Exodus 15.1-21 Redux

I apologize for the lack of analysis last night. Poetry is a pretty hefty topic to introduce and analyze all at once. Today I am going to take a step back and analyze the poetry introduced yesterday. Check out that post if you haven't yet - it has a lot of important information regarding today's post.

Also, if you cannot tell, I am having problems with font and formatting, because I generally type my blog in Microsoft Word or TextEdit, then copy and paste it here. Today's post is all typed in Blogger, for a change. Someday I might go back and reformat all the entries. In any case, it's something always in the back of my mind.

One thing I forgot to mention last night is that the easiest way to remember chiasmus is to think of the famous line from John F. Kennedy's inaugural address:

Ask not what your country can do for you—

ask what you can do for your country.

The "ask" parts provide the topical parallelism necessary for cohesiveness, while the you/you, country/country creates the chiasmus. Chiasmus comes from the Greek letter "chi," represented by an "X." In chiasmus, the equivalent words or phrases form an X:

your country can do for you

X

you can do for your country

Let's get going.

The Song of Moses: Exodus 15.1-19

The song/poem opens with a cast list: Moses and the Israelites. Even if the poem was not originally written by Moses, for biblical authors the attribution is important. The poem refers to events that have not happened yet. This does not indicate that it was written later than the rest of the text - in fact, it has many influences that seem to predate the rest of the narrative. Rather, this poem was inserted because it is an additional telling of the escape from Egypt, just as "true" as the others.

"Stanza" One
Distich one displays the Lord triumphing over the Egyptians. Distich two takes the idea of triumph and personalizes it: "The Lord is my strength, and my might...my salvation." The third distich continues to play on the theme and personalizes it further, going from God's characteristics to God himself: "my God...my father's God." The last distich gives two labels to God. The first, God as warrior, is implied in the narrative. The second, God as YHWH, or Lord, is explicit in the narrative (Ex. 3.13-15; "The Divine Name Revealed").

"Stanza" Two
Distich one demonstrates synonymous parallelism, except it's a little more than synonymous. Really, the second half of the distich gives specific examples of the generalized first half. The second distich parallels the first.

The third distich demonstrates emblematic parallelism. The hand that is "glorious in power," an abstract manifestation, makes a physical gesture: "shattered the enemy." The next distich contains synonymous parallelism. The two following it serve mostly as narrative.

"Stanza" Three
The reference to the earth swallowing the Egyptians may indicate a belief in the underworld. The dead Egyptians are taken under the earth, to the afterlife.

"Stanza" Four
The first distich of "stanza" four is composed with a sort of hybrid chiasmus-synthetic parallelism:

In your steadfast love...you led them

X

you guided them...by your strength

Chiasmus: Highlighted in red and green: [aspect of God]/guidance
Synthetic: "Love" to "strength"

Distich three is a unique three-line distich, arranged by chiasmus alternating the people of various parts of the Promised Land and their fear:

Chiefs of Edom...dismayed

X

tremblimg...leaders of Moab

X

all the inhabitants of Canaan...melted away [with fear?]

That's pretty cool. At least I think so.