Thou didst divide the sea, &c. “The first part of this verse alludes to that marvellous act of omnipotence which divided the Red sea for Israel to pass over; the second part to the return of its waves upon the heads of the Egyptians, who, like so many sea-monsters, opening their mouths to devour the people of God, were overwhelmed, and perished in the mighty waters.” Horne. Thou brakest the heads of the dragons The crocodiles, meaning Pharaoh's mighty men, who were like these beasts in strength and cruelty. Thou brakest the heads That is, the head of Pharaoh himself. He says heads, because of the several princes who were and acted under his influence. Dr. Waterland renders the first word, which we translate dragons, crocodiles, and the latter, the crocodile, meaning Pharaoh. And gavest him, &c., to the people inhabiting the wilderness Hebrew, לעם לציים, legnam letziim, populo desertorum, locorum, (Buxtorf,) to the people of desert places. The Seventy render it, λαοις
τοις Αιθιοψι, to the Ethiopian people. Poole, Horne, and some other commentators, suppose that ravenous birds and beasts of the desert, and not men, are here intended; and that the sense of the clause is, that the bodies of Pharaoh and his captains were thrown on shore by the sea, and so became food for the wild beasts of the neighbouring deserts. We find the same word ציים, used for wild beasts haunting the deserts, Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:14.