Éxodo 15

VBL · Chapter 15/40

1Entonces Moisés y los israelitas cantaron esta canción al Señor:

2El Señor me da fuerza. Él es el tema de mi canción. Él me salva. Él es mi Dios, y yo lo alabaré. Él es el Dios de mi padre, y yo lo honraré.El Señor me da fuerza. Él es el tema de mi canción. Él me salva. Él es mi Dios, y yo lo alabaré. Él es el Dios de mi padre, y yo lo honraré.

3El Señor es como un guerrero. Su nombre es el Señor.

4Arrojó los carros del Faraón y su ejército al mar. Los mejores oficiales del Faraón se ahogaron en el Mar Rojo.

5El agua los cubrió como una inundación. Cayeron a las profundidades como una piedra.

6Tu poder, Señor, es verdaderamente asombroso. Tu poder, Señor, aplastó al enemigo.

7Con tu majestuoso poder destruiste a los que se te oponían. Tu cólera ardió y los quemó como un rastrojo.

8Túsoplaste y el mar se amontonó. Las olas se alzaron como un muro. Las profundidades del océano se volvieron sólidas.

9El enemigo se jactó: “Los perseguiré y los alcanzaré. Dividiré el botín. Los comeré vivos. Bailaré con laespada. Con mi mano los destruiré”.

10Pero tú soplaste con tu aliento y el mar los arrastró. Se hundieron como el plomo en las aguas revueltas.

11¿Quién es como tú entre los dioses, Señor? ¿Quién es como tú, glorioso en santidad, asombroso y maravilloso, que hace milagros?

12Tú actuaste, y la tierra se tragó a los egipcios.

13Guiaste a las personas que salvaste con tu confiable amor. Los guiarás en tu fuerza a tu santo hogar.

14Las naciones oirán lo que ha sucedido y temblarán de miedo. El pueblo que vive en Filistea experimentará una angustia agonizante.

15Los jefes edomitas estarán aterrorizados. Los líderes moabitas temblarán. La gente que vive en Canaán se derretirá en pánico.

16El terror y el miedo caerán sobre ellos. Señor, debido a tu gran poder, estarán quietos como una piedra hasta que tu pueblo pase, hasta que pase el pueblo que compraste.

17Tomarás a tu pueblo y lo plantarás en el monte que tú posees, el lugar que tú, Señor, has preparado como tu casa, el

18¡El Señor reinará por siempre y para siempre!

19Cuando los caballos, carros y jinetes del Faraón entraron en el mar, el Señor hizo que el agua se precipitara sobre ellos. Pero los israelitas caminaron por el mar en tierra seca.

20La profeta Miriam, hermana de Aarón, cogió una pandereta y todas las mujeres la siguieron bailando y tocando la pandereta.

21Miriam les cantó: “¡Canten al Señor, porque él es supremo! Ha arrojado al mar a los caballos y a sus jinetes”.

22Entonces Moisés llevó a Israel lejos del Mar Rojo y al desierto de Sur. Durante tres días caminaron por el desierto pero no encontraron agua.

23Cuando llegaron a Mara, el agua allí era demasiado amarga para beber. (Por eso el lugar se llama Mara).

24Entonces el pueblo se quejó a Moisés, preguntando: “¿Qué vamos a beber?”

25Moisés le pidió ayuda al Señor, y el Señor le mostró un trozo de madera. Cuando lo arrojó al agua, se volvió dulce.

26Les dijo: “Si prestan atención a lo que dice el Señor su Dios, hagan lo que es correcto ante sus ojos, obedezcan sus órdenes y cumplan todos sus reglamentos, entonces no les haré sufrir ninguna de las enfermedades que les di a los egipcios porque yo soy el Señor que los sana”.

27Luego viajaron a Elim, que tenía doce manantiales de agua y setenta palmeras. Allí acamparon junto al agua.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Moses and the people of Israel sing a song of praise celebrating God's victory over the Egyptians at the Red Sea; soon after, the people grumble for lack of fresh water at Marah, and God makes the water drinkable.

Explanation

The first half of this chapter contains one of the oldest and most theologically rich songs in the Bible, attributed to Moses and then repeated by his sister Miriam with tambourines and dancing, celebrating God's sovereignty and saving power in vivid, poetic language. This spontaneous praise reflects the fitting response of gratitude after such a dramatic deliverance. Yet the second half of the chapter reveals how quickly that euphoric faith can fade in the face of a new practical challenge: just three days after witnessing the greatest miracle of their lives, the people are already grumbling against Moses for lack of drinking water. God responds not with immediate punishment but with provision (turning the bitter water of Marah sweet), accompanied by a call to ongoing obedience. The lesson for today is that moments of great faith and celebration do not make us immune to future doubts and complaints, requiring a renewed, daily commitment to trust in God.

Fun facts

  • The 'Song of the Sea' (v. 1-18) is considered by biblical scholars to be one of the oldest poetic texts in all of Hebrew Scripture, possibly preserving archaic linguistic forms dating close to the historical event it celebrates.
  • Miriam is called a 'prophetess' here (v. 20), one of the first women in the Bible to formally receive that title, showing that spiritual leadership in Israel, from the very beginning, was not exclusively male.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Éxodo 15:1After crossing the sea, the people sing a song of victory — the first song recorded in the Bible, celebrating the defeat of the Egyptian army drowned in the sea.
  2. Éxodo 15:2“Habitation” here is a poetic way of saying the people will build a place of worship for this God who saved them; the mention of “my father’s God” ties this to the tradition of the patriarchs.
  3. Éxodo 15:3“A man of war” describes God actively fighting for the people, military imagery used to celebrate a victory that would have been humanly impossible against an army of chariots.
  4. Éxodo 15:4Repeats in poetic form what was already told in prose in chapter 14: Pharaoh’s army, including his best officers, sank in the Red Sea.
  5. Éxodo 15:5Uses the image of a stone sinking to describe the speed and weight with which the Egyptian army was swallowed by the waters.
  6. Éxodo 15:6Refers to God’s right hand, a symbol of strength and power in action; the song celebrates that strength as what shattered the Egyptian enemy.
  7. Éxodo 15:7Compares the destruction of the Egyptian army to dry stubble burning quickly, a common farming image for something consumed with ease.
  8. Éxodo 15:8Poetically describes the miracle of the sea opening as if a blast from God’s nostrils had piled up the waters, a figurative way of attributing the event to Him.
  9. Éxodo 15:9Reproduces the arrogant thinking of the Egyptians before their defeat, imagining they would easily catch, plunder, and destroy the fleeing people — confidence that was completely dashed.
  10. Éxodo 15:10Contrasts the Egyptian confidence of the previous verse with the real outcome: a single blast of God’s wind sank them like heavy metal.
  11. Éxodo 15:11One of the most famous rhetorical questions in the Old Testament, declaring that no other god compares to the Lord in holiness and the power to work miracles.
  12. Éxodo 15:12Returns to the image of the earth or sea swallowing the Egyptian army, reinforcing the idea of complete and irreversible destruction.
  13. Éxodo 15:13The focus shifts from the destruction of Egypt to God’s care for Israel: He not only saved them but is guiding the people toward a holy place, foreshadowing the promised land.
  14. Éxodo 15:14Anticipates that news of the victory will spread and cause fear among the neighboring peoples, a reaction that does in fact show up later in the wilderness journey.
  15. Éxodo 15:15Specifically lists the peoples who will fear Israel’s arrival: the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Canaanites, all neighbors of the promised land.
  16. Éxodo 15:16The widespread fear described here serves a practical purpose in the narrative: protecting the people from attacks as they cross foreign territories on the way to Canaan.
  17. Éxodo 15:17Still as poetic prophecy, anticipates the people’s future settlement in the land and the building of a permanent sanctuary, things that only happen much later.
  18. Éxodo 15:18Closes the main body of the song with a statement about God’s eternal reign, summing up the central theme of the whole song.
  19. Éxodo 15:19Sums up in prose, once more, the event that inspired the whole song: the Egyptian army sunk while the Israelites crossed the sea in safety.
  20. Éxodo 15:20Miriam is called a “prophetess” even though there is no earlier record of her giving prophecies — in the Old Testament this title also applies to someone who leads worship and guides the people’s response to God, not only to someone who foretells the future. The timbrel was a simple percussion instrument, common in victory celebrations led by women.
  21. Éxodo 15:21Miriam leads the people, repeating in chorus the same opening line of Moses’s song, in a celebration shared between men and women.
  22. Éxodo 15:22After the excitement of victory, the real wilderness journey begins with a practical problem: three days without finding any water at all.
  23. Éxodo 15:23“Marah” means bitterness in Hebrew, a name given because of the “bitter” water found there, not because the place was already called that before. It is one example of how several places in the wilderness get their names from what happened to the people at that point in the journey.
  24. Éxodo 15:24The people’s first reaction to the difficulty is to complain directly to Moses, a pattern of grumbling that repeats several times throughout the journey.
  25. Éxodo 15:25It is not known for certain what kind of wood or plant this “tree” was that, thrown into the water, made it drinkable; the text does not say whether it was a natural purification process or something out of the ordinary. What matters here is the pattern that repeats: the people complain, Moses turns to God, and the solution follows.
  26. Éxodo 15:26The phrase “that healeth thee” appears right after the water turns drinkable, tying physical healing to obedience to the commandments — a conditional promise, not an automatic guarantee of perfect health. This is the first time in the book that God introduces Himself with this specific title.
  27. Éxodo 15:27Elim, with its twelve springs and seventy palm trees, contrasts with the bitterness of Marah and offers a brief moment of relief before the next hardships of the wilderness.

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