Exodus 15:11–27

Who compares with you

among gods, O God?

Who compares with you in power,

in holy majesty,

In awesome praises,

wonder-working God?

^12–13You stretched out your right hand

and the Earth swallowed them up.

But the people you redeemed,

you led in merciful love;

You guided them under your protection

to your holy pasture.

^14–18When people heard, they were scared;

Philistines writhed and trembled;

Yes, even the head men in Edom were shaken,

and the big bosses in Moab.

Everybody in Canaan

panicked and fell faint.

Dread and terror

sent them reeling.

Before your brandished right arm

they were struck dumb like a stone,

Until your people crossed over and entered, O God,

until the people you made crossed over and entered.

You brought them and planted them

on the mountain of your heritage,

The place where you live,

the place you made,

Your sanctuary, Master,

that you established with your own hands.

Let God rule

forever, for eternity!

¹⁹Yes, Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and riders went into the sea and God turned the waters back on them; but the Israelites walked on dry land right through the middle of the sea.

^20–21Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine, and all the women followed her with tambourines, dancing. Miriam led them in singing,

Sing to God—

what a victory!

He pitched horse and rider

into the sea!

Traveling Through the Wilderness

^22–24Moses led Israel from the Red Sea on to the Wilderness of Shur. They traveled for three days through the wilderness without finding any water. They got to Marah, but they couldn’t drink the water at Marah; it was bitter. That’s why they called the place Marah (Bitter). And the people complained to Moses, “So what are we supposed to drink?”

²⁵So Moses cried out in prayer to God. God pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and the water turned sweet.

²⁶That’s the place where God set up rules and procedures; that’s where he started testing them.

God said, “If you listen, listen obediently to how God tells you to live in his presence, obeying his commandments and keeping all his laws, then I won’t strike you with all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians; I am God your healer.”

²⁷They came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. They set up camp there by the water.