Chapter Fourteen

1–26. Pharaoh’s pursuit of the Israelites and the destruction of the Egyptians. 27–31. The crossing of the Red Sea.

Exodus 14:1. And the Lord said to Moses, saying: Exodus 14:2. Tell the children of Israel that they turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; opposite it you shall camp by the sea. Continuation along the previous easterly route would have been equivalent to engaging in an overwhelming struggle with the garrisons of the border fortresses. It was impossible for a whole people to pass by them unnoticed, since even a single man, the aforementioned Sinuhe, could slip through a series of fortifications only at night. In view of this, at Etham the Israelites change the direction of their journey by God’s command and “turn back.” Since the Hebrew verb “shub” used here denotes movement from the western side to the opposite—eastern—and vice versa (Josh 19:12), it is evident that instead of the previous easterly direction the Hebrews now choose a westerly, or more precisely, a southwesterly one. From the account of their subsequent journey, it can be seen that after crossing the Red Sea they are on its eastern side; consequently, before the crossing they were on the western side. Turning from Etham to the southwest, they traveled along the western side of the Red Sea and camped before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon. Pi-hahiroth lay to the south, Migdol on the western side, the sea on the eastern, and Baal-zephon to the east, before the encamped Hebrews, on the eastern side of the sea. Such is a more precise determination of the location of their third camp.

Exodus 14:3. And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel: They are confused in the land; the wilderness has shut them in. The Hebrews’ change in the direction of their initial route—movement along the western shore of the Red Sea—appears to Pharaoh as the result of losing their way: “they are confused”; moreover, they appear to be in a desperate situation: “the wilderness has shut them in.” And from a human perspective, this was indeed the situation of the Hebrews at that time. Retreat to the north could be cut off by the Egyptian army, the route to the west and south was blocked by the mountain range Djebel-Attaka, and to the east the sea was raging.

Exodus 14:4. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue after them; and I will get glory over Pharaoh and over all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so. Exodus 14:5. And it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said: Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? The movement of the Hebrews from Rameses to Succoth, from there to Etham, and thence along the western side of the Red Sea required at least three days’ journey. And since it did not end with a sacrifice to God, it lasted longer than the period which Moses and Aaron had specified for the journey into the wilderness (Exod 5:3). For this reason the Egyptians correctly determined the purpose of the exodus; “the people fled,” in consequence of which regret arose over the loss of free servants.

Exodus 14:6. And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him. This feeling, under the influence of Pharaoh’s conviction of the desperate situation of the Hebrews (Exod 14:3), turns into swift determination to bring them back. A pursuit is mounted. It consisted of “six hundred chosen chariots, strictly military chariots” (Exod 14:7), all Egyptian chariots, that is, chariots at all suitable for warriors, and finally “three hundreds.” Three men were assigned to each chariot, two for fighting and a third for managing the horses.

Exodus 14:7. And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them. Exodus 14:8. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: but the children of Israel went out with a high hand. Exodus 14:9. And the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, at Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon. Exodus 14:10. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were exceedingly afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Exodus 14:11. And they said to Moses: Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Exodus 14:12. Is not this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying: Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness. Exodus 14:13. And Moses said to the people: Fear not; stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more. Exodus 14:14. The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. Exodus 14:15. And the Lord said to Moses: Why do you cry to me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward. Exodus 14:16. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Exodus 14:17. And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh, and upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. Exodus 14:18. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. Exodus 14:19. And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them. Exodus 14:20. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. The first moment of the promised divine assistance, the miracle, consisted of the separation of the Hebrews from the Egyptians pursuing them. It was accomplished because the clouded pillar, which had previously gone before the Hebrews, now stood between them and the Egyptians. In its new position it performed both its functions: turned with its dark side toward the Egyptians and its bright side toward the Hebrews, it concealed the Hebrew camp from the former while illuminating the way for the latter. This is the thought expressed by the Hebrew text and the corresponding Russian. Both Aquila and the Targum of Onkelos hold the same understanding. In contrast to this, the Greek text, according to the testimony of Josh 24:7, speaks of one action—the spreading of darkness. When the pillar was between the camps, “there was darkness and there was gloom, and night came.”

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. Following the separation of the Hebrews from the Egyptians by divine power, marked by the stretching out of Moses’ hand with his rod, the division of the sea waters occurs. According to the Hebrew text it is brought about by an east wind, but according to the Greek by a south wind. This discrepancy is explained as follows. According to the testimony of travelers, the wind at the Suez isthmus blows in a northeasterly and southeasterly direction. And since the Hebrew language has names only for the four cardinal directions, it is natural that one and the same wind—a southeasterly one—could be called both south and east. Furthermore, the action produced by the wind is denoted in the original text by the verb “baka,” which means “to split,” “to crack,” “to split apart.” The water mass, therefore, is not simply driven by the wind, but is split, divided by it into two parts, direct indication of which is contained in the words Exod 14:22: “the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left” (Ps 73:13, Nehem 9:11, Isa 63:12, 1 Cor 10:1).

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 to them on their right hand, and on their left. Exodus 14:23. 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. Exodus 14:24. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians. With the coming of morning, in the “morning watch,” the final, third moment of the miracle arrives, marked by the words: “the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians from the pillar of cloud and fire.” The division of day and night into watches, adopted by the Babylonians and Assyrians, existed also among the Hebrews (1 Sam 11:11, Lam 2:19); the morning watch, by our reckoning, is the time from 2 to 6 o’clock in the morning. The divine action that confused the Egyptians and is denoted by the word “looked,” is conveyed in the Hebrew text by the verb “vayashkev” from “shakav,” literally: “he leaned down in order to look.” Judging from Ps 143:3 and Amos 9:4, this expression points to the movement of God’s will directed against the enemies of Israel. But the external action of the “looking”—the confusion of the Egyptians—gives us reason to think that the cause of it—the “looking”—was expressed in something visible. And indeed, Ps 76:17-19 understands it in the sense of a terrible, thunderous storm that broke out over the Egyptians. “The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and trembled. Out of the clouds issued water, the clouds uttered their voice, and Your arrows went forth” (Ps 76:17-18). Similarly, according to the words of Josephus, the Lord struck the Egyptians with thunderous blows accompanied by flashing lightning.

Exodus 14:25. And took off their chariot wheels, that they drove them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. The confusion of the Egyptians increased further through the “removal by God of the axles from their chariots,” or according to the Greek reading—through the “binding of the axles of the chariots,” so that they moved with difficulty. The Greek translation, like the Samaritan, perhaps indicates that in the sea bed, softened by rainwater and the passage of the many Hebrews, the heavy Egyptian chariots began to sink. Now, as often happened to the enemies of the Hebrew people (Judg 7:21, 1 Sam 14:20), with confusion comes fear—“let us flee from the face of Israel,” and with fear comes further confusion—disorderly flight.

Exodus 14:26. And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. Exodus 14:27. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and by morning the water returned to its place; and the Egyptians were fleeing toward [the water]. So the Lord drowned the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Although the text does not mention that the water walls came together as a result of the wind, this follows with certainty both from the fact that to bring about this phenomenon the same action is performed—Moses stretches his hand with his rod over the sea—and from Exod 15:10 (cf. Exod 14:8). The remark in verse 25: “let us flee from the face of Israel” gives every reason to think that from the eastern shore of the Red Sea, to which the Hebrews were crossing, the Egyptians directed themselves toward the western one. In accord with this, the wind that blew “against them” under whose influence the water walls came together could only be a western one.

Exodus 14:28. 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. Exodus 14:29. But the children of Israel walked upon dry ground in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left. Exodus 14:30. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. Exodus 14:31. And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord: and they believed the Lord, and his servant Moses. The former unbelief (Exod 14:11-12) is replaced by faith in the Lord and trust in Moses (Ps 105:12) as a result of the miracle. Thus the Red Sea became for the Hebrew people a font of faith in the omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of the Lord (1 Cor 10:2). In accord with this, the crossing through it prefigures the New Testament sacrament of baptism. “The sea,” says the blessed Theodoret, “was made like a baptismal font, the cloud—like the grace of the Spirit; Moses—like a priest; his rod—like the cross; the Israel that passed through the sea—like those being baptized, and the Egyptians pursuing them represented the image of demons, while Pharaoh himself served as the image of the devil.” * * * Notes If one takes into account that the Egyptians were to the west of the Hebrews—then it is quite realistic that one and the same cloud, located between them, on the side of the Egyptians would shield the sun and produce the sensation of night, while on the side of the Hebrews—it would reflect the sun and intensify solar illumination even more (Editor’s note). The basic direction of the Red Sea is from southeast to northwest. Consequently, only a wind with a predominant south-facing side could have divided the sea in half, since the presence of such a strong east wind could surely have hindered the crossing of the Hebrews through the Red Sea. Thus, the indication in the Greek text of a south wind that “split” the sea, in the absence of designations of intermediate directions, is actually confirmed by geographical and historical data (Editor’s note).