Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 14:21
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go [back] by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry [land], and the waters were divided.
21, 22. The sea is divided; and the Israelites enter into it.
21a (P). stretched out his hand ] v. 16a.
21b (J). to go back] The Heb. is simply, to go along.
east wind ] In our ignorance of the exact topography of the place at which the crossing took place, it is difficult to be certain what precisely was the effect of the E. wind. A strictly E. wind would be directly in the face of the advancing Israelites: so probably a NE. wind is to be thought of, such as at a shallow ford might cooperate with an ebb tide in keeping a passage clear (cf. DB. i. 802 b ). See further p. 124 ff.
21c. and the waters were divided ] The immediate sequel of v. 21a in P: cf. v. 16b ‘stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it.’ In P there is no thought of any wind: the waters divide automatically at the signal given by Moses.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A strong east wind – The agency by which the object effected was natural (compare Exo 15:8 note): and the conditions of the narrative are satisfied by the hypothesis, that the passage took place near Suez.
The waters were divided – i. e. there was a complete separation between the water of the gulf and the water to the north of Kolsum.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. The Lord caused the sea to go back] That part of the sea over which the Israelites passed was, according to Mr. Bruce and other travellers, about four leagues across, and therefore might easily be crossed in one night. In the dividing of the sea two agents appear to be employed, though the effect produced can be attributed to neither. By stretching out the rod the waters were divided; by the blowing of the vehement, ardent, east wind, the bed of the sea was dried. It has been observed, that in the place where the Israelites are supposed to have passed, the water is about fourteen fathoms or twenty-eight yards deep: had the wind mentioned here been strong enough, naturally speaking, to have divided the waters, it must have blown in one narrow track, and continued blowing in the direction in which the Israelites passed; and a wind sufficient to have raised a mass of water twenty-eight yards deep and twelve miles in length, out of its bed, would necessarily have blown the whole six hundred thousand men away, and utterly destroyed them and their cattle. I therefore conclude that the east wind, which was ever remarked as a parching, burning wind, was used after the division of the waters, merely to dry the bottom, and render it passable. For an account of the hot drying winds in the east, See Clarke on Ge 8:1. God ever puts the highest honour on his instrument, Nature; and where it can act, he ever employs it. No natural agent could divide these waters, and cause them to stand as a wall upon the right hand and upon the left; therefore God did it by his own sovereign power. When the waters were thus divided, there was no need of a miracle to dry the bed of the sea and make it passable; therefore the strong desiccating east wind was brought, which soon accomplished this object. In this light I suppose the text should be understood.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A strong east wind; a proper instrument both to divide that sea, which lay north and south, and to dry and harden the mud at the bottom of the sea, that the Israelites might walk upon it. See Gen 8:13; Exo 15:8. Yet the wind could never have done so great a work, especially not so speedily, if there had not been a higher, even a Divine hand to manage and improve it.
The waters were divided, so largely, that a great number of the Israelites might march in one rank, and the whole number might go a good way in it in the time here mentioned.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. Moses stretched out his hand,c.The waving of the rod was of great importance on this occasionto give public attestation in the presence of the assembledIsraelites, both to the character of Moses and the divine missionwith which he was charged.
the Lord caused . . . astrong east wind all that nightSuppose a mere ebb tide causedby the wind, raising the water to a great height on one side,still as there was not only “dry land,” but, according tothe tenor of the sacred narrative, a wall on the right hand and onthe left [Ex 14:22], it wouldbe impossible on the hypothesis of such a natural cause to rear thewall on the other. The idea of divine interposition,therefore, is imperative and, assuming the passage to have been madeat Mount Attakah, or at the mouth of Wady Tawarik, an eastwind would cut the sea in that line. The Hebrew word kedem,however, rendered in our translation, “east,” means, in itsprimary signification, previous; so that this verse might,perhaps, be rendered, “the Lord caused the sea to go back by astrong previous wind all that night”; a rendering whichwould remove the difficulty of supposing the host of Israel marchedover on the sand, in the teeth of a rushing column of wind, strongenough to heap up the waters as a wall on each side of a dry path,and give the intelligible narrative of divine interference.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,…. With his rod in it, as he was directed to, Ex 14:16. What the poet says z of Bacchus is more true of Moses, whose rod had been lift up upon the rivers Egypt, and now upon the Red sea:
and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night; and the direction of the Red sea being nearly, if not altogether, north and south, it was in a proper situation to be wrought upon and divided by an easterly wind; though the Septuagint version renders it a strong south wind. No wind of itself, without the exertion and continuance of almighty power, in a miraculous way, could have so thrown the waves of the sea on heaps, and retained them so long, that such a vast number of people should pass through it as on dry land; though this was an instrument Jehovah made use of, and that both to divide the waters of the sea, and to dry and harden the bottom of it, and make it fit for travelling, as follows:
and made the sea dry land; or made the bottom of it dry, so that it could be trod and walked upon with ease, without sinking in, sticking fast, or slipping about, which was very extraordinary:
and the waters were divided; or “after the waters were divided” a; for they were first divided before the sea could be made dry. The Targum of Jonathan says, the waters were divided into twelve parts, answerable to the twelve tribes of Israel, and the same is observed by other Jewish writers b, grounded upon a passage in Ps 136:13 and suppose that each tribe took its particular path.
z “Tu flectis amnes, tu mare barbarum–” Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 19. a “quum diffidisset se aqua illius”, Piscator; so seems to be used in ch. xvi. 20. b Pirke Eliezer, c. 42. Targum Jon. & Hieros. in Deut. i. 1. Jarchi, Kimchi, and Arama in Psal. cxxxvi. 13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When Moses stretched out his hand with the staff (Exo 14:16) over the sea, “ Jehovah made the water go (flow away) by a strong east wind the whole night, and made the sea into dry (ground), and the water split itself ” (i.e., divided by flowing northward and southward); “ and the Israelites went in the midst of the sea (where the water had been driven away by the wind) in the dry, and the water was a wall (i.e., a protection formed by the damming up of the water) on the right and on the left.” , the east wind, which may apply either to the south-east or north-east, as the Hebrew has special terms for the four quarters only. Whether the wind blew directly from the east, or somewhat from the south-east or north-east, cannot be determined, as we do not know the exact spot where the passage was made. in any case, the division of the water in both directions could only have been effected by an east wind; and although even now the ebb is strengthened by a north-east wind, as Tischendorf says, and the flood is driven so much to the south by a strong north-west wind that the gulf can be ridden through, and even forded on foot, to the north of Suez ( v. Schub. Reise ii. p. 269), and “as a rule the rise and fall of the water in the Arabian Gulf is nowhere so dependent upon the wind as it is at Suez” ( Wellsted, Arab. ii. 41, 42), the drying of the sea as here described cannot be accounted for by an ebb strengthened by the east wind, because the water is all driven southwards in the ebb, and not sent in two opposite directions. Such a division could only be produced by a wind sent by God, and working with omnipotent force, in connection with which the natural phenomenon of the ebb may no doubt have exerted a subordinate influence.
(Note: But as the ebb at Suez leaves the shallow parts of the gulf so far dry, when a strong wind is blowing, that it is possible to cross over them, we may understand how the legend could have arisen among the Ichthyophagi of that neighbourhood ( Diod. Sic. 3, 39) and even the inhabitants of Memphis ( Euseb. praep. ev. 9, 27), that the Israelites took advantage of a strong ebb, and how modern writers like Clericus have tried to show that the passage through the sea may be so accounted for.)
The passage was effected in the night, through the whole of which the wind was blowing, and in the morning watch (between three and six o’clock, Exo 14:24) it was finished.
As to the possibility of a whole nation crossing with their flocks, Robinson concludes that this might have been accomplished within the period of an extraordinary ebb, which lasted three, or at the most four hours, and was strengthened by the influence of a miraculous wind. “As the Israelites,” he observes, “numbered more than two millions of persons, besides flocks and herds, they would of course be able to pass but slowly. If the part left dry were broad enough to enable them to cross in a body one thousand abreast, which would require a space of more than half a mile in breadth (and is perhaps the largest supposition admissible), still the column would be more than two thousand persons in depth, and in all probability could not have extended less than two miles. It would then have occupied at least an hour in passing over its own length, or in entering the sea; and deducting this from the largest time intervening, before the Egyptians also have entered the sea, there will remain only time enough, under the circumstances, for the body of the Israelites to have passed, at the most, over a space of three or four miles.” ( Researches in Palestine, vol. i. p. 84.)
But as the dividing of the water cannot be accounted for by an extraordinary ebb, even though miraculously strengthened, we have no occasion to limit the time allowed for the crossing to the ordinary period of an ebb. If God sent the wind, which divided the water and laid the bottom dry, as soon as night set in, the crossing might have begun at nine o’clock in the evening, if not before, and lasted till four of five o’clock in the morning (see Exo 14:27). By this extension of the time we gain enough for the flocks, which Robinson has left out of his calculation. The Egyptians naturally followed close upon the Israelites, from whom they were only divided by the pillar of cloud and fire; and when the rear of the Israelites had reached the opposite shore, they were in the midst of the sea. And in the morning watch Jehovah cast a look upon them in the pillar of cloud and fire, and threw their army into confusion (Exo 14:24). The breadth of the gulf at the point in question cannot be precisely determined. At the narrowest point above Suez, it is only two-thirds of a mile in breadth, or, according to Niebuhr, 3450 feet; but it was probably broader formerly, and even now is so farther up, opposite to Tell Kolzum ( Rob. i. pp. 84 and 70). The place where the Israelites crossed must have been broader, otherwise the Egyptian army, with more than six hundred chariots and many horsemen, could not have been in the sea and perished there when the water returned. – “ And Jehovah looked at the army of the Egyptians in (with) the pillar of cloud and fire, and troubled it.” This look of Jehovah is to be regarded as the appearance of fire suddenly bursting forth from the pillar of cloud that was turned towards the Egyptians, which threw the Egyptian army into alarm and confusion, and not as “a storm with thunder and lightning,” as Josephus and even Rosenmller assume, on the ground of Psa 78:18-19, though without noticing the fact that the psalmist has merely given a poetical version of the event, and intends to show “how all the powers of nature entered the service of the majestic revelation of Jehovah, when He judged Egypt and set Israel free” ( Delitzsch). The fiery look of Jehovah was a much more stupendous phenomenon than a storm; hence its effect was incomparably grander, viz., a state of confusion in which the wheels of the chariots were broken off from the axles, and the Egyptians were therefore impeded in their efforts to escape.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 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. 23 And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25 And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 26 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. 29 But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.
We have here the history of that work of wonder which is so often mentioned both in the Old and New Testament, the dividing of the Red Sea before the children of Israel. It was the terror of the Canaanites (Jos 2:9; Jos 2:10), the praise and triumph of the Israelites, Psa 114:3; Psa 106:9; Psa 136:13; Psa 136:14. It was a type of baptism, 1Co 10:1; 1Co 10:2. Israel’s passage through it was typical of the conversion of souls (Isa. xi. 15), and the Egyptians’ perdition in it was typical of the final ruin of all impenitent sinners, Rev. xx. 14. Here we have,
I. An instance of God’s almighty power in the kingdom of nature, in dividing the sea, and opening a passage through the waters. It was a bay, or gulf, or arm of the sea, two or three leagues over, which was divided, v. 21. The instituted sign made use of was Moses’s stretching out his hand over it, to signify that it was done in answer to his prayer, for the confirmation of his mission, and in favour to the people whom he led. The natural sign was a strong east wind, signifying that it was done by the power of God, whom the winds and the seas obey. If there be any passage in the book of Job which has reference to the miracles wrought for Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt, it is that in Job xxvi. 12, He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smileth through Rahab (so the word is), that is, Egypt. Note, God can bring his people through the greatest difficulties, and force a way where he does not find it. The God of nature has not tied himself to its laws, but, when he pleases, dispenses with them, and then the fire does not burn, nor the water flow.
II. An instance of his wonderful favour to his Israel. They went through the sea to the opposite shore, for I cannot suppose, with some, that they fetched a compass, and came out again on the same side, v. 22. They walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, v. 29. And the pillar of cloud, that glory of the Lord, being their rearward (Isa. lviii. 8), that the Egyptians might not charge them in the flank, the waters were a wall to them (it is twice mentioned) on their right hand and on their left. Moses and Aaron, it is probable, ventured first into this untrodden path, and then all Israel after them; and this march through the paths of the great waters would make their march afterwards, through the wilderness, less formidable. Those who had followed God through the sea needed not to fear following him whithersoever he led them. This march through the sea was in the night, and not a moon-shiny night, for it was seven days after the full moon, so that they had no light but what they had from the pillar of cloud and fire. This made it the more awful; but where God leads us he will light us; while we follow his conduct, we shall not want his comforts.
This was done, and recorded, in order to encourage God’s people in all ages to trust in him in the greatest straits. What cannot he do who did this? What will not he do for those hat fear and love him who did this for these murmuring unbelieving Israel is, who yet were beloved for their fathers’ sake, and for the sake of a remnant among them? We find the saints, long afterwards, making themselves sharers in the triumphs of this march (Ps. lxvi. 6): They went through the flood on foot; there did we rejoice in him: and see how this work of wonder is improved, Psa 77:11; Psa 77:16; Psa 77:19.
III. An instance of his just and righteous wrath upon his and his people’s enemies, the Egyptians. Observe here, 1. How they were infatuated. In the heat of their pursuit, they went after the Israelites into the midst of the sea, v. 23. “Why,” thought they, “may not we venture where Israel did?” Once or twice the magicians of Egypt had done what Moses did, with their enchantments; Pharaoh remembered this, but forgot how they were nonplussed at last. They were more advantageously provided with chariots and horses, while the Israelites were on foot. Pharaoh had said, I know not the Lord; and by this it appeared he did not, else he would not have ventured thus. None so bold as those that are blind. Rage against Israel made them thus daring and inconsiderate: they had long hardened their own hearts; and now God hardened them to their ruin, and hid from their eyes the things that belonged to their peace and safety. Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird (Prov. i. 17); yet so blind where the Egyptians that they hastened to the snare, Prov. vii. 23. Note, The ruin of sinners is brought on by their own presumption, which hurries them headlong into the pit. They are self-destroyers. 2. How they were troubled and perplexed, Exo 14:24; Exo 14:25. For some hours they marched through the divided waters as safely and triumphantly as Israel did, not doubting but, that, in a little time, they should gain their point. But, in the morning watch, the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians, and troubled them. Something or other they saw or heard from the pillar of cloud and fire which put them into great consternation, and gave them an apprehension of their ruin before it was brought upon them. Now it appeared that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and that God has ways to frighten sinners into despair, before he plunges them into destruction. He cuts off the spirit of princes, and is terrible to the kings of the earth. (1.) They had hectored and boasted as if the day were their own; but now they were troubled and dismayed, struck with a panic-fear. (2.) They had driven furiously; but now they drove heavily, and found themselves plugged and embarrassed at every step; the way grew deep, their hearts grew sad, their wheels dropped off, and the axle-trees failed. Thus can God check the violence of those that are in pursuit of his people. (3.) They had been flying upon the back of Israel, as the hawk upon the trembling dove; but now they cried, Let us flee from the face of Israel, which had become to them like a torch of fire in a sheaf, Zech. xii. 6. Israel has now, all of a sudden, become as much a terror to them as they had been to Israel. They might have let Israel alone and would not; now they would flee from the face of Israel and cannot. Men will not be convinced, till it is too late, that those who meddle with God’s people meddle to their own hurt; when the Lord shall come with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment, the mighty men will in vain seek to shelter themselves under rocks and mountains from the face of Israel and Israel’s King, Rev. vi. 15. Compare with this story, Job xxvii. 20, c. 3. How they were all drowned. As soon as ever the children of Israel had got safely to the shore, Moses was ordered to stretch out his hand over the sea, and thereby give a signal to the waters to close again, as before, upon he word of command, they had opened to the right and the left, <i>v. 29. He did so, and immediately the waters returned to their place, and overwhelmed all the host of the Egyptians, Exo 14:27; Exo 14:28. Pharaoh and his servants, who had hardened one another in sin, now fell together, and not one escaped. An ancient tradition says that Pharaoh’s magicians, Jannes and Jambres, perished with the rest, as Balaam with the Midianites whom he had seduced, Num. xxxi. 8. And now, (1.) God avenged upon the Egyptians the blood of the firstborn whom they had drowned: and the principal is repaid with interest, it is recompensed double, full-grown Egyptians for newborn Israelites; thus the Lord is righteous, and precious is his people’s blood in his sight, Ps. lxxii. 14. (2.) God reckoned with Pharaoh for all his proud and insolent conduct towards Moses his ambassador. Mocking the messengers of the Lord, and playing the fool with them, bring ruin without remedy. Now God got him honour upon Pharaoh, looking upon that proud man, and abasing him, Job. xl. 12. Come and see the desolations he made, and write it, not in water, but with an iron pen in the rock for ever. Here lies that bloody tyrant who bade defiance to his Maker, to his demands, threatenings, and judgments; a rebel to God, and a slave to his own barbarous passions; perfectly lost to humanity, virtue, and all true honour; here he lies, buried in the deep, a perpetual monument of divine justice. Here he went down to the pit, though he was the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, Ezek. xxxi. 18.
IV. Here is the notice which the Israelites took of this wonderful work which God wrought for them, and the good impressions which it made upon them for the present.
1. They saw the Egyptians dead upon the sands, v. 30. Providence so ordered it that the next tide threw up the dead bodies, (1.) For the greater disgrace of the Egyptians. Now the beasts and birds of prey were called to eat the flesh of the captains and mighty men,Rev 19:17; Rev 19:18. The Egyptians were very nice and curious in embalming and preserving the bodies of their great men, but here the utmost contempt is poured upon all the grandees of Egypt; see how they lie, heaps upon heaps, as dung upon the face of the earth. (2.) For the greater triumph of the Israelites, and to affect them the more with their deliverance; for the eye affects the heart. See Isa. lxvi. 24, They shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me. Probably they stripped the slain and, having borrowed jewels of their neighbours before, which (the Egyptians having by this hostile pursuit of them broken their faith with them) henceforward they were not under any obligation to restore, they now got arms from them, which, some think, they were not before provided with. Thus, when God broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, he gave him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness, Ps. lxxiv. 14.
2. The sight of this great work greatly affected them, and now they feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses, v. 31. Now they were ashamed of their distrusts and murmurings, and, in the good mind they were in, they would never again despair of help from Heaven, no, not in the greatest straits; they would never again quarrel with Moses, nor talk of returning to Egypt. They were now baptized unto Moses in the sea, 1 Cor. x. 2. This great work which God wrought for them by the ministry of Moses bound them effectually to follow his directions, under God. This confirmed their faith in the promises that were yet to be fulfilled; and, being brought thus triumphantly out of Egypt, they did not doubt that they should be in Canaan shortly, having such a God to trust to, and such a mediator between them and him. O that there had been such a heart in them as now there seemed to be! Sensible mercies, when they are fresh, make sensible impressions; but with many these impressions soon wear off: while they see God’s works, and feel the benefit of them, they fear him and trust in him; but they soon forget his works, and then they slight him. How well were it for us if we were always in as good a frame as we are in sometimes!
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
21. And Moses stretched out. We have already said that the passage was free and convenient for the Israelites by night, since the pillar of fire replenished their side with light: and certainly so great a multitude could not reach the opposite shore in an hour or two. The Israelites then passed over from evening even till dawn; and then the Egyptians having discovered that they were gone, hastened to follow that they might fall upon their rear. Now, though Moses uses no ornaments of language in celebrating this miracle, yet the bare recital ought to be sufficient; and, therefore, is more emphatic to awaken our admiration than any rhetorical coloring and magnificent eloquence. For who would desire sounding exclamations, in order to be ravished to the highest admiration of the divine power, when he is told simply and in a few words that the sea was divided by the rod of Moses; that space enough for the passage of the people was dry; that the mighty mass of waters stood like solid rocks on either side? Designedly, then, has he set the whole matter before our eyes bare of all verbal splendor; although it will both be celebrated soon after, in accordance with its dignity, in the Canticle, and is everywhere more splendidly magnified by the Prophets and in the Psalms. In this passage let us learn, just as if Moses were leading us to the actual circumstance, to fix our eyes on the prospect of God’s inestimable power, which cannot be sufficiently expressed by any number or force of words. But Moses is very careful not to arrogate more than enough for himself, so as to detract from the praise of God. He had been before commanded to divide the sea with his uplifted rod; he now changes the form of expression, viz., that the waters went back by the command of God. Thus, content with the character of a minister, he makes God alone, as was fit, the author of the miracle. But although it was competent for God to dispel the waters without any motion of the air, yet, that He might show that all nature was obedient to Him, and governed at His will, He was pleased to raise the strong east wind. Meanwhile it is to be remembered, that the sea could not be dried by arty wind, however strong, unless it had been effected by the secret power of the Spirit, beyond the ordinary operation of nature. On which point see my previous annotations on chap. 10:13 and 19.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind.By a strong east wind we are at liberty to understand one blowing from any point between N.. and S.E. If we imagine the Bitter Lakes joined to the Red Sea by a narrow and shallow channel, and a south-east wind blowing strongly up this channel, we can easily conceive that the water in the Bitter Lakes might be driven northward, and held there, while the natural action of the ebb tide withdrew the Red Sea water to the southward. A portion of the channel might in this way have been left dry, and have so continued until the wind changed and the tide began to flow. It is true that Scripture does not speak of the ebb and flow of the tide, since in them there was nothing unusual; but an Egyptian tradition distinctly stated that Moses waited for the ebb tide in order to lead the Israelites across. (Artipanus, ap. Euseb. Prp. Ev., 9:27.) Whether the whole effect was purely natural, or whether (as in so many other cases) Goa used the force of nature so far as it could go, and further supernaturally increased its force, we are not told, and may form what opinion we please.
The waters were divided.The waters of the Bitter Lakes were for a time separated completely from those of the Red Sea. By gradual elevation and desiccation the channel over which the Israelites passed has probably now become dry land.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21, 22. And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night Here, as in the history of the plagues, natural causes are declared to have been supernaturally used. A northeast wind, which would be called “an east wind” in Hebrew, would tend to drive the water out of the narrow bay towards the southwest, and if transpiring at the time of an ebb tide, might be strong enough to blow the channel dry. If there were shoals or flats at the place of crossing, as there now are near Suez, and deeper water to the north, as there now is, a pathway might thus be made across the Gulf, leaving deep water above and below. It will be noticed that this was soon after the full moon of the vernal equinox, when there would be a very low ebb and a very high flood, and that the tide rises from five to seven feet opposite Suez, and from eight to nine feet when aided by strong winds, returning with unusual suddenness and power after the ebb. (See Introductory remarks.) The Hebrew and heathen traditions of this wonderful deliverance all make it probable that all these natural causes were employed to answer the prayer of Moses. In Moses’ song of triumph the waters are said to have been “gathered together” by the “blast of the nostrils” of Jehovah. He also sang, “Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them,” (Exo 15:8; Exo 15:10😉 thus assigning the return as well as the division of the waters to the agency of the wind . So in many places God is said to have “dried up the waters of the Red Sea,” as if by wind . Jos 2:10; Psa 66:6; Psa 106:9. [Different minds will assign different degrees of the supernatural to the transaction . But, (1 . ) The movements of Israel by divine orders were prescribed, and to these the blowings of the wind were precisely timed, measured, and even changed from east to west . (2 . ) The two armies were long in such proximity that Israel could have easily been destroyed had not Pharaoh been deterred and blinded by the “pillar . ” (3 . ) The ordinary tidal action of the sea must have been better known to Pharaoh and his generals than to Israel . That the whole should have been so executed as to save all Israel and destroy all the Egyptians is unaccountable on merely natural assumptions . See note on Jos 10:12. ]
The waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left That is, they were a defense, not necessarily perpendicular cliffs, as they are often pictured. God could make the water stand in precipices if he should so choose, and such a conception is more impressive to the imagination; but it is certain that the language of the text may mean simply that the water was a protection on the right and on the left flanks of the hosts. Thus in Nahum, (Nah 3:8,) No (Thebes) is said to have the sea (the broad Nile) for a rampart and wall; that is, a defense, a protection against enemies. It is true that in poetical passages the waters are said to have stood “as a heap;” Exo 15:8; Psa 78:13; but so they are also, in the same style, said to have been “congealed in the heart of the sea;” and the peaks of the trembling Horeb are said to have “skipped like rams,” and the “little hills like lambs . ” Psa 114:4. Of course these expressions are not to be literally and prosaically interpreted . Yet it will be noticed that upon our view the waters were heaped up by the wind, though we do not believe that they stood in parallel precipices . But see note on Jos 3:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 14:21. Moses stretched out his hand, &c. Nothing can be more plain from the context, than that the Almighty power of the Lord, by the instrumentality of a strong east wind, caused an absolute division in the body of the waters of the Red-sea; and therefore those commentators seem much to blame, who endeavour to lessen the greatness of this miracle, by suppositions plausible to human reason, but derogatory from the Omnipotence of God, and the true meaning of the sacred Scriptures. Whatever instruments the Almighty might think fit to use; it is unquestionable that the power was derived wholly from him; and that it was by an immediate act of his will, not by any regular process of natural causes, that the sea, divided into two parts, gave a free passage to the Israelites; the waters being a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left, Exo 14:22 the pillar of cloud conducting them; and the same waters, which, obedient to the word of God, had opened to give a passage to his people, equally obedient to his command of death, overwhelming the enemies of Israel in the waves of destruction. What we render by a strong east wind, the Vulgate renders by a violent and burning wind; see note on ch. Exo 10:13. This wind blew all night; so that the division of the sea was some time in perfecting: the strong east wind put the waters in motion, and gradually effected this wonderful separation. The word which we render to go back, does not signify, strictly, to go back; it denotes local motion, going or moving, in whatever manner; and so you may observe, that back, in our version, is printed in Italics. The Psalmist, in Psa 136:13 says expressly that the Red-sea was divided into two parts; which some of the Jews, very absurdly, have imagined to signify twelve several parts for their twelve several tribes to pass through. The original says, that he divided the Red-sea into divisions; which most obviously and clearly expresses a division into two parts.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Exo 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go [back] by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry [land], and the waters were divided.
Ver. 21. And Moses stretched out his hand. ] Of that pseudo-Moses that cozened many credulous Jews of Crete into the midst of the sea, anno 434, see Funceius’s Chron. at that year.
And the waters were divided.
a De Mundo, cap. 6.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wind. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the Egyptians Destroyed in the Sea
Exo 14:21-31
As the front ranks of Israel approached the surf, the billows parted. The very waves they dreaded became a wall. By faith Israel passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. They went through the flood on foot. So shalt thou, oh frightened child of God! Behind thee, the terror of the foe; before thee, the horror of the unknown. But God is with thee. The sheen of the Presence-Cloud shines upon and before thee. Be of good cheer, though thou passest through the waters, thou shalt not be overwhelmed. See Psa 66:6; Psa 78:13; Isa 43:2.
The Egyptians owed their safety at first to the presence of Israel; but it was only for a time. The ungodly owe more to the presence of Gods children than they realize. See Gen 19:22. On which side of Gods cloud are you? In Christ we may stand without fear before the searchlight of God! Compare Exo 14:24 with Heb 4:13 and Rev 6:16.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
stretched: Exo 14:16
the Lord: Exo 15:8, Jos 3:13-16, Jos 4:23, Neh 9:11, Job 26:12, Psa 66:6, Psa 74:13, Psa 78:13, Psa 106:7-10, Psa 114:3-5, Psa 136:13, Isa 51:10, Isa 51:15, Isa 63:12
Reciprocal: Gen 8:1 – a wind Exo 7:19 – stretch Exo 10:13 – east wind Exo 14:27 – and the sea Exo 15:10 – blow Num 33:8 – departed Jos 2:10 – For we 2Sa 22:16 – the channels 2Ki 2:8 – were Psa 77:16 – General Psa 106:9 – He rebuked Psa 148:8 – stormy Isa 10:24 – after the manner Isa 11:15 – with his mighty Isa 43:16 – maketh Isa 50:2 – I dry Jer 31:35 – which divideth Jer 51:16 – bringeth Jon 1:4 – the Lord Hab 3:8 – the Lord Zec 10:11 – smite Act 7:36 – in the Red Act 27:14 – not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 14:21-22. And Moses stretched out his hand, &c. We have here the history of that work of wonder which is so often mentioned both in the Old and New Testaments. An instance of Gods almighty power in dividing the sea, and opening a passage through the waters. It was a bay, or gulf, or arm of the sea, two or three leagues over. The God of nature has not tied himself to its laws, but when he pleases dispenseth with them, and then the fire doth not burn, nor the water flow. They went through the sea to the opposite shore; they walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the pillar of cloud being their rearward, the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left Moses and Aaron, it is likely, ventured first into this untrodden path, and then all Israel after them; and this march through the paths of the great waters would make their march afterward through the wilderness less formidable. This march through the sea was in the night, and not a moonshine night, for it was seven days after the full moon, so that they had no light but what they had from the pillar of fire. This made it the more awful; but where God leads us, he will light us; while we follow his conduct we shall not want his comforts.