Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 14:22
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry [ground]: and the waters [were] a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
22. and the waters were a wall, &c.] ‘A very summary poetical and hyperbolical (Exo 15:8) description of the occurrence, which can at most be pictured as the drying up of a shallow ford, on both sides of which the basin of the sea was much deeper, and remained filled with water’ (Di.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Were a wall unto them – Compare Nah 3:8. The waters served the purpose of an intrenchment and wall; the people could not be attacked on either flank during the transit; to the north was the water covering the whole district; to the south was the Red Sea.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. And the waters were a wall unto them on their right and on their left.] This verse demonstrates that the passage was miraculous. Some have supposed that the Israelites had passed through, favoured by an extraordinary ebb, which happened at that time to be produced by a strong wind, which happened just then to blow! Had this been the case, there could not have been waters standing on the right hand and on the left; much less could those waters, contrary to every law of fluids, have stood as a wall on either side while the Israelites passed through, and then happen to become obedient to the laws of gravitation when the Egyptians entered in! An infidel may deny the revelation in toto, and from such we expect nothing better; but to hear those who profess to believe this to be a Divine revelation endeavouring to prove that the passage of the Red Sea had nothing miraculous in it, is really intolerable. Such a mode of interpretation requires a miracle to make itself credible. Poor infidelity! how miserable and despicable are thy shifts!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This was about midnight, as may be gathered from Exo 14:24.
The waters were a wall, both for height, and for their defence.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. the children of Israel went intothe midst of the sea, c.It is highly probable that Moses,along with Aaron, first planted his footsteps on the untrodden sand,encouraging the people to follow him without fear of the treacherouswalls and when we take into account the multitudes that followed him,the immense number who through infancy and old age were incapable ofhastening their movements, together with all the appurtenances of thecamp, the strong and steadfast character of the leaders’ faith wasstrikingly manifested (Jos 2:10;Jos 4:23; Psa 66:6;Psa 74:13; Psa 106:9;Psa 136:13; Isa 63:11-13;1Co 10:1; Heb 11:29).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground,…. Some Jewish writers say c, that the tribe of Judah went in first, and then the other tribes followed; but it is most likely, what Josephus says d, that Moses first entered in, and then the Israelites, encouraged by his example, went in after him; and a very adventurous action it was, and nothing but strong faith in the almighty power and promise of God could have engaged them in it, to which the apostle ascribes it, Heb 11:29. It is the opinion of Aben Ezra, and some other Jewish writers, that the Israelites did not pass through the Red sea to the opposite shore, only went some way into it, and took a compass in a semicircle, and came out on the same shore again, and which has been espoused by some Christian writers; and chiefly because they were in the wilderness of Etham before, and from whence they went into it, and when they came out of it, it was still the wilderness of Etham they came into, and went three days’ journey into it seeking water; see Ex 13:20. Though it is possible the wilderness on the opposite shore might bear the same name, because of its likeness to it; and if it was the same wilderness that went round the Arabic gulf, or Red sea, and reached on to the other side of it, and so the wilderness of Etham lay on both sides, the difficulty is removed; for it seems most agreeable to the expressions of Scripture, that the Israelites passed through it from shore to shore. Others, in order to lessen the miracle, would have it that Moses, well knowing the country, and observing the tide, took the advantage of low water, and led the Israelites through it; and this story is told by the Egyptian priests of Memphis, as Artapanus e relates; but were the Egyptians less knowing of their country, and of the tide of the Red sea? and could Moses be sure of the exact time when they would come up to him, and the tide would serve him? Besides, the Egyptian priests at Heliopolis own the miracle, and relate it much as Moses has done; which must proceed from a conviction of the truth of it. And the above historian reports that the king (of Egypt) with a great army, and consecrated animals, pursued the Jews because of the substance they had borrowed of the Egyptians, which they took with them; but Moses being bid by a divine voice (or the voice of God, of Jehovah) to smite the sea with a rod, and hearkening to it, he touched the water with the rod, and so it divided, and his forces passed through a dry path, and the Egyptians attempting the same and pursuing, fire or lightning flashed out against them; and the sea shutting up the path again, partly by fire, and partly by the flow of the water, they all perished: and that this affair was miraculous, and could not be owing to any advantage taken from the tide, the following things have been observed; it is owned that the Red sea ebbs and flows like other seas that have a communication with the ocean, that is, the waters rise towards the shore during six hours, and having continued about a quarter of an hour at high water, ebb down again during another six hours; and it is observed by those who have examined it, that the greatest distance it falls from the place of high water is about three hundred yards; and that during the time of low water, one may safely travel it, as some have actually done; so that those three hundred paces, which the sea leaves uncovered during the time of low water, can continue so but for the space of half an hour at most; for during the first six hours, the sea retires only by degrees, and in less than half an hour it begins again to flow towards the shore. The most therefore that can be allowed, both of time and space of passable ground, in a moderate computation, is about two hundred paces, during six hours, or one hundred and fifty paces, during eight hours. Now it is further observed, that it is plain that a multitude consisting of upwards of two millions and a half of men, women, children, and slaves, encumbered besides with great quantities of cattle, household stuff, and the spoils of the Egyptians, could never perform such a march within so short a time; we may say within even double that space, though we should allow them also double the breadth of ground to do it on. This argument, it is added, will hold good against those who suppose they only coasted along some part of the sea, and those who maintain that they crossed the small arm or point of it which is toward the further end, near the isthmus of Suez; seeing that six or eight hours could not have sufficed for the passage of so immense a multitude, allow them what breadth of room you will; much less for Pharaoh to have entered it with his whole host f: and for the confirmation of the Mosaic account of this affair, and as miraculous, may be observed the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, who reports g that it is a tradition among the Ichthyophagi, who inhabit near the Red sea, or Arabic gulf, which they have received from the report of their ancestors, and is still preserved with them, that upon a great recess of the sea, every place of the gulf became dry, the sea falling to the opposite parts, the bottom appeared green, and returning back with a mighty force, was restored to its place again; which can have reference to nothing else but to this transaction in the time of Moses. And Strabo h relates a very wonderful thing, and such as rarely happens, that on the shore between Tyre and Ptolemais, when they of Ptolemais had a battle with the Emperor Sarpedon at that place, and there being put to flight, a flow of the sea like an inundation covered those that fled, and some were carried into the sea and perished, and others were left dead in hollow places; after a reflux followed, and discovered and showed the bodies of those that lay among the dead fishes. Now learned men have observed i, that what is here said of the sea of Tyre is to be understood of the Red sea, and that Sarpedon is not a proper name, but the same with , “Sarphadon”, the prince of deliverance, or of the delivered, as Moses was:
and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left; some of the Jewish Rabbins from Ex 15:8 have supposed that the waters were frozen as they were drove back by the east wind, and so stood up firm while the Israelites passed through, and then another wind thawed them, which brought them upon the Egyptians; but no doubt this was done by the wonderful interposition of divine power, and perhaps the ministry of angels was made use of, to detain and continue them in this position, until the end was answered. Adrichomius says k, the breadth of the sea was six miles at the passage of the Israelites; but a late traveller l tells us, that the channel between Sdur (or Shur, on the opposite side) and Gibbel Gewoubee, and Attackah (which he supposes was the place of their passage), was nine or ten miles over. Thevenot says m, that during the space of five days he kept along the coast of the Red sea, in going to Mount Sinai, he could not observe it to be anywhere above eight or nine miles over. A later traveller n tells us, that from the fountains of Moses may be plainly seen a wonderful aperture (Pihahiroth; see Ex 14:2) in the mountains on the other side of the Red sea, through and from which the children of Israel entered into it, when Pharaoh and his host were drowned; which aperture is situated west-southwest from these fountains of Moses, and the breadth of the sea hereabouts, where the children of Israel passed it, is about four or five hours’ journey. The Arabic geographer o calls the place Jethren, where Pharaoh and his host were drowned; and represents it as a dangerous place to sail in, and where many ships are lost, and that this rough place is about the space of six miles. A countryman p of ours, who had been in these parts, guesses that the breadth of the place (called by the Mahometans, Kilt el Pharown, the well or pit of Pharaoh) where the Israelites are said to pass through is about six or seven leagues; the difference between these writers may be accounted for by the different places where they suppose this passage was.
c Pirke Elizer, c. 42. d Antiqu. l. 2. c. 16. sect. 2. e Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 436. f Universal History, vol. 3. p. 392, 393. marg. g Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 174. h Geograph. l. 16. p. 521, 522. i Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 1. p. 167. k Theatrum Terrae, p. 123, 124. l Dr. Shaw’s Travels, p. 314. Edit. 2. m Travels into the Levant, B. 2. ch. 33. p. 175. n A Journal from Grand Cairo, &c. in 1722. p. 13. Edit. 2. o Climat. 3. par. 3. p Pitts’s Account of the Mahometans, p. 77.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(22) The waters were a wall unto them.Any protection is in Scripture called a wall, or a rampart (1Sa. 25:16; Pro. 18:11; Isa. 26:1; Jer. 1:18; Nah. 3:8). In the present case, the waters protected Israel on either flankthe Red Sea upon the right, the Bitter Lakes upon the left. Poetical writers, as was natural, used language still more highly metaphorical (Psa. 78:13; Exo. 15:8), and spoke of the waters as standing on an heap. Hence, some moderns have gone so far as to maintain that on this occasion the water gave up its nature, formed with its waves a strong wall, and instead of streaming like a fluid, congealed into a hard substance (Kalisch). But this is to turn poetry into prose, and enslave oneself to a narrow literalism.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 14:22. The waters were a wallon their right hand, and on their left A lively tradition of this passage of the Israelites through the Red-sea, has been preserved in many writers: and Diodorus, the master of St. Chrysostom, has amply refuted all those objections against the real passage of the Israelites, which we have but barely hinted at; thinking an attention to the text, and a true exposition of it, the best and most satisfactory confutation.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Exo 14:22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry [ground]: and the waters [were] a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
Ver. 22. Were a wall unto them. ] Every main affliction is our Red Sea, saith one, which, while it threats to swallow, preserves us.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the children: Exo 14:29, Exo 15:19, Num 33:8, Psa 66:6, Psa 78:13, Isa 63:13, 1Co 10:1, Heb 11:29
and the waters: This verse demonstrates that this event was wholly miraculous, and cannot be ascribed, as some have supposed, to an extraordinary ebb, which happened just then to be produced by a strong east wind: for this would not have caused the waters, contrary to every law of fluids, to stand as a wall on the right hand and the left.
a wall: Exo 15:8, Hab 3:8-10, Zec 2:5
Reciprocal: Exo 14:16 – and the Exo 14:27 – and the sea Jos 3:17 – all the Israelites 1Sa 25:16 – a wall 2Ki 2:8 – were Neh 9:11 – divide Job 36:30 – and Psa 68:22 – the depths Psa 106:9 – He rebuked Psa 136:13 – General Psa 136:14 – pass through Isa 51:10 – dried Jer 31:35 – which divideth Hab 3:10 – the overflowing Zec 10:11 – smite Mar 4:39 – he arose 2Co 6:7 – on the right