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1Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said,

“I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously.

He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea.

2Yah is my strength and song.

He has become my salvation.

This is my God, and I will praise him;

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3Yahweh is a man of war.

Yahweh is his name.

4He has cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea.

His chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.

5The deeps cover them.

They went down into the depths like a stone.

6Your right hand, Yahweh, is glorious in power.

Your right hand, Yahweh, dashes the enemy in pieces.

7In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you.

You send out your wrath. It consumes them as stubble.

8With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up.

The floods stood upright as a heap.

The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.

9The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder.

My desire will be satisfied on them.

I will draw my sword. My hand will destroy them.’

10You blew with your wind.

The sea covered them.

They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

11Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods?

Who is like you, glorious in holiness,

fearful in praises, doing wonders?

12You stretched out your right hand.

The earth swallowed them.

13“You, in your loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed.

You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.

14The peoples have heard.

They tremble.

Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.

15Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed.

Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab.

All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

16Terror and dread falls on them.

By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone,

until your people pass over, Yahweh,

until the people you have purchased pass over.

17You will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance,

the place, Yahweh, which you have made for yourself to dwell in:

the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have established.

18Yahweh will reign forever and ever.”

19For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the middle of the sea. 20Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances. 21Miriam answered them,

“Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously.

He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea.”

22Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 23When they came to Marah, they couldn’t drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah. 24The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25Then he cried to Yahweh. Yahweh showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them. 26He said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”

27They came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. They encamped there by the waters.

Place

Hebron

Type
City
Location
31.524, 35.109
Site Study | Brian Kvasnica

Beyond the important connections between Abraham, the other patriarchs, and the matriarchs centered around the Machpelah Cave (see above at Gen 23:3), Hebron continued to be a central city in Biblical history, earning the place of one of the four most sacred cities in Jewish tradition. Hebron was a city of refuge and a Levitical city (Josh 21:11-13 and 1 Chr 6:55-57)  as well as the place where David first centered his reign: at the pool (traditionally connected with Birket es-Sultan), David executed the two sons of Rimmon who had murdered Saul’s son Ishboshet (2 Sam 4:12); and  where David was crowned king (2 Sam 2:3-4; 5:5)  and reigned for 7 ½ years where six sons were born to him before conquering Jerusalem where he had 13 more sons.  Even after the Exile in the sixth century BC, Jews returned to Hebron (Neh 11:25) probably living alongside Edomites.  In the second-century BC Simon Maccabeus took Hebron from the Edomites (1 Macc 5:65; Josephus, Antiquities, XII, viii, 6) and in the Great revolt of AD 70, first Simon bar-Gioras captured the city (Josephus, War, IV, ix, 7), and then Vespasian’s general Cerealis conquered it, slaughtering its inhabitants and burning it (War IV, ix, 9).

Hebron in the Land of Canaan

Site Study | Brian Kvasnica | Hebron

23:2 Hebron was first built as a Canaanite city seven years prior to Zoan (Greek Tanis) in Egypt (Num 13:22) and is located 3,040 ft. above sea-level in the southern tribal allotment of Judah.  The city is also called Kiriath-Arba (Gen 23:2, etc.) possibly after a forefather of the Anakim (Josh 14:15; 15:13), or as of the four cities, thus “City-of-Four” (Hebrew arba, “four”; see Josh 15:54; 2 Sam 2:3; Neh 11:25). Here Abram’s name was changed to Abraham (Gen 17:5) and here (in conjunction with Mamre), came the three angels with the promise of a son (18:1 ff.).  At Hebron, Isaac and Jacob often lived (35:27; 37:14).  From Hebron Jacob sent Joseph to seek his brothers (37:14).  There also Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt (46:1).  Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah from Ephron in order to bury Sarah (Genesis 23), and Abraham himself was buried there (Gen 25:9-10), as was Isaac (Gen 35:27-29), and all the patriarchs and their wives except Rachel (49:30ff; 50:13).  Today the site is known as Tel Hebron or Jebel Rumeidah and is inhabited by a few dozen Jewish families after excavations were carried out by P.C. Hammond in the 1960’s but not published and in the 1980’s by A. Ofer as well as M. Anbar and N. Na’aman.  More recently Emanuel Eisenberg excavated the north side of the tell and Jeffrey Chadwick is beginning to write up Hammond’s report.  In Arabic today, the town is known as el Khalil ("the friend” of God), a favorite name for Abraham, as seen also in James 2:23.  The gigantic edifice built by Herod the Great still stands and is a place for many pilgrimages even today.  For later Biblical and post-biblical connections see further site study on Hebron at 1 Chr 3:1.

Person & place data: Theographic Bible Metadata by Robert Rouse (Viz.Bible), CC BY-SA 4.0.