Old Testament

New Testament

Exodus 14-17
Crossing the Red Sea
141Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 2“Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to camp by the sea, facing Baal Zephon. 3Then Pharaoh will say about the Israelites, ‘They are wandering around in the land. The wilderness has shut them in.’ 4I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and his entire army. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So that is what the Israelites did.
5When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials had a change of heart concerning the people. They said, “What have we done? We have let Israel go! They will not serve us anymore!” 6So Pharaoh prepared his chariot and took his troops with him. 7He also took six hundred of the best chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites. The Israelites were going out defiantly.[] 9The Egyptians pursued them. All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his charioteers,[] and his army caught up with them where they were camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, which faces Baal Zephon.
10As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12Wasn't this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
13Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and see the salvation from the Lord, which he will perform for you today. For the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. 14The Lord will fight for you. You must wait quietly.”
15The Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to set out. 16As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide the sea so that the Israelites can go through the middle of the sea on dry ground. 17I myself will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go into the sea after them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and his entire army, through his chariots and his charioteers. 18The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his charioteers.”
19Then the Angel of God, who was going in front of the Israelite forces, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them. 20It went between the Egyptian forces and the Israelite forces. The cloud was dark on one side, but it lit up the night on the other. Neither group approached the other all night long.
21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all night long the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned the sea into dry land. The waters were divided. 22The Israelites went into the middle of the sea on dry ground. The waters were like a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23The Egyptians pursued them, and all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his charioteers went after them into the middle of the sea. 24During the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down on the Egyptian forces from the pillar of fire and cloud. Then he confused the Egyptian forces. 25He jammed[] their chariot wheels, and they had difficulty driving them. The Egyptians said, “We must flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!”
26Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, and the waters will come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their charioteers.” 27So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal place. While the Egyptians were fleeing from it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the middle of the sea. 28The waters came back and covered the chariots and the charioteers, the entire army of Pharaoh that went into the sea after the Israelites. Not even one of them survived.
29But the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry land, and the waters were like a wall for them on their right and on their left. 30On that day the Lord saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31Israel saw the mighty hand which the Lord put into action against the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in Moses, his servant.
The Song of Moses and Miriam
151Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said:
I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.
2The Lord[] is my strength and song.
He has become my salvation.
This is my God, and I will praise him;
my father's God, and I will exalt him.
3The Lord is a warrior.
The Lord is his name.
4He has cast Pharaoh's chariots and his army into the sea.
His elite officers are drowned in the Red Sea.
5The deep waters covered them.
They sank down to the depths like a stone.
6 Lord, your right hand is glorious in power.
Lord, your right hand has shattered the enemy.
7In your great majesty you overthrew those who opposed you.
You sent out your burning anger.
It consumed them like stubble.
8At the blast from your nostrils the waters piled up.
The flowing waters stood up like a dam.
The deep waters became solid in the heart of the sea.
9The enemy said, “I will pursue.
I will overtake. I will divide the plunder.
I will do whatever I want with them.
I will draw my sword,
and my hand will destroy them.”
10But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 Lord, who is like you among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
awesome in praise, working wonders?
12You stretched out your right hand,
and the earth swallowed them.
13In your mercy you will lead the people
that you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy pastureland.[]
14The nations will hear and tremble.
Anguish will grip the inhabitants of Philistia.
15Then the chiefs of Edom will be terrified.
Trembling will seize the leaders of Moab.
All the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away in despair.
16Terror and dread will fall upon them.
By the great power of your arm they will be as still as stone
until your people pass by, O Lord,
until the people whom you have purchased pass by.
17You will bring them in and plant them
on the mountain that belongs to you,
the place, O Lord, that you have made for your dwelling,
the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.
18The Lord will reign forever and ever.
19When Pharaoh's horses along with his chariots and charioteers went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back on them, but the Israelites walked on dry land in the middle of the sea.
20Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand drum, and all the women followed her with drums and dancing. 21Miriam sang to them,
Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Waters of Marah and Elim
22Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur. They traveled for three days in the wilderness but found no water. 23When they came to Marah, they were not able to drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter. That is why they named the place Marah.[] 24The people grumbled against Moses, and they said, “What will we drink?” 25Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him some wood. Moses threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
There the Lord made a decree and ruling for them, and there he tested them. 26So he said, “If only you would listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his eyes, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his regulations, I would not place on you any of the diseases that I placed on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
27Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the waters.
The Lord provides Manna and Quail
161On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt, the entire Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin,[] which is between Elim and Sinai. 2The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat around pots of meat and ate as much food as we wanted, but now you have brought us out into this wilderness to have this whole community die of hunger.”
4Then the Lord said to Moses, “Watch what I will do. I will rain down bread from heaven for you, and the people will go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether they will follow my instructions or not. 5On the sixth day they will prepare what they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
6So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “At evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7and in the morning you will see the Glory of the Lord, because he has heard your constant grumbling against the Lord. Who are we that you should grumble against us?”
8Moses said, “Now the Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and as much bread as you want in the morning, because the Lord has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”
9Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling.’” 10As Aaron spoke to the entire Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and suddenly the Glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.
11The Lord spoke to Moses: 12“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Say to them, ‘At evening you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat bread until you are full. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13So in the evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning a layer of dew surrounded the camp. 14When the layer of dew was gone, there were thin flakes on the surface of the wilderness, thin as frost on the ground. 15When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”[] because they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given to you as food to eat. 16This is what the Lord has commanded: All of them are to gather as much of it as they need to eat. You are to take an omer[] per person based on the number of people each of you has in your tents.”
17The Israelites did this, and some gathered more, some less. 18When they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered more did not have too much, and the one who gathered less did not have too little. All of them gathered as much as they needed to eat. 19Moses said to them, “No one is to leave any of it until morning.” 20However, they did not listen to Moses. Some of them left part of it until morning, and it became full of worms and stank. So Moses was angry with them.
21They gathered it each morning. All of them gathered as much as they needed to eat. When the sun grew hot, it melted away. 22On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers for each person, and all the leaders of the community came and reported to Moses. 23He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: Tomorrow is a complete rest, a holy sabbath[] to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil, but set aside for yourselves all the rest of it to be kept until morning.” 24So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25Moses said, “Today eat whatever is left over, for today is a sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find any around the camp.[] 26Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
27On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, but they did not find any. 28The Lord said to Moses, “How long will you people refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions? 29Look, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day he will give you two days' worth of bread. All of you are to stay where you are. None of you are to leave your places on the seventh day.” 30So the people rested on the seventh day.
31The house of Israel called it manna.[] It looked like white coriander seed, and it tasted like wafers made with honey. 32Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: A full omer[] of it is to be kept throughout your generations so that they may see the bread which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
33Moses said to Aaron, “Take a container, and put a full omer of manna in it. Place it before the Lord, to be kept throughout your generations.” 34To obey the Lord's command to Moses, Aaron placed an omer before the Testimony,[] to be preserved. 35The Israelites ate manna for forty years, until they came to a land that was inhabited. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 36(An omer, by the way, is one-tenth of an ephah.)
Water From the Rock
171The entire Israelite community set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin[] as the Lord had commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2So the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses said to them, “Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the Lord?”
3But the people were thirsty for water there, so they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you ever bring us up out of Egypt to let us, our children, and our livestock die of thirst?”
4Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me!”
5The Lord said to Moses, “Go in front of the people, and take the elders of Israel with you. Also take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6Watch me. I will stand there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. You are to strike the rock. Water will come out of it, and the people will drink.” Moses did that in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7He named the place Massah[] and Meribah,[] because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Battle With the Amalekites
8Then the Amalekites came and fought against the Israelites at Rephidim. 9Moses said to Joshua, “Select some men for us, and go out and fight against the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop, and God's staff will be in my hand.” 10So Joshua did just as Moses told him.
While Joshua was fighting against the Amalekites, Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the hilltop. 11Whenever Moses held up his hand, the Israelites would start winning, but whenever he lowered his hand,[] the Amalekites would start winning. 12When Moses' arms became tired, they took a stone and placed it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands—one on one side, and one on the other side. In this way his hands were steady until sunset. 13So Joshua defeated the Amalekite army with the sword.
14The Lord then said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a memorial, and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely erase the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven.” 15Moses built an altar and named it “The Lord is My Banner,” 16because he had said, “Since a hand was raised against the throne of the Lord,[] the Lord will be at war with the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

Footnotes

  • 14:8 Literally with an upraised hand
  • 14:9 At this point of military history, the Hebrew word often translated horsemen very likely refers to chariot crews, not cavalry. It seems cavalry was not common before the Assyrian period.
  • 14:25 The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek and Syriac versions read bound up or jammed. The Hebrew reads removed
  • 15:2 The divine name Yahweh here appears in the shortened form Yah.
  • 15:13 That is, the land of Israel
  • 15:23 Marah means bitter.
  • 16:1 Sin is a geographic name like Sinai. It does not refer to Israel's sin.
  • 16:15 The Hebrew for What is it? sounds like the word for manna.
  • 16:16 An omer is a container that holds approximately two quarts. Since the term here means both the container and the amount that it holds, and an omer is compared with an ephah, another ancient measurement, the translation retains the Hebrew term rather than converting it to a present-day measurement. See verse 36.
  • 16:23 The Hebrew word shabbat means a day of rest. Here the Hebrew reads a shabbaton, a holy shabbat to the Lord.
  • 16:25 Literally in the field
  • 16:31 The word manna sounds like the Hebrew for What is it? See verse 15.
  • 16:32 An omer is a container that holds about two quarts. See the note on verse 16.
  • 16:34 The Testimony is another name for the Ten Commandments and for the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments.
  • 17:1 Sin is a geographic name like Sinai. It is not the English word sin.
  • 17:7 Massah means testing.
  • 17:7 Meribah means quarreling.
  • 17:11 The Hebrew reads the singular hand. The Samaritan Pentateuch, the Targum, and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions read hands (also in the second part of this verse). Apparently, at first, Moses held up the staff in alternate hands.
  • 17:16 The meaning of this Hebrew clause is uncertain. The Hebrew has an unusual form of the word for throne, which looks similar to the word for banner. The main options, therefore, are a hand was against the throne of Yah or a hand is on the banner of Yah. The divine name Yahweh (Lord) here appears in the shortened form Yah.