Exodus 15:11-15

"Who is like unto thee, O Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness? Fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchest out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy lovingkindness hast led the people that thou hast redeemed. Thou has guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation. The people have heard, they tremble: Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia. Then were the chiefs of Edom dismayed; The mighty men of Moab, trembling taketh hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away."

"O Jehovah ..." Scholars have pointed out that a substitute for this name was used in Exodus 15:2, where the short form, Yah, is used (an abbreviation for Jehovah), perhaps for the sake of maintaining the rhythm, that being the first occurrence of it. Later, it was also used extensively in proper names, as in Abijah, Ahaziah, Hezekiah, Zedekiah, Mount Moriah, etc.[25]"

"Who is like unto thee ... among the gods?" It is a gross error to suppose that this recognizes the heathen gods as actually existing. One of the great purposes of the plagues was to demonstrate that they did NOT exist. We might paraphrase the passage as asking, "Where, among the heathen idols, is there anything like the true God Jehovah? ... The so-called gods of the heathen were non-entities."[26] The new translation of the Torah does not use the term "gods" here at all, rendering it "celestials."[27] That this passage indicates "a belief in many gods with whom the Lord could be compared,"[28] is true only in the sense that some of Moses' contemporaries held that view. Certainly, that was not the belief of Moses, or any other of the prophets of God. Gods, as used here, refers neither to potentates nor great men, but to the heathen gods, and the Hebrew idiom here (a negative stated as a question) is not an invitation to compare Almighty God with heathen idols, but a mighty negative declaring that such is impossible? Fields summed it up thus:

"Whether the word `gods' refers to mighty men, as in Ezekiel 32:21, or to mighty angels, as in Psalms 29:1, or to idols, as in Isaiah 43:10, or to other supposedly-existing mighty gods, NO ONE is like THE LORD.[30]

"Who is like thee, glorious in holiness ...?" Again from Fields:

"The idea set forth in the Broadman Commentary (Vol. 1,1969), that moral perfection and righteousness were applications of the term `holiness' used only in centuries later than Moses is contradicted by Leviticus 19:15, from a book written by Moses. Of course, the skeptical critics affirm without proof that Leviticus was written during or after the Babylonian exile![31]

Furthermore, in this same connection, much of the balance of Exodus, with its strict injunctions against all kinds of wicked behavior is related absolutely to the intrinsic and perfect HOLINESS of Almighty God.

"The earth swallowed them ..." How strange that men should quibble about this, on the basis that it was not the earth but the sea that swallowed Pharaoh's army! Have they not read what Jonah said when he went down into depths? "The earth with its bars closed upon me forever "(Jonah 2:6). As Dummelow put it, "The earth is a general term including the sea."[32]

"Thou hast guided them ... to thy holy habitation ..." The word guided here is used in the sense of "bearing or carrying." "All guidance involves patience and forbearance."[33]

"To thy holy habitation ..." This is not a reference to the Jewish temple, nor to the city of Jerusalem, nor to any sanctuary, and not even to Mount Moriah. "The holy habitation of God was the land of Canaan (Psalms 78:54), and it had been consecrated by God as a sacred abode for Jehovah among His people in the land promised to the patriarchs."[34]

Furthermore, this passage is not proof that Exodus was written long afterward when the Jews were settled in Canaan, it is a prophecy of what God will do, spoken of here in the past perfect, or prophetic tense, the passage of the Red Sea and the overthrow of the Egyptians having made it clear that what God had promised relative to settling Israel in Canaan was considered as good as done already. Jones discerned this and said, "The evidence of God's irresistible and gracious power just given was sufficient warrant for praising him in anticipation for what remained to be done."[35] There is no understanding of the O.T. whatever, apart from the recognition of prophetic tense when it appears. There is no doubt whatever of its occurrence here. "The shifting of tenses here shows that the time of the events mentioned was partly in the past, partly in the present, and partly in the future."[36]

The branding of the mention of the land of the Philistines (Philistia) here as an anachronism, as many have done, was pointed out by Fields as, "an error. There is some archeological evidence of the Philistines in that area at the time of the exodus; and, besides, here is the Biblical testimony!"[37] I recently observed a bumper sticker that said: "The Bible says it; I believe it; and that settles it!" Keil's comment on this alleged problem was as follows:

"The fact that the inhabitants of Philistia and Canaan are here described in the same terms as Edom and Moab, is an unquestionable proof that this song was composed at a time when the command to exterminate the Canaanites had NOT YET been given, and before the boundary of the territory to be captured by the Israelites had been fixed. In other words, this proves that it was sung by Moses and the children of Israel AFTER their passage through the Red Sea.[38]