Commentaria in Exodum
“AND MY PRAISE IS THE LORD.” For “praise” the Hebrew is zimrah, that is, song, that is, the matter and object of the song, as if to say: God is he whom I ought to praise, to whom I ought to sing a hymn. For “Lord” the Hebrew is Jah, which is one of the ten names of God, and is joined on in Alleluia, and is itself the name Tetragrammaton, but abbreviated; for it consists of its first and last letters: indeed Theodoretus, Question xv, asserts that the Jews pronounce the name Tetragrammaton as Jah, namely by abbreviation and compendium.
Note: We ought to praise God continually, with the tongue, with the mind, and with our conduct, so that our life should be nothing else than a continual praise of God: first, because God is immense and infinite majesty, liberality, justice, beauty, etc.; secondly, because he has bestowed countless benefits upon us, and bestows them daily; thirdly, because all creatures void of reason bear witness by their beauty, order and number to the glory of their Creator, and inflame men to know and praise him. “For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also and divinity,” Rom. i, 20; and “The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands.” Fourthly, because this is the work of the pious, and the noblest. So David did, Psalm cxliv: “I will extol thee, O God, my king, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name.” So did holy Job, serene in affliction and praising God: “The Lord,” he says, “gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord.” So the three children in the furnace of fire invite all creatures to praise God with them: “O all ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord,” etc., Daniel iii. For, as Lactantius says, book vi of the Divine Institutes, last chapter: “The highest rite of worshipping God is the praise directed to God from the mouth of a just man, which nevertheless, that it may be acceptable to God, needs humility and fear and the greatest devotion.” Fifthly, because it is the proper work of the Angels and the Blessed, praising God for all eternity. Hence at the birth of Christ they sang: “Glory to God in the highest”; Apocalypse xix, 5: “A voice came out from the throne, saying: Give praise to our God, all ye his servants, and you that fear him, little and great.” The 24 ancients do the same, Apocalypse iv, 10.
Note: God is praised more by a pious life than by the voice, that is, by charity, humility, purity, confession of one’s weakness, etc. St. Augustine on Psalm xxxiv, 28: “I suggest,” he says, “a remedy by which thou mayest praise God all day long, if thou wilt. Whatever thou doest, do it well, and thou hast praised God.” This therefore is the joy and perfection of a Christian, to praise God in all things, adverse as well as prosperous, who works all things unto good for his own.
“AND HE IS BECOME SALVATION TO ME.” As if to say: I will praise God, because he is become my saviour, because he saved me in the Red Sea. Note: the Hebrew “and” is causal, signifying “for,” “because.” Such is also Gen. xiv, 19, in the Hebrew: “And he was a priest of the most high God,” that is, for he was a priest. Isaias lxiv, 5: “Behold thou art angry, and (that is, because) we have sinned.” Thus the little word “and” is often taken elsewhere for “because.”
“HE IS MY GOD.” The pronoun “he,” says St. Basil, points out the true God, as if to say: He, the God who saved us in the Red Sea, is the true God: him alone therefore we will glorify, him alone we will serve, not Apis, nor idols and false gods, whom we formerly worshipped in Egypt. The Hebrews add that “he” designates the visible form and appearance of a soldier and warrior, in which God then appeared to the Hebrews in the Red Sea, so that they all then saw God more perfectly than the Prophets afterwards saw him, and pointed him out with the finger, saying: “He is my God.”
But these are their fables: the pronoun “he” designates none other than God looking down through the angel in the pillar upon the camp of the Egyptians also, who destroyed these and saved those, chap. xiv, 24.
Note: For “God” the Hebrew is El, that is, strong, which is one of the ten names of God, as if to say: The gods of the Egyptians are weak, but he, our God, is a strong God. Again he calls this God the God of his father, namely of Abraham the patriarch, who is the father of believers and the father of the circumcision, that is, of the Hebrews.
“AND I WILL GLORIFY HIM.” The Hebrew is veanvehu, which the Chaldee renders, “I will build him a sanctuary,” in which, that is, I may worship him; whence God willed this victory over Pharao to be represented perpetually on the ark and the Cherubim, as on his triumphal chariot, and to be preserved in the temple, as I shall say chap. xxv, verse 18. Secondly, Cajetan renders, “I will dwell with him,” that is, I will attend upon him with mind, vows, praises, affections and works. Thirdly, Vatablus renders, “I will adorn him.” For the Hebrew navah signifies both to adorn, and to glorify, and to dwell, and to build a dwelling: for the root naveh signifies a beautiful and comely tabernacle.
“I WILL EXALT HIM,” I will openly confess him to be most high, and, as far as I can, will proclaim him.
Note: God is most high. First, in height of substance, because he transcends infinitely the essences of all things, and contains them all eminently in himself. Secondly, in height of knowledge: for this in God is incomprehensible. Romans xi: “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! how incomprehensible are his judgments!” Thirdly, in height of power, because whatsoever he would, he hath done in heaven and in earth. Fourthly, in height of majesty and dominion, because all things are subject to his command, and all ought to adore and venerate him: “Every knee,” he says, “shall be bowed to me,” Isaias xlv. Fifthly, in height of dwelling, because he dwells in the empyrean heaven, as on the throne of his glory, where all the Angels and the Blessed celebrate him. Hence Ecclesiasticus warns, chap. xliii, verse 32: “Glorify the Lord as much as ever you can; for he will yet far exceed, and his magnificence is wonderful. Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can: for he is above all praise: when you exalt him, put forth all your strength, and be not weary: for you can never go far enough.”
3. “THE LORD IS AS A MAN OF WAR, ALMIGHTY IS HIS NAME.” The Chaldee renders, The Lord is victor in wars, Adonai is his name. The Hebrew is, Ieheva, a man of war (he is most warlike), Ieheva is his name. Here he alludes to Ieheva, from the root hovah, which signifies destruction and breaking; whence the Septuagint render, God that breaketh wars, as if to say: Truly God is Ieheva, that is, the destroyer of Pharao and of the Egyptians. Again he alludes to the saying of Pharao, chap. v, verse 2: “Who is Ieheva, that I should hear his voice?” as if to say: What can your Ieheva do? with what arms will he compel me to obey him? Thus the Hebrew Saddai, which signifies God as bountiful and most liberal, elsewhere alludes to shadad, that is, to lay waste. So Oleaster: indeed he holds this to be the proper and genuine signification and etymology of the Tetragrammaton name Ieheva, as I said chap. vi, verse 3.
4. “HIS ARMY HE HATH CAST INTO THE SEA.” For “cast” the Hebrew is yarah, that is, hath shot forth, as if to say: God cast down the Egyptians as easily and forcibly as an archer sends forth an arrow.
5. “THE DEPTHS” (the whirlpools of the waters) “HAVE COVERED THEM, THEY ARE SUNK TO THE BOTTOM LIKE A STONE,” as if to say: The Egyptians, when the waters of the sea rushed back and met them, and they tried to climb up and swim out, were driven back by the force of the waves and sank to the depth of the sea.
6. “THY RIGHT HAND IS MAGNIFIED IN STRENGTH,” it was made manifest to all that thy right hand, that is, thy might and power, is great, from the strength and mighty crushing of the Egyptians which it wrought. Whence Vatablus renders, thy right hand stood out in excellent might.
7. “AND IN THE MULTITUDE OF THY GLORY THOU HAST PUT DOWN THY ADVERSARIES.” “Of glory,” that is, of strength, by which thou hast been gloriously glorified; it is a metonymy: for the effect is put for the cause. For the sake of ornament and poetry he expresses the same thing in a varied figure; Moses says the same, says Euthymius. For “put down” the Hebrew is taharos, that is, thou hast overthrown, thou hast scattered.
“THOU HAST SENT THY WRATH,” that is, punishments and penalties, which are effects of thy wrath, that is, of divine avenging justice; it is a metonymy. So Euthymius. Aptly he joins wrath, or burning and fire (for from this wrath is called by the Hebrews), to stubble: for fire consumes this.
8. “AND WITH THE BLAST OF THY ANGER THE WATERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER.” “Spirit” here is the blast, or the indignation: for so “spirit” is sometimes taken, as in Psalm cxxxviii, verse 7: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit?” Isaias chap. xxx, verse 28: “His spirit is as a torrent overflowing”; Zacharias chap. vi, verse 8: “They have made my spirit rest,” that is, my anger. The spirit of fury is therefore furious indignation, so that by this phrase he signifies the grave and sharp wrath of God, that is, his most just will of avenging; for God therefore divided, and heaped up and gathered together the waters of the sea, that, the Hebrews having passed over, he might overwhelm the Egyptians with them as with masses and mountains.