Mighty is faith, for the spirit of God came upon the Israelites as a
reward for their trust in God, and in His servant Moses; and it was in
this exaltation that they sang to the Lord a song [57] that moved Him
to grant forgiveness for all their sins. [58] This song was the second
of the nine songs that in the course of history of Israel sang to their
God. They assembled to sing the first in Egypt, on the night when they
were freed from captivity; their second was the song of triumph by the
Red Sea; their third, when the well sprang up in the wilderness; Moses
sang the fourth before his death; the fifth was Joshua's song after his
victory over the five Amorite Kings; Deborah and Barak sang the sixth
when they conquered Sisera; the seventh was David's psalm of
thanksgiving to God for his deliverance out of the hand of all his
enemies; the eighth was Solomon's song at the dedication of the Temple;
the ninth Jehoshaphat sang as, trusting in God, he went to battle
against the Moabites and the Ammonites. The tenth and last song,
however, will be that grand and mighty song, when Israel will raise
their voice in triumph at their future deliverance, for that will be
the final release of Israel for all time. [59]
When Israel prepared to sound their praises to God for delivering them
from destruction in the Red Sea, God, to show His recognition of
Israel's fulfillment of the token of the Abrahamic covenant, bade the
angels who came to intone their song, wait: "Let My children sing
first," He said. This incident with the angels is like the story of the
king who, upon returning from a victorious campaign, was told that his
son and his servant were waiting with wreaths in their hands, and were
asking who should first crown him. The king said, "O ye fools, to
question if my servant should walk before my son! No, let my son come
first!"
This was the second time the angels were obliged to retire before
Israel. When Israel stood by the Red Sea, before them the rolling
waters, and behind them the hosts of Egypt, then, too, the angels
appeared, to sing their daily song of praise to the Lord, but God
called to them, "Forbear! My children are in distress, and you would
sing!"
But even after the men had completed their song, it was not yet given
to the angels to raise their voices, for after the men followed the
women of Israel, and only then came the turn of the angels. Then they
began to murmur, and said, "Is it not enough that the men have preceded
us? Shall the women come before us also?" But God replied, "As surely
as ye live, so it is." [60]
At first Israel requested their leader Moses to begin the song, but he
declined, saying, "No, ye shall begin it, for it is a greater mark of
honor to be praised by the multitude than by a single one." At once the
people sang: "We will glorify the Eternal, for He has shown us signs
and tokens. When the Egyptians passed the decree against us, and said,
'Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river,' our mothers went
into the field, and Thou didst bid a sleep to fall upon them, and they
bore us without any pain; and the angels descended from Heaven, washed
and anointed us, and robed us in many-colored silken garments, and
placed in our hands two lumps, one of butter and one of honey. When our
mothers awoke and saw us washed, anointed, and clothed in silk, then
they praised Thee, and said, 'Praise be God who has not turned His
grace and His lasting love from the seed of our father Abraham; and now
behold! they are in Thy hand, do with them as Thou wilt.' And they
departed. When the Egyptians saw us, they approached to kill us, but
Thou in Thy great mercy didst bid the earth swallow us and set us in
another place, where we were not seen by the Egyptians, and lo! in this
way didst Thou save us from their hand. When we grew up, we wandered in
troops to Egypt, where each recognized his parents and his family. All
this hast Thou done for us, therefore will we sing of Thee."
Thereupon Moses said: "Ye have given thanks to the Holy One, blessed be
He, and not I will praise His name, for to me also has He shown signs
and tokens. The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my
salvation; He is my God, and I will prepare Him and habitation; my
father's God, and I will exalt Him." [61]
The song by the Red Sea was as much the song of Moses as of all Israel,
for the great leader counted as not less than all the other Israelites
together, and, besides, [62] he had composed a large portion of the
song. In virtue of the spirit of God that possessed them while they
sang, Moses and the people mutually supplemented each other, so that,
as soon as Moses spoke half the verse, the people repeated it, and
linked the second complementary part to it. So Moses began with the
half verse, "I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed
gloriously," whereupon the people answered, "The horse and his rider
hath He thrown into the sea." And in this wise developed the whole
song. [63]
But not alone the adults took part in this song, even the sucklings
dropped their mothers' breasts to join in singing; yea, even the
embryos in the womb joined the melody, and the angels' voices swelled
the song. [64] God so distinguished Israel during the passage through
the Red Sea, that even the children beheld His glory, yea, even the
woman slave saw more of the presence of God by the Red Sea than the
Prophet Ezekiel was ever permitted to behold. [65]
They closed the song with the words: "Let us set the crown of glory
upon the head of our Deliverer, who suffers all things to perish, but
does not Himself decay, who changes all things, but is Himself
unchanged. His is the diadem of sovereignty, for He is the King of
kings in this world, and His is the sovereignty of the world to come;
it is His and will be His in all eternity." [66] Thereupon Moses spake
to Israel, "Ye have seen all the signs, all miracles and works of glory
that the Holy One, blessed be He, hath wrought for you, but even more
will He do for you in the world to come; for not like unto this world
is the world of the hereafter; for in this world war and suffering,
evil inclination, Satan, and the Angel of Death hold sway; but in the
future would, there will be neither suffering nor enmity, neither Satan
nor the Angel of Death, neither groans nor oppression, nor evil
inclination." [67]
As Moses and the race that wandered from Egypt with him sang a song to
the Lord by the Red Sea, so shall they sing again in the world to come.
In the world to come, all generations will pass before the Lord and
will ask Him who should first intone the song of praise, whereupon He
will reply: "In the past it was the generation of Moses that offered up
to me a song of praise. Let them do it now once more, and as Moses
conducted the song by the Red Sea, so shall he do in the world of the
hereafter." [68]
In other respects, too, it shall be in the world to come as it was at
the time of the song by the sea. For when Israel intoned the song of
praise, God put on a festive robe, on which were embroidered all the
promises for a happy future to Israel. Among them were written: "Then
shall thy light break forth as the morning"; "Then said they among the
heathen. 'The Lord hath done great things for them,'" and many similar
promises. But when Israel sinned, God rent the festive robe, and He
will not restore it, or put it on until the coming of the future world.
[69]
After the men had completed the song, the women under the guidance of
Miriam sang the same song to the accompaniment of music and dancing.
The Israelites had had perfect faith, that God would perform for them
miracles and deeds of glory, hence they had provided themselves with
timbrels and with flutes, that they might have them at hand to glorify
the anticipated miracles. [70] Then Miriam said to the women, "Let us
sing unto the Lord, for strength and sublimity are His; He lords it
over the lordly, and He resents presumption. He hurled Pharaoh's horses
and chariots into the sea, and drowned them, because wicked Pharaoh in
his presumption pursued God's people, Israel." [71]