Verses 2-3 are like a confession of faith. The first line, The LORD is my strength and my song, has no verb in the Hebrew. There are just three words that mean literally “my strength and my song Yah.” Yah is a shortened form of the name Yahweh. My strength has been understood by some as “my fortress” or “my refuge” (Revised English Bible), but the same word is used in verse 13, where “refuge” does not work. In some languages it may be easier to say “The LORD gives me strength,” “makes me strong,” or “causes me to be strong.”

The meaning of the word for my song is not certain. Some understand it to mean protection or defense. So Good News Translation has “The LORD is my strong defender,” and New Revised Standard Version has “The LORD is my strength and my might.” However, the footnote in New Revised Standard Version explains that the word may also mean my song. Translators are encouraged to interpret the word as song and say “The LORD is the theme of my song” or “the reason for my song” (Contemporary English Version). It is also possible to say “The LORD is the reason I am singing this song,” or simply, “I will sing about the LORD.”

And he has become my salvation is literally “and he is to me for help.” In the setting of the Red Sea, this means “he is the one who has saved me” (Good News Translation). In some languages one must say something like “he is the one who has saved me from my enemies.” This is my God uses the word ʾel, a common word for “God” or “god” in several ancient cultures. My God will be expressed in a number of languages as “the God whom I worship.” And I will praise him is a word found only here, possibly meaning “to beautify.” The Septuagint has “I will glorify him,” but most translations follow the idea of “praise.”

My father’s God is literally “God [ʾelohim] of my father.” The meaning is “the God whom my father worshiped.” There is no textual basis here for interpreting the singular “father” to mean “ancestors” (Contemporary English Version). (See the comment at 3.6.) And I will exalt him is literally “and I will make him high,” which may be understood to mean “and I will sing about his greatness” (Good News Translation). For translators who will not translate this as poetry, and who do not wish to maintain the semantic parallelism here (see the introduction to this chapter), it is possible to restructure the final part of this verse; for example, “I praise and give honor to the LORD. He is my God and the God of my father.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

The LORD causes me to be strong,
he is the reason I am singing this song.
He rescued me from my enemies.
I praise and give honor to the LORD,
he is my God and the God whom my father worshiped.

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 .