The song ties together the
Biblical story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the hope of
Rastafarians to be led to freedom. After an
assassination attempt in Jamaica in 1976, Marley fled to London where he recorded the song and album of the same name. He had conceived "Exodus" as the album title before even writing the song. The song has a revolutionary theme punctuated by its chorus of "Exodus, movement of
Jah people."
UDiscoverMusic wrote that the song was "a rippling, surging, seven-minute call to arms for a nation of displaced souls on the march to a new spiritual homeland. 'We know where we're going/We know where we're from/We're leaving Babylon,' Marley sang against a cyclical riff that was turned, like clay on a potter's wheel, to perfection." In a retrospective review of the album, Patricia Maschino of
Billboard wrote that the title track was a "scorching mash-up of funk, reggae and disco, punctuated by blasts of regal horns." ==Charts==