Midnight Praises
Morning Praises
The First Hoos
The Song of Moses from Exodus 15, sung after the crossing of the Red Sea. This canticle celebrates God's deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh and is the first of the four canticles (Hoos) of the Midnight Praises.
Amen Alleluia, Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison.
The hymn opens with three languages woven together - Hebrew ("Amen," "Alleluia"), Greek ("Kyrie eleison" - Lord have mercy), reflecting the universal nature of the Church's worship. The triple "Kyrie eleison" mirrors the Trinitarian structure found throughout Coptic prayer.
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke saying, "Let us sing to the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously."
From Exodus 15:1. This is the introduction to the Song of Moses - the first recorded hymn in Scripture. After crossing the Red Sea, the entire nation burst into spontaneous worship. The Coptic Church sees this as the prototype of all liturgical praise - deliverance always leads to worship.
The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea, the Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.
From Exodus 15:1-2. The most powerful military force of the ancient world - Egyptian chariots - was rendered powerless before God. "He has become my salvation" is deeply personal - not just a rescuer but salvation itself. In Coptic understanding, this foreshadows Christ's defeat of death and Satan at the Cross.
He is my God and I will glorify Him, my father's God and I will exalt Him.
From Exodus 15:2. Faith is both personal ("my God") and inherited ("my father's God"). The Coptic tradition places great value on the faith passed down through generations - from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob, from the apostles through the Church Fathers to us. We glorify the same God our fathers worshipped.
The Lord is a Man of war, the Lord is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has cast into the sea.
From Exodus 15:3-4. God fights on behalf of His people. In Coptic theology, this is not about physical violence but about God's authority over all powers that enslave and oppress. Pharaoh represents Satan, and the sea represents baptism through which we are delivered from spiritual bondage.
His chosen captains also drowned, in the Red Sea.
From Exodus 15:4. Even the elite commanders of the enemy were powerless. No rank or strength can stand against God. The Church Fathers saw this as a type of how demons - however powerful - are defeated through baptism and the power of Christ.
The depths have covered them, they sank to the bottom like a stone.
From Exodus 15:5. The imagery of sinking like a stone conveys the totality of the enemy's defeat. In the baptismal typology, our sins sink to the depths and are buried - they cannot resurface. What God drowns stays drowned.
Your right hand O Lord, has become glorious in power. Your right hand O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.
From Exodus 15:6. The "right hand" of God is a recurring biblical image of divine action and power. In Coptic iconography, Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. The repetition of "Your right hand" emphasizes that it is God alone - not human effort - who achieves victory.
And in the greatness of Your excellence, You have overthrown those who rose against You. You sent forth Your wrath, it consumed them like stubble.
From Exodus 15:7. Those who rise against God are consumed like dry straw - effortlessly. This is not cruelty but the natural consequence of opposing the Almighty. The image of stubble burning also appears in the New Testament as a picture of judgment (Matthew 3:12).
And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the flood stood upright like a heap, and the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
From Exodus 15:8. Vivid poetic language describing how God controlled the waters - His breath alone parted the sea. The same God who breathed life into Adam (Genesis 2:7) breathed the waters apart. In Coptic liturgical prayer, we regularly invoke the creative breath of God the Holy Spirit.
The enemy said, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall be satisfied on them, I will draw my sword, and my hand shall destroy them."
From Exodus 15:9. The enemy's boasting is recorded to show its foolishness. Six "I will" statements reveal Pharaoh's arrogance - reminiscent of Satan's five "I will" declarations in Isaiah 14:13-14. The proud enumerate their plans while God has already determined their end.
You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
From Exodus 15:10. God's response to the enemy's six boasts is a single action - He blew. One breath from God undoes all the enemy's plans. The contrast between Pharaoh's lengthy boasting and God's effortless response reveals the absurdity of opposing the Creator.
Who is like You O Lord, among the gods. Who is like You, glorified in his saints, amazing in glory, performing wonders.
From Exodus 15:11. This rhetorical question demands the answer: no one. "Glorified in His saints" means God's glory is made visible through His holy ones - the saints reflect His character. The Coptic Church venerates the saints precisely because they make God's glory tangible and visible to us.
You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You in Your mercy, have led forth the people whom You have redeemed. You have guided them in Your strength, to Your holy habitation.
From Exodus 15:12-13. Two actions side by side: judgment for the enemy, mercy for His people. God's redemption is not passive - He actively leads and guides. "Holy habitation" points ultimately to heaven, the true promised land that all earthly dwellings merely foreshadow.
The people will hear and be afraid, sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Palestine.
From Exodus 15:14. News of God's deliverance spreads fear among the nations. When God acts powerfully through His Church, the world takes notice. The Coptic martyrs' courage in the face of death caused many persecutors to convert - the same pattern of God's power producing holy fear.
Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed, the mighty men of Moab trembling, will take hold of them.
From Exodus 15:15. Even the powerful and mighty tremble before God's acts. Edom and Moab - nations descended from Esau and Lot - represent those who were close to God's people but chose a different path. Their dismay shows that proximity to truth without embracing it leads to fear rather than faith.
All the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away, fear and dread will fall on them.
From Exodus 15:15-16. The promised land's inhabitants melt away before God's people even arrive. God prepares the way before us. In our spiritual lives, God goes ahead of us into every battle, every challenge, every new territory He calls us to enter.
By the greatness of Your arm, they will be as still as a stone, till Your people pass over O Lord, till Your people pass over, whom You have purchased.
From Exodus 15:16. "Whom You have purchased" - Israel was bought with the blood of the Passover lamb. We are purchased with the blood of Christ, the true Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 6:20). The repetition of "pass over" connects the Red Sea crossing to the Passover and ultimately to our passage from death to life in Christ.
You will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place O Lord, which You have made for Your own dwelling.
From Exodus 15:17. God does not merely rescue - He plants. The image of planting speaks of permanence, rootedness, and growth. "The mountain of Your inheritance" prophetically points to Mount Zion, the Temple, and ultimately to the heavenly Jerusalem where God dwells with His people forever.
Your sanctuary O Lord, which Your hands have established, the Lord shall reign forever and ever.
From Exodus 15:17-18. The song climaxes with the eternal reign of God. "Which Your hands have established" - God's sanctuary is not man-made but divinely established. The Coptic Church understands itself as this sanctuary, established by Christ and sustained by the Holy Spirit across the centuries.
For the horses of Pharaoh, went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea.
From Exodus 15:19. A return to the historical narrative, grounding the poetry in real events. The Coptic tradition insists on the historicity of God's mighty acts - these are not myths or metaphors but real interventions by a living God in human history.
And the Lord brought back the waters of the sea on them, but the children of Israel went on dry land, in the midst of the sea.
From Exodus 15:19. The same water that destroyed the enemy provided a path for God's people. The same cross that defeated Satan is our means of salvation. The same baptismal waters that drown the old self give birth to the new. God uses the same events for opposite purposes depending on which side you stand.
Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and with praises.
From Exodus 15:20. Miriam is called a prophetess - one of the earliest women given this title in Scripture. She leads the women in worship with musical instruments and dance. The Coptic Church honors women's vital role in worship and witness, following this ancient pattern. Praise is a whole-body, whole-community act.
And Miriam answered them saying, "Let us sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously".
From Exodus 15:21. Miriam echoes Moses' opening words, creating a call-and-response pattern that is the foundation of Coptic liturgical worship. The deacon and congregation echo each other, the priest and people respond to one another - all following this ancient pattern established at the Red Sea.
The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea. "Let us sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously."
The hymn ends where it began - with God's triumph. This circular structure reflects the Coptic understanding that worship has no true beginning or end. We join an eternal song that began before creation and will continue forever. Every time we sing the First Hoos, we stand with Moses and Miriam at the shore of the Red Sea, marveling at what God has done.
Reflection
The First Canticle (Hoos) of the Midnight Praises, comprising the Song of Moses and the children of Israel from Exodus 15:1-21. It is the first recorded hymn in Scripture, sung immediately after the crossing of the Red Sea, and serves as the foundational canticle of the Tasbeha.
Biblical Origin
Taken directly from Exodus 15:1-21 (Septuagint), the triumphal song Moses and Israel sang on the eastern shore of the Red Sea after God drowned Pharaoh's army. This is the oldest liturgical hymn in the biblical canon, and the Septuagint text used by the Coptic Church preserves the Greek rendering chanted in Alexandrian worship since the earliest centuries.
Theological Meaning
- The Red Sea crossing is the preeminent Old Testament type of baptism. St. Paul explicitly identifies it in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 - Israel was 'baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.' The Coptic baptismal rite draws on this typology: as Israel passed through water from slavery to freedom, the catechumen passes through the baptismal font from bondage to sin into the liberty of Christ.
- Pharaoh represents the devil, and his drowning prefigures Satan's defeat at the Cross. St. Cyril of Alexandria, 24th Pope of Alexandria, taught that just as Pharaoh pursued Israel into the sea and was destroyed by the very waters that saved God's people, so the devil pursued humanity but was destroyed by the Cross - the same instrument intended for death became the means of salvation.
- The hymn establishes the biblical pattern that deliverance demands doxology. Salvation that does not overflow into praise is incomplete. Miriam's response with timbrels (Exodus 15:20-21) demonstrates that worship is not passive reflection but active, embodied celebration - the prototype of the Coptic liturgical tradition of cymbals, chanting, and communal response.
Liturgical Significance
Placed first among the four canticles, the First Hoos anchors the entire Tasbeha in the Exodus narrative - the defining act of God's salvation in the Old Testament. By singing it at night, the Church relives the night of deliverance (Exodus 12:42) and confesses that the God who parted the sea continues to deliver His people. The call-and-response structure between Moses and Miriam is the biblical origin of the deacon-congregation antiphonal chanting that defines Coptic worship.
Spiritual Application
This canticle trains the believer to respond to every act of God's deliverance - from sin, from despair, from spiritual attack - with immediate and wholehearted praise. It roots personal faith in the historical acts of God, reminding the faithful that the same power that split the Red Sea operates in their baptism and daily spiritual warfare.
The Song of Moses proclaims God's total victory over the powers that enslave His people, establishing the Exodus as the foundational type of baptismal deliverance and the pattern of praise that defines all Coptic worship.