Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 15:12
Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
12. The poet, before proceeding to the main theme of the paragraph ( v. 13 ff.), reverts for a moment to the thought of Jehovah’s destruction of the foe.
The earth swallowed them ] In the Heb., the imperfect, attached , expresses vividly how the result followed at once the stretching out of Jehovah’s hand. Exactly so v. 14 ‘the peoples heard, they trembled ’; Psa 77:16 ‘the waters saw thee, they were in pangs.’ The ‘earth’ must here be understood as inclusive of the sea. ‘Swallowed,’ i.e. engulphed: cf. Num 16:32, Psa 106:17 (of Dathan and Abiram).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 12. The earth swallowed them.] It is very likely there was also an earthquake on this occasion, and that chasms were made in the bottom of the sea, by which many of them were swallowed up, though multitudes were overwhelmed by the waters, whose dead bodies were afterward thrown ashore. The psalmist strongly intimates that there was an earthquake on this occasion: The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the world; the EARTH TREMBLED and SHOOK; Ps 77:18.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either,
1. The globe, consisting of earth and water, which is here called earth; as it is called the deep, and the water s, Gen 1:2. Or,
2. The earth is here put for the sea, the other part of the same globe; as the soul is put for the body, or the dead carcass, the other part of the man, Lev 19:28; 21:1; Num 6:6,9,11. Or,
3. The earth properly, either because many of them sunk into the mud at the bottom of the sea, and were buried in it; or because, after they were cast up upon the shore, they were buried by the Israelites in the earth.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thou stretchedst out thy right hand,…. That is, exerted his power, and gave a display and proof of it; of which the right hand is an emblem:
the earth swallowed them; meaning Pharaoh and his host; for though they were drowned in the sea, that being a part of the terraqueous globe, they may be said to be swallowed in the earth; as Jonah, when in the depth of the sea, the earth and its bars are said to be about him, Jon 2:6 and besides, many of Pharaoh’s army might be swallowed up in the mud at the bottom of the sea: nor is it improbable that those that were cast upon the banks and sand, whom the Israelites stripped, might be afterwards swallowed up therein.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(12) The earth swallowed them.The sea, which actually swallowed them, was a part of the earth. Literalism might argue that the statement contravened former ones (Exo. 15:4-5; Exo. 15:10); but the fact is otherwise. If we only allow our common sense fair play, and permit sacred writers the same latitude as profane ones, we shall find wonderfully few discrepancies, or even difficulties, in the Biblical narrative.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 15:12. The earth swallowed them That is, says Ainsworth, the bottom of the sea, the abyss which the sea covers; as in Jon 2:6. aretz, rendered earth, sometimes signifies, the lowest part of the earth: pars infima cujuscunque rei, the lowest part of any thing, says Calasio: the lowest part of the earth devoured them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Reader! observe, if God be at enmity with sinners, all creation is at variance with them also. Read that scripture, Deu 28:23 , etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 15:12 Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
Ver. 12. The earth swallowed them, ] That is, the sea, which compasseth the earth about as a girdle: God having set the solid earth upon the liquid waters. See Jon 2:6 Psa 24:2 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
stretchedst: Exo 15:6
Reciprocal: Psa 136:15 – for his mercy Zep 1:4 – stretch Luk 1:51 – showed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 15:12. The earth swallowed them up Their dead bodies sunk into the sands, on which they were thrown, which sucked them in.