Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 14

1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Or rather, had spoken, to wit, before they came to Succoth, chap. 12. 37. For what was there briefly and generally expressed is here more largely and particularly declared, together with the occasion of it, which was Gods command.

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encampe before Pi-hahiroth , between Migdol and the Sea, over against Baal-zephon : before it shall ye encamp by the Sea.

Heb. the mouth of Hiroth, i. e. the entrance or straits of Hiroth, two great Mountains, between which they marched and were enclosed on both sides.

A City in Egypt, Ier. 44. 1. wherein it is thought there was a garrison.

Another place of note, situated in an high place, and having a fair and large prospect, and possibly a garrison too.

Marginal references: chap. 13. 18.; Numb. 33. 7.

3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the Wilderness hath shut them in .

They are inclosed with Mountains, and Garrisons, and Deserts.

4 And I will harden Pharaohs heart, that he shall follow after them, and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.

By the manifestation of my Power and Justice.

Marginal references: chap. 4. 21.

5 And it was told the King of Egypt, that the people fled : and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this , that we have let Israel go from serving us?

Did not onely depart for three days to sacrifice at Horeb, as Moses pretended, but designed an escape and flight, as appeared by their speedy march and other circumstances.

They who never truly repented of their sins, now heartily repent of their onely good action.

Marginal references: Psal. 105. 25.

7 And he took six hundred chosen charets and all the charets of Egypt, and captains over every one of them .

Quest. How could he use or carry his Chariots, when all his Horses were killed by that Plague, Exod. 9. 6. Answ. That Plague slew onely the Horses which were in the Field, chap. 9. 3. not those kept in Houses, as the Chariot-Horses generally were and now are.

i. e. A great number, all that could be got together in haste, which the present service required.

Over the men that fought out of every Chariot. Or, over all of them, the command of all these Chariots being distributed to several Captains or Commanders.

8 And the LORD hardned the heart of Pharaoh King of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand .

Either 1. Of God, with a Divine hand or power, by comparing Exod. 13. 16. Or, 2. Their own, not with hands hanging down, a posture betraying weakness and fainting, fear, and shame, Heb. 12. 12. but with hands lifted up, with courage and confidence, not like fugitives, but like valiant and victorious Souldiers, openly, boldly, resolvedly; as men are said to sin with an high hand, Numb. 15. 30. that sin in such a manner.

Marginal references: Numb. 33. 3.

10 And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lift up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were fore afraid : and the children of Israel cryed out unto the LORD.

Which is not strange: these being now a people of low spirits depressed by long and grievous servitude, being also generally unarmed, wearied with their journey, and their fears aggravated by the presence and out-cries of their Wives and Children. But they should have supported themselves by the consideration of the mighty power of God, of which they had late and great experience.

Partly by petition, and partly by complaint and expostulation.

13 And Moses said unto the people: Fear ye not, stand still , and see the Salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day, for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

Heb. make your selves to stand, let not your hearts fail and sink or stagger through unbelief, but with quiet minds look up to God. It notes the frame of their minds, not the posture of their bodies.

Or. as ye have seen them, to wit alive and armed, and ready to devour you: for otherwise they did see them dead and disarmed, ver. 30.

Marginal references: 2 Chron. 2[illegible: 1+ letters] 15, 17.; Or, for w[illegible: 1+ letters] as you have[illegible: 1+ letters] the Egyptians [illegible: 1 word] day, &c.

14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace .

(i. e.) Ye shall contribute nothing to the victory, neither by your words, nor by your deeds: for this Hebrew word signifies a cessation not onely from speech, but from action too, as 2 Sam. 19. 11▪ Psal. 83. 1. Isa. 42. 14, 15. Or, rather do you hold your peace, the future tense for the imperative, as it is very frequent, cease your murmuring against the Lord and me.

15 And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore cryest thou unto me ? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.

By fervent, though secret Prayer: For which he doth not reprove him, but onely bids him turn his Prayer into action. Compare Ios. 7. 10, 13.

16 But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the Sea, and divide it : and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

(i. e.) Do thou command it in my name to divide it self hither and thither, and I will divide it.

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.

Not changing his place, for he was the omnipresent God, ver. 15. but his operation, from leading the Israelites forward in their way to the protecting of them from their pursuers.

Marginal references: chap. 13. 21.

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.

viz. The Egyptians, to whom it brought their former horrible darkness to mind, and did both exceedingly affright them, and altogether hinder them from motion or action, as that also did for three dayes.

To the Israelites, as the opposition sheweth.

Marginal references: See Isa. 8. 14. 1 Cor. 10. 1.

21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the Sea, and the LORD caused the Sea to go back by a strong East-wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided .

A proper instrument both to divide that Sea, which lay North and South, and to dry and harden the mud at the bottom of the Sea, that the Israelites might walk upon it. See Gen. 8. 13. Exod. 15. 8. Yet the Wind could never have done so great a work, especially not so speedily, if there had not been an higher, even a divine, hand to manage and improve it.

So largely that a great number of the Israelites might march in one rank, and the whole number might go a good way in it in the time here mentioned.

Marginal references: Josh. 3. 16. & 4. 23. Nehem. 9. 11. Psal. 106. 9. and 114. 3.

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.

About midnight, as may be gathered from ver. 24.

Both for height, and for their defence.

Marginal references: Num. 33. 8. Psal. 78. 13. 1 Cor. 10. 1. Heb. 11. 29.

24 And it came to pass, that in the morningwatch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire, and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians.

The night was antiently divided not by hours, as now it is, but by watches, which sometimes were accounted four, and sometimes but three. Howsoever the last of them was called the morning-watch. Then when they hoped for most advantage in the pursuit, they met with their greatest disaster.

Called the Angel of God, ver. 19. By which promiscuous use of these Titles it sufficiently appears, that this was no ordinary Angel, but the Son of God.

With an eye of indignation and vengeance, as that phrase is used, Iob 40. 12. See also Amos 9. 4.

With most terrible and prodigious Winds and Rains, and Lightnings, and both claps and bolts of Thunder, as may be gathered from Exod. 15. 10. Psal. 77. 18, 19. and as some antient Historians relate; with terrours also in their minds, &c.

25 And took off their chariot-wheels , that they drave them heavily : so that the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel: for the LORD fighteth for them, against the Egyptians .

Either burning them with Lightning, or tearing them in pieces with Thunder-bolts, or loosening them and making them to fall off.

Heb. and he made him, or them, the singular number for the plural, i. e. The Egyptians or their Chariots, to go heavily, hardly and slowly, either for want of wheels or for breaches in them, or because the▪ Rain had softened the bottom of the Sea, or because the lightnings and Thunders affrighted and dispirited their Horses.

Prodigious stupidity! They did not understand nor consider this, though it was notorious, to them especially, by many great and fresh instances, till it was too late to prevent it, therein being a Type of most sinners, who will not be convinced nor repent, till they be past all benefit by it.

Marginal references: Or, made them to go heavily.

27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared: and the Egyptians fled against it : and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

To its natural and ordinary course, and motion, which is swift and strong, from which it had been hitherto restrained by a stronger hand, and rendred in a manner impotent and wea[illegible: 1+ letters]. But now Sampson-like, when its bonds are broken, it puts forth its former and natural strength. But indeed this word may belong to the morning, and so a learned man translates the place, and that very agreeably to the use and order of the Hebrew words, the Sea returned, to wit, to its course, when the morning appeared according to or in his strength, i. e. when it was full and clear ▪morning, as we oft read of the strength of the day. See Gen. 7. 13. Iob 21. 23. So the strength of the morning is here opposed to the morning-watch.

Against the Sea, for which way soever they fled, the waters met them and fought against them.

Marginal references: Heb. shook off. Deut. 11. 4.

28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them ▪ there remained not so much as one of them.

(i. e.) After the Children of Israel. Note here, the relative is put without an antecedent before it, the antecedent being to be understood and gathered out of the following verse, or out of the course of the story. An observation which is very useful for the understanding of many Scriptures. See the note on Gen. 3. 1.

Marginal references: Hab. 3. 8, 10.; Psal. 106. 11.

30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians: and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore

Which was done either 1. By the natural power of the Sea, which casteth up its dead bodies, after a certain time, till which time God caused the Israelites to abide near the Sea, that they might see this for their comfort. Or. 2. By the mighty power of God, which brought them, and their arms too, as many probably conceive, to shore, before the usual time. Quest. How could the Israelites, both they and their Cattle, in so little time get over that great Sea? Answ. 1. The Hebrew and some other interpreters deny, that they went over, and tell us, that they onely went into the Sea, and fetched a compass in it, that they might allure the Egyptians to follow them, and then by Moses his conduct returned to the Egyptian shore again. The principal ground of which opinion is this, that as they went into the Sea out of the Wilderness of Etham, Exod. 13. 20. So they came again out of the Sea into the Wilderness of Etham, Numb. 33. 8. But the sameness of the name doth not prove that it is the same place, nothing being more frequent in Scripture than for divers places to be called by one and the same name. And the Israelites might possibly give the name of Etham to this Desert on the Arabian side of the Red-sea either for its great resemblance to that Desert so called on the Egyptian side, or to intimate that God by dividing the Sea, had made that and this to be one continued Desert. Or the name of Etham might be common to all that Desert at the end of the Red-Sea and on both sides of it. Answ. 2. They might all conveniently pass over the Sea to the Arabian shore in the time allowed for it either by the mighty power of God which could easily make both men and beasts to do it in much less than ordinary time, or even by the ccurse of nature. For that part of the Sea was not above eight or nine miles over, as Geographers and others affirm. And the time allotted for their passage seems to me to be much more than Interpreters have assigned for it. For the Egyptians and Israelites were divided one from another by the cloudy pillar all the night, ver. 20. and a strong East wind blew all that night, ver. 21. The next morning, as I apprehend it, the Cloud still keeping between them, and possibly covering the Egyptians with gross and horrible darkness which hindred their march, the whole body of the Israelites, and their Cattle too are drawn by Moses his direction near the shore, and, it may be, the Cattle were put into the Sea, all which might well take up most of that day, then towards the evening they enter into the Sea and so proceed, and the Cloud withdrawing further from the Egyptians and following the Israelites, the Egyptians pursue after them, and as it is very probable from the nature and reason of the thing, stand debating some considerable time, when they came to the shore, whether they should venture to follow them into the Sea or no. At last, the worst Counsel prevails, as it general happens, when a people are under a divine infatuation, and into the Sea they go, and by the beginning of the morning watch they draw near the Israelites, when God seasonably appears for Israels succour, and puts a stop to the march of the Egyptians. So the morning-watch mentioned ver. 24. I take to be, not the morning watch of that night mentioned ver. 20. 21. (for all that night, and therefore the morning watch of that night, which was a third, or at least, a fourth part of it, was now past and gone) but the next morning-watch after that night and the succeeding day: which seems much more reasonable, then to shrink up the march first of the Israelites, and then of the Egyptians, into about three hours time, which is the time between the midnight and the morning watch. Nor is there any thing in the text which in the least contradicts this opinion, but onely that this dayes interval and work is not mentioned in this story, whereas such omissions are frequent in Scripture-relations, in which the substance onely is mentioned and many circumstances omitted, whereof we have seen some instances already, and shall meet with many more hereafter.