Exodus 14–15 · The Crossing · An Iconic Story
The Red Sea Crossing
God tells Israel to camp with their backs to the water so Pharaoh will think they are trapped — and then, in one night, walks a nation out through the middle of the sea and closes it behind them.
Poussin paints the morning after, not the walk through. The water is already closing on the far side, and the near shore is crowded with people doing the first things free people do: gathering weapons off the sand, lifting their arms, staring back at the place they came from. Moses stands to the right with his hand still out. The painting understands that the miracle happened in the dark, and what you can see in daylight is a nation realising it survived.
Camp With Your Backs to the Water
Exodus 14, told plainly
Israel is out of Egypt, and God does something strange: He tells them to turn back and camp with the water behind them. He says plainly why — so that Pharaoh will look at the map, decide they are trapped, and come after them. They are the bait in a trap set for an empire, and nobody tells them that.
Pharaoh comes with six hundred chosen chariots and the whole army of Egypt, and Israel sees them on the horizon. The people are terrified. Moses answers with the sentence that carries the entire chapter.
But Moses told the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the LORD’s salvation, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”“Stand firm and see the salvation of the LORD” — the word here is yeshu'ah, the noun behind the name Yeshua.
The Lord shall fight for you - Ye shall have no part in the honor of the day; God alone shall bring you off, and defeat your foes. Ye shall hold your peace - Your unbelieving fears and clamours shall be confounded, and ye shall see that by might none shall be able to prevail against the Lord, and that the feeblest shall take the prey when the power of Jehovah is exerted.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Exo 14:14
And then God says something to Moses that has puzzled readers ever since — because Exodus never records Moses saying a word.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.“Why are you crying out to Me?” — spoken to a man the text never shows praying out loud.
The pillar of cloud moves from in front of them to behind them and stands between the two armies all night — darkness on one side, light on the other. Moses stretches out his hand, a strong east wind blows all night, the sea divides, and Israel walks through on dry ground with the water standing on their right and their left. The Egyptians follow into the seabed. Their chariot wheels come off. They say, let us flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt — and that is the last thing they ever say. At dawn Moses stretches out his hand again, the sea comes back, and Israel stands on the far shore looking at the bodies of the army that had owned them.
That day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore. When Israel saw the great power that the LORD had exercised over the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and believed in Him and in His servant Moses.The chapter ends not with the water but with a verb: they believed.
EGYPT'S NIGHT
The pillar
ISRAEL'S NIGHT
The same hours, in the same place, between the same two armies — and Exodus 14:20 says it was darkness to one side and light to the other. Two nights, not one.
The word and providence of God have a black and dark side towards sin and sinners, but a bright and pleasant side towards those that are Israelites indeed. That which is a savour of life unto life to some is a savour of death unto death to others.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Exo 14:19–20
Six Places the Retellings Drift
what the text actually says, against what the story has become
“EXODUS 14 IS THE RED SEA CHAPTER”
Exodus 14 never uses the name. It says the sea — ha-yam — seventeen times, and nothing else. The name yam suph appears at 13:18 on the way in, and at 15:4 and 15:22 in the song afterward. The most famous name in the story frames the chapter from outside it.
“RED SEA IS A MISTRANSLATION”
It is the Bible's own Greek. Suph means reed or rush; the Septuagint rendered yam suph as erythra thalassa, Red Sea, and the New Testament follows it — Acts 7:36 and Hebrews 11:29 both say Red Sea. So “Sea of Reeds” is the Hebrew and “Red Sea” is Scripture's own Greek. Neither one is a mistake, and there is no need to pit them against each other.
“THEY TIPTOED ACROSS A MARSH”
Exodus 14:22 says the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left, and repeats it at verse 29. Verse 28 says the returning sea covered the chariots and horsemen — the entire army that had followed them in. Whatever the mechanism was, the text describes a depth that drowned an army.
“THE WIND EXPLANATION REPLACES THE MIRACLE”
The text supplies the wind itself: the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind, all that night. Scripture names a means and an Agent in the same sentence and sees no tension in it. The commentators noticed the same thing and gave the night two signs — one instituted, one natural.
“PHARAOH DROWNED”
Exodus 14:28 says the waters covered the chariots and horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea. Psalm 136:15 says God shook off Pharaoh and his host. Whether the king himself went into the seabed is a question careful readers have answered both ways, and this page gives it as a question.
“MIRIAM JUST REPEATED THE MEN'S SONG”
Exodus 15:20 calls her the prophetess — the first woman in Scripture given that title — and Micah 6:4 lists her with Moses and Aaron as the three God sent before Israel. The Hebrew of verse 21 has her answering them, masculine: two companies singing responsively across the shore.
So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle.The name that frames the story, one chapter before the crossing begins.
The instituted sign made use of was Moses's stretching out his hand over it, to signify that it was done in answer to his prayer, for the confirmation of his mission, and in favour to the people whom he led. The natural sign was a strong east wind, signifying that it was done by the power of God, whom the winds and the seas obey.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Exo 14:21
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!
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Exo 14:22
Where It Happened, and What They Could See
the route as the text gives it, and the night as the text describes it
Exodus gives the crossing a location, and gives it precisely: they camped before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal-zephon. The problem is not that the Bible is vague. It is that the ancient names have not been securely matched to modern ground. Adam Clarke worked out what the names themselves mean, which is as far as the evidence honestly goes:
Encamp before Pi-hahiroth … the mouth, strait, or bay of Chiroth. Between Migdol, … the tower, probably a fortress that served to defend the bay. Over against Baal-zephon, … the lord or master of the watch, probably an idol temple, where a continual guard, watch, or light was kept up for the defense of one part of the haven, or as a guide to ships.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Exo 14:2
The traditional reading places the crossing at an arm of the Red Sea in the neighbourhood of Suez, and it is held for reasons drawn from the narrative itself: the road out of the defile leads there, the water is narrow enough that a nation could be across in a night, and it is precisely the stretch where a strong east wind would do what Exodus says the wind did. Two of the most careful nineteenth- century commentators reasoned their way to it independently.
Some place it in the immediate neighborhood of Suez; where, they say, the part of the sea is most likely to be affected by "a strong east wind" [Ex 14:21]; where the road from the defile of Migdol (now Muktala) leads directly to this point; and where the sea, not above two miles broad, could be crossed in a short time.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871), on Exo 14:30
A strong east wind - The agency by which the object effected was natural (compare Exo 15:8 note): and the conditions of the narrative are satisfied by the hypothesis, that the passage took place near Suez.
Albert Barnes· Notes on the Old and New Testaments (1832–1869), on Exo 14:21
THE OTHER PROPOSALS, NAMED WITHOUT HEAT
Others have argued for the shallower lakes on the isthmus north of Suez — the Ballah lakes, Lake Timsah, the Bitter Lakes — on the strength of suph meaning reeds and of a more northerly route out of Egypt. A smaller number argue for the Gulf of Aqaba, far to the south-east. Each proposal has readers who take Scripture entirely seriously, and none of them has settled the question, because the three camp names have not been settled either. The traditional identification leads this page because it is the reading the evidence has long been argued to support — and none of the alternatives is strong enough to unseat it, or weak enough to leave unmentioned.
Two further details from the text change how the night looks. It was dark — really dark. And the shore in the morning gave Israel something they badly needed a chapter later, when Amalek attacks: the arms and gear of a drowned army, washed up at their feet.
This march through the sea was in the night, and not a moon-shine night, for it was seven days after the full moon, so that they had no light but what they had from the pillar of fire.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on Exo 14:21
And the song on the far side is not an afterthought. It is, by the reckoning of the commentators who studied it hardest, the oldest poem preserved anywhere — and its vocabulary is coronation vocabulary from beginning to end: a man of war, a right hand, a holiness no one is like, and a last line about a King who reigns forever.
This song is, by some hundred years, the oldest poem in the world.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871), on Exo 15:1
With the deliverance of Israel is associated the development of the national poetry, which finds its first and perfect expression in this magnificent hymn. It was sung by Moses and the people, an expression which evidently points to him as the author. That it was written at the time is an assertion expressly made in the text, and it is supported by the strongest internal evidence.
Albert Barnes· Notes on the Old and New Testaments (1832–1869), on Exo 15:1
What Exodus Does Not Tell Us
named as silence, and left as silence
The chapter is unusually specific about camps and hours, and completely silent about the things a modern reader most wants measured. Those silences are worth naming, because a great deal of confident writing about this crossing is written into them.
Which body of water, and exactly where
Everything in the route discussion above is proposal, including the traditional one — argued, reasoned, held for good reasons, and not proved. The text names Pi-hahiroth, Migdol and Baal-zephon and expects its first readers to know where those were. We do not, and saying so is not a concession; it is the state of the evidence.
How wide the corridor was, or how long the walk took
No width, no distance, no duration beyond the night itself. Every figure ever calculated for how many people could cross how fast is arithmetic done on assumptions, not a reading of Exodus.
What happened to Pharaoh personally
Exodus 14:28 covers the chariots, the horsemen, and the whole army that followed into the sea. Psalm 136:15 says God shook off Pharaoh and his host. Some read the king into the water; others read him watching from the shore. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown come down firmly on one side, and their firmness is itself the evidence that the question was live:
there remained not so much as one of them--It is surprising that, with such a declaration, some intelligent writers can maintain there is no evidence of the destruction of Pharaoh himself (Ps 106:11).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871), on Exo 14:28
What the pillar looked like from the Egyptian side
Exodus 14:20 says the cloud was darkness to one army and gave light to the other, and says nothing further — not how it looked, not what the Egyptians thought was happening, not why nobody tried to go around it. The verse is one of the strangest in the book and it is left exactly as strange as it was written.
so that it came between the camps of Egypt and Israel. The cloud was there in the darkness, but it lit up the night. So all night long neither camp went near the other.One cloud, two experiences, and no explanation offered.
Paul Calls It a Baptism, and John Hears the Song Again
the New Testament's own use of the crossing, first
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.Paul's own reading: they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea — and two verses later he is talking about the rock.
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were drowned.The crossing enters the Hall of Faith as something the people did by faith — and the Egyptians' attempt is named in the same breath.
The New Testament does not treat the crossing as a wonder story about water. Paul reads it as the shape of baptism — a people brought out through water, with their old masters left behind in it. And John, at the very end of the Bible, hears the song from the far shore being sung again, with a second name attached to it.
and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!“The song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb” — Exodus 15, sung beside a sea of glass at the end of all things.
That is the line this page draws, and it is drawn by Paul and by John rather than by us. The oldest song in Scripture turns out to be the last one too. The church's baptismal reading of the crossing is ancient and rich, and it stands on 1 Corinthians 10:2, which is the text's own warrant for it — presented here as the church's reading, which is what it is:
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.
Augustine of Hippo· Explanation of the Psalms 107.3 (430), on Exo 14:22
What the Old Readers Heard in It
on the prayer nobody heard, the song everybody sang, and the woman with the tambourine
The prayer with no words in it
God asks Moses why he is crying out, and Exodus has not recorded Moses saying anything. The old readers took that as the point rather than a puzzle — that a silent man was being heard perfectly well:
Moses, though he was assured of a good issue to the present distress, yet did not neglect prayer. We read not of one word he said in prayer, but he lifted up to God his heart, the language of which God well understood and took notice of. Moses's silent prayers of faith prevailed more with God than Israel's loud outcries of fear,
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Exo 14:15
Or do you not hear how Moses, although he said nothing but met the Lord with his inexpressible groanings, was heard by the Lord, who said, "Why do you cry to me?" God knows how to hear even the blood of a just man, to which no tongue is attached and of which no voice pierces the air. The presence of good works is a loud voice before God.
Basil of Caesarea· Exegetic Homilies 22 (379), on Exo 14:15
The song, and what it was really about
Clarke read the Song of the Sea as the closing argument of the plagues — every power Egypt had worshipped answered in one night, and then answered again in verse. And he read its last line as a chorus rather than a conclusion.
The Lord is my strength and song - How judiciously are the members of this sentence arranged! He who has God for his strength, will have him for his song; and he to whom Jehovah is become salvation, will exalt his name.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Exo 15:2
Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? - We have already seen that all the Egyptian gods, or the objects of the Egyptians idolatry, were confounded, and rendered completely despicable, by the ten plagues, which appear to have been directed principally against them. Here the people of God exult over them afresh: Who among these gods is like unto Thee? They can neither save nor destroy; Thou dost both in the most signal manner.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Exo 15:11
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever - This is properly the grand chorus in which all the people joined. The words are expressive of Gods everlasting dominion, not only in the world, but in the Church; not only under the law, but also under the Gospel; not only in time, but through eternity.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Exo 15:18
Miriam, and the answering chorus
The last scene of the crossing is a woman with a tambourine leading every woman in Israel out onto the sand. Exodus calls her a prophetess before it tells us what she sang, and Micah later names her with her two brothers as one of the three God sent ahead of His people.
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery. I sent Moses before you, as well as Aaron and Miriam.Moses, Aaron, and Miriam — named together, centuries later, as the three sent before Israel.
When God brought Israel out of Egypt, it is said ( Micah vi. 4 ), He sent before them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, though we read not of any thing memorable that Miriam did but this. But those are to be reckoned great blessings to a people who assist them, and go before them, in praising God.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Exo 15:20–21
Miriam answered them--"them" in the Hebrew is masculine, so that Moses probably led the men and Miriam the women--the two bands responding alternately, and singing the first verse as a chorus.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871), on Exo 15:21
Read the Great Books
the works that have carried this teaching — go further than this page
Commentary on the Bible
Adam Clarke · 1832
Clarke is the most useful of the old commentators on this crossing — the place names, the walls of water, and the Song of the Sea read as Egypt's gods answered one by one.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Commentary on the Whole Bible
Matthew Henry · 1710
Henry gives the night its two signs — the stretched-out hand and the east wind — and reads the pillar's two faces as the two faces of God's providence.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Notes on the Old and New Testaments
Albert Barnes · 1832–1869
Barnes reasons his way to the crossing point from the conditions of the narrative itself, and makes the case for Exodus 15 as a poem written on the day it describes.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →The Song on the Far Shore
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted. The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.The first line of the oldest song in the Bible — and the word for “salvation” is the noun behind the name Yeshua.
Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing. And Miriam sang back to them: “Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; the horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.”Miriam the prophetess, a tambourine, and every woman in Israel answering the men across the sand.
They went down to the water as slaves with an army behind them, and they came up singing. Nothing in the chapter was theirs — not the wind, not the walls, not the timing, not the weapons on the sand in the morning. Moses had told them the truth in advance: stand firm, be still, and watch the LORD fight. Israel's first act as a free people was to sing about somebody else's victory, and the last book of the Bible says they will be singing it still.
GO ON FROM HERE
Built from MannaFest's research brief on the great stories of Genesis and Exodus and the gate-verified quote pool for those chapters — public-domain commentary quoted verbatim (Adam Clarke, Matthew Henry, Albert Barnes, John Wesley, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Basil of Caesarea, Augustine of Hippo). Hebrew word data floor-verified against the site's word-level text of Exodus 14 and 15. Scripture Berean Standard Bible, fetched from the floor. On the route: the traditional identification near Suez is given first, in the words of the commentators who argued it, and the northern-lakes and Gulf of Aqaba proposals are named as proposals — none of the sites has an agreed modern identification, and the page settles nothing it cannot settle. Artwork: Nicolas Poussin (1633-1634), public domain, license-verified at Wikimedia Commons.