Exodus Reimagined: Psalm 114 and the Restructuring of the Exodus Tradition

Abstract

This article argues that the author of Psalm 114 intends to appropriate the ancient tradition of the exodus event for its contemporary reader in an exilic or postexilic context. Instead of focusing on God’s salvific acts in the original exodus event, this psalm reimagines the tradition in the exilic or postexilic setting by creatively restructuring its narrative sequence. Although the narrative elements in this psalm are drawn from various traditions and juxtaposed paratactically in each stanza, the larger structure of the psalm follows a new temporal and logical sequence, which is different from the narrative sequence of the traditions that it alludes to. The psalm may have been intentionally composed in a manner that is dissimilar to the traditions it draws upon as a way to appropriate past events in the new context of its readers.