Essence and Attribute

My strength and song is God, and this is my deliverance; This is my God, I will enshrine Him, My father’s God, I will exalt Him.  Exodus 15:2  Aryeh Kaplan

Is God – The NASB translates the opening of Moses’ song like this: “The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.”  The Hebrew reads:

עָזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ, וַיְהִי-לִי  לִישׁוּעָה

Oozi vezimrat Yah vayhi-li li-y’shooah

We need to pay attention.  Why?  Because “My strength and song is God” is not quite the same as the English reversal, “God is my strength and song.”  Let me explain.

First, Kaplan follows the correct syntax in Hebrew.  “My strength and song” open the verse, not “The Lord is.”  In fact, in typical Hebrew fashion, the copula “is” isn’t present.  Literally, the Hebrew reads “My strength and song Yah.”  The NASB treats the shortened version of YHVH as “the Lord,” but, of course, this is the result of the translator’s decision to not write the holy name.  Kaplan avoids the problem by rendering the Hebrew as “God,” following the Jewish tradition of not writing or speaking the holy name.  But Moses doesn’t seem to have this problem, and it’s important that we recognize he does not.  He comfortably and intentionally magnifies the God of Israel by naming Him explicitly and exactly in a world where there were many other competing gods.  Frankly, if Moses is confident using God’s personal name, it’s hard to imagine why modern religious people seem to be so hesitant.  Tradition trumps the text.

Secondly, aside from this technical detail, there is a bigger issue.  The inversion of the syntax makes Moses’ lyric into an Aristotelian attribute, an adjective of “my strength,” rather than a statement of the essence of divine strength and song.  The absence of the copula in Hebrew should make this even clearer.  Moses is not saying that God adds to his strength (i.e., God is an attribute of Moses’ strength).  He is saying that whatever strength and song he has, it is, in fact, God’s performance.  It’s not his.  It is divinity manifested in humanity.  If we follow the English rearrangement, we unconsciously put Moses at the center of the thought.  We read this as if it is an elucidation of Moses’ strength.  But Moses doesn’t say it that way.  What he says is that he actually has no part in this at all.  It’s all God.  What appears as human effort with God’s assistance is really God’s accomplishment via human agency.  Hopefully, you can see the difference.

Why does this matter so much?  Because Yeshua is typecast as the second Moses, and the relationship between the creator and the agent is the same.  Right?

Topical Index:  my strength, attribute, syntax, Moses, Exodus 15:2