Exodus 15–16

Song of Victory at the Sea

15Then Moses and the Israelites^a sang this song to Yahweh, and they said,^b

“Let me sing to Yahweh because he is highly exalted;

the horse and its rider he hurled into the sea.

²Yah^c is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation;^d

this is my God, and I will praise him—the God of my father—and I will exalt him.

³Yahweh is a man of war; Yahweh is his name.

⁴The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he cast into the sea,

and his choice adjutants were sunk in the Red Sea.^e

⁵The deep waters covered them;

they went down into the depths like a stone.

⁶Yahweh, your right hand is glorious in power;

Yahweh, your right hand destroyed the enemy.

⁷And in the greatness of your majesty you overthrew those standing up to you;

you released your fierce anger, and it consumed them like stubble.

⁸And by the breath of your nostrils waters were piled up;

waves stood like a heap;

deep waters in the middle of the sea congealed.

⁹The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide plunder,

my desire will be full of them, I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.’

¹⁰You blew with your breath; the sea covered them;

they dropped like lead in the mighty waters.

¹¹Who is like you among the gods, Yahweh?

Who is like you—glorious in holiness, awesome in praiseworthy actions, doing wonders?^f

¹²You stretched out your right hand;

the earth swallowed them.

¹³In your loyal love you led the people whom you redeemed;

in your strength you guided them to the abode of your holiness.^g

¹⁴Peoples heard; they trembled;

anguish seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

¹⁵Then the chiefs of Edom were horrified; great distress seized the leaders of Moab;

all of the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

¹⁶Terror and dread fell on them;

at the greatness of your arm they became silent like the stone,

until your people passed by, Yahweh,

until the people whom you bought passed by.

¹⁷You brought them and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance,

a place you made for yourself to inhabit, Yahweh,

a sanctuary, Lord, that your hands established.

¹⁸Yahweh will reign as king forever and ever.”

¹⁹When the horses^h of Pharaoh came into the sea with his chariotsⁱ and with his charioteers, Yahweh brought back upon them the waters of the sea, and the Israelites^j traveled on dry ground through the middle of the sea. ²⁰And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took her^k tambourine in her hand, and all of the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances. ²¹And Miriam answered,^l “Sing to Yahweh because he is highly exalted; the horse and its rider he hurled into the sea.”

Yahweh Provides Water at Marah

²²And Moses caused Israel to set out from the Red Sea,^m and they went out into the desert of Shur, and they traveled three days in the desert, and they did not find water. ²³And they came to Marah, and they were not able to drink water from Marah because it was bitter. Therefore it was namedⁿ Marah. ²⁴And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” ²⁵And he cried out to Yahweh, and Yahweh showed him a piece of wood, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There he made a rule and regulation for them, and there he tested them. ²⁶And he said, “If you carefully listen to the voice of Yahweh your God and you do what is right in his eyes and give heed to his commands and you keep all his rules, then I will not bring about on you any of the diseases^o that I brought about on Egypt, because I am Yahweh your healer.

²⁷And they came to Elim, and twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees were there, and they encamped there at the water.

Yahweh Provides Food in the Desert

16And they set out from Elim, and all the community of the Israelites^a came to the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai,^b in the fifteenth day of the second month of their going out from the land of Egypt. ²And all the community of the Israelites^c grumbled against Moses and against Aaron in the desert. ³And the Israelites^d said to them, “If only we had died^e by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots^f of meat, when we ate bread until we were full,^g because you have brought us out to this desert to kill all of this assembly with hunger.” ⁴And Yahweh said to Moses, “Look, I am going to rain down for you bread from the heavens, and the people will go out and gather enough for the day on its day; in that way I will test them: Will they go according to my law or not? ⁵And then on the sixth day, they will prepare what they bring, and it will be twice over what they will gather every other day.”

⁶And Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites,^h “In the evening, you will know that Yahweh has brought you out from the land of Egypt, ⁷and in the morning, you will see the glory of Yahweh, for he hearsⁱ your grumblings against Yahweh, and what are we that you grumble against us?” ⁸And Moses said, “When in the evening Yahweh gives you meat to eat and bread in the morning to fill up on,^j for he hears^k your grumblings that you grumble against him—and what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against Yahweh.” ⁹And Moses said to Aaron, “Say to all the community of the Israelites,^l ‘Come near before Yahweh because he has heard your grumblings.’ ”

¹⁰And at the moment of Aaron’s speaking to all the community of the Israelites,^m they turned to the desert, and just thenⁿ the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud. ¹¹And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹²“I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites.^o Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight^p you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be full with bread, and you will know that I am Yahweh your God.’ ”

¹³And so it was, in the evening, the quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning, a layer of dew was all around the camp. ¹⁴And the layer of dew came up, and there^q on the face of the desert was a fine granular substance, fine like frost on the ground. ¹⁵And the Israelites^r saw, and they said to each other,^s “What is this?” because they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread that Yahweh has given to you as food. ¹⁶This is the word that Yahweh commanded, ‘Gather from it, each according to what he can eat,^t an omer per person^u according to the number of you.^v You each shall take enough for whoever is in his tent.’ ”

¹⁷And the Israelites^w did so, and they gathered, some more and some less. ¹⁸And when they measured with the omer, the one gathering more had no surplus, and the one gathering less had no lack; they gathered each according to what he could eat.^{x 19}And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it until morning.” ²⁰But they did not listen to Moses. Some people^y left some of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. ²¹And they gathered it morning by morning, each according to what he could eat,^z and it melted when the sun was hot.^a

²²And when it was the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one person, and all the leaders of the community came and told Moses. ²³And he said to them, “This is what Yahweh has said. Tomorrow is a rest period, a holy Sabbath for Yahweh. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Put aside all the surplus for yourselves for safekeeping until the morning.” ²⁴And they put it aside until the morning, as Moses had commanded, and it did not make a stench, and not a maggot was in it. ²⁵And Moses said, “Eat it today, because today is a Sabbath for Yahweh. Today you will not find it in the field. ²⁶Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, it will not be present on it.”

²⁷And on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they did not find any. ²⁸And Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you^b refuse to keep my commands and my laws? ²⁹See, because Yahweh has given to you the Sabbath, therefore he is giving to you on the sixth day bread for two days. Stay, each in his location;^c let no one go from his place on the seventh day.” ³⁰And the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹And the house of Israel called its name “manna.” And it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like a wafer with honey. ³²And Moses said, “This is the word that Yahweh has commanded. ‘A full omer of it is for safekeeping for your generations so that they will see the bread that I fed you in the desert when I brought you from the land of Egypt.’ ” ³³And Moses said to Aaron, “Take one jar and put there a full omer of manna. Leave it before Yahweh for safekeeping for your generations.” ³⁴As Yahweh had commanded Moses, so Aaron left it before the testimony for safekeeping. ³⁵And the Israelites^d ate the manna forty years, until their coming to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until their coming to the border of the land of Canaan. ³⁶(And an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)