The Egyptians pursue the Israelites
1 Then Yahweh said to Moses,
2 “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, facing Baal zephon. You will encamp opposite this place and near the sea.
3 So Pharaoh will think that the people of Israel have lost their way, and the wilderness has closed in on them.
4 Then I will make Pha raoh’s heart stubborn so that he will pursue you. And I will draw glory for myself at the cost of Pharaoh and his army, and the Egyp tians shall know that I am Yahweh!” And the Israelites did as they had been instructed.
Crossing of the Red Sea
5 The king of Egypt was told that the people had fled; then Pharaoh and his ministers changed their minds with regard to the people. “What have we done,” they said, “in allowing Israel to go and be free of our service?”
6 Pha raoh prepared his chariot and took his army with him.
7 There were six hundred of his best chariots; indeed he took all the Egyptian chariots, each one with his warriors.
8 Yahweh had hardened the mind of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who set out in pursuit of the Israelites as they marched forth triumphantly.
9 The Egyptians—all the chariots and horses of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army—gave chase and caught up with them when they had encamped by the sea near Pihahiroth, facing Baalzephon.
10 The Israelites saw the Egyptians marching after them: Pharaoh was draw ing near. They were terrified and cried out to Yahweh.
11 Then they said to Moses, “Were there no tombs in Egypt? Why have you brought us to the desert to die?
12 What have you done by bringing us out of Egypt? Isn’t this what we said when we were in Egypt: Let us work for the Egyptians. Far better serve Egypt than to die in the desert!”
13 Moses said to the people, “Have no fear! Stay where you are and see the work Yahweh will do to save you today. The Egyptians whom you see today, you will never see again!
14 Yah weh will fight for you and all you have to do is to keep still.”
15 Yahweh said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
16 You will raise your staff and stretch your hand over the sea and divide it to let the Israelites go dryfoot through the sea.
17 I will so harden the minds of the Egyptians that they will follow you.
18 And I will have glory at the expense of Pharaoh, his army, his chariots and horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I gain glory for myself at the cost of Pharaoh and his army!”
19 The Angel of God who had gone ahead of the Israelites now placed himself behind them. The pillar of cloud changed its position
20 from the front to the rear, between the camps of the Israelites and the Egyp tians. For one army the cloud pro vided light, for the other darkness so that throughout the night the armies drew no closer to each other.
21 Mo ses stretched his hand over the sea and Yahweh made a strong east wind blow all night and dry up the sea.
The waters divided
22 and the sons of Israel went on dry ground through the middle of the sea, with the waters forming a wall to their right and to their left.
23 The Egyptians followed them and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and horsemen moved forward in the middle of the sea.
24 It happened that in the morning watch, Yahweh in the pillar of cloud and fire, looked towards the Egyp tian camp and threw it into confusion.
25 He so clogged their chariot wheels that they could hardly move. Then the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites for Yah weh is fighting for them against Egypt.”
26 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch your hand over the sea and let the waters come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and horse men.”
27 Mo ses stretched out his hand over the sea. At daybreak the sea returned to its place. As the Egyptians tried to flee, Yahweh swept them into the sea.
28 The waters flowed back and en gulfed the chariots and horsemen of the whole army of Pharaoh that had followed Israel into the sea. Not one of them escaped.
29 As for the Israelites they went forward on dry ground in the middle of the sea, the waters forming a wall on their right and their left.
30 On that day Yahweh delivered Israel from the power of the Egyp tians and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore.
31 They understood what wonders Yahweh had done for them against Egypt, and the people feared Yahweh. They believed in Yahweh and in Moses, his servant.
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Comments Exodus, Chapter 14
• 14.5 On the very night on which they have sacrificed the Passover Lamb, the Hebrews depart. The Egyptians pursue and overtake them when they reach the marshes along the Red Sea (13:17).
Have no fear. God will not abandon those who set forth on the way to freedom. Moses answers as if he has seen the invisible (Heb 11:27), and his faith puts into motion God’s intervention.
Yahweh made a strong east wind blow. In fact, the oldest biblical story about this is very imprecise. It does not say that the Israelites crossed the sea but that they saw their pursuers dead on the seashore (14:30).
God’s intervention was perhaps very moderate: a landslide, a sudden rising of the waters? It was sufficient to save the pursued. But this intervention by Providence, as with so many others in history, would not have changed anything had not God’s prophet Moses been there to tell the meaning of this event: Yahweh liberates Israel to make them his own people.
This is what the later account (printed in smaller letters) wants to teach us when it re lates this cross ing of the sea in such a trium phal istic way. Here Moses’ group passed in well-ordered file between two walls of water! A band of fugitives? Absolutely! They were the armies of Yahweh (12:41). With them, the God of the poor was beginning to remake the world.
The liberation of Israel remains a model for Christian history. Here we find other victories, great and small, that have made possible the prog ress of God’s Kingdom and Justice. In these cases, too, there were groups committed to a libe ra ting task, who, without arms, faced Pharaoh and his chariots, his officers, politicians and bureaucrats.
Those who cross to the other shore are not the same as before: the existence of the People of God has begun. Paul would write about it later: “All underwent the baptism of the land and of the sea” (1 Cor 10:2), that is to say, they safely crossed the deadly waters, thanks to God now present in the Cloud. The Cloud signifies that Yahweh, in a mysterious way is in the midst of his own, leading the “baptized” people.
We ought also to cross the sea. Christian com munities, recent converts, let us leave be hind an existence in which we lived alienated lives, and let us discover a new meaning in life. We cannot do this alone, but together with the community as it matures.
Crossing of the sea. Baptism and liberation. See Heb 11:23-40; 1 P 1:13-15; Rev 7:13-17; 12:10-12.