Thou didst blow with thy wind repeats the idea in verse 8, suggesting that Yahweh blew on the sea. The word for wind also means “breath,” which may be intended here. Good News Translation suggests that it took only “one breath” to cause the divided waters to return. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh removes the anthropomorphism with “You made your wind blow” (similarly Translator’s Old Testament). Translators will need to decide whether to employ the anthropomorphism here or not. If it will sound unnatural or strange in a receptor language, then a translation like New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh’s will be possible. Another way to express this is to combine the idea of “anger” and “wind” by saying “You were furious and caused your wind to blow.” Good News Translation adds “LORD” for better style, but it is not in the Hebrew. The sea covered them uses the same verb as in verse 5. The word them, of course, refers to the Egyptians.

They sank as lead uses a verb found only here, but its meaning is suggested by lead, the heavy metal used even today for weights. If lead is unknown, one may say, for example, “sank like a rock.” In the mighty waters may be thought of as “terrible waters” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “swelling waves” (Revised English Bible). Waters is simply the plural of “water” as in verse 8, but with the adjective mighty, the unruly primeval ocean is meant as in verse 5. Contemporary English Version combines the clause the sea covered them and the phrase the mighty waters as “swallowed by ocean waves.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .