15:7 In the abundance of your majesty 3 you have overthrown 4
those who rise up against you. 5
You sent forth 6 your wrath; 7
it consumed them 8 like stubble.
1 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the main clause as a temporal clause.
2 tn Heb “and the magicians did so.”
sn The report of what the magicians did (or as it turns out, tried to do) begins with the same words as the report about the actions of Moses and Aaron – “and they did so” (vv. 17 and 18). The magicians copy the actions of Moses and Aaron, leading readers to think momentarily that the magicians are again successful, but at the end of the verse comes the news that “they could not.” Compared with the first two plagues, this third plague has an important new feature, the failure of the magicians and their recognition of the source of the plague.
3 sn This expression is cognate with words in v. 1. Here that same greatness or majesty is extolled as in abundance.
4 tn Here, and throughout the song, these verbs are the prefixed conjugation that may look like the imperfect but are actually historic preterites. This verb is to “overthrow” or “throw down” – like a wall, leaving it in shattered pieces.
5 tn The form קָמֶיךָ (qamekha) is the active participle with a pronominal suffix. The participle is accusative, the object of the verb, but the suffix is the genitive of nearer definition (see GKC 358 §116.i).
6 sn The verb is the Piel of שָׁלַח (shalakh), the same verb used throughout for the demand on Pharaoh to release Israel. Here, in some irony, God released his wrath on them.
7 sn The word wrath is a metonymy of cause; the effect – the judgment – is what is meant.
8 tn The verb is the prefixed conjugation, the preterite, without the consecutive vav (ו).