Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. Then the children of Israel shall go into the middle of the sea on dry ground.
Parallel Translations
-
Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. Then the children of Israel shall go into the middle of the sea on dry ground.
-
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.
-
And lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Exodus 14:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 7:19 Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood. There will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ”
- Exodus 4:2 Yahweh said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”
- Exodus 4:17 You shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
- Exodus 4:20 Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand.
- Exodus 7:9 “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Perform a miracle!’ then you shall tell Aaron, ‘Take your rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a serpent.’ ”
- Exodus 14:26 Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.”
- Isaiah 10:26 Yahweh of Armies will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up like he did against Egypt.
- Exodus 14:21-22 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. The children of Israel went into the middle of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.
- Numbers 20:8-9 “Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it pour out its water. You shall bring water to them out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink.” Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, as he commanded him.
- Numbers 20:11 Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 14:16 But lift thou up thy rod, and…
Exo 14:16 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.
Ver. 16. But lift thou up thy rod.] This rod God makes use of, fo: the greater manifestation of his own power, and the gracing of his servant Moses.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Divide it, i.e. do thou command it in my…
Divide it, i.e. do thou command it in my name to divide itself hither and thither, and I will divide it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out…
But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it,.... Even the same rod with which so many wonders had been done in Egypt; and Artapanus, the Heathen, says (x), that Moses being bid by a divine voice to smite the sea with his rod, he hearkened to it, and touched the water with it, and so it divided, as it is said it did, Exo 14:21.
and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea; and so they did, Exo 14:22.
Read full note →
(x) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 436.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 16. Lift thou up thy rod] Neither Moses…
Verse 16. Lift thou up thy rod] Neither Moses nor his rod could be any effective instrument in a work which could be accomplished only by the omnipotence of God; but it was necessary that he should appear in it, in order that he might have credit in the sight of the Israelites, and that they might see that God had chosen him to be the instrument of their deliverance.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 16. Lift thou up thy rod… divide it —…
16. Lift thou up thy rod… divide it — Prayer is thus said to effect what God effects in answer to prayer when it is inspired by him. The rod was but the symbol of the divine-human power.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 16. And thou (emph.), lift up thy rod] For…
16. And thou (emph.), lift up thy rod] For the rod in Moses’ hand, as a mark of E, see on Exo_4:17, and p. 56.
divide] So v. 21. Cf. Isa_63:12, Neh_9:11, Psa_78:13.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Through the midst of the sea.
Exo_14:16
Through the midst of the sea.
Read full note →
The Red Sea
I. Gods deliverance of Israel.
II. Judgment on Gods enemies, as well as a deliverance of His friends.
III. Gods separation of Israel for his service.
IV. The unity of Gods redeemed ones. (E. N. Packard.)
The Red Sea
I. Protection at the Red Sea.
1. The nature of the protection.
2. The all-sufficiency of the protection.
II. Deliverance through the Red Sea.
1. Its means, A blending of the human and the Divine.
2. Its method.
(1) Obedience a condition of deliverance.
(2) Nothing can harm the obedient soul (Exo_14:29).
III. The enemy destroyed in the Red Sea.
1. The superinducing cause. The daring persistency of Pharaoh brought him and his hosts into danger. So even with sinners. Thou hast destroyed thyself.
2. God left Pharaoh and his hosts to themselves in the peril.
3. God caused the waters to return to their normal state.
(1) If we stand in the way of danger, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the consequences.
(2) Every sinner places himself in the way of peril.
Lessons:
1. Pharaoh undertook what no one has ever succeeded in--to fight against God.
2. Moses placed himself and Israel in a relation to God, in which no one has ever failed. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The passage of the Red Sea
1. Israel leaves Egypt for the purpose of proceeding to Canaan, the promised land. A figure of an awakened soul, drawn to God, which takes the firm and noble resolution to renounce all sin, and serve God, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
2. The fiery and cloudy pillar is the secret but powerful attraction of the Father to the Son, which the soul follows, and by which it is faithfully and correctly guided. Here the individual is brought to the salutary means of grace, or they to him, in such a manner that he is afterwards obliged to confess, that if a single, and often inconsiderable, circumstance of his life had been otherwise, his whole course would have assumed another form.
3. The pursuing Pharaoh is a figure of the law in its strict and insatiate requirements, as well as of Satan and the powers of darkness. The latter soon perceives when any one is desirous of escaping from him, and consequently opposes him in every way. Some he torments with blasphemous, others with unbelieving thoughts, etc.
4. The utterly helpless condition of the children of Israel represents the oppressive weakness felt by the awakened soul.
5. But the Red Sea, which threatened destruction to the Israelites, proved of the greatest benefit to them. And this very feeling of sin, misery, and inability, which causes an awakened person so much uneasiness, turns to his greatest advantage. For it serves, like the blindness of the man born blind, and the death of Lazarus, to promote the Divine glory that Christ may be honoured by it.
6. The way by which Israel was delivered was one which was most miraculously opened; a way apparently dangerous and terrific, and hidden from the Egyptians. This may be also said of the way by which the Lord leads His people to life. For how wonderful is the way of salvation through the birth, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ!
7. A strong east wind arose, and dried the sea; and a rushing, like the sound of a mighty wind, was the signal to the holy apostles of the approach of the Holy Spirit. When He blows upon man, all flesh is as grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field. He it is that quickens.
8. The cloud, which overshadowed the people of Israel, protecting them from the pursuing foe, descending upon them as a refreshing dew, and serving by its radiance instead of a lamp, may be regarded as an emblem of the Redeemers blissful mediation between God and man. From it drops a refreshing dew upon the troubled heart, and a healing balm for the wounded conscience, yea, a peace of God which passeth understanding.
9. Lastly, the divided sea is a type of baptism, and consequently of all that which is requisite to purify the soul from sin. The Red Sea of the Redeemers blood is the abyss into which the sins of believers are so deeply plunged, that, if sought for, they can never be found; the sea which swallows up, overwhelms, and drowns Satan, with all his host, and the old man, and quickens in us a new man, who after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. This precious blood of Christ, who offered Himself to God by the Holy Spirit, is that which alone perfectly cleanses our consciences from dead works, to serve the living God. (G. D. Krummacher.)
The Red Sea
Regarding this passage of the Red Sea as typical of some events in the pilgrim-life of every Christian, let us say--
I. We are not delivered at the beginning of the life of faith from all the old enemies of the house of bondage.
II. The hour when old enemies return may reveal the fact that no accumulation of confidence in god has been gained by the experience of past deliverances. To most men the great events of life seem to be disconnected. They bear no relation one to another. If Fremonts Peak and Pikes Peak and the Spanish Peaks stood apart, connected by no mountain-ridge, no great results would come from them upon soil or climate. They would not determine the rain-fall or fix the trend of the rivers. But, linked together by lofty mountain-chains, they become part of the vast water-shed of a continent, fixed the length and course of the rivers and causing the humid atmosphere and fertile soil on one side, the dry air and arid wastes upon the other. So the great facts of Divine Providence, isolated and separate one from another, have no determinative influence over life. But linked together they make its moral atmosphere.
III. Some old enemies of the soul may be utterly destroyed. Evil companionships abandoned, etc.
IV. The providential way of deliverance is often mysterious.
V. Deliverance came to Israel not by human achievement, but by the power of God. The most solemn hours of life are not times of great endeavour and of high achievement. They are times when we are called to Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. Such an hour is that when we begin the life of faith, not a time of achievement when, by mental struggle and spiritual travail, we win the favour of God. It is rather the time of self-surrender, when unreservedly we commit our ways to the Lord, that He may work for us, and in us, His redeeming work. (W. G. Sperry.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.