This verse also has three lines in parallel, although each line has two clauses, each one showing successive actions. In rapid staccato style they suggest the overconfident plans in the mind of the enemy. Lines 2 and 3 may need to be interchanged for logical sequence. The enemy is the same word as in verse 6. Said is singular and introduces the words spoken by either the Pharaoh or the Egyptians collectively. It is possible to use a word like “boasted” here, as in New American Bible and New International Version. I will pursue is the same word used in 14.9 and 23. There is no direct object to the verb pursue, so many translators will need to supply one. Good News Translation, for example, adds “them,” meaning the Israelites, even though they are not mentioned in the poem until verse 13. I will overtake is the same word used in 14.9.

I will divide the spoil refers to any goods, animals, or people taken captive by a conquering army and shared with all the men. Translator’s Old Testament has “I will share out the plunder.” Good News Translation adds the possessive pronoun, “I will divide their wealth.” In a number of languages this clause will be expressed as “I will divide up their possessions.” My desire is the Hebrew word nefesh, which King James Version often mistranslates as “soul.” Here, however, King James Version more correctly has “my lust.” The basic meaning of the word is “desire” (New Revised Standard Version) or “appetite” (Revised English Bible). Shall have its fill of them is literally “she will fill [herself with] them.” Since nefesh frequently represents the first person pronoun, the clause becomes “I will … take all I want” (Good News Translation), with some poetic loss; but this loss may be necessary in order to bring out the meaning more clearly.

I will draw my sword means to “unsheath” (Translator’s Old Testament) or “bare” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) a bladed weapon. To “unsheath” a sword means to remove the weapon from its carrying case and hold it in hand, ready for use. The sword in this case was probably a long dagger with a straight double-edged blade about 18 inches long. In cultures where swords are unknown but other kinds of knives are used, there are a variety of ways to express this; for example, “a large long knife,” “a large knife like a machete,” “a weapon called a ‘sword,’ ” and so on.

My hand shall destroy them uses a verb that means to dispossess, or to separate someone from his property. So New American Bible has “My hand shall despoil them,” and Revised English Bible has “I shall rid myself of them.” This is the basis for Good News Translation‘s “I will … take all they have,” which parallels “I will … take all I want.” However, it can also mean “to kill” (Contemporary English Version).

In certain languages it will be better style to employ indirect speech here, and it will also be possible to use the first person plural inclusive pronoun (referring to Moses and the Israelites) as the object of the various verbs. Contemporary English Version accomplishes this with the following model:

Your enemies boasted
that they would
pursue and capture us,
divide up our possessions,
treat us as they wished,
then take out their swords
and kill us right there.

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 .