Exodus 15:8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

With the blast of thy nostrils Or, of thine anger, as the Hebrew word is often rendered. He means that vehement east wind, (Exodus 15:10, and Exodus 14:21,) which was raised by God's anger in order to the ruin of his enemies. The floods Hebrew, the streams, or the flowing waters, whose nature it is to be constantly in motion; stood upright as a heap This is wonderfully beautiful and majestic, as indeed the whole song is. The inspired writer ennobles the wind by making God himself the principle of it; and animates the waters by making them susceptible of fear. The frighted waters withdrew with impetuosity from their wonted bed, and crowded suddenly one upon another. The depths were congealed Hardened, stood still as if they had been frozen in the heart, the midst, of the sea. So that here the imagination figures to itself mountains of solid waters in the very centre of the liquid element.