Exodus 14
People in this chapter
For three months Israel has been free from Pharaoh's whip. They left Egypt with the wealth of Egypt in their hands, the angel of God in their faces, a cloud by day and fire by night. But now they are trapped. The sea lies in front of them. Behind them, the sound of chariot wheels. Pharaoh has changed his mind.
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Exodus 14:1-9The Trap
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea. 3For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. 4And I will harden Pharaoh’s 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.
Pharaoh changes his mind the moment the slaves are gone. The Lord uses the change to display His glory - Israel is not just being delivered; the world is being shown who reigns1.
5And 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? 6And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: 7And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. 8And the LORD hardened 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. 9But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.
God is telling Moses in advance exactly what Pharaoh will think: that Israel is trapped, caught between the sea and the wilderness with nowhere to run. It is a setup. God knows Pharaoh will follow. And that is precisely the point. Pharaoh's pursuit is not a problem to be solved; it is the stage on which God will perform His greatest sign. Israel feels hemmed in. God sees a display of His glory. That gap between what we see and what He is doing is where faith lives2.
The geography matters. Pi-hahiroth means "mouth of the gorges" - a narrow pass between mountains and water. It was a natural choke point, a place Israel could be penned. This is not an accident. God told them to camp there. The trap is set by God Himself3.
Exodus 14:10-14Stand Still and See
10And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. 11And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? 12Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness. 13And 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. 14The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Fear floods the people instantly. They cannot see past the chariot wheels to God's promise. They wish they had never left Egypt. This is the desert temptation - to look back at the bondage as if it were safety, to prefer a known master to an unknown God. It is Israel's first great crisis of faith, and it happens not weeks into the wilderness, but on the same day they are delivered. The pattern is immediate: deliverance, then the test.
The word here is yeshuah - salvation. "See the salvation of the LORD." This is the same root as the name Jesus, the one who would come centuries later and save not just one nation from one army, but all humanity from sin and death. Moses is calling Israel to behold salvation with their own eyes. In that moment, at that beach, they will witness the very nature of what salvation is: God acting, the enemy drowning, the people safe on the far shore through standing still.
Exodus 14:15-18Go Forward
15And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: 16But 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. 17And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 18And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.
God does not command Israel to sit in the sand and wait. He tells them to go forward. Into the sea. Their feet hit the water before the walls of water rise. This is trust being asked to do something. Faith moves the feet.
Exodus 14:19-20The Angel Between
19And 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: 20And 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.
One of the quietly stunning moments in all of scripture. The angel of God, who had gone before Israel, now moves behind them. Between them and Pharaoh's army. God puts Himself in the gap. Standing as a wall, a shield, separating His people from the enemy. What Jesus did at the cross echoes this: He stood in the gap between God's justice and our guilt. "Christ is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). The shield is His own body.
Exodus 14:21-28Dry Ground
21And 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. 22And 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. 23And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24And it came to pass, that in the morning watch 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,
Moses stretches out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drives it back with a strong east wind all night, dividing the waters so that Israel walks through on dry ground with the water standing as a wall on their right and left. The Egyptians pursue them into the midst of the sea, and in the morning watch the Lord looks down through the pillar of fire and cloud and throws their army into confusion.
25And 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. 26And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 27And 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. 28And 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.
The Egyptians are not simply drowned; they are overthrown. The Hebrew verb is used elsewhere of being cast down, of overturning an established order. The empire that held Israel in bondage is shattered in a single night. Power over people is stripped away. God is clearing the board.
There is no ambiguity here. No Egyptian escapes. The enemy is destroyed. This is the judgment chapter. God's mercy toward Israel is matched by His severity toward oppression and the systems that enforce it. The cross echoes this: Christ's victory over sin and death is total.
Exodus 14:29-31The Fear of the Lord
29But 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 their left. 30Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 31And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.
The fear of the LORD here is reverence, awe, a settling into the knowledge that this God is not to be trifled with, argued with, or doubted. He is altogether other. The same fear appears in Psalm 111: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." This fear is the beginning of all right relationship with God. It is the moment a heart stops expecting God to be manageable and starts expecting Him to be magnificent.
Research trail
Sources & further study
These references support the historical, linguistic, manuscript, and contextual notes in this chapter. Scripture remains the primary text; external sources are provided so readers can inspect the research directly.
Where this echoes in Scripture
The Trap
- 1 Corinthians 10:1-2Our fathers… were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.The Red Sea crossing read as a foreshadow of baptism into Christ.
- Hebrews 11:29By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land.Israel’s deliverance counted as an act of faith.
- Isaiah 43:16Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.Isaiah remembers the parted sea as God’s signature.