Through the sea
With Pharaoh’s chariots behind them, the sea was divided and Israel crossed on dry ground; the waters returned and covered the Egyptians.
Press play: the paintings change with the story and the words come as the narrator reads them. The whole story is written out below.
Now playing: Through the sea
The whole story
The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud and by night in a pillar of fire. Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued with six hundred chosen chariots, and overtook them camped by the sea. The people cried out, and Moses answered, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD” (Exodus 14:13).
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and a strong east wind blew all night and made the sea dry land. Israel went through on the dry ground, the waters a wall on their right hand and on their left. When the Egyptians followed, their chariot wheels came off, and at dawn the sea returned to its strength over them.
On the far shore Moses and the people sang, “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name” (Exodus 15:3), and Miriam took a timbrel and led the women in dancing. The Hebrew name of the sea is Yam Suph, the sea of reeds, which has led some to look for the crossing among the lakes and marshes of the old isthmus rather than the open gulf.
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.
Exodus 14:22, KJV
Where it happened
The sea crossing, The head of the Gulf of Suez (site debated).
Where Israel crossed is debated: the Gulf of Suez, the lakes of the old isthmus, or the Gulf of Aqaba. The mark stands at the head of the Gulf of Suez, one traditional view.
Every story stands at its place on the Worldwide Watch map: the Bible’s world, on the map.
More from the Exodus
Exodus to Joshua
Sources and editorial method
Research and editorial references used for this page include:
- The King James Bible, as published by bible-api.com
- The Book of Enoch, translated by R. H. Charles (1917), Project Gutenberg
Every story is told from the King James Bible, and from the Book of Enoch in R. H. Charles’s translation (1917) where a story names it. Every quotation was checked word for word against those texts. Where a place is not known, the page says so. The paintings and the narration were made for the house.
