עזי וזמרת יה Ozi V'Zim'rat Yah

This verse is from שִּׁירָת הַיָּם (shirat ha|yam), the Song of the Sea, a poem in Exodus written in a style of Hebrew much older than most of the rest of the Torah. The age of this language makes it difficult to translate in multiple ways.

At the core of the difficulty is the word זִמְרָת (zim'rat), whose only known usage is in this verse, and whose meaning was at some point lost. It appears to come from the root ז-מ-ר (z-m-r), whose main derived words are זֶמֶר (zemer), meaning "song", and זָמַר (zamar), meaning "to prune" or "to cut out". This leads to the word's two main interpretations by the Rabbinic commentators: "song" and "power" (or "might").

However, the presence of a final letter ת (Tav) in זִמְרָת (zim'rat) should not be ignored. In Hebrew, a final ת (Tav) may indicate that the word is in construct form, a way of indicating possession. Thus, with this interpretation, this word should really be translated as "song of" or "power of". The medieval commentator Ibn Ezra argues this possessive poetically refers to the previous word עׇזִּי (ozi), "my strength", making "song of my strength" or "power of my strength". A more direct interpretation would be that the possessive refers to the next word יָהּ (Yah), "God", making "song of God" or "power of God" – but this causes other problems, as discussed below.

Another difficulty is that the first line has no verb. Most often, an implicit "to be" is inserted, with יָהּ (Yah), "God", either being the subject or object – the former resulting in the most common English translation, but the latter being more likely correct due to word order. However, if זִמְרָת יָהּ (zim'rat Yah) is taken to be one phrase, "song of God" or "might of God", then there is no word left to be the implicit subject/object. One option is to simply translate this first verse poetically as having no verb. The other is to use the version of this verse from Isaiah, which renders יָהּ (Yah) as יָהּ יְיָ (Yah Adonai), and take יְיָ (Adonai) to be the subject/object.

The final difficulty I will discuss here is that the second sentence has no subject. Most likely, and in most translations, the subject is taken to be God. However, if the first line is taken to have no verb, then עׇזִּי (ozi), "my strength", of the first line could be taken as the subject of this second line.

As argued by Ibn Ezra, the translation which is mostly likely correct takes זִמְרָת (zim'rat) as "song of (my strength)" and God as the subject of the second line – though by default, this page translates זִמְרָת (zim'rat) simply as "song", for brevity. Rabbi Shefa Gold, the composer of the chant for this verse, translates זִמְרָת (zim'rat) as "song of (God)" and takes עׇזִּי (ozi), "my strength", to be the subject of the second line. This latter translation, although likely not what the verse originally meant, is compelling, especially since זִמְרָת יָהּ (zim'rat Yah) sounds so much like one phrase to modern ears. Rabbi Gold also takes catering to modern ears one step further and translates יְהִי (y'hi) as "will be", ignoring the "vav-consecutive" grammatical rule from biblical Hebrew that says a verb in future tense becomes past tense when prefixed with a letter ו (Vav).