Exodus 14:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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 unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֛לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
went
וַיָּבֹ֧אוּvai.ya.Vo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
midst
בְּת֥וֹךְbe.Tokh
H8432
a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
sea
הַיָּ֖םhai.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
dry
בַּיַּבָּשָׁ֑הbai.ya.ba.Shah
H3004
dry ground · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
waters
וְהַמַּ֤יִםve.ha.Ma.yim
H4325
water · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
wall
חֹמָ֔הcho.Mah
H2346
a wall of protection · noun, common feminine singular absolute
hand
מִֽימִינָ֖םmi.mi.Nam
H3225
the right hand or side (leg · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
left
וּמִשְּׂמֹאלָֽםu.mi.se.mo.Lam
H8040
properly · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hebrews 11:29 By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.
Exodus 15:19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon…
Psalms 66:6 He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.
Exodus 14:29 But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on th…
Psalms 78:13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
Exodus 15:8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in…
Nehemiah 9:11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwe…
Isaiah 63:13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 14:21–end
We have here the history of that work of wonder which is so often mentioned both in the Old and New Testament, the dividing of the Red Sea before the children of Israel. It was the terror of the Canaanites (Jos 2:9, Jos 2:10), the praise and triumph of the Israelites, Psa 114:3; Psa 106:9; Psa 136:13, Psa 136:14. It was a type of baptism, Co1 10:1, Co1 10:2. Israel's passage through it was typical of the conversion of souls (Isa 11:15), and the Egyptians' perdition in it was typical of the final ruin of all impenitent sinners, Rev 20:14. Here we have,
I. An instance of God's almighty power in the kingdom of nature, in dividing the sea, and opening a passage through the waters. It was a bay,…
the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea, &c.--It is highly probable that Moses, along with Aaron, first planted his footsteps on the untrodden sand, encouraging the people to follow him without fear of the treacherous walls; and when we take into account the multitudes that followed him, the immense number who through infancy and old age were incapable of hastening their movements, together with all the appurtenances of the camp, the strong and steadfast character of the leaders' faith was strikingly manifested (Jos 2:10; Jos 4:23; Psa 66:6; Psa 74:13; Psa 106:9; Psa 136:13; Isa 63:11-13; Co1 10:1; Heb 11:29).
Adam Clarke on Exodus 14:22
And the waters were a wall unto them on their right and on their left - This verse demonstrates that the passage was miraculous. Some have supposed that the Israelites had passed through, favored by an extraordinary ebb, which happened at that time to be produced by a strong wind, which happened just then to blow! Had this been the case, there could not have been waters standing on the right hand and on the left; much less could those waters, contrary to every law of fluids, have stood as a wall on either side while the Israelites passed through, and then happen to become obedient to the laws of gravitation when the Egyptians entered in! An infidel may deny the revelation in toto, and from s…
This people of God, freed from a great and broad Egypt, is led, as through the Red Sea, that in baptism it may make an end of its enemies. For by the sacrament as it were of the Red Sea, that is by baptism consecrated with the blood of Christ, the pursuing Egyptians, the sins, are washed away.
Again, according to the view of the inspired Paul, the people itself, by passing through the Red Sea, proclaimed the good tidings of salvation by water. The people passed over, and the Egyptian king with his host was engulfed, and by these actions this Sacrament was foretold. For even now, whensoever the people is in the water of regeneration, fleeing from Egypt, from the burden of sin, it is set free and saved; but the devil with his own servants (I mean, of course, the spirits of evil), is choked with grief, and perishes, deeming the salvation of men to be his own misfortune.
How troublesome a trial it is to pass through the midst of the sea, to see the waves rising up in a heap, to hear the roar and crash of the raging billows; but nevertheless, if you follow Moses, that is, the law of God, the waters will become for you a wall on the right hand and on the left, and you will find a path through dry ground in the midst of the sea. But that heavenly journey too, which we have said the soul makes, may perhaps have some waters as well; it may be that there too waves are found; for there is a certain portion of waters above the heaven and a certain portion beneath the heaven, and we for the present endure the waves and billows of these waters that are beneath the heaven.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Red Sea — The sea so called extends along the west coast of Arabia for about 1,400 miles, and separates Asia from Africa. It is connected with the Indian Ocean, of which it is an arm, by the Strait of…
Red Sea, Passage of — The account of the march of the Israelites through the Red Sea is given in Ex. 14:22-31. There has been great diversity of opinion as to the precise place where this occurred. The difficulty of…
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Through the Red Sea — Through the Red Sea
Egypt · .Army of — .Army of
Egyptians · Pursue Israelites, and the army of, — Pursue Israelites, and the army of,
Miracles · .Passage through the Red Sea — .Passage through the Red Sea
Miracles Wrought Through Servants Of God · Moses and Aaron: The red-sea divided — Moses and Aaron: The red-sea divided
Purifications · Of Israel at the exodus — Of Israel at the exodus
Readings, Select · THE — THE
Water · Red Sea divi — Red Sea divi
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Exodus 14:22
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground,.... Some Jewish writers say (c), that the tribe of Judah went in first, and then the other tribes followed; but it is most likely, what Josephus says (d), that Moses first entered in, and then the Israelites, encouraged by his example, went in after him; and a very adventurous action it was, and nothing but strong faith in the almighty power and promise of God could have engaged them in it, to which the apostle ascribes it, Hebrews 11:29. It is the opinion of Aben Ezra, and some other Jewish writers, that the Israelites did not pass through the Red sea to the opposite shore, only went some way into it, and took a…
Exodus 14:19-25
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.
19. Profectus est itaque angelus Dei qui praecedebat castra Israel: coepitque ire a tergo ipsorum, et columna nubis quae praecedebat eos, fuit illis a tergo.
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.
20. Ac ingressus est inter castra AEgyptiorum et inter castra Israel. Et fuit nubes et caligo: et illuminavit noctem, nec appropinquavit alt…
When Moses stretched out his hand with the staff (Exo 14:16) over the sea, "Jehovah made the water go (flow away) by a strong east wind the whole night, and made the sea into dry (ground), and the water split itself" (i.e., divided by flowing northward and southward); "and the Israelites went in the midst of the sea (where the water had been driven away by the wind) in the dry, and the water was a wall (i.e., a protection formed by the damming up of the water) on the right and on the left." קדים, the east wind, which may apply either to the south-east or north-east, as the Hebrew has special terms for the four quarters only. Whether the wind blew directly from the east, or somewhat from the…
As with the plagues, naturalistic explanations for this event are beside the point. A strong, steady wind blowing across a relatively shallow, contained body of water can change its depth dramatically, but that does not produce dry ground, with walls of water on each side. The Lord can intervene in nature and do with it as he wishes.
Rashi on Exodus 14:21
ברוח קדים עזה BY A POWERFUL EAST WIND — i. e. by the east wind which is the most powerful of the winds. This is the wind by which the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts punishment from the wicked, as it is said, (Jeremiah 18:17) “I will scatter them as with an east wind”; (Hosea 13:15) “An east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord”; (Ezekiel 27:26) “The east wind hath broken thee in the heart of the sea”; (Isaiah 27:8) “He hath removed her with His rough blast in the day of the east wind” (cf. Mekhilta).
ויבקעו המים AND THE WATERS WERE DIVIDED — all the waters in the world (Mekhilta).
