Exodus 14:21

21 when now Moses stretched forth his honde ouer the see, the Lorde caried awaye the see with a stronge east wynde that blewe all nyghte, and made the see drie londe ad the water deuyded it silfe.

Exodus 14:21 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 14:21

And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea
With his rod in it, as he was directed to, ( Exodus 14:16 ) . What the poet says ^F26 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" ^F1; 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 ^F2, grounded upon a passage in ( Psalms 136:13 ) and suppose that each tribe took its particular path.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 "Tu flectis amnes, tu mare barbarum--" Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 19.
F1 (weqbyw) "quum diffidisset se aqua illius", Piscator; so (w) seems to be used in ch. xvi. 20.
F2 Pirke Eliezer, c. 42. Targum Jon. & Hieros. in Deut. i. 1. Jarchi, Kimchi, and Arama in Psal. cxxxvi. 13.

Exodus 14:21 In-Context

19 And the angell of God which went before the hoste of Israel, remoued ad went behinde them. And the cloudepiler that was before them remoued ad stode behinde them

20 ad wet betwene the hoste of the Egiptians ad the hoste of Israel. Yt was a darke clowde, and gaue lighte by nyghte: so that all the nyghte long the one coude not come at the other.

21 when now Moses stretched forth his honde ouer the see, the Lorde caried awaye the see with a stronge east wynde that blewe all nyghte, and made the see drie londe ad the water deuyded it silfe.

22 And the childern of Israel went in thorow the myddest of the see vppon the drie grounde. And the water was a walle vnto them, both on their righthande ad on their lefte hande.

23 And the Egiptians folowed ad went in after them to the myddest of the see, with all Pharaos horses, and his charettes and his horssemen.