Didn't Old Pharaoh Get Lost

“Didn’t Old Pharaoh Get Lost” is an African American spiritual based on the story of the Parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14. In this story, Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. As they go through the desert and reach the Red Sea, the Pharaoh and his men pursue Moses and the Israelites. Once at the Red Sea, God tells Moses to raise his staff and hand and to divide the water so that the fleeing Israelites could walk across the dry land. The angel of God, who had originally been leading Moses, draws back to follow up after the Israelites and puts a barrier between them and the Pharaoh’s army.

Once in position, Moses does as God told him and uses his hand and staff to part the Red Sea. As the Pharaoh and his men attempt to chase after them, God slows the Egyptians down in order to allow Moses to get people to the other side. Eventually, God told Moses to once again stretch his hand out to cause the waters to flow back and when they did, the Pharaoh’s army was consumed by the water and left no survivors. On the other side, Moses and the Israelites were able to get to freedom and they saw that if they had faith in their God, he would protect them.

The spiritual itself recounts the entire story through a series of verses. In a 1925 collection of spirituals, verses eight and nine appear to be where Ruth Starr Rose took the most inspiration:

“Den Moses said to Israel,
As dey stood along de Shore
‘Yo’ enemies you see today,
You’ll never see no more.’

Didn’t old Pharaoh get los’, get los’, get los’
Didn’t old Pharaoh get los’ in de Red Sea

Den down came raging Pharaoh,
Dat you may plainly see,
Old Pharaoh an’ his host
Got los’ in de Red Sea”