Exodus 14:29

14:21-31 The dividing the Red sea was the terror of the Canaanites, Jos 2:9; the praise and triumph of the Israelites, Ps 114:3; 106:9; 136:13. It was a type of baptism, 1Co 10:1,2. Israel's passage through it was typical of the conversion of souls, Isa 11:15; and the Egyptians being drowned in it was typical of the final ruin of all unrepenting sinners. God showed his almighty power, by opening a passage through the waters, some miles over. God can bring his people through the greatest difficulties, and force a way where he does not find it. It was an instance of his wonderful favour to his Israel. They went through the sea, they walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea. This was done, in order to encourage God's people in all ages to trust him in the greatest straits. What cannot he do who did this? What will not he do for those that fear and love him, who did this for these murmuring, unbelieving Israelites? Then followed the just and righteous wrath of God upon his and his people's enemies. The ruin of sinners is brought on by their own rage and presumption. 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. Moses was ordered to stretch out his hand over the sea; the waters returned, and overwhelmed all the host of the Egyptians.

Pharaoh and his servants, who had hardened one another in sin, now fell together, not one escaped. The Israelites saw the Egyptians dead upon the sands. The sight very much affected them. While men see God's works, and feel the benefit, they fear him and trust in him. How well were it for us, if we were always in as good a frame as sometimes! Behold the end to which a Christian may look forward. His enemies rage, and are mighty; but while he holds fast by God, he shall pass the waves in safety guarded by that very power of his Saviour, which shall come down on every spiritual foe. The enemies of his soul whom he hath seen to-day, he shall see no more for ever.

But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea,.... The bottom of it becoming so through the strong east wind, which blew all night until they came to the opposite shore, where they landed on "terra firma"; and so Noldius renders the phrase "through the sea"; that is, from shore to shore: and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left; See Gill on Exodus 14:22.

Not so much as one of them - Escape would be impossible Exodus 14:26 . Pharaoh's destruction, independent of the distinct statement of the Psalmist, Psalm 136:15 , was in fact inevitable. The station of the king was in the vanguard: on every monument the Pharaoh is represented as the leader of the army. The death of the Pharaoh, and the entire loss of the chariotry and cavalry accounts for the undisturbed retreat of the Israelites through a district then subject to Egypt and easily accessible to their forces. If, as appears probable, Tothmosis II was the Pharaoh, the first recorded expedition into the Peninsula took place 17 years after his death; and 22 years elapsed before any measures were taken to recover the lost ascendancy of Egypt in Syria. So complete, so marvelous was the deliverance: thus the Israelites were "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" 1 Corinthians 10:2 . When they left Baal-Zephon they were separated finally from the idolatry of Egypt: when they passed the Red Sea their independence of its power was sealed; their life as a nation then began, a life inseparable henceforth from belief in Yahweh and His servant Moses, only to be merged in the higher life revealed by His Son.

29 . A repetition, in P’s manner (cf. on Exodus 12:17-20 ), of the substance of the preceding narrative. The expressions, as v. 22, with ‘walked’ for ‘went into, because here the reference is to the entire passage through the Sea. the dry land ] better, the dry ground , as vv. 16, 22, and for distinction from v. 21b J (where the Heb. word is different). So Exodus 15:19 .

Then God directed Moses to stretch out his staff again over the sea, and the sea came back with the turning of the morning (when the morning turned, or approached) to its position (איתן perennitas, the lasting or permanent position), and the Egyptians were flying to meet it. "When the east wind which divided the sea ceased to blow, the sea from the north and south began to flow together on the western side;" whereupon, to judge from Exo 15:10, the wind began immediately to blow from the west, and drove the waves in the face of the flying Egyptians. "And thus Jehovah shook the Egyptians (i.e., plunged them into the greatest confusion) in the midst of the sea," so that Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen, to the very last man, were buried in the waves.

[Bible] 14:25. And overthrew the wheels of the chariots, and they were carried into the deep. And the Egyptians said: Let us flee from Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against us. 14:26. And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and horsemen. 14:27. And when Moses had stretched forth his hand towards the sea, it returned at the first break of day to the former place: and as the Egyptians were fleeing away, the waters came upon them, and the Lord shut them up in the middle of the waves. 14:28. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharao, who had come into the sea after them, neither did there so much as one of them remain. 14:29. But the children of Israel marched through the midst of the sea upon dry land, and the waters were to them as a wall on the right hand and on the left: 14:30. And the Lord delivered Israel in that day out of the hands of the Egyptians. 14:31. And they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and the mighty hand that the Lord had used against them: and the people feared the Lord, and they believed the Lord, and Moses his servant. Exodus Chapter 15 The canticle of Moses. The bitter waters of Mara are made sweet. 15:1. Then Moses and the children of Israel sung this canticle to the Lord, and said: Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea. 15:2. The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is become salvation to me: he is my God, and I will glorify him: the God of my father, and I will exalt him. 15:3. The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name. 15:4. Pharao's chariots and his army he hath cast into the sea: his chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea. 15:5. The depths have covered them, they are sunk to the bottom like a stone. 15:6. Thy right hand, O Lord, is magnified in strength: thy right hand, O Lord, hath slain the enemy.