21. Moses stretched out his hand, &c.--The waving of the rod was
of great importance on this occasion to give public attestation in the
presence of the assembled Israelites, both to the character of Moses
and the divine mission with which he was charged.
the Lord caused . . . a strong east wind all that
night--Suppose a mere ebb tide caused by the wind, raising the
water to a great height on one side, still as there was not only
"dry land," but, according to the tenor of the sacred narrative, a wall
on the right hand and on the left
[Ex 14:22],
it would be impossible on the hypothesis of such a natural cause to
rear the wall on the other. The idea of divine interposition,
therefore, is imperative; and, assuming the passage to have been made
at Mount Attakah, or at the mouth of Wady Tawarik, an east wind
would cut the sea in that line. The Hebrew word kedem,
however, rendered in our translation, "east," means, in its primary
signification, previous; so that this verse might, perhaps, be
rendered, "the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong
previous wind all that night"; a rendering which would remove
the difficulty of supposing the host of Israel marched over on the
sand, in the teeth of a rushing column of wind, strong enough to heap
up the waters as a wall on each side of a dry path, and give the
intelligible narrative of divine interference.
JFB.
Picture Study Bible