Exodus 14:21

21 Toen Mozes zijn hand uitstrekte over de zee, zo deed de HEERE de zee weggaan, door een sterken oostenwind, dien gansen nacht, en maakte de zee droog, en de wateren werden gekliefd.

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.

---

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 En de Engel Gods, Die voor het heir van Israel ging, vertrok, en ging achter hen; de wolkkolom vertrok ook van hun aangezicht, en stond achter hen.

20 En zij kwamen tussen het leger der Egyptenaren, en tussen het leger van Israel; en de wolk was te gelijk duisternis en verlichtte den nacht; zodat de een tot den ander niet naderde den gansen nacht.

21 Toen Mozes zijn hand uitstrekte over de zee, zo deed de HEERE de zee weggaan, door een sterken oostenwind, dien gansen nacht, en maakte de zee droog, en de wateren werden gekliefd.

22 En de kinderen Israels zijn ingegaan in het midden van de zee, op het droge; en de wateren waren hun een muur, aan hun rechter hand en aan hun linkerhand.

23 En de Egyptenaars vervolgden hen, en gingen in, achter hen, al de paarden van Farao, zijn wagenen en zijn ruiteren, in het midden van de zee.