WORD STUDY – SING

Exodus 15:1: “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord.” Vs. 2: “The Lord is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation.”

Sing – Sur – to sing, n. song

The lexicon and Hebrew dictionaries are of little help as it tells us what we already know, the word “sur” means “song” or “to sing.”   Hebrew tradition tells us that “sur” is a song of praise.  The word is spelled: Shin – God’s passionate love, Yod – a message of salvation from heaven, Resh – repentance.  So the song that we sing and the song that Moses and the children of Israel sang was a song of God’s passionate love (Shin) and a message of salvation (Yod) through repentance.

What is curious is that there is a Yod before the word “sur” in Exodus 15:1 putting it in a future tense.  Hence it should be rendered: Then Moses and the children of Israel will sing a song unto the Lord.  The rest of the verse says that they “spake” (amar) the words.  They did not sing this song but spoke it.  They will at some future time sing this song of “salvation.”   To be sure the salvation spoken of in Exodus 15:1 is deliverance from the Egyptians, but putting the word “sing” in a future tense suggest a remez or hint of something much deeper.  It is speaking of a future salvation.  There might be a word play here because the Hebrew word for the word  “salvation” used here is Yeshua which we know as the Hebrew name of Jesus.   So the remez could suggest the coming of Jesus to bring salvation to the world.

The Yod is the number 10 and we could render this as: “Moses and the children of Israel will sing the 10th Song.  There are 9 songs of praise in the Old Testament.  The 10th song of praise could not be sung until the New Testament when Jesus died and rose again to bring us salvation.

Now is the time to sing that 10th Song of praise.  Today is the day of salvation (II Corinthians 6:2).