Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
Moses and the Israelites sing a song to God. They praise the LORD for his glorious triumph. They recount the floods that covered the Egyptian chariots and God’s majesty, fury, and strength in consuming them, contrasting this with Egyptian arrogance. They sing that there’s no one like the LORD among the gods. He led his redeemed people with steadfast love, causing the leaders of other nations to tremble with fear. The LORD placed the people on his holy mountain and will reign there forever.
This chapter consists of songs of praise by the newly liberated Israelites. Moses’s song pictures God as a divine warrior who has both lovingly redeemed his people and powerfully defeated his enemies. The song also looks forward to God’s future protective reign, which will allow his people to flourish. Such songs of victory appear elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible (notably the Psalms) and the New Testament (especially Revelation, where God’s final cosmic victory is celebrated).
Themes
Aaron’s sister Miriam, a prophet, takes a tambourine and sings a song. The rest of the women dance with her as she sings, “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”
Miriam leads the other women in singing a song that echoes the first line of Moses’s song. Given women’s resistance against Pharaoh in the early chapters of Exodus, it’s fitting that the final escape from Pharaoh is followed by women’s voices, too.
Themes
Moses orders Israel to leave the Red Sea and enter the wilderness of Shur. After three days, they run out of water. When they reach Marah, they cannot drink the bitter water there. The people start to complain, Moses prays, and the LORD shows Moses a piece of wood. After Moses throws the wood into the water, the water becomes sweet. God also orders the people to listen carefully to his commandments; if they do so, he will spare them the diseases he brought on the Egyptians. After that, the people camp at Elim, a place with palm trees and springs of water.
As the people of Israel venture into the wilderness, they immediately face challenges, suggesting that the defeat of Pharaoh is just the beginning. The people’s lack of drinkable water leads them to grumble at Moses, a pattern of complaint established before the Red Sea and echoed throughout the desert wanderings. Though the people have just witnesses and celebrated God’s sovereign power, that doesn’t stop them from fearing for their future—showing that trust in God as a faithful deliverer isn’t a one-time event, but something that must be cultivated over time.
Themes
