ויאמרו לאמור, literally: “they said to say;” a somewhat unusual construction, meaning that the Israelites singing this song meant for future generations to recite it on appropriate occasions. [as we still do in our daily morning prayers. Ed.]

עזי וזמרת יה, “my victory and my song is G-d;” (Onkelos) according to Rashi, the vocalisation of the word ozzi here is most unusual as it should have been uzzi. Rashi examined this song grammatically in great detail; [seeing that it is poetry and you my readers are mostly not experts in classical Hebrew grammar (neither is this editor), I omit most of these comments. Ed.]

ויהי לי לישועה, “He became my salvation.” Rashi explains that the expression ויהי should not raise any questions although we might have expected the word היה here for the past tense. He points out that we find similar constructions in Chronicles II 10,17, where we read about the kingdom of Yehudah having “appointed” Solomon’s son Rechavam as their king, and the word: וימלוך is used by the author, although the meaning is that Rechavam would continue to rule over the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin as he had already been doing since his father Solomon had died and the country had not been split through the revolution which brought Jerovam to the throne of the ten remaining tribes. An almost identical verse is also found in Kings I 12,17.

זה אלי, “this is my G-d.” Moses refers to G-d with the word, “זה,” “this,” although G-d, is, of course, invisible, This maybe the reason why we find Moses described on occasion as "זה משה האיש,” [even though after an absence on Mount Sinai of 40 days he had still not become visible again, not yet returned to the Israelite camp. (Compare Exodus 32,1)]

איש מלחמה, “a Man of war.” He acquired that title after having drowned His adversaries, the chariots of Pharaoh and their derivers, in the sea.

תהומות יכסיומו, “the deeps covered them;” the letter מ in the word יכסיומו should have had the vowel cholem as have similar formulations of a verse, instead of the shuruk which our sages decided. The reason they did so was that there was already a vowel shuruk immediately in front of it. We find a similar example of this dilemma in Ezekiel 43,11, in the word: ומבואיו.

נאדרי, “glorious;” this adjective refers to G-d, the letter י at the end is superfluous, just as the letter י in Psalms 123,1 is superfluous in the word: היושבי. We therefore understand the whole sentence as if the Torah had written: ימינך ה' הנאדר בכח היא תרעץ אויב, “Your right hand o Lord, is the one that shatters the foe.”

תהרוס קמיך, “You break Your opponents.” This verb describes some kind of motion, stampeding, as in Exodus 19,21: פן יהרסו אל ה' לראות “lest they come stampeding in order to get a glimpse of G-d.” Compare also Isaiah 22,19: ויהרסו ממצבך, “and He will destroy you by crushing you.”

נערמו מים, “the waters rose up (like wall);” Onkelos translates these words as “חכימו מים,” the waters acted wisely, etc;” We understand this as the waters cooperating with G-d’s plan to pour the Egyptians into the water. This would conform with what we have read in Deuteronomy 11,4: אשר הציף ה' את מי ים סוף על פניהם ברדפם אחריכם, “how the Lord rolled back upon them the waters of the sea of reeds when they were pursuing you; i.e. the waters were pursuing the Egyptians.”

אמר אויב וגו, “the enemy had said, etc.; ”when he saw that the sea had had turned into a dry surface through the waves having frozen in the heart of it, the enemy considered this as an opportunity to catch up faster with the Israelites.

אריק חרבי, “I will bare My sword;” our author feels that the letter ב before the word חרבי is missing here, and he quotes similar instances, so that as a result, the line would mean that by using His sword G-d separates body from soul; and blood from breathing; [personally I had no problem with the word חרבי as is. Ed.]

תורישמו ידי, “My hand shall destroy them;” the root of the word is ירש, so that the meaning in our verse is “Will disinherit them in favour of My people”

כעופרת, “like lead.” The word is a derivative of עפר “earth.” Whereas the other six types of metal, if buried in the earth will gradually diminish in weight and substance, lead retains its composition and does not deteriorate.

מי כמוכה באלם, “Who is like you among deities?” the letter י is missing in the word אלים. It is a hint of the inability of any so-called deities to even use the power of speech that ordinary human beings possess. They are totally dumb. Moses uses it here slightly differently by hinting that only our G-d can remain absolutely silent even when provoked. This degree of self-control is found nowhere else.

נורא תהלות, “awesome in splendour.” It is the multiplicity of praises that make the Lord so awesome. We find the expression נורא applied to objects which possess more than the virtues or qualities required for them to live up to their reputations. For instance: המדבר הגדול והנורא הוא, “that great and awesome desert.” (Deuteronomy 1 19.) Or, Maleachi 3,23: לפני בא יום ה' הגדול והנורא, before the arrival of that great and awesome day.”: [The author quotes more examples. Ed.]

עושה פלא, “working wonders.!” It is well known that air exhaled through the nose is warm or even hot. It could even be hot enough to cause substances with a low melting point to melt. On the other hand, air that is blown from the mouth is very cold and can even freeze something hot. But when G-d was described as exhaling hot air from angry nostrils, the result was that the waters of the sea piled up as blocks of ice instead. On the other hand, when G-d blew forth air from the mouth, these blocks of ice melted instead.

נטית ימינך, “You inclined Your right hand;” a reference to chapter 14,26 when G-d instructed Moses to extend his arm so that the waters would return to normal.

עם זו, “this nation;” Whenever the expression זו is used it means the same as אשר, “that one,” or “which;” compare Isaiah 42,24. It follows that in our verse, the words עם זו גאלת, mean: “You have redeemed a nation.”

אל נוה קדשך, the entire land of Israel is called: “G-d’s holy residence.” As an example of this statement our author cites: Psalms 78,54.ויביאם אל גבול קדשו הר זה קנתה ימינה, “He brought them to the land of His holiness His right hand acquired this mountain.”

נחית, “you guided;” both this word and the word נהלת, are to be understood as in the future tense, as Moses is predicting something that had not happened yet. This is very common use of language when prophecies or poems are involved.

חיל אחז יושבי פלשת, “fear gripped the inhabitants of Palestine.” They were afraid that retribution for their having killed tens of thousands of the members of the tribe of Ephrayim was at hand. Those members of the tribe of Ephrayim had been trying to leapfrog the appointed time of the end of Jewish slavery. They had been killed by the inhabitants of Gat, who had been born in the land of the Philistines. (Compare Chronicles I 7,21.)

אז נבהלו אלופי אדום, “then the chieftains of Edom were frightened.” They thought that they would now be punished for their founder Esau’s wrongful hatred of his twin brother Yaakov.

נמוגו כל יושבי כנען, “all the inhabitants of Canaan’s hearts melted away.” They were certain that the time when the Israelites would drive them out of their homes was at hand. They were aware of the prophecy recorded in Exodus 3,8 that the Jewish G-d would descend from heaven in order to redeem His people, and drive out the Canaanites from their land.

תפול עליהם אימה ופחד, “may fear and terror descend upon them;” this is a prayer by Moses. He prays that they should continue to remain in this state of terror. The root נפל is used here in the same sense as when the Torah described the death of Yishmael in Genesis 25,18 with the words: על פני כל אחיו נפל, “he had fallen in the presence of all his brothers.” [If I understand our author correctly, he interprets Yishmael’s death as not that of a mighty hunter or hero, but as a person who was desperately afraid of death at the time. Ed.]

בגדול זרועך, “through the might of Your arm;” this means the same as if the Torah had written: בזרוע גדלך, “with the arm of Your greatness.” We find a similar inverted expression of adjective and noun in Psalms 65,5: קדוש היכלך, which normally would be expressed as היכלך הקדוש, “Your holy Temple.”

עד יעבור עם זו קנית, “until this people which You acquired as Your own through having taken them out of bondage from Egypt,” in order to bring them and implant them firmly in the mountain of Your heritage.”

תביאמו ותטעמו, “You will bring it and plant it;” these words belong to the words: עם זו קנית, “You have acquired this nation,” from the previous verse. Another example where words in one verse belong to the previous verse is found in Psalms 5,12: וישמחו כל חוסי בך לעולם ירננו ותסך עלימו; “and let all who take refuge in You rejoice; ever jubilant as You shelter them.” That verse too is actually part of the verse preceding it, contrasting it with it.

תביאמו ותטעמו; according to Rashi, the fact that Moses spoke only about G-d doing this, is equivalent to a prophecy that he would not live to see his people entering the land of Israel. Otherwise he would have used the first person plural mode of: ”us.” If you were to argue that this is not news as we could have learned this from Exodus 6,1 where G-d had told Moses what he would experience, i.e. “now you will see what I shall do to Pharaoh, which some commentators interpret as Moses being told that he would not experience what G-d would do for the people when He would defeat the Canaanites. Rashi did not understand that verse in that sense, saying that this was our interpretation, but was not what G-d had meant to convey to Moses. Proof that Moses had not understood himself as being excluded is found in Numbers 10,29, when he says to his fatherinlaw Yitro: נוסעים אנחנו אל המקום אשר אמר ה' אותו אתן לכם, “we are about to journey to the place of which G-d has said: ‘I will give it to you.’”

ותטעמו, “You will plant it;” the verb נטע meaning to plant, is always used with a plant that will endure for a long period. [Our author quotes Ezekiel 17,23, as proof although there the verb שתל is used? Ed.]

מקדש ה, the name for G-d used in the spelling here is the one with the letters אד.

ה׳ ימלוך לעולם ועדת, ‘the Lord will rule forever;” a prayer, meaning: “may it be Your will that the Lord Who rules over us now will continue to do so forever, and may He continue to do favours for us similar to the ones He just did.” Although at first glance the word: ימלוך may be misunderstood a it is in the future tense, it is used as a present tense. One of many such examples is found in Deuteronomy 32,11: כנשר יעיר קנו ירחף, “as an eagle that stirs up its nest hovering over its young.” The verse continues in the future tense but describes matters that occur all the time.

לעולם ועד; this is an abbreviated version of the expression: לעולם ועד עולם, “from one world until the next world.” There is no reason to wonder that the word ועד does not appear in the construct mode, as we find more such examples, such as in Isaiah 57,15: שוכן עד מרום וקדוש שמו, “forever dwells the One Whose name is high and holy;” the meaning of the line is: His name will remain forever exalted and holy.”The author explains that it is a peculiarity of classical Hebrew that the emphasis is placed on the letter following the prefix ו, in other words, on the letter ע in the word ועד. He cites Leviticus 7,23 שור וכשב ועז as an example, as well as Genesis 3,13: הנחש השיאני ואכל, “the serpent seduced me and I ate,” as another example.

כי בא סוס פרעה, “when Pharaoh’s horse entered the sea and G-d brought back the waters of the sea upon them, while the Israelites continued to walk on a completely dry sea bed, Miriam, the prophetess, sister of Aaron, took her drum and began to sing a song of thanksgiving.

מרים הנביאה, “Miriam the prophetess;” the word “prophetess” is used here to describe Miriam’s extraordinary ability to use words to express her feelings. [According to Rash’bam,] the word is also used as describing someone who preaches to people to behave morally and ethically correctly. Compare when G-d told Moses that his brother Aaron would be נביאך, which can hardly mean: “your prophet,” as Moses outclassed him in that department.

שירו לה' כי גאה, “raise your voices in song to the Lord, for He has been triumphant;” the women sang the whole of Moses’ song, word by word; seeing that the text had already been recorded, the Torah does not need to repeat all of it and mentions only the beginning.

שלשת ימים במדבר, “for three days in the desert.” They camped three times, at Eytam, Pihachirot, and Marah.

ויורהו ה׳ עץ וישלך אל המים, “the Lord taught him about a certain kind of wood, and he tossed it into the water;” although G-d had other means of making the water sweet, without using that kind of wood, G-d wanted to teach Moses some common chemistry, i.e. how to use natural products to sweeten something that only needs sweetening in order to make it drinkable or edible.

שם שם לו חק ומשפט, “there He made for them a statute and an ordinance; according to Rashi, one of them was the law of the red heifer, although in practice it could not be practiced until the second year of their wanderings. [There is no earlier source for Rashi’s saying that this law was revealed at Marah. Ed.]

ויאמר, “he said;” the subject is Moses. 'אם שמוע תשמע וגו, “if you will surely listen etc.;” Moses quotes what G-d had said to him to tell the people. 'כל המחלה אשר שמתי במצרים וגו, “every disease with which I have afflicted the Egyptians in Egypt, etc.” לקול ה' אלוקיך, the letter ל in the word לקול, has a “crown”. [something exceptional for that letter. Ed]

לא אשים עליך, “I will not afflict you with.” G-d implied that the reason He would not do so is that He would otherwise have to trouble Himself to cure the Israelites from these diseases.

כי אני ה' רופאיך, “for I, the Lord, am your physician.” I would have to act as your physician after you had decided to listen to My voice, having been afflicted with such diseases as I struck the Egyptians with. [If understand our author correctly, he means that these diseases would not be considered as “natural,” as the Israelites had learned while in Egypt that they were means of G-d punishing people as opposed to diseases that had not been inflicted upon the Egyptians. Ed.] G-d hints that no physician but He could have turned water into blood and reversed the process.

ויחנו שם, “they encamped there.” The reason why they did so was to devote time to study the laws G-d had taught them, as we read about in verse 25.