Exodus 15:21

"And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously; The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."

"And Miriam answered them ..." This appears to indicate that Miriam and the women accompanying her repeated these opening lines of Moses song as a chant at appropriate places in the hymn, which was evidently sung by all the people, or even, possibly, after every line of it. We can know nothing, really, of exactly how all this was done. See another comment on thus under Exodus 15:2, above. However, the significant mention of Miriam here is appropriate, for it shows the important place of women in God's deliverance of his people. It should be recalled here that Miriam saved Moses' life in the events surrounding his birth. Other women in the Bible called prophetesses are: Deborah, Judges 4:4; Huldah, 2 Kings 22:14; Nodiah, a false prophetess, Nehemiah 6:16; Isaiah's wife, Isaiah 8:3; and Jezebel who called herself a prophetess, Revelation 2:20.

These verses actually conclude the mighty event of the Red Sea Passage and Israel's immediate and magnificent celebration of it, and many commentators find a major division in Exodus right here, all of the rest of the book being the account of Israel's journey from the Red Sea to Sinai and their attendant maneuvers in the wilderness.