Cornelius a Lapide's Commentary on Exodus 14:15-31
"The Crossing of the Red Sea"
Ex 14:15: "And the Lord said to Moses: 'Why do you cry to Me?'"
Scripture silently passes over the preceding fact, according to the Hebrew manner, namely that Moses prayed to God with a fervent elevation of mind, standing before Him, and had spoken those things which he had said shortly before to the Hebrews (vv. 13 & 14). God, therefore, hearing him, says: "Why do you cry to Me?" not reproving his prayer, but caressing him, consoling, teaching, and exciting him to the hope and undertaking of the following miracle, namely the crossing of the Red Sea. For interrogation often has this force among the Hebrews, just as that [question] of Christ to His mother: "Woman, what is that to Me and to you?" (John 2:4)—not a chastisement, but a testing of hope, sharpening it. Thus Genesis 47:19, the Egyptians say to Joseph: "Why shall we die before your eyes?" And the Lord to Moses in Exodus 4:2: "What is that in your hand?"
Moreover, "cry" says St. Bernard (Sermon 16 on Psalm 90): "Crying is vehement desire in the ears of God; against remiss intention in the ears of God it is a subdued voice." So also St. Augustine (Question 52), St. Jerome on Isaiah, and St. Chrysostom (Homily on the Canaanite Woman), where he beautifully teaches how everywhere, even while we are conversing with others, we ought to cry to God in mind. Truly that man said: "Before God, not a loud cry but great love avails." And Cassiodorus (on Psalm 16): "His prayer is perfect whose cause cries, whose tongue and act speak, whose life and thought [cry]." And St. Augustine (Sermon): "When you pray," he says, "cry out not with voice but with mind. For God hears even the silent, nor is place sought so much as sense." Jeremiah is strengthened in the prison, Daniel exults among the lions, the three boys dance in the furnace, Job naked on the dunghill triumphs, the thief finds paradise from the cross. There is no place where God is not.
Josephus relates that Moses prayed thus: "Yours is this sea, O Lord; Yours is this mountain which shuts us in. If You will and are able, bid this be opened and turned into land; we can also escape sublime through the air, if it pleases You to save us thus."
Ex 14:16: "That the sons of Israel may go into the midst of the sea."
Through the sea itself, high and vast. Therefore "midst" here does not signify precisely the middle. Thus he [the poet] says: "We shall thirst in the midst of the waves."
Ex 14:17: "But I will harden the heart of the Egyptians so that they may follow you."
For I will cast your footprints before their eyes and mind, and [show] you crossing the sea with dry foot, which they confidently and boldly will follow, not knowing that a snare is being prepared for them there. Moreover, God here removed from the Egyptians the apprehension and fear of walking through the channel of the Red Sea, whence they entered animously through it just as through land, so that they might pursue the Hebrews. Thus God blinded and hardened them so that He might lure them into this trap, capture them, and crush them.
Ex 14:19: "And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, took himself away and went behind them, and with him likewise the pillar of cloud."
The Angel, namely hiding Himself in the pillar of cloud and showing Himself in it. For the Hebrews did not see the Angel in His essence nor clothed in human or other form, but only moving in the species of a cloud. Thus Rupertus. Whence the Hebrews have: "The Angel set out, and with him the pillar of cloud set out." Therefore it placed itself between the camp of the Hebrews and the Egyptians. Hence you may gather with Cajetan that these things happened by day, for the pillar of cloud appeared only by day, just as the pillar of fire only by night.
Moreover, by this spectacle, namely that the Angel with the column preceding the camps transferred himself to the end of the camps and followed them, so that he placed himself between the camp of the Hebrews and the Egyptians, God signified that He bore solicitous care and protection of His people, and accordingly closed the rear of the Hebrews so that He might protect them all from the Egyptians in the manner which follows.
Note: Although the column here followed the camps from behind, nevertheless simultaneously it emitted certain rays from itself from afar before the first battle line, which might show the way by which they should proceed to the Red Sea. For the Hebrews were proceeding continuously as God had ordered (v. 15). In a similar way, an Angel led the ranks of Christians wandering in a pathless place in the Holy Land. For in the Year of the Lord 1144, when the army of Christians, surrounded by ambushes and cast into extreme straits, was retreating from besieging Bostra, the metropolis of the Arabs, by a heavenly messenger as leader they all returned unharmed to their own. When therefore they had fallen into unavoidable dangers and were all wandering in a pathless place and not on a way, and were enclosed by the narrowness of places by enemies rushing upon them to be slain, nor had a leader who might go before the ranks and have knowledge of the places through which they were to pass: behold suddenly before the cohorts, a certain unknown soldier, a rider of a white horse, carrying a banner of red color, clothed in armor with sleeves short to the elbows, was preceding the army. He, as an Angel of the Lord of Hosts, following the shortcuts of the ways, led them to waters previously unknown, teaching them to encamp in suitable and convenient stations, who having led them thus as far as Jerusalem, having completed that admirable ministry, soon vanished from the eyes of all. Thus William of Tyre, Book 16 of the Holy War, chapter 12, and from him Baronius, Year of Christ 1144.
Ex 14:20: "And it was a cloud both dark and illuminating the night, so that they could not come to one another during the whole night."
That is: This pillar of cloud, on that side which looked toward the Egyptians, was so condensed and expanded itself like a thick cloud that the Egyptians could neither see nor approach the Hebrews; nevertheless, they followed the preceding pillar of cloud. But the same column, on that side which looked toward the Hebrews, had the appearance of fire, illuminating their camp so that they could proceed and cross the Red Sea. For the Hebrews were proceeding assiduously during this night, as I have already said. Whence the Chaldee translates: "A cloud and obscurity to the Egyptians, but to Israel it was light the whole night." Behold how by the same column God protects His own and punishes enemies. Thus tropologically says Rupertus: "The same virtue which shines for the pious blinds the impious; thus the cross of Christ is a virtue to believers, but to the Jews a scandal."
Ex 14:21: "And when Moses had stretched out his hand over the sea, the Lord took it away by a blowing wind."
Having first invoked the Name, says Josephus. "When simultaneously at the same time the wind blew."
"VEHEMENT AND BURNING ALL NIGHT AND TURNED IT INTO DRY." Some think, as St. Basil in the Chain, that this division of the sea was made by a burning wind either propelling and extruding the waters or drying and consuming the same. But this is little credible. For neither could the same wind impel or dry the waters and simultaneously hold them back so that they would not flow into the empty channel. Secondly, let us grant that this could be done; nevertheless, as soon as the wind ceased, the elevated waters of the sea would have flowed back into their former channel, and [the sea] ceased [being dry] while the Hebrews were crossing, because otherwise it would have made the crossing most troublesome for them.
Therefore, Moses extending the rod over the sea, soon not the wind but the Angel divided the sea, so that on both sides swelling like a wall it might stand, a way being left in the middle by which the Hebrews might cross. But the wind sent by God was only for this: that it might thoroughly dry and solidify the channel now divided and vacant of waters, removing whatever moisture and mud remained in it. Therefore the division of the sea in such great width was made suddenly by the Angel; but the drying of the bottom of the sea by the wind was made successively, says Cajetan, so also Abulensis and Pererius.
Note: This division of the sea was immense regarding width. For the Red Sea has a space of leagues in width, as Adrichomius teaches; regarding length, for through it all the camps of the Hebrews had to cross in the space of one night, indeed only half a night, which consisted of three million men besides chariots and beasts. Therefore the length of this fissure of the sea had to be immense so that many orders of men and animals could walk and cross through it simultaneously. For if one had crossed after another, they would have spent in the crossing not only days but weeks.
St. Hilarion, imitating this confidence of Moses, wrought a similar miracle in the sea. For surrounded by pirates, with all trembling, he smiled: "Why do you tremble at a small matter? Are they more numerous than the army of Pharaoh? Nevertheless, all were submerged by the will of God." And stretching [his hand] against those coming, "Let it suffice to have come thus far." Immediately the pirates, however much they rowed, were pushed back to the shore. St. Jerome in his Life.
"BLOWING WITH A VEHEMENT AND BURNING WIND." It is with a strong Eastern wind. For the Eastern wind is hot and burning. The Septuagint and Philo think it was the South wind [Auster], consequently by the opposite, namely the North wind, the sea was led back when it overwhelmed the Egyptians, just as the South is counted with the East, so also the South with the Euro-Eastern. See what was said on chapter 10, verse 13.
Note: The Hebrews approached the sea at the beginning of the night and the first watch. Soon Moses struck the sea; immediately the Angel divided [it], and immediately He induced a valid and burning wind which, blowing continuously from the beginning of the night up to midnight and beyond, dried the channel. The channel having been dried and the wind ceasing, the Hebrews after midnight in the third watch entered the channel of the sea, and about the middle of the fourth watch they all escaped to the other shore. But the Egyptians, following the Hebrews about the end of the third watch, entered the sea. But morning approaching in the fourth watch, when now the Hebrews had crossed the sea, but all the Egyptians were in the midst of the sea, that is, in the channel of the sea, soon Moses striking the waters with the rod, those returning into the former channel covered and overwhelmed Pharaoh and all the Egyptians.
This miracle of Moses the Pseudo-Moses of Crete feigned he wished to imitate in the time of Emperor Theodosius, around the Year of the Lord 433. Hear Socrates, Book 7, History, chapter 37: "A certain old Jew," he says, "simulated himself to be Moses, and said he was sent from heaven to lead the Jews who inhabited the island of Crete into the continent into the land of promise. For he [said] himself to be the same who once leading Israel through the Red Sea had preserved [them]." When the day appointed by him arrived, he preceding, all began to follow. He leads them therefore to a promontory jutting into the sea; from there he orders them to cast themselves into the sea. The first thus do, and part crushed by the precipice, part submerged by the water, perished. Many more would have perished unless Christian fishermen had extracted them and prohibited others from wishing to cast themselves. The Pseudo-Moses being sought did not appear, whence the opinion was that he was a demon. Thence many Jews [converted] to Christ.
"ALL NIGHT." Not because it blew this wind the whole night, but because for part of it, namely up to the entry of the Hebrews into the sea, which happened after midnight. For they before dawn not only entered but also crossed the channel of the sea, the wind now ceasing. After the Hebrews crossed the sea, the Egyptians following were submerged in the morning watch.
Ex 14:22: "And the water was divided."
The Hebrews, whom Origen follows here (Homily 5) and Genebrardus on Psalm 135, hand down that the Red Sea was divided into 12 sections or parts, so that with equal step the 12 tribes might proceed through it; for each was proceeding in its own section. And they prove the divisions were multiple therefore, namely 12, for so many were the tribes, from Psalm 135, verse 3, where it is said: "Who divided the Red Sea into divisions." But this tradition is uncertain, of which there is no mention in Scripture, which would not have been silent about a matter so memorable. Indeed, Philo, Theodoret, Abulensis, Lyranus, and Euthymius on Psalm 135 and others teach that there was only one section of the sea. And Scripture sufficiently hints this when it says the water was divided, where the Hebrews have yibbakenu hammayim, and the Septuagint dieskithē to hydōr ("the water was cleft"), just as we cleave wood when we dissect it into two parts. Then verse 22 says there was a wall of water to the right of the Hebrews and to the left, and they went through the middle channel. Therefore there was one section, not twelve.
Favoring this opinion also is that which is said in Psalm 105:9: "He led them in the abyss" (Greek en abyssō), "as in the desert," that is, a very wide way, such as are in the desert, for example in the myrtle beds of Campania. Therefore there was only one section of the sea, and that very wide. To that [verse] of Psalm 135 I respond: one division is called divisions both on account of amplitude, because one was like many, says Lyranus; and because divisions are put for things or parts divided, but these were multiple, that is two. For the Hebrews have the same plural and dual number, whence they call two "many." Therefore divisions here are called the two sides of the divided sea, which stood like two walls on both sides, providing a middle passage for the Hebrews. Moses explains these divisions here when he says that God so divided the sea that the waters were for the Hebrews as a wall on the right and on the left.
Ex 14:22 (continued): "And the sons of Israel went into the midst of the dry sea."
Moses preceding, says Josephus. It is the tradition of the Hebrews that the tribe of Judah and its leader Aminadab, with the others trembling, first entered the sea, and therefore the tribe of Judah thereafter was first and leader of the others, and merited the kingdom, and allusion is made to this in Canticles 6:11: "My soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab." And Hosea 11, last verse: "But Judah went down as a witness with God, and with the saints faithful." Although St. Jerome there calls this tradition a fable.
Note "dry": For the bottom of the sea was not so dry that it was dry sand, but as a field is dry through which travelers walk pleasantly with foot. For this is what the Wise Man says, Wisdom 19:7: "In the Red Sea a way without impediment, a field sprouting from the very deep." Which although he explains figuratively there, namely that the Hebrews crossed the channel of the sea as joyfully as if they had crossed through a field verdant with leaves and flowers, nevertheless better our John Lorinus there and Pineda on Job 26:5 take it properly. For Pliny relates, Book 13, chapter 25, the channel is herbaceous, fertile of olive and laurel. Our Gaspar Sanchez on Isaiah chapter 63, number 55: God by miracle dried and leveled the channel of the Red for the Hebrews, and so by miracle effected that the same channel suddenly sprouted and bloomed like a most pleasant field for the consolation and delight of the Hebrews. For there the Wise Man [speaks of] the works not of nature but of the miraculous [power] of God.
Behold here the goodness and power of God in His own. "If you obey His will," says Origen, "if you follow His law, He will compel even the elements to serve you against their nature." Thus He made fire serve the three boys in the Babylonian furnace so that it might send them a sweet breeze and as it were cooling dew, but burn the impious Chaldeans. Thus He made the waters of the flood serve Noah, floating and preserving him, but submerging the impious. Thus He made lions serve Daniel in the den, the sun for Joshua pursuing victory (Joshua 10:13), the Jordan for the Hebrews to cross into Canaan (Joshua 3:16), Samuel (1 Kings 12:18), ravens for Elijah to bring him bread, bears for Elisha to punish and tear the boys mocking him. Thus fire served Christ and the Apostles at Pentecost, the air and winds when at His bidding they were silent, the sea over which He walked, and at His bidding gave Peter fishing a copy of fishes, the earth and rocks when they were rent in the Passion, Angels when they gave the star as an index of Christ's birth, and when they sang "Glory to God in the highest." Fishes and birds served St. Francis when they applauded and chirped to him preaching, and at his bidding again were silent. Thus Satyrs and Fauns [showed] the way to St. Paul the Hermit, and lions with their claws dug out the tomb in which to bury St. Paul. Thus a mountain served Gregory when it gave way so that he might build a church, likewise the river Lycus when it contracted itself so that it would not overflow into the fields. Thus winds served the impious Emperor Theodosius, turning the weapons of enemies upon themselves in the battle against the tyrant Eugenius. Thus spiders served St. Felix of Nola when they suddenly wove their webs over him so that he would not be found by those pursuing. His memory is celebrated on January 14.
Vestiges of this entry and crossing of the Hebrews, the tracks of chariots and wheel orbits, remain and are divinely always repaired both on the shore and in the Red Sea itself, relates Orosius, Book 1, chapter 10, where he adds that it happened around the time of the burning of Phaethon. Diodorus in the Chain hints the same, who was the teacher of [St. ?], and adds that Gentiles ascribed this crossing of the Hebrews with dry foot through the sea not to a miracle but to a reciprocation of the sea. The Memphites said the same, testifies Eusebius, Book 9 on Preparation, last chapter. Indeed, Josephus doubts whether this division of the sea was miraculous or natural. For "under the leadership of Alexander the Great," he says, "the Pamphylian Sea yielded and opened a way, when God had decreed to destroy the empire of the Persians by his works." But it is most clear that this division of the sea was a great miracle. For no reciprocation of the sea cleaves the sea so that in the middle of it a very wide way is made for crossing, as was done here. For the reflux of the sea only bares the shores or places near the shores. Moreover, no reflux of the sea effects that on both sides the waters rise like a wall and stand immobile until the people cross and soon roll back upon the enemies pursuing them. What Josephus says about the Pamphylian Sea, that it yielded to Alexander, is a fable. For as Strabo teaches, Book 14, Alexander did not penetrate and pervade it, but only crossed its shore obliquely with his men up to the navel, yet prosperously he used fortune in this his audacity, because crossing it in winter he was not overwhelmed by its waves returning.
Note: Similar to this division of the sea was the division of the Jordan made under Joshua, by which the Hebrews penetrated into Canaan. Nevertheless, it was dissimilar in this:
First, the division of the sea was made by Moses extending his rod into it; but the division of the Jordan was made by the presence of the Ark of the Lord.
Second, in the sea the division of water stood on both sides like walls; but in the Jordan the lower part flowed into the Dead Sea, the upper part stopped and swelled with waters continually flowing. But when the Hebrews had crossed, it did not subside suddenly but gradually, lest it overwhelm the banks and fields. And in this part, the division of the Jordan was more wonderful than that of the Red Sea.
Third, in the sea the Egyptians were submerged; but no one was drowned in the Jordan.
Fourth, in the sea God sent a wind to dry the muddy bottom; but He did not do this in the Jordan because its channel is small and sandy.
Hence it is clear that the division of the sea was far greater and more wonderful than [that of] the Jordan. Whence the Canaanites and other Gentiles, hearing this, were stupefied and languished, as is clear in Joshua 2:11 and Judith 5:12.
Allegorically: The Apostle, 1 Corinthians 10: "Our fathers," he says, "were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea." They were baptized, namely typically and in figure, as the Apostle says there. For the crossing of the Hebrews through the Red Sea signified Christians passing through Baptism and the blood of Christ contained in Baptism into a new life of grace. The cloud signified the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, Moses Christ, the rod the cross, Pharaoh the devil and sin, manna the Eucharist. Thus Theodoret, Origen, and Ambrose, Book 2 on the Sacraments, chapter 6; Augustine, Sermon 90; Prosper, Part 1 of Predictions, chapter 38; Tertullian, Book on Baptism, chapter 9; Cyprian, Epistle 76 to Magnus, and others.
Tropologically: Nyssen beautifully teaches in the Life of Moses how we ought to drown vices with their arms. "For the horsemen, foot soldiers, and chariots of the Egyptians," he says, "are the passions of the soul to which man is subjected in servitude. For what does that army of the Egyptians differ from poured-out anger, unbridled pleasure, immoderate pain, avarice, foulness? Is not the impulse of anger like a trembling spear? Do not excessive pleasures vex the mind like unbridled horses dragging the chariot here and there?" There were also three standing in the chariots, namely in each one three warriors, by which we believe the tripartite power of the soul is understood, namely the rational, concupiscible, irascible. These three powers depraved. Then he teaches that all these are drowned in Baptism, and when we emerge from it, nothing of them is to be drawn out, but all ought to be left submerged in the water.
Ex 14:24: "And now the morning watch had come, and behold the Lord looking upon the Egyptian camp through the pillar of fire."
"Looking" signifies the pillar of cloud as if it had opened itself so that the Angel hiding in it might show Himself through coruscating light and gaze upon the camps of the Egyptians, and soon hurl into it thunders, lightnings, stones, or fiery darts, by which He threw down the wheels and horsemen from the chariots, as is said here. Whence also the Egyptians said: "Let us flee from Israel, for the Lord fights for them against us." Thus Lyranus and others. Hear also Josephus: "Showers," he says, "approached from heaven and harsh thunders with lightnings flashing together, lightnings also were borne, and nothing at all was lacking of those things which are accustomed to be sent by an angry God to men for destruction. For a night too cloudy and dark comprehended them, and thus all that army was destroyed so that not even a messenger of the slaughter returned home." Whence also here verse 28 it is said: "Nor did one even remain of them." Behold here how true that is: "Fortune is glass; when it shines, it is broken."
Ex 14:25: "And He overthrew the wheels of the chariots."
"He killed the army." It is a synecdoche. For part of the army, terrified by this celestial slaughter of their own, while preparing flight, was absorbed by the waters returning. Where Note: This slaughter inflicted from the heavens by the Angel happened before the sea was rolled back by Moses. For after the slaughter of the Angel, terrified, the Egyptians fled, and to the fleeing the waters of the sea returning to their channel, now rolled back by Moses, occurred, by which the remaining part of the army from the prior slaughter was absorbed and submerged, as is clear in verse 26 and following. Josephus writes that by this slaughter universally perished in the Red Sea of the Egyptians two hundred thousand armored foot soldiers and fifty thousand horsemen. Pharaoh himself also perished, but lastly, if we believe the Hebrews and Abulensis, so that namely he might first see the slaughter of all his own before he himself perished by the same, and thus be cruciated longer and more gravely. Eusebius in the Chronicle calls this Pharaoh Chenchres.
"And He overthrew the wheels of the chariots." The Septuagint translate synedēse tous axonas ē armatōn ("He bound the axles or of the chariots"), impeded or bound the wheels of the chariots. Whence they seem to have read va'atar ("he bound") instead of va'yasar ("he removed/threw off"), that is, constricted, so that they could not proceed. Whence also Vatablus translates: "He constricted the wheels of the chariots and led them heavily or difficultly," that is: The Egyptians drove their chariots with difficulty, as is accustomed to be driven with great difficulty when the wheels are constricted or removed. But the Hebrews have va'yasar, and so reads our Chaldee and others.
"And they were borne into the deep." For the chariots, first elevated by the wheels, now with the wheels thrown off, were depressed together with the wheels into the deep, that is, into the very channel of the sea now vacant of waters and soon to be filled again by them. Hebrewly it is: "He led them into heaviness," that is, into the deep. It is a metalepsis because heavy things tend to the bottom and deep, hence heaviness is called the depth itself.
Morally learn here:
First, how true is that of Seneca: "All powers have a short life, and especially all tyranny." Behold Pharaoh, warned by Moses and contemning the warning, when he most fiercely oppressed the Hebrews in brick and mud, after one month is stripped of life and kingdom. Julius Caesar, invader of the empire, after three years was slain in the curia by the senators. Cyrus from his monarchy, namely Babylon captured, reigned only three years, and slain by Thomyris queen of the Scythians, with head cut off and cast into a skin full of blood, heard her insulting: "Sate yourself, Cyrus, with blood which you so thirsted for." Alexander the Great ruled as monarch only six years from the slain Darius. Wherefore Apelles painted him like lightning, which as it appears suddenly, so also soon disappears.
Second, how true is that of the Poet: "To the son-in-law of Ceres, to Pluto, to Orcus, few kings descend without slaughter and blood, and tyrants with a dry death." For just vengeance of God watches over tyrants, so that they who spoiled others of life and goods, by these same things be violently spoiled by others. Thus Pharaoh, thus Caesar, thus Cyrus, thus Alexander were taken away by violent death. Thus Diocletian, Maximian, tyrants, swore they would either delete Christians altogether or depose the empire. Wherefore when they could not delete Christians, indignantly on the same day they deposed the empire, and shortly after Maximian wishing to receive the empire again was driven to the noose at Marseilles by Emperor Constantine. Diocletian was consumed by a wasting and putrefaction sent by God. Thus Aurelian, Emperor, persecutor of Christians, after a year captured by the king of the Persians, became the laughingstock of the world. For the king used him as a footstool when he was about to mount a horse. The same [did] Tamberlanes, king of the Tartars, to Bajazet, tyrant of the Turks. Julian the Apostate, after two years of empire, pierced by a celestial [weapon] died. Thus Valens the Arian, persecutor of the orthodox, was burned by the Goths in the marshes in a cottage to which he had fled. Thus Anastasius, heretical and impious Emperor, struck by lightning from God, was sent to tartarus. Thus Nero, when he could not inflict hands on himself due to weakness, was slain by his own eunuch. Thus Decius, Maxentius, Domitian, Otto, Galba, Vitellius, very many tyrants perished by a swift and violent death.
Third, learn here the vanity of the kingdoms of the world. What is human life? It is a comedy in which one acts the person of a king, another of a soldier, another of a rustic, another of a counselor, another of a citizen. In death this comedy ends. Then each one puts down his person which he bore, his garments, his titles. M. Antonius, as is reported Book 6 on Benefits, chapter 3, when he saw his fortune passing to another Caesar and nothing left to himself except the right of death, said: "I have this, whatever I have given." Augustus Caesar himself, who reigned 52 years in such great felicity, dying called his friends and asked them: "Have I played my part well enough?" namely in the empire as in a comedy. And when they assented, "Farewell therefore," he said, "applaud," and the curtains having been drawn, he breathed out his soul, unhappy, about to go to tartarus. Where now are the chariots, horsemen, and eagles of Augustus? Where the pomp? Where the triumphs? Where the pleasures? Where the libidines? O how much more would Augustus now prefer never to have been Augustus than to prefer to have been a poor rustic Christian! "All things of the world remain in the world," says St. Ambrose on Luke 12; "virtue alone is the companion of the deceased." Ask the impious in death: "The kingdoms and riches which you prepared, whose will they be?" He will respond: "Alas, they will no longer be mine but others'." Ask the just: "Which [things] have you prepared, whose will they be?" He will respond: "They will be mine forever." For their works follow them. Transitory goods through virtue, through the poor, I have transferred into heaven; from temporary I have rendered them eternal.
Hear finally the epitaph of Pharaoh: "Where now, Pharaoh, are your scepters, your chariots, your camps? Where your pride, great dragon who dwelt in the midst of your rivers and devoured other nations? Where your voice: 'I do not know the Lord, my river is mine, and I made myself'? How have you fallen from heaven, Lucifer, who rose in the morning? You despoiled the Hebrews, now they despoil you. You submerged their infants, now you are submerged in the Red Sea. You are submerged in your blood. You devoured them, now fishes devour you. Temporary and brief are these things; hear eternal things: 'In eternity you have become food for ravens and the peoples of Ethiopia.' But these things are to be lamented. 'Your pride has been brought down to hell; under you strewing will be your bed; worms will be your covering.' You have descended into the deep pit of the damned, where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished. Giants, kings, and tyrants met you, saying and congratulating: 'And you are wounded just as we; you have become like us. Is this the man who troubled the earth, who shook nations? Behold now he is alone, naked, and miserable, just as we.' Demons acclaimed to you: 'Come, Pharaoh, dwell with us with devouring fire, with eternal burnings, where the smoke of torments ascends into ages of ages.' Hear these things, O kings; hear, O princes: 'Learn justice, being warned, and not to despise the Gods.'"
Ex 14:27: "And it returned at first dawn to the former place."
Hebrewly it is: "It returned to its strength or to its robustness." That is, as the Chaldee translates: "It returned to its vigor," that is, to the state and natural place in which the sea as it were lives and vigors.
Note: God, that is the Angel vice of God, or rather Angels (for one could not extend himself through six miles by which the Red Sea was wide and there suspend the waters), because they had suspended and held back the waters of the sea up to this point, namely while the Hebrews crossed, now the Hebrews having crossed and the Egyptians having entered, they release them again so that with violent impulse they might rush into the former channel. But with ordered series. For first the waters which were near the shore were released by them, and those first coalesced. Then the following gradually further. Whence to the Egyptians returning to their shore, the waters occurred from afar coalescing in this order, so that namely their punishment and submersion would be so much more terrible quanto by longer fear and expectation it was formidable, when they beheld with long gaze the avenging waters by which they were to be submerged gradually coalesce and approach. For often in war the fear itself of war [is worse than the war].
Ex 14:29: "But the sons of Israel went through the midst of the dry sea."
It is an anacephaleosis (recapitulation). For now the Egyptians were being submerged, the Hebrews had crossed this sea. For Moses standing on the shore and extending hands against the sea, as if by this sign recalling the waters, had now led them back when the Hebrews were already acting in safety on the shore, but the Egyptians were being submerged in the sea. Moses therefore recapitulates here the things said before so that he might inculcate in the Hebrews the memory of so great a liberation and so happy and wonderful crossing through the sea, so that they might continually recollect it and give thanks to God.
The Rabbis, Abulensis, and Burgensis deny and think that the Hebrews in this crossing made a semicircle, namely that they circled around the mountain or rocks of the desert of Etham which were impeding the direct journey into Canaan through land and were running into the Red Sea, so that having circumvented these rocks through the sea they returned by a reflected journey to the same shore looking toward Egypt through which they had entered the sea, but not to the same place of the shore.
They prove:
First, because so vast a sea which Adrichomius asserts to have where it is widest a space of six leagues in width, the Hebrews could not penetrate in so little time, namely three or four hours, from one shore into the opposite pervading, especially since among them were boys, old men, sheep, and many other impediments.
Second, because the Hebrews after the crossing saw the corpses of the Egyptians floating. But the Egyptians had not entered the sea so deeply that they could be ejected onto the opposite shore.
Third, Numbers 33:7, the Hebrews after the crossing of the sea are said to have come into the desert of Etham. But Etham was not across but on this side of the sea. For there was the third mansion of the Hebrews, as we saw before chapter 13, verse 20.
But the contrary opinion is common, namely that the Hebrews crossed the whole width of the sea, pervading from one shore to another opposite. For this distinctly relates Josephus, Philo, and Nyssen. The same Scripture hints when it narrates the waters of the sea were fissured and the Hebrews crossed through the midst of the sea. For according to the opinion of the Rabbis, it would have been not so much a crossing as a circuit or gyration of the sea. Then this is clear from chorography. For as from Egypt and the Red Sea one arrives at Sinai, the Red Sea must be crossed. For this lies between Sinai and Egypt. Although indeed from Rameses into Sinai and more into Canaan there is a direct pedestrian way which leaves the Red Sea to the side, nevertheless this way is so enclosed by rocks on all sides in length and so precipitous that the camps of the Hebrews could not cross through it, but led by God they bent the journey through the Red Sea which necessarily had to be pervaded, as is to be seen in the tables of Adrichomius, page 116. They err who think otherwise.
To the First I Respond: The Hebrews could have spent five hours in this crossing. For soon from midnight they began to enter the sea and at dawn they penetrated to the opposite shore. Nor ought we to wonder if in the celerity of crossing there was a miracle, since we see so many other open and illustrious miracles.
To the Second I Respond: The corpses of the Egyptians were propelled and ejected onto the opposite shore because the sea from the other side occurred to them fleeing and returning, and thus propelled them into the opposite part. Philo and Josephus add this was effected by the force of winds. There is no doubt the Angel, either by Himself or through the wind or through the sea, propelled the Egyptians to the opposite shore on which the Hebrews were, and this for the greater exultation and consolation of the Hebrews and so that they might be able to despoil the enemies and see [them].
To the Third Responds Cajetan: The desert of Etham is very vast. For by the same chapter 33 of Numbers the Hebrews are said to have made a journey of three days in it. Etham extends itself as well on this side of the sea as beyond. Otherwise Lyranus responds, namely that this desert is other than that of Numbers 33, yet both are called Etham. For thus many cities and villages have the same names.
Finally, the Hebrews hand down that in this egress from Egypt and crossing of the Red Sea, the neighboring mountains, partly as if admiring so great a prodigy, congratulating the people of God, leaped out and as if danced. And Psalm 113:4 wishes this when he sings: "The Jordan saw and fled; the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like the lambs of the sheep." "What is to you, O sea, that you fled? O mountains, that you exulted like rams?" Just as the flight of the sea, so the exultation of the mountains, that is, leaping and saltation, properly is to be taken metaphorically. Thus the Hebrews, whom Cajetan and Genebrardus follow on Psalm 113, verse 5, and our Sanchez on chapter 64 of Isaiah, verse 1, with Jansenius, explain that place of Psalm 113 concerning the earthquake which happened at Sinai when the Law was given there (Exodus 19:18). For the Psalmist is accustomed to conjoin various miracles made in various places and times as if skimming over them. Therefore let the judgment of this miracle remain with the Hebrews.
Ex 15:1: "Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song..."
"THEN MOSES AND THE SONS OF ISRAEL SANG THIS SONG," by which, exulting over such a happy crossing of the sea and the submersion of the Egyptians, they give thanks to God and celebrate His magnificence and power; then they prophesy their introduction into Canaan. It is therefore this song an epinician [victory hymn], prophetic, and eucharistic [thanksgiving].
In what meter this song and most ancient canticle was composed—for it preceded the hymns and songs of Linus, Musaeus, and Orpheus by more than three hundred years—modern Hebrews do not know, for ancient Hebrew poetry has perished and is lost. Josephus [says] this song was composed in hexameter verse, but he does not explain what feet, what measures. Only now in the song can we notice in the Hebrew another style and vein and poetic schemes; for it abounds in paronomasias [play on words], anaphoras [repetitions], similarly falling [endings], and other figures; it is so full of exulting spirit that you would seem not so much to hear as to see a chorus leaping for joy.
Allegorically: Christians, especially the Blessed, who through Baptism and the blood of Christ have conquered sin and the devil and have penetrated into the promised land in the heavens, sing this canticle. For this is what St. John says in Apocalypse 15: "I saw," he says, "as it were a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had overcome the beast and its image standing upon the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and singing the canticle of Moses, the servant of God, and the canticle of the Lamb, saying: Great and wonderful are Thy works, O Lord God Almighty." O how glorious, how joyful it is and will be for us to sing this canticle for all eternity!
"LET US SING." Hebrew: ashira (אָשִׁירָה), that is, "I will sing." For Moses composed this song with the Holy Spirit suggesting it, in the name not so much of his own as of the whole and entire people; and the whole people, with Moses singing beforehand as if one Republic and one Church, sang it. Whence he speaks in the singular, saying: "My strength," not "our strength," "and my praise is the Lord, who has become my salvation; this is my God," etc.
Philo relates that Moses dictated and sang each verse beforehand, which the people then sang in response, as is done in choruses and dances. Abulensis [says] the Hebrews, taught this song by Moses, afterward sang it themselves. The Author of Book 1 on Miracles of Holy Scripture among Augustine, chapter 21, notes here an open miracle, namely that boys, old men, men, youths, in such great number, as if with one mouth, in one breath, sang the same voices and sentences. For although Moses sang beforehand, nevertheless he could not be heard by so many in such a great crowd. The same happened among the women, who with Mary [Miriam] in their whole cohort sang the same in response.
Note here and imitate the piety of the ancient Saints, who, having received benefits from God, immediately were accustomed to burst forth into praises and hymns of God. Thus did David throughout the whole Psalter; thus did Anna at the birth of Samuel; thus did Deborah at the slaughter of Sisera; thus did Judith at the beheading of Holofernes; thus did Zacharias at the birth of St. John; thus the Blessed Virgin at the conception of Christ; thus did Simeon at the sight of Christ, singing that swan-song: "Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord," while "Thy word in peace."
Verse 1 (continued): "...for He is gloriously magnified."
"FOR GLORIOUSLY HE IS MAGNIFIED." Hebrew: gao gaah (גָּאֹה גָּאָה), because magnifying He was magnified, that is, He was wonderfully magnified, because He showed great power and vengeance.
Verse 1 (continued): "The horse and its rider He has cast into the sea."
"THE HORSE AND ITS RIDER HE HAS CAST INTO THE SEA." That is: The horse and the Egyptian horsemen, and especially Pharaoh himself, the sea cast down. Thus St. Hilarion, hearing the roars of wolves, lions, and other beasts which demons were mimicking to strike terror into him, arming himself with the sign of the cross, wished to see those whose roars he heard. Soon he saw a terrible chariot rushing upon him. But crying out "Jesus," it vanished. Then he said: "The horse," and "He cast into the sea," says St. Jerome in his Life. "It is urged by spurs and unwillingly rages; this one drives and goads," says St. Jerome on Psalm 75.
Origen and Rupertus here tropologically: The horse is the carnal man, proud, unjust; the rider is the devil. If therefore an impious man persecutes you, know that he is the horse, but the devil is the rider. This one runs, this one strikes with his lance. This one drives.
Again Philo: "Horses," he says, "are fury and concupiscence;" the former male, the latter female. The charioteer is the intellect, which if anyone loosens the reins, these horses drive both themselves and the charioteer and the whole [team] headlong.
CONTINUE
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