Exodus 15:12
in Exodus 15You stretched out Your right hand, and the earth swallowed them up.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, The earth swallowed them.
KJV
Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
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This verse in Exodus 15
Commentary
6 notes on this verseThe earth swallowed them - It is very likely there was also an earthquake on this occasion, and that chasms were made in the bottom of the sea, by which many of them were swallowed up, though multitudes were overwhelmed by the waters, whose dead bodies were afterward thrown ashore. The psalmist strongly intimates that there was an earthquake on this occasion: The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the world; the Earth Trembled and Shook; Psa 77:18.
This site's exposition
Thou stretchedst out thy right hand
on Exodus 15:12-13
The earth swallowed them is an odd verb for a drowning, and Numbers 16:32 uses it again of Korah when the ground opens. Verse 13 turns from the army to the people and sets two words together, mercy and redeemed, with the verb redeem first given at 6:6 where God promised to redeem with a stretched out arm. The destination is named before they know the road, since he has guided them in his strength unto his holy habitation.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Certainly at that time no yawning chasm of the earth swallowed up any of the Egyptians; they were covered by water, they perished in the sea. So what's the meaning of "You stretched out your right hand, the earth devoured them"? Or are we correct in understanding God's right hand to be the one of whom Isaiah says, "And the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been revealed"? That, you see, is the only Son, whom the Father did not spare "but handed him over for us all." And thus he stretched out his right hand on the cross, and the earth devoured the godless, when they thought of themselves as victorious and of him as despicable in defeat.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Thou stretchedst out thy right hand,....
It was an instance of his transcendent power--in the greatness of thy excellency; and it was the execution of his justice: Thou sentest forth thy wrath,
Those whom the Creator fights against the whole creation is at war with. All this was the Lord's doing, and his only. It was an act of his power: Thy right hand, O Lord, not ours, has dashed in pieces the enemy,
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
THOU STRETCHEDST OUT THY RIGHT HAND — THE EARTH ‘TIVLA’EIMO’ (SWALLOWED THEM). The meaning is that “after you blew with Your wind and the sea covered them, You stretched out Your right hand and Your arm, 203 Verse: By the greatness of Thine arm… and the earth swallowed them.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
THOU IN THY LOVE HAST LED THE PEOPLE THAT THOU HAST REDEEMED; THOU HAST GUIDED THEM IN THY STRENGTH TO THY HOLY HABITATION. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained that this is a past tense in place of the future, as is customary in prophecies.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
4 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נָטִ֙יתָ֙ | natita | you stretched out | H5186 → | 214 times |
| יְמִ֣ינְךָ֔ | yeminekha | right [hand] your | H3225 → | 140 times |
| תִּבְלָעֵ֖מוֹ | tivlaemov | it swallowed up them | H1104 → | |
| אָֽרֶץ׃ | ʾaretz | [the] earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
נָטִ֙יתָ֙you stretched out
natitaH5186 →214 times
יְמִ֣ינְךָ֔right [hand] your
yeminekhaH3225 →140 times
תִּבְלָעֵ֖מוֹit swallowed up them
tivlaemovH1104 →
אָֽרֶץ׃[the] earth
ʾaretzH776 →2504 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 15:6Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy.
it leads to
- Psalms 118:15–16
Shouts of joy and salvation resound in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD performs with valor!
- Isaiah 51:9
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the…
- Psalms 2:9
You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”
- 1 Chronicles 29:11–12
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom,…
- Revelation 2:27
He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery—just as I have received authority from My Father.
- Psalms 118:15–16
Where this verse is studied
About Exodus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 363.2; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.