You Shall Have No Other Gods:
The Book of Exodus

Lesson 13 Song of Moses & Song of Miriam
the book of Exodus 15:1–27

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the book of Exodus
cross references in the book of Exodus
next lesson: Manna from Heaven & Water from the Rock

This material coordinates with Lesson 13 on pages 64–67 in the study book You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus.

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And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”—the book of Exodus 20:1–6

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welcome to our in-depth study of the book of Exodus
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 28-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson video overviews, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

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open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the book of Exodus 13:17—14:31
In Lesson 12 Deliverance Through the Red Sea, it’s worth considering why the LORD chooses to lead his people in a roundabout way to the Promised Land. God clearly has the power to deliver them directly to the land of Canaan. It’s also significant that the LORD asks Moses to have the people encamp by the sea and wait for Pharaoh and his army to catch up to them. Again, clearly the LORD could have provided means for his people to cross the Red Sea any time. When the descendants of Jacob learn that Pharaoh has set off from Egypt after them, they become fearful of the strength of their enemy and express regret at leaving Egypt. God instructs Moses to solve the problem by parting the Red Sea; then the LORD moves between the Israelites and the Egyptians so neither side can encounter the other in the night. In the morning, the Israelites cross the Red Sea on dry land, and the waters are described as being like a wall on their right and on their left. When the Egyptians follow, they’re drowned. After this display of the LORD’s power, the people begin to trust God and Moses—albeit somewhat hesitantly.

Moses’ song reflects his responsibility as a spiritual leader (42:28)
The fifteenth chapter in the book of Exodus mostly consists of the Song of Moses, with a refrain that makes up the Song of Miriam. In the video overview for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses the fact that repetition in songs is able to do things that prose can’t accomplish. It’s for this reason that music is an essential element of liturgy, and it’s as an example of liturgy that Moses provides song for the people to show them how to commemorate what God has just done for them. The importance of song in liturgy continues, making it an essential part of the present-day Mass, and Catholics are expected to participate in singing the songs of the Mass. The most obvious is the responsorial (usually a Psalm but sometimes another passage from Scripture). These songs—like the Song of Moses—are intended to guide humanity in correctly honoring the LORD. Their duration and the time spent in singing can bring about spiritual insight for those willing to participate. Singing at Mass is about more than having a beautiful voice. Psalm 100 clarifies that it’s primarily about making a joyful noise to the LORD.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study from Turning to God’s Word match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus. You can follow along as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 13, “Song of Moses & Song of Miriam,” on pages 64–67 in the study book.

pray with the Psalms—the oldest Psalm in the Bible
Psalm 90 is questionably attributed to Moses, the only Psalm that is. The oldest of all the Psalms, it sometimes is referred to as a song of Moses. The book of Exodus 15:1–18 is considered the definitive Song of Moses sung by Moses and the people after God defeats the Egyptians by drowning them in in the Red Sea. The LORD first led the people through those same waters, which are described in the book of Exodus 14:29 as “being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.” A shorter version that encapsulates the gist of the Song of Moses is referred to as the Song of Miriam and can be found in the book of Exodus 15:20–21: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” Prayed at Wednesday Lauds (Week II), Psalm 90 is included as part of Lesson 22 Teach Us to Number Our Days in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers.

the LORD is gloriously triumphant
The Israelites hadn’t yet realized that God could so effortlessly deal with their enemies. The Egyptian gods were compartmentalized in what they supposedly could do. Now the Israelites have seen God defeat the Egyptians in a war setting. That doesn’t mean, however, that the LORD also will be adept at bringing about other miracles, though the plagues should also have given them some idea that God could do anything—as should their history with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God even allows them a bit of a pass this first time when the LORD fixes their water situation and reminds them that his divine power can handle anything that occurs. It’s only when they keep grumbling that there’s a problem.

why don’t the Israelites trust the LORD?
While God has rescued the Israelites from slavery, and they’ve all personally witnessed the 10 plagues and crossed the Red Sea, the people nevertheless refuse to trust that the LORD is going to continue to have their backs. At first glance, this seems preposterous. Hasn’t God sufficiently demonstrated his love? This overlooks a couple of truths about human nature. These people have just come out of a long and abusive relationship with the Egyptians. It’s understandable that they’re going to have trust issues, and it’s trust issues that cause serious problems with the development of faith. The second truth is that miracles don’t automatically bring about faith. For people inclined to trust God, miracles serve as a motivating reason to rely on the LORD. For people who don’t trust God, however, all the miracles in the world are unlikely to change that. At the heart of the matter, faith isn’t so much an intellectual assent to the idea of God’s existence as it’s an active and trusting response to loving the LORD.

ex libris—so why is Miriam described as a prophet?
In the section of Introduction to the Prophets: Their Stories, Sayings, and Scrolls, about stories of prophets in the Pentateuch, the author, Thomas  Leclerc, M.S. (Missionaries of La Salette), a priest and an associate professor of sacred Scripture at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, discusses the fifteenth chapter in the book of Exodus, which describes Moses’ sister Miriam as a prophet. That Miriam also is described as a prophet in the book of Numbers 12:1–16 strongly suggests this isn’t an accident. At ex libris—main bookshelf, you can learn more about Introduction to the Prophets: Their Stories, Sayings, and Scrolls and other works related to Bible study. You also can become more familiar with all of the biblical prophets in the Turning to God’s Word two-volume Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided and Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

“[The book of Exodus 15:20–21] is so brief that it is difficult to draw any specific conclusions. Exactly how [Miriam] is a prophet is unclear. For the time being, we can offer two observations. First, the context of this brief report is a military one: A battle against Egypt has just been fought and won. As we will see later, one of the earliest functions of official prophets was to call or prohibit holy war. Miriam’s noteworthy role at the scene of battle is suggestive. Second, she leads the people in a hymn of praise. The prophet is one who recognizes the victory won in battle as a deed of the LORD. This too, is a job of the prophet: to see in the unfolding of events—war, famine, oppression, deliverance—the hand of God at work. The prophet interprets the meaning of history in light of God’s larger plan for the people and the world.”

the star of the show
Water is the star of the show in the fifteenth chapter in the book of Exodus. The first 21 verses focus on the Song of Moses and the Song of Miriam, emphasizing the mighty deed that the LORD performed in leading the people through the waters of the Red Sea while drowning all of the Egyptians who were pursuing them. The final six verses also deal with water but in a different way.

what does it mean when the people complain?
When there’s no water for three days, the people begin to complain. That they’re murmuring against Moses and not God says a lot about their faith. Even with what just happened, they’re not factoring God into their thinking. God is invisible and so seems removed from them. Moses is there. The people definitely need an intermediary. Moses turns to the LORD, and in the book of Exodus 15:25, Moses follows God’s instruction and throws a tree into the bitter water, which then becomes sweet. Christians see in this a type of the tree of life that brings about eternal life and ultimate safety.

read the Catechism—a first tangible experience of God
Paragraph 2810 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the long process involved when God reveals his identity to his people. The Song of Moses praises the name of the LORD. For the Israelites, crossing the Red Sea is their first tangible experience of God. It’s the first thing they can point to and be pretty certain that God did it. In hindsight, it’s silly that this is how they know God needs more time to show them who he really is.

2810    In the promise to Abraham and the oath that accompanied it, God commits himself but without disclosing his name. He begins to reveal it to Moses and makes it known clearly before the eyes of the whole people when he saves them from the Egyptians: “[H]e has triumphed gloriously.” From the covenant of Sinai onward, this people is “his own” and it is to be a “holy (or ‘consecrated’: the same word is used for both in Hebrew) nation,” because the name of God dwells in it.

one more thing about the Israelites’ experience in Egypt
During the time that the descendants of Jacob have spent in Egypt (Scripture suggests this has been around 400 to 430 years), they’ve been exposed to Egyptian culture. The Egyptians, like peoples in most of the known world, have been worshiping a variety of gods. Among other things, the 10 plagues put to rest for readers of the book of Exodus any ideas that these false gods have power. This is far less obvious to the Israelites, even though they’ve personally been on the right side of God’s miracles. The descendants of Jacob have become accustomed to accepting the social and to a certain extent the religious practices of the Egyptians. This hampers the Israelites’ ability to trust the LORD as they begin their journey through the wilderness, and it contributes to their willingness to turn to agricultural deities once they settle in the Promised Land of Canaan. They recognize that the LORD has defeated the Egyptians, but this only leads them to view the LORD as a warrior God. For other divine assistance, they will willingly turn to the established gods of the region where they settle. The people’s failure to trust God and have faith in his love for them eventually will bring about disastrous results.

salvation—you could look it up in our archives
The Song of Moses (and so necessarily the Song of Miriam) in the fifteenth chapter in the book of Exodus shows up in other places in Scripture—most notably in the book of Revelation 15:2-4—probably because of the focus on the salvation that has been brought about by the LORD. To learn more about the meaning of the word salvation, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.