Exodus 15–17

The Song of Moses

15Then ^aMoses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying:

“I will ^bsing to the Lord,

For He has triumphed gloriously!

The horse and its rider

He has thrown into the sea!

²The Lord is my strength and ^csong,

And He has become my salvation;

He is my God, and ^dI will praise Him;

My ^efather’s God, and I ^fwill exalt Him.

³The Lord is a man of ^gwar;

The Lord is His ^hname.

⁴ⁱPharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;

^jHis chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.

⁵The depths have covered them;

^kThey sank to the bottom like a stone.

⁶“Your ^lright hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power;

Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.

⁷And in the greatness of Your ^mexcellence

You have overthrown those who rose against You;

You sent forth ⁿYour wrath;

It ^oconsumed them ^plike stubble.

⁸And ^qwith the blast of Your nostrils

The waters were gathered together;

^rThe floods stood upright like a heap;

The depths ¹congealed in the heart of the sea.

^9sThe enemy said, ‘I will pursue,

I will overtake,

I will ^tdivide the spoil;

My desire shall be satisfied on them.

I will draw my sword,

My hand shall destroy them.’

¹⁰You blew with Your wind,

The sea covered them;

They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

¹¹“Who ^uis like You, O Lord, among the ²gods?

Who is like You, ^vglorious in holiness,

Fearful in ^wpraises, ^xdoing wonders?

¹²You stretched out Your right hand;

The earth swallowed them.

¹³You in Your mercy have ^yled forth

The people whom You have redeemed;

You have guided them in Your strength

To ^zYour holy habitation.

¹⁴“The ^apeople will hear and be afraid;

^bSorrow ³will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.

^15cThen ^dthe chiefs of Edom will be dismayed;

^eThe mighty men of Moab,

Trembling will take hold of them;

^fAll the inhabitants of Canaan will ^gmelt away.

^16hFear and dread will fall on them;

By the greatness of Your arm

They will be ⁱas still as a stone,

Till Your people pass over, O Lord,

Till the people pass over

^jWhom You have purchased.

¹⁷You will bring them in and ^kplant them

In the ^lmountain of Your inheritance,

In the place, O Lord, which You have made

For Your own dwelling,

The ^msanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.

¹⁸“The ⁿLord shall reign forever and ever.”

¹⁹For the ^ohorses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and ^pthe Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

The Song of Miriam

²⁰Then Miriam ^qthe prophetess, ^rthe sister of Aaron, ^stook the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her ^twith timbrels and with dances. ²¹And Miriam ^uanswered them:

^v“Sing to the Lord,

For He has triumphed gloriously!

The horse and its rider

He has thrown into the sea!”

Bitter Waters Made Sweet

²²So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of ^wShur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no ^xwater. ²³Now when they came to ^yMarah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called ⁴Marah. ²⁴And the people ^zcomplained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” ²⁵So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. ^aWhen he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

There He ^bmade a statute and an ⁵ordinance for them, and there ^cHe tested them, ²⁶and said, ^d“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the ^ediseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord ^fwho heals you.”

^27gThen they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.

Bread from Heaven

16And they ^ajourneyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and ^bSinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. ²Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel ^ccomplained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³And the children of Israel said to them, ^d“Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, ^ewhen we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain ^fbread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather ¹a certain quota every day, that I may ^gtest them, whether they will ^hwalk in My law or not. ⁵And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and ⁱit shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”

⁶Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, ^j“At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. ⁷And in the morning you shall see ^kthe glory of the Lord; for He ^lhears your complaints against the Lord. But ^mwhat are we, that you complain against us?” ⁸Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but ⁿagainst the Lord.”

⁹Then Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ^o‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.’ ” ¹⁰Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord ^pappeared in the cloud.

¹¹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^12q“I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ^r‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and ^sin the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”

¹³So it was that ^tquails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning ^uthe dew lay all around the camp. ¹⁴And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was ^va small round ^wsubstance, as fine as frost on the ground. ¹⁵So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

And Moses said to them, ^x“This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it ^yaccording to each one’s need, one ^zomer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’ ”

¹⁷Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. ¹⁸So when they measured it by omers, ^ahe who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. ¹⁹And Moses said, “Let no one ^bleave any of it till morning.” ²⁰Notwithstanding they did not ²heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. ²¹So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted.

²²And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. ²³Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is ^ca Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’ ” ²⁴So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not ^dstink, nor were there any worms in it. ²⁵Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. ^26eSix days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”

²⁷Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. ²⁸And the Lord said to Moses, “How long ^fdo you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? ²⁹See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” ³⁰So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹And the house of Israel called its name ³Manna. And ^git was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

³²Then Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ” ³³And Moses said to Aaron, ^h“Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.” ³⁴As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up ⁱbefore the Testimony, to be kept. ³⁵And the children of Israel ^jate manna ^kforty years, ^luntil they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. ³⁶Now an omer is one-tenth of an ephah.

Water from the Rock

17Then ^aall the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of ^bSin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to ^cdrink. ^2dTherefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.”

So Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you ^etempt the Lord?”

³And the people thirsted there for water, and the people ^fcomplained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our ^glivestock with thirst?”

⁴So Moses ^hcried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to ⁱstone ¹me!”

⁵And the Lord said to Moses, ^j“Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which ^kyou…