(כ) וַתִּקַּח֩ מִרְיָ֨ם הַנְּבִיאָ֜ה אֲח֧וֹת אַהֲרֹ֛ן אֶת־הַתֹּ֖ף בְּיָדָ֑הּ וַתֵּצֶ֤אןָ כׇֽל־הַנָּשִׁים֙ אַחֲרֶ֔יהָ בְּתֻפִּ֖ים וּבִמְחֹלֹֽת׃ (כא) וַתַּ֥עַן לָהֶ֖ם מִרְיָ֑ם שִׁ֤ירוּ לַֽיהֹוָה֙ כִּֽי־גָאֹ֣ה גָּאָ֔ה ס֥וּס וְרֹכְב֖וֹ רָמָ֥ה בַיָּֽם׃ {ס}
I will sing to יהוה, for He has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea.
(2) יהוה is my strength and might;
He is become my deliverance.
This is my God and I will enshrine Him;
The God of my father’s [house], and I will exalt Him.
(3) יהוה, the Warrior—
יהוה is His name!
(4) Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
He has cast into the sea;
And the pick of his officers
Are drowned in the Sea of Reeds.
(5) The deeps covered them;
They went down into the depths like a stone.
(6) Your right hand, יהוה, glorious in power,
Your right hand, יהוה, shatters the foe!
(7) In Your great triumph You break Your opponents;
You send forth Your fury, it consumes them like straw.
(8) At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up,
The floods stood straight like a wall;
The deeps froze in the heart of the sea.
(9) The foe said,
“I will pursue, I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil;
My desire shall have its fill of them.
I will bare my sword—
My hand shall subdue them.”
(10) You made Your wind blow, the sea covered them;
They sank like lead in the majestic waters.
(11) Who is like You, יהוה, among the celestials;
Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in splendor, working wonders!
(12) You put out Your right hand,
The earth swallowed them.
(13) In Your love You lead the people You redeemed;
In Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode.
(14) The peoples hear, they tremble;
Agony grips the dwellers in Philistia.
(15) Now are the clans of Edom dismayed;
The tribes of Moab—trembling grips them;
All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast.
(16) Terror and dread descend upon them;
Through the might of Your arm they are still as stone—
Till Your people cross over, יהוה,
Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed.
(17) You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain,
The place You made to dwell in, יהוה,
The sanctuary, O my lord, which Your hands established.
(18) יהוה will reign for ever and ever! (19) For the horses of Pharaoh, with his chariots and riders, went into the sea; and יהוה turned back on them the waters of the sea; but the Israelites marched on dry ground in the midst of the sea. (20) Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, picked up a hand-drum, and all the women went out after her in dance with hand-drums. (21) And Miriam chanted for them:
Sing to יהוה, for He has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea.
The Appearance of Shirat Hayam
Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa said that Rabbi Sheila, a man of the village of Timarta, interpreted a verse homiletically: All of the songs in the Bible are written in the form of a half brick arranged upon a whole brick and a whole brick arranged upon a half brick, i.e., each line of the song is divided into a stitch of text, referred to as a half brick, which is separated by a blank space, referred to as a whole brick, from the concluding stitch of that line of text.
Tractate Megillah (“Scroll”) was written c.450 - c.550 CE and is part of the Talmud. It discusses the laws of reading the scroll of Esther on the holiday of Purim, as well as the laws of public reading of the Torah and Prophets, public prayer, and treatment and selling of sacred objects and synagogues.
Shirat Ha-Yam is in a special format - 30 lines of text written "half brick arranged upon a whole brick and a whole brick arranged upon a half brick" (Megillah 16b). [This format is also used for Deborah's song in Judges 5 and David's song in 2 Samuel 22.] It looks like this:
A musical version of the Song of the Sea:
Shirat Hayam as a Statement of Faith
(י) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֣ה אֶל־יְהֹוָה֮ בִּ֣י אֲדֹנָי֒ לֹא֩ אִ֨ישׁ דְּבָרִ֜ים אָנֹ֗כִי גַּ֤ם מִתְּמוֹל֙ גַּ֣ם מִשִּׁלְשֹׁ֔ם גַּ֛ם מֵאָ֥ז דַּבֶּרְךָ֖ אֶל־עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ כִּ֧י כְבַד־פֶּ֛ה וּכְבַ֥ד לָשׁ֖וֹן אָנֹֽכִי׃
(10) But Moses said to YHWH, “Please, O my lord, I have never been a man of words, either in times past or now that (me-az) You have spoken to Your servant; I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
(א) אָ֣ז יָשִֽׁיר־מֹשֶׁה֩ וּבְנֵ֨י יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל אֶת־הַשִּׁירָ֤ה הַזֹּאת֙ לַֽיהֹוָ֔ה וַיֹּאמְר֖וּ לֵאמֹ֑ר אָשִׁ֤ירָה לַֽיהֹוָה֙ כִּֽי־גָאֹ֣ה גָּאָ֔ה ס֥וּס וְרֹכְב֖וֹ רָמָ֥ה בַיָּֽם׃
(1) Then (Az) Moses and the Israelites sang this song to YHWH. They said: I will sing to YHWH, for He has triumphed gloriously; Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea.
אמר משה באז קראתי תגר לפני הקב"ה ומאז באתי אל פרעה לדבר בשמך, בלשון שסרחתי אני מקלסו, נקלס ליחיד שהוא למעלה משבעה רקיעים.
Moses reasoned that since he had used the word "az (אז)" when he had criticized God’s apparent indifference to Pharaoh’s additional decrees worsening the condition of the Jewish slaves (Exodus 4:10), it was now up to him to make amends by using the same word in exalting Him.
Rabbi Bahya ben Asher (1255-1340) wrote his commentary in Spain during the Middle Ages. It incorporates the literal meaning along with allegorical, Midrashic, and Kabbalistic interpretations.
כי בא סוס פרעה, the opening words of this song had been inspired by the spectacle of Pharaoh with his chariot, his horses and its riders drowning in the sea at the time when the Israelites, by contrast, were taking their time walking through the same sea on dry ground. ביבשה בתוך הים, they began the song of thanksgiving even before all had emerged from the sea to the shore.
Rabbi Ovadiah ben Jacob Sforno, a 16th-century Italian rabbi and physician, cites rabbinic statements to address philosophical as well as textual issues in his commentary, and offers many novel interpretations rooted in these traditions.
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi) lived in Troyes, France in the 11th century. Rashi’s commentary is an essential explanation of the Tanakh and resides in a place of honor on the page of almost all editions of the Tanakh.
Shirat Hayam as Blueprint for Jewish Prayer
מִיּוֹם שֶׁבָּרָא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶת הָעוֹלָם וְעַד שֶׁעָמְדוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל עַל הַיָּם לֹא מָצִינוּ אָדָם שֶׁאָמַר שִׁירָה לְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶלָּא יִשְׂרָאֵל, בָּרָא אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן וְלֹא אָמַר שִׁירָה, הִצִּיל אַבְרָהָם מִכִּבְשַׁן הָאֵשׁ וּמִן הַמְּלָכִים וְלֹא אָמַר שִׁירָה, וְכֵן יִצְחָק מִן הַמַּאֲכֶלֶת וְלֹא אָמַר שִׁירָה, וְכֵן יַעֲקֹב מִן הַמַּלְאָךְ וּמִן עֵשָׂו וּמִן אַנְשֵׁי שְׁכֶם וְלֹא אָמַר שִׁירָה, כֵּיוָן שֶׁבָּאוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל לַיָּם וְנִקְרַע לָהֶם, מִיָּד אָמְרוּ שִׁירָה לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: אָז יָשִׁיר משֶׁה וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, הֱוֵי:
From the day that God created the world until Israel stood by the sea, there was not a single person who said a song to God except for Israel. God created the first man and he didn't say a song. God saved Abraham from the fiery furnace and from the kings and he did not say a song. And also Isaac [was saved] from the knife and he didn't say a song and Jacob [was saved] from the angel and from Esau and from the men of Shechem and he didn't say a song. When Israel came to the sea and it parted for them, they immediately said a song before God, as its says Then Moses and the people of Israel sang.
Shemot Rabbah is a midrash (literary explanation) on the Book of Exodus. The first 10 chapters provide verse-by-verse interpretations, before switching to sermons connected to chapters 12-40. The two parts were likely compiled into one work around the 12th century CE.
(א) אז ישיר משה. אָז כְּשֶׁרָאָה הַנֵּס עָלָה בְלִבּוֹ שֶׁיָּשִׁיר שִׁירָה... כָּאן יָשִׁיר אָמַר לוֹ לִבּוֹ שֶׁיָּשִׁיר וְכֵן עָשָׂה – וַיֹּאמְרוּ לֵאמֹר אָשִׁירָה לַה'.
(1) Az yashir Moshe, THEN SANG MOSES — with regard to the usage of the future yashir, the meaning is: THEN — i. e. when he saw the miracle it entered his mind that HE WOULD SING a song... Yashir here signifies: his heart told him that he should sing, and thus did he actually do, as it states, “and they (Moses and Israel) spoke as follows, ‘I will sing unto the Lord’”.
דרש ר"ע בשעה שעלו ישראל מן הים בקשו לומר שירה שרתה עליהן רוח הקודש ואמרו שירה כיצד אמרו שירה כגדול [שמקרא] את ההלל בבית הכנסת [ועונין] אחריו על כל ענין משה אמר (שמות טו) אשירה לה' [וישראל אמרו] אשירה לה' משה אמר עזי וזמרת יה [וישראל אמרו] אשירה לה' משה אמר ה' איש מלחמה וגו' [וישראל] אמרו אשירה לה' ר' אליעזר בנו של ר' יוסי הגלילי אומר כקטן שקורא את ההלל בבית [הסופר] ועונין אחריו על כל דבר ודבר משה אמר אשירה לה' וישראל אמרו אשירה לה' משה אמר עזי וזמרת יה וישראל אמרו עזי וזמרת יה משה אמר ה' איש מלחמה וגו' ר' נחמיה אומר [כבני אדם שקורין] שמע בבית הכנסת שנאמר אז ישיר משה וגו' שאין ת"ל לאמר [ולמה נאמר] מלמד שהיה משה פותח בדבר [תחלה] וישראל עונין אחריו וגומרין עמו משה אמר אז ישיר וישראל אמרו אשירה לה' כי גאה גאה [וגו'] משה אמר עזי וזמרת יה וישראל אמרו זה אלי ואנוהו משה אמר ה' איש מלחמה וישראל אמרו ה' שמו
Rabbi Akiva explained: At the moment when Israel rose from the Sea they wanted to sing a song. The Holy Spirit rested upon them and they said a song. How did they say the song? Like and adult who leads Hallel in a synagogue and everybody responds each time. Moses said 'I will sing to God' and Israel said "I will sing to God." Moses said "God is my strength and my song" and Israel said, "I will sing to God." Moses said, "God is a man of war" and Israel said "I will sing to God." Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Yosi HaGlili said it's like a kid leading Hallel at school and everybody repeats each thing after him. Moses said "I will sing to God and Israel said "I will sing to God." Moses said "God is my strength and my song" and Israel said, "God is my strength and my song" etc. Nehemiah said: It's like how people say Shema at synagogue. Moses would start saying something and Israel would respond and finish what he was saying. Moses said "Then Moses sang" and Israel said "I will sing to God." Moses said "God is my strength and song" and Israel said "This is my God and I will glorify Him."
The Tosefta is a companion volume to the Mishnah, the foundation of the Jewish oral tradition, and was written around the 3rd century C.E. Sotah is a tractate in Seder Nashim, which addresses family law.
The Influence of Shirat Hayam on Liturgy
Chizkuni is the commentary on the Torah of Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoah, composed in mid-13th century in France.
...הַמַּעֲבִיר בָּנָיו בֵּין גִּזְרֵי יַם סוּף אֶת־רוֹדְ֒פֵיהֶם וְאֶת־שׂוֹנְ֒אֵיהֶם בִּתְהוֹמוֹת טִבַּע: וְרָאוּ בָנָיו גְּבוּרָתוֹ שִׁבְּ֒חוּ וְהוֹדוּ לִשְׁמוֹ: וּמַלְכוּתוֹ בְרָצוֹן קִבְּ֒לוּ עֲלֵיהֶם משֶׁה וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְךָ עָנוּ שִׁירָה בְּשִׂמְחָה רַבָּה וְאָמְ֒רוּ כֻלָּם: מִי כָמֹֽכָה בָּאֵלִם יְהֹוָה מִי כָּמֹֽכָה נֶאְדָּר בַּקֹּֽדֶשׁ נוֹרָא תְהִלֹּת עֹֽשֵׂה פֶלֶא: מַלְכוּתְךָ רָאוּ בָנֶֽיךָ בּוֹקֵֽעַ יָם לִפְנֵי משֶׁה זֶה אֵלִי עָנוּ וְאָמְ֒רוּ: יְהֹוָה יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד: וְנֶאֱמַר כִּי־פָדָה יְהֹוָה אֶת יַעֲקֹב וּגְאָלוֹ מִיַּד חָזָק מִמֶּֽנּוּ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל:
...He led His children through the divided parts of the Sea of Reeds, their pursuers and their enemies He drowned in its depths. And His children saw His mighty power— they praised and gave thanks to His Name, His sovereignty they willingly accepted; Moses and the children of Israel sang unto You with great joy, and they all said: “Who is like You among the mighty, Adonoi! Who is like You? [You are] adorned in holiness, awesome in praise, performing wonders” Your children beheld Your sovereignty when You divided the sea before Moses. “This is my God,” they exclaimed, and declared, “Adonai will reign forever and ever.” And it is said, “For Adonai has liberated Jacob and redeemed him from a hand, mightier than his.” Blessed are You, Adonai Who has redeemed Israel.
Isn’t he required to mention the exodus from Egypt as part of the nighttime Shema? No, in place of reciting emet ve’emuna he said the following shorter passage: We give thanks to You, Lord, our God, Who took us out from Egypt and redeemed us from the house of bondage, and performed miracles and mighty deeds on our behalf on the sea, and we sang unto You, as this formula includes all of the content comprising emet ve’emuna.
The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah. Tractate Berakhot (“Blessings”) is part of the Talmud and discuss the laws of prayers, focusing on the Shema, the Amidah, and blessings, including those recited in the context of eating.
Tractate Pesachim (“Passover Festivals”) is part of the Talmud and discusses laws relating to Passover.
"Women of the Wall" chanting a verse from Shirat Hayam: