Exodus 14 Study Notes

14:13-14 The command Don’t be afraid, given as a word from the Lord to his people or an affirmation of confidence before battle, has many parallels (Nm 21:34; Dt 1:21,29; 3:2,22; Jos 8:1; 10:8,25; 2Ch 20:15,17; 32:7; Neh 4:14). Moses gave no defense of himself but focused instead on what the Lord would accomplish. The words salvation (here and Ex 15:2; Hb yeshu‘ah) and “saved” (14:30) mark the instructions for the encounter with Egyptian forces, its summary, and its celebration. The “save” word group in Hebrew (the root yasha‘) was applied in a variety of situations, often military ones, so that salvation took the form of victory (Dt 20:1-4; Jdg 10:12-14; 2Kg 19:32-35; Ps 3) or rescue (Ex 2:17). An earlier pharaoh was afraid that the Israelites might fight against Egypt (1:10), but something greater happened—the Lord fought for Israel and against Egypt (14:14,25).

14:15-18 The Lord informs Moses and all Israel how he is going to deliver them from this impossible situation. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord occurs here for the third time (Ex 7:5; 14:4).

14:19-20 The angel of God and the pillar of cloud may have looked familiar to Moses, for he saw the angel and the fire when God commissioned him to return to Egypt (3:2; Nm 20:16; Dt 31:15). Besides showing the way to go, day or night, the pillar of cloud prevented a clash between the Egyptian and Israelite forces.

14:21-28 Parallels exist between the plague of locusts and the overthrow of the Egyptians: Moses’s outstretched hand (cp. v. 21; 10:12), the east wind (cp. v. 21; 10:13), morning initiation (v. 24; 10:13), use of the Hebrew words translated “sent” (10:13) and drive (v. 25), drowning in the sea (vv. 27-28; 10:19), and the observation that not even one of them survived (cp. v. 28; 10:19). It was no more difficult for the Lord to defeat Pharaoh and his army than to dispense with a horde of insects.

14:22 The waters like a wall on both sides forced the Egyptians to follow straight ahead and protected the Israelites from a flanking attack.

14:24-25 The night hours were divided into three “watches”: the first watch (Lm 2:19) being the beginning of the night, perhaps roughly 6:00-10:00 p.m., the second watch (Jdg 7:19) being the middle of the night, perhaps about 10:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m., and the morning watch or end of the night, roughly 2:00-6:00 a.m. The Lord observed the Egyptians from his superior vantage point (cp. Dt 26:15; Ps 14:2; 53:2; 85:11; 102:19). With his accurate reconnaissance, God threw the Egyptians into confusion. This is a weapon he used on a number of occasions (23:27; Jos 10:10; 1Sm 5:9,11; 7:10; cp. 2Kg 7:6-7). Now the Lord, rather than the Israelites whom an earlier Egyptian king had feared (Ex 1:10), was the one who fought against Egypt, and the Egyptians themselves announced the fact.

14:29-31 These verses summarize the completeness of the Lord’s victory by using many terms that the speakers have used earlier, mostly in the near context. Instead of dying (vv. 11-12), the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead . . . The Lord saved Israel from the power [lit “hand”] of the Egyptians (cp. 3:8; 18:10; Dt 7:8; 2Kg 17:7). The assertion that Israel saw the great power [lit “hand”] that the Lord used continues the theme of the Lord’s action as an exercise of his hand (Ex 3:20; 7:4-5; 9:3,15; 13:3,9,14,16) in contest with the hand of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and it uses the verb that Moses used in 14:13 (cp. vv. 5,11). The people feared the Lord, and this is what Pharaoh had failed to do (1:17,21; 9:20-21,30). The mention of Moses as the Lord’s servant gives a subtle reminder that an alternative to serving Egypt was available to the Israelites (cp. v. 12). It accords Moses the highest of titles in the hierarchy of the Lord’s society and is the one by which Moses was called many times (Nm 12:7-8; Dt 34:5; Jos 1:1,7,13,15; cp. Gn 26:24; 2Sm 3:18; Is 41:8; Rm 1:1; Rv 19:10).