have generally taken for their subject the most splendid or most remote events of their country's history, which either referred to the formation or extension of their empire, the exploits of their ancestors, or the establishment of their religion. Hence the ancient HEBREWS had their Shir Mosheh, the piece in question; the GREEKS, their

Confidence of Israel

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e

2 The LORD is my strength father's God, and I will song, and he is become my salvation:

Ilias; the HINDOOS, their Mahabarat; the ROMANS, their Æneis; the NORWEGIANS, their Edda; the IRISH and SCOTCH, their Fingal and Chronological poems; the WELSH, their Taliessin and his Triads; the ARABS, their Nebiun-Nameh (exploits of Mohammed) and Hamleh Heedry, (exploits of Aly ;) the PERSIANS, their SHAH Nameh, (book of kings;) the ITALIANS, their Gerusalemme Liberata; the PORTUGUESE, their Lusiad; the ENGLISH, their Paradise Lost; and, in humble imitation of all the rest, (etsi non passibus aquis,) the FRENCH, their Henriade,

The song of Moses has been in the highest repute in the Church of God from the beginning; the author of the Book of Wisdom attributes it in a particular manner to the wisdom of God, and says that on this occasion God opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the tongues of infants eloquent; chap. x. 21. As if he had said, Every person felt an interest in the great events which had taken place, and all laboured to give Jehovah that praise which was due to his name. "With this song of victory over Pharaoh," says Mr. Ainsworth, "the Holy Ghost compares the song of those who have gotten the victory over the spiritual Pharaoh, the beast, (Antichrist,) when they stand by the sea of glass mingled with fire, (as Israel stood here by the Red Sea,) having the harps of God, (as the women here had timbrels, ver. 20,) and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, the Son of God;" Rev. xv. 2-4.

exalt him.

21, 22; 2 Sam. vii. 5; Psa. cxxxii. 5.- Chap. iii. 15, 16. 12 Sam. xxii. 47; Psa. xcix. 5; cxviii. 28; Isa. xxv. 1.

66

It is worthy of observation that the word which we translate LORD here, is not JEHOVAH in the original, but Jah; as if by abbreviation," says Mr. Parkhurst, "for Пyeheich or ' yehi. It signifies the Essence 'O N, He who IS, simply, absolutely, and independently. The relation between 7* Jah and the verb ¡7, to subsist, exist, be, is intimated to us the first time Jah is used in Scripture, (Exod. xv. 2 :) My strength and my song is JAH, and he is become (" vajehi) to me salvation,"" See Psa. lxviii. 5; lxxxix. 6; xciv. 7; cxv. 17, 18; cxviii. 17.

JAH is several times joined with the name Jehovah, so that we may be sure that it is not, as some have supposed, a mere abbreviation of that word. See Isa. xii. 2; xxvi. 4. Our blessed Lord solemnly claims to himself what is intended in this Divine name

JAH, John viii. 58: "Before Abraham was, (yevegOat, was born,) ɛyw eiμi, I AM," not I was, but I am, plainly intimating his Divine eternal existence. Compare Isa. xliii. 13. And the Jews appear to have well understood him, for then took they up stones to cast at him as a blasphemer. Compare Col. i. 16, 17, where the Apostle Paul, after asserting that all things that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, were created, EKTIOTAL, by and for Christ, adds, And HE IS (avros eσri, not my, was) before all things, and by him all things ovvearnke, have subsisted, and still subsist. See Parkhurst.

From this Divine name Jah the ancient Greeks had their In, In, in their invocations of the gods, par ticularly of Apollo (the uncompounded ONE) the light, and hence EI, written after the oriental manner from right to left, afterwards IE, was inscribed over the great door of the temple at Delphi! See the note on chap. iii. 14, and the concluding observations there. I will prepare him a habitation] veanvehu.

,ki gaoh gaah כי גאה גאה

I will sing unto the Lord] Moses begins the song, and in the two first hemistichs states the subject of it; and these two first lines became the grand chorus of the piece, as we may learn from ver. 21. See Dr. Kennicott's arrangement and translation of this piece at the end of this chapter. Triumphed gloriously] he is exceedingly exalted, rendered by the Septuagint, It has been supposed that Moses, by this expression, Evdośws yap dedosaorai, He is gloriously glorified; intended the building of the tabernacle; but it seems and surely this was one of the most signal displays of to come in very strangely in this place. Most of the the glorious majesty of God ever exhibited since the ancient versions understood the original in a very difcreation of the world. And when it is considered that ferent sense. The Vulgate has et glorificabo eum ; the whole of this transaction shadowed out the redemp- the Septuagint došaow avrov, I will GLORIFY him; with tion of the human race from the thraldom and power which the Syriac, Coptic, the Targum of Jonathan, and of sin and iniquity by the Lord Jesus, and the final the Jerusalem Targum, agree. From the Targum triumph of the Church of God over all its enemies, we of Onkelos the present translation seems to have may also join in the song, and celebrate Him who has been originally derived; he has translated the place triumphed so gloriously, having conquered death, and veebnei leh makdash, “And I will build opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Verse 2. The Lord is my strength and song] How judiciously are the members of this sentence arranged! He who has God for his strength, will have him for his song; and he to whom Jehovah is become salvation, will exalt his name. Miserably and untunably, in the ears of God, does that man sing praises, who is not saved by the grace of Christ, nor strengthened by the power of his might.

him a sanctuary," which not one of the other versions, the Persian excepted, acknowledges. Our own old translations are generally different from the present: Coverdale, "This my God, I will magnify him;" Matthew's, Cranmer's, and the Bishops' Bible, render it glorify, and the sense of the place seems to require it. Calmet, Houbigant, Kennicott, and other critics, contend for this translation.

My father's God] I believe Houbigant to be right,