a chariot · noun, common feminine plural construct
host
וְחֵיל֖וֹve.chei.Lo
H2428
probably a force · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
cast
יָרָ֣הya.Rah
H3384
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
sea
בַיָּ֑םvai.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
chosen
וּמִבְחַ֥רu.miv.Char
H4005
select · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
captains
שָֽׁלִשָׁ֖יוsha.li.Shav
H7991
a triple · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
drowned
טֻבְּע֥וּtu.be.'U
H2883
to sink · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person common plural
Red
סֽוּףSuf
H5488
a reed · noun, masculine singular absolute
sea
בְיַםve.yam-
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 14:13-28 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egypt…
Exodus 14:6-7 And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 15:1-21
Having read how that complete victory of Israel over the Egyptians was obtained, here we are told how it was celebrated; those that were to hold their peace while the deliverance was in working (Exo 14:14) must not hold their peace now that it was wrought; the less they had to do then the more they had to do now. If God accomplishes deliverance by his own immediate power, it redounds so much the more to his glory. Moses, no doubt by divine inspiration, indited this song, and delivered it to the children of Israel, to be sung before they stirred from the place where they saw the Egyptians dead upon the shore. Observe, 1. They expressed their joy in God, and thankfulness to him, by singing; it…
Pharaoh's chariots - his host - his chosen captains - On such an expedition it is likely that the principal Egyptian nobility accompanied their king, and that the overthrow they met with here had reduced Egypt to the lowest extremity. Had the Israelites been intent on plunder, or had Moses been influenced by a spirit of ambition, how easily might both have gratified themselves, as, had they returned, they might have soon overrun and subjugated the whole land.
John Gill on Exodus 15:4
Pharaoh's chariots and his hosts hath he cast into the sea,.... Which was done by the Angel of the Lord, who was Jehovah himself, our Immanuel, and man of war, as appears from Exodus 14:17, an emblem of the destruction of antichrist, and all the antichristian states, of which Pharaoh and his host were types:
his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea: who were appointed over his chosen chariots, which all perished in the sea together. In the carnage that will be made by Christ, the warrior and conqueror, among the followers of antichrist, the man of "sin", the antitypical Pharaoh, the flesh of captains is mentioned for the fowls of heaven to feed upon, Revelation 19:18.
John Calvin on Exodus 15:1-10
Exodus 15:1-10
1. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
1. Tunc cecinit Moses et filii Israel canticum hoc Jehovae, et dixerunt, Cantabo Jehovae, quoniam se magninifice extulit (Heb., magnificando magnificatus est): equum et ascensorem ejus projecit in mare.
2. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him.
2. Fortitudo mea et canticum Deus, et fuit mihi in solutem. Hic Deus meus et decorabo eum: Deus patris mei, et ext…
The Church Fathers
And the worldly pride and arrogance and the troops of innumerable sins which were fighting for the devil in us, he obliterated in baptism.
"The elite of his officers, who were standing three deep, he submerged in the Red Sea." Who are the elite of his officers? Surely those chosen by the devil for luxury, wickedness and pride, the source of all evil. Moreover, these, standing three deep, occupy those three ways in order to subvert man to evil deeds, to tempt him to evil speech or to win him to evil thoughts.
The devil had placed "teams of three" in each chariot, who were to terrorize us by haunting us with the fear of pain, the fear of humiliation, the fear of death. All these things were sunk in the Red Sea, because "together with him," together with the One who for our sakes was scourged, dishonored and slain, "we were buried through baptism into death." Thus he overwhelmed all our enemies in the Red Sea, having consecrated the waters of baptism with the bloody death which was utterly to consume our sins.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Captain — (1.) Heb. sar (1 Sam. 22:2; 2 Sam. 23:19). Rendered “chief,” Gen. 40:2; 41:9; rendered also “prince,” Dan. 1:7; “ruler,” Judg. 9:30; “governor,’ 1 Kings 22:26. This same Hebrew word denotes a…
Chosen — Spoken of warriors (Ex. 15:4; Judg. 20:16), of the Hebrew nation (Ps. 105:43; Deut. 7:7), of Jerusalem as the seat of the temple (1 Kings 11:13). Christ is the “chosen” of God (Isa. 42:1); and the…
Drown — (Ex. 15:4; Amos 8:8; Heb. 11:29). Drowning was a mode of capital punishment in use among the Syrians, and was known to the Jews in the time of our Lord. To this he alludes in Matt. 18:6.
Exodus — The great deliverance wrought for the children of Isreal when they were brought out of the land of Egypt with “a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm” (Ex 12:51; Deut. 26:8; Ps 114; 136), about…
Miriam — Their rebellion. (1.) The sister of Moses and Aaron (Ex. 2:4-10; 1 Chr. 6:3). Her name is prominent in the history of the Exodus. She is called “the prophetess” (Ex. 15:20). She took the lead in the…
Moses — Drawn (or Egypt. mesu, “son;” hence Rameses, royal son). On the invitation of Pharaoh (Gen. 45:17-25), Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt. This immigration took place probably about 350 years…
Music — Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21). The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the…
Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Red Sea — The sea so called extends along the west coast of Arabia for about 1,400 miles, and separates Asia from Africa. It is connected with the Indian Ocean, of which it is an arm, by the Strait of…
Sea — The sea, yam, is used in Scripture to denote—
In the song of praise which Moses and the children of Israel sang at the Red Sea, in celebration of the wonderful works of Jehovah, the congregation of Israel commemorated the fact of its deliverance and its exaltation into the nation of God. By their glorious deliverance from the slave-house of Egypt, Jehovah had practically exalted the seed of Abraham into His own nation; and in the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, He had glorified Himself as God of the gods and King of the heathen, whom no power on earth could defy with impunity. As the fact of Israel's deliverance from the power of its oppressors is of everlasting importance to the Church of the Lord in its conflict with the ungodly…
The Lord is a warrior: He will aggressively defend his own. He is not an oppressor, nor does he fight for the love of violence. But when his people are helpless before the enemy, whether external or internal, they can know that Yahweh, “He Who Is,” is their defender (Isa 59:15-19; 63:1-6; Rev 11:17-18). Regarding the name Yahweh, see study note on Exod 3:15.
Rashi on Exodus 15:4
ירה בים Onkelos translates this by שדי בימא: HE HATH CAST IN THE SEA. The word שדי is an expression for “casting”. And thus, also, it says, (Exodus 19:13) או ירה יירה which Onkelos renders by או אשתדאה ישתדי “or he shall certainly be thrown down” where the ת is used in both these words in place of (as marking) the Ithpael form, so that in these Targum words the root is שדי.
ומבחר AND THE CHOICEST — This word is a noun of similar form to מֶרְכָּב and מִשְׁכָּב and מִקְרָא [קדש].
טבעו ARE SUNK — The root טבע always denotes sinking in slimy matter, as may be seen from (Psalms 69:3) “I am sunk (טבעתי) in deep mire”, and from (Jeremiah 38:6) “And Jeremiah sank (ויטבע) in the mire”. The fact…
— Of Moses (Ex. 15; Num. 21:17; Deut. 32; Rev. 15:3), Deborah (Judg. 5), Hannah (1 Sam. 2), David (2 Sam. 22, and Psalms), Mary (Luke 1:46-55), Zacharias (Luke 1:68-79), the angels (Luke 2:13), Simeon…
Armies Of Israel, The · Congratulated on returning victorious — Congratulated on returning victorious
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Israel’s song of praise — Israel’s song of praise
Epic · .Miriam’s — .Miriam’s
Poetry · .Moses’ — .Moses’
Praise · General references — General references
Psalms · Of Moses, celebrating the — Of Moses, celebrating the
Readings, Select · General references — General references
Song · War — War
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
