At some point between 2:00 and 6:00 a.m., Yahweh fixed his gaze upon the Egyptian army, and the result for Egypt was abject discomfiture.36 Exodus 14:24 reads,
“And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptians forces into a panic.” Certainly it is plausible to understand the “look” of Yahweh in light of the description of Red Sea events given in Psalm 77:17-18.37 That passage chronicles a terrific electrical storm; a storm that happened as the people made their way through the Red Sea. Perhaps the “look” of Yahweh in Exodus 14:24 may be tethered to the storm of Psalm 77, thus helping to explain the “panic”
borne in the Egyptians. Regardless, what is clear in Exodus 14:24 is that the “look” of Yahweh—however one understands it—produced “panic” within the ranks of Egypt.38 The Hebrew word translated “panic” is hāmam. According to Walter Kaiser, the verb hāmam is often used “to describe the panic and disarray of an army before a superior challenger, especially when God enters the battle.”39 Where only fourteen verses prior the people of Israel had been fearfully vexed because of Egypt (Exod 14:10), now, because of Yahweh, Egypt became the victim of agitated dismay.40 One can only imagine the scene. Soldiers frightened, horses anxious, commanders confused, order undone. The Divine Warrior had arrived, and the enemy found himself gravely outclassed.
36Both Currid, A Study Commentary on Exodus, 1:303, and Sarna, Exodus, 74, identify the
“morning watch” of Exod 14:24 as the period between 2:00 and 6:00 a.m.
37A possibility suggested by both Kaiser, Exodus, 444, and Mackay, Exodus, 257.
38Kaiser, Exodus, 443, argues that Yahweh’s “look is never just ocular but [is] also a demonstration of some wrath or mercy.” Duane A. Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus (Grand Rapids:
Kregel, 2014), 380, suggests a parallel between the “look” of Yahweh in Exod 14:24 and the “look” of the angelic figures in Gen 18:16, just prior to the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah.
39Kaiser, Exodus, 443. In support, Kaiser (443-44) mentions the use of ם ַמ ָה in Exod 23:27;
Josh 10:10, Jdg 4:15; 1 Sam 7:10, and Ps 18:14.
40Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary (Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1974), 227.
Effortlessly, Yahweh struck Egypt where Egypt was recognized as most powerful: its chariots.41 In Exodus 14:25, Egypt’s wheel trouble is attributed to Yahweh.
Yahweh set about “clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.” The verb translated “clogging” (Hebrew: sûr) has been understood in three general senses. Some scholars render the verb as “removed,” contending that perhaps the axles of the chariots broke off or were sufficiently damaged to prevent movement.42 Others argue that sûr should be understood in the sense of “clog” or “bind” or “bog down.”43 Representative is Stuart:
The binding of chariot wheels would seem most naturally to refer to bogging down—
most likely because the sea floor was soft and sandy/silty so that even though it was dry, it was not a suitable surface for narrow, metal-bound chariot wheels bearing the weight of a chariot and two or three armed men.44
Indeed, it is entirely possible that Yahweh caused the wheels to lock or clog because of stubborn sand and/or problematic strands of seaweed. However, the third possibility, that sûr should be rendered “turning aside,” appears to have the best connections to the wider text of Exodus.45 Yahweh “turned aside” the wheels of the
41Enns, Exodus, 277.
42See Currid, A Study Commentary on Exodus, 1:304, Hamilton, Exodus, 213; Houtman, Exodus, 2:272.
43See Oswalt, Exodus, 387; Bernard L. Ramm, His Way Out: A Fresh Look at Exodus
(Glendale, CA: G/L Publications, 1974), 90-91; Sarna, Exodus, 74; and Stuart, Exodus, 343. John H. Stek,
“What Happened to the Chariot Wheels of Exod 14:25?” Journal of Biblical Literature 105, no. 2 (June 1986): 293, acknowledges that רוס can certainly mean “turn aside” (instead of “clog”), and for Exod 14:25, recommends a reading of רסא (“bind”) instead of רוס. With reference to the argument of Propp, Exodus 1- 18, 500, a reading of רסא in Exod 14:25 would connect the verse directly to Exod 14:6: As Pharaoh had
“harnessed” (רסא) his chariots in preparation for battle (Exod 14:6), now Yahweh was “harnessing” (רסא) the wheels of those same chariots, causing them to be useless (Exod 14:25).
44Stuart, Exodus, 343.
45This third position is promoted by Thomas B. Dozeman, Commentary on Exodus, Eerdmans Critical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 318; and Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus, 380.
chariots, perhaps making them swerve into one another.46 This “turning aside” of wheels was a judgment on Egypt, just as the plagues had been judgments on Egypt that on two occasions had prompted Pharaoh to beg for their “turning aside” (sûr: Exod 8:8 [4]; 10:17).
If Yahweh had graciously “turned aside” former judgments (see the use sûr of in Exod 8:31 [27]), now the “turning aside” of Yahweh was for judgment. Quite possibly then, one is to understand the use of sûr in Exodus 14:25 in the same sense as the previous uses in Exodus 8:8 [4], 31 [27] (where the meaning “clogged” can hardly be intended). The wheels “turned aside” or “swerved,” perhaps because of ruts on the seabed, the result of which was “heavy” (Hebrew: kěbēdūt) driving.
At the end of Exodus 14:25, one finds a rather startling confession on the part of the panicked Egyptians: “And the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”47 Now at last, the nation of Egypt came to recognize the identity and power of Yahweh, in fulfilment of Exodus 14:4, 18, and Yahweh was glorified.48 At the Red Sea, pagan Egypt acknowledged the insuperable power of Yahweh, God of Israel. The irony, of course, is that scant verses prior, Israel had not quite agreed with Egypt’s assessment that Yahweh “fought for them” (see Exod 14:11-12). Not until Exodus 15:3 would Israel confess that Yahweh was a “man of war.”
The comment of Walter Brueggemann is wry, yet insightful: “When one hears the
46So Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus, 380.
47Noteworthy is the fact that the phrase translated “and the Egyptians said” is ם ִי ַר ְצ ִמ ר ֶמאֹיּ ַו: lit.
“and Egypt said.” Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus, 380, argues that the phrase should be rendered in the literal sense, commenting, “Symbolically, the Egyptian army is Egypt. The idea is not just that the individual Egyptians soldiers were terrified, but that Egypt as a whole was thrown into a panic.”
48Centuries later, a pagan Roman centurion standing before the cross would acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God (Mark 15:39). Brueggemann, The Book of Exodus, 796, writes that the confession made by Egypt in Exod 14:25 is “a grudging admission of defeat, [and] anticipates the parallel statement in Mark 15:39, whereby the power of Rome at long concedes the power of Jesus.”
Egyptian confession, one may conclude that we have not seen such faith in all of Israel (cf. Matt 8:10).”49
The confession of Egypt did not issue in their freedom from Yahweh. Rather, the final chapter of their oceanic ordeal was imminent. Exodus 14:26-28 gives the account of Egypt’s demise by water.