A Road Through the Sea and an End to Pursuit

The plain formula opens a new section, and it matters that the instruction to turn comes from God before any threat appears. The route that looks foolish in verse 3 is chosen before Pharaoh has moved a single chariot.

“Turn” means turn back, shuv, the verb for going in reverse. Israel doubles back from the edge of the wilderness toward Egypt. Pi-hahiroth may mean “mouth of the canals”. Migdol is a Semitic word for a watchtower, and Baal-zephon, “lord of the north”, names a Canaanite storm god with a shrine on the coast.

“Entangled” is nevukhim, confused, wandering in bewilderment; the same verb is used in Joel 1:18 of cattle perplexed for lack of pasture. God puts words into Pharaoh’s mouth before he says them, predicting how the king will read the map.

“I will be honoured” is ikkavedah, from kaved, the same root as the “heavy” heart of the plagues. Pharaoh made his heart heavy, and God will now gain weight, glory, through him. “And they did so” is two words in Hebrew: Israel turns back toward danger on command.

“Fled” is the view of the report, not the fact; Israel had been sent away. Pharaoh and his servants both change their minds, the same pair who were hardened together in 9:34. “From serving us” is the word avad again, the whole dispute in one verb.

“Made ready his chariot” is literally “bound his chariot”, harnessed it. The king rides out in person. Egyptian reliefs of the New Kingdom regularly show the pharaoh in his own chariot at the head of his army.

“Chosen” means picked, elite. “Captains” is shalishim, from the word for three, often explained as the third man in a chariot, or an officer of the first rank. Egyptian chariots carried two men, a driver and an archer, so the title more likely names a rank.

“With an high hand” is beyad ramah, openly and defiantly, like a raised fist. The same phrase in Numbers 15:30 describes sinning presumptuously. Israel leaves Egypt boldly, not creeping out, which is precisely what enrages Pharaoh.

The list of forces grows longer: horses, chariots, horsemen, army. “Horsemen” may mean chariot riders rather than cavalry, since mounted cavalry was rare in Egypt in this period. The place names of verse 2 are repeated so that the reader knows the encampment exactly.

“Lifted up their eyes, and, behold” is a phrase that usually introduces a sight of hope, as when Abraham saw the ram (Genesis 22:13). Here it reveals an army. “Sore afraid” is me’od, very; the fear is extreme. Their first reaction is right: they cry to the LORD.

The sarcasm is bitter because Egypt was famous for its tombs: the land of the pyramids and the great necropolises had graves to spare. The question uses a double negative in Hebrew, “Is it from there being no graves in Egypt?”

No such conversation was recorded in Egypt, though 5:21 comes close. Memory reshapes the past. The word “serve” is used twice, and “die in the wilderness” is the first appearance of a complaint that becomes a refrain through Numbers.

“Salvation” is yeshu’ah, the first time the noun is used of Israel’s deliverance in Exodus. The Egyptians “whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever” uses the verb “see” three times: seen, see, see no more.

Five Hebrew words, and the second half is the sharpest: “and ye shall be silent”, tacharishun. Moses tells them to stop talking. The LORD as warrior appears here first and is sung in 15:3, “The LORD is a man of war”.

“Wherefore criest thou unto me?” is surprising, since Moses has not been recorded crying out. His cry may be the people’s cry of verse 10, which he carries, or an unrecorded prayer. The answer is not a comfort but an order: forward.

“Divide” is baqa, to split or cleave, the word used for splitting wood (Genesis 22:3) or for water breaking from the rock (Psalm 78:15). “Dry ground” is yabbashah, the dry land of Genesis 1:9, when the waters were first gathered and dry ground appeared.

“I, behold, I” is emphatic in Hebrew, God pointing to himself. The hardening now reaches all the Egyptians, not only Pharaoh, which makes the army willing to follow into the seabed.

This is the last time the book says “the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD”. The phrase has run since 7:5. The knowledge comes at the end of the contest, through defeat.

“The angel of God” moves from front to back, and the pillar with it. The two moves are listed in parallel, suggesting that the angel and the pillar are two ways of describing one presence. It is the first time the angel is mentioned since the bush in 3:2.

The Hebrew is difficult: “it was the cloud and the darkness, and it lit the night”. The King James adds “to them” and “to these” to make it clear. The one cloud gives darkness to Egypt and light to Israel at the same time.

Three things happen: the sea goes back, the seabed becomes dry land, and the waters are divided. “Dry land” is charavah, parched ground. The east wind blows all night; the crossing takes hours, not a moment.

“Wall” is chomah, the word for a city wall. The image is of Israel walking between fortified defences of water. Psalm 78:13 says the LORD “made the waters to stand as an heap”, and Hebrews 11:29 lists the crossing as an act of faith.

The Egyptians enter the sea in the order of their list, horses, chariots, horsemen, all of them. The trap Pharaoh thought had closed on Israel in verse 3 has now closed on his own army.

“The morning watch” is the last of three night watches, roughly 2 to 6 a.m. “Looked unto” is shaqaf, to look down from above, as the visitors looked down toward Sodom in Genesis 18:16. “Troubled” is hamam, to throw into panic, the verb of divine confusion in holy war (Joshua 10:10).

“Took off” may be a variant reading; the Samaritan text and the Greek have “bound” or “clogged”, which fits wheels sinking into mud. “Drave them heavily” is kaved once more: the chariots are now as heavy as Pharaoh’s heart. The Egyptians confess what the plagues set out to teach.

The same gesture that opened the sea now closes it. “Come again” is shuv, return, the verb of verse 2, where Israel turned back. What Israel did at God’s command, the water now does.

“To his strength” is le’etano, to its normal steady flow. “Fled against it” means they ran straight into the returning water. “Overthrew” is ni’er, to shake off, the verb for shaking something out of a cloth; Nehemiah shakes out his lap with it in Nehemiah 5:13.

The list of what was covered is the same list as in verse 23, the chariots and horsemen, now under water. The chariot force is destroyed; the text does not say Pharaoh himself died, though Psalm 136:15 says the LORD “overthrew Pharaoh and his host”.

Verse 22 is nearly repeated, but the verb has changed from “went into” to “walked upon”. The repetition sets the two peoples side by side: the same sea, the same hour, opposite outcomes.

“Saved” is yasha, the verb Moses used of himself when he “helped” the daughters at the well (2:17). “Saw the Egyptians dead” uses the verb of verse 13, where Moses promised they would never see them again alive; they see them once more, dead.

“Great work” is literally “the great hand”, hayyad hagedolah, which answers Pharaoh’s strong hand and the high hand of verse 8. “Believed” is he’eminu, the verb of 4:31. Moses is called “his servant”, eved, the first time the book gives him that title in its own voice.