Exodus 14:24

Exo 14:24 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,

Ver. 24. In the morning watch.] God "watcheth upon the evil to bring it" upon his enemies then when he may do them a greatest mischief. {Dan 9:14} He picketh his times for vengeance: "Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself." {Isa 33:10}

The Lord looked unto the host.] He set his eyes upon them; as Paul did upon Elymus the sorcerer; with highest offence, and utmost indignation. After which lightning follows that terrible thunderclap, wherewith he troubled them and took off their wheels. See Psa 77:18-19; Psa 18:15.

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.

Exo 14:24. The Lord — Called the angel before; looked unto the host of the Egyptians — He looked upon them in anger, Psa 104:32. He visited them with marks of his displeasure, and troubled the Egyptians with terrible winds, lightnings, and thunders, Exo 15:10; Psa 77:18-19; also, with terror of mind. Through the pillar of fire and of the cloud — It seems not improbable but that, whereas the cloudy part of the pillar had been toward the Egyptians hitherto, it now turned the other side toward them, and confounded them with showing them their situation.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which was about the three last hours of the night.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Lord looked . . . through . . . the cloud, and troubled them--We suppose the fact to have been that the side of the pillar of cloud towards the Egyptians was suddenly, and for a few moments, illuminated with a blaze of light, which, coming as it were in a refulgent flash upon the dense darkness which had preceded, so frightened the horses of the pursuers that they rushed confusedly together and became unmanageable. "Let us flee," was the cry that resounded through the broken and trembling ranks, but it was too late; all attempts at flight were vain [BUSH].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 24. The morning watch] A watch was the fourth part of the time from sun-setting to sun-rising; so called from soldiers keeping guard by night, who being changed four times during the night, the periods came to be called watches. - Dodd.

As here and in 1Sa 11:11 is mentioned the morning watch; so in La 2:19, the beginning of the watches; and in Jud 7:19, the middle watch is spoken of; in Lu 12:38, the second and third watch; and in Mt 14:25, the fourth watch of the night; which in Mr 13:35 are named evening, midnight, cock-crowing, and day-dawning. - Ainsworth.

As the Israelites went out of Egypt at the vernal equinox, the morning watch, or, according to the Hebrew, באשמרת הבקר beashmoreth habboker, the watch of day-break, would answer to our four o'clock in the morning. - Calmet.

The Lord looked unto] This probably means that the cloud suddenly assumed a fiery appearance where it had been dark before; or they were appalled by violent thunders and lightning, which we are assured by the psalmist did actually take place, together with great inundations of rain, c.: The clouds POURED OUT WATER the skies sent out a SOUND: thine ARROWS also went abroad. The VOICE of thy THUNDER was in the heaven; the LIGHTNINGS LIGHTENED the world; the earth TREMBLED and SHOOK. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters. Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron; Ps 77:17-20. Such tempests as these would necessarily terrify the Egyptian horses, and produce general confusion. By their dashing hither and thither the wheels must be destroyed, and the chariots broken; and foot and horse must be mingled together in one universal ruin; see Ex 14:25. During the time that this state of horror and confusion was at its summit the Israelites had safely passed over; and then Moses, at the command of God, (Ex 14:26), having stretched out his rod over the waters, the sea returned to its strength; (Ex 14:27); i.e., the waters by their natural gravity resumed their level, and the whole Egyptian host were completely overwhelmed, Ex 14:28. But as to the Israelites, the waters had been a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left, Ex 14:29. This the waters could not have been, unless they had been supernaturally supported; as their own gravity would necessarily have occasioned them to have kept their level, or, if raised beyond it, to have regained it if left to their natural law, to which they are ever subject, unless in cases of miraculous interference. Thus the enemies of the Lord perished; and that people who decreed that the male children of the Hebrews should be drowned, were themselves destroyed in the pit which they had destined for others. God's ways are all equal; and he renders to every man according to his works.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(24) In the morning watch.—Between 2 a.m. and 6.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24. the morning watch] The Hebrews divided the night into three ‘watches,’ each of about four hours, the ‘morning watch’ (also Exo 1Sa_11:11) would be from about 2 to 6 a.m.; the ‘middle watch’ is mentioned in Jdg_7:19. Cf. Luk_12:38. In the NT., however, the Roman division into four watches is also followed, Mat_14:25 = Mar_6:48; cf. Mar_13:35.

looked forth] Notice the graphic anthropomorphism. Perhaps the idea is, with fiery flashes, startling the Egyptians, and throwing them into a panic. The author of Psa_77:17-19 pictured torrents of rain, with brilliant lightnings and loud thunder (cf. Psa_81:7), as accompanying the passage of the Red Sea: Jos. Ant. ii. 16. 3 describes it similarly.

host (twice)] Heb. camp, as v. 20. Not the word (ḥayil) rendered ‘host’ in vv. 4, 17, 28, and ‘army’ in v. 9.

discomfited] i.e. threw into panic or confusion: Exo_23:27, Deu_2:15; Deu_7:23, Jos_10:10 al.

24, 25. Premonitory warnings of the disaster about to fall upon the Egyptians.

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.

And it came to pass, that in the morning watch,.... The Romans divided the night into four watches, so the Hebrews; though some say into three only. The first began at six o'clock, and lasted till nine, the second was from thence to twelve, the third from thence to three in the morning, and the last from three to six, which is here called the morning watch; so that this was some time between three and six o'clock in the morning:

the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire and of the cloud; the Angel of the Lord, and who was Jehovah himself, who was in it, he looked to the army of the Egyptians; not to know whereabout they were, he being the omniscient God; nor in a friendly manner, but as an enemy, with indignation and wrath. The Targum of Jonathan is,"he looked through the pillar of fire, to cast upon them coals of fire, and through the pillar of cloud, to cast upon them hailstones.''The Jerusalem Targum is,"pitch, fire, and hailstones;''and Josephus (q) speaks of storms and tempests, of thunder and lightning, and of thunderbolts out of the clouds; and Artapanus (r) of fire or lightning flashing out against them, by which many perished. Perhaps the psalmist may have reference to this in Psa 106:10.

and troubled the host of the Egyptians; the thunder and lightning no doubt frightened the horses, so that they broke their ranks, and horsemen and chariots might run foul on one another, and the hailstones scatter and destroy many; however, the whole must be terrible and distressing to them, especially it being in the night season.

(q) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 2. c. 16. sect. 2.) (r) Apud Euseb. ut supra. (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.

In the morning watch - At sunrise, a little before 6 a.m.in April.

Troubled - By a sudden panic.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Watch. About four o’clock. The Hebrews divided the night into three equal parts, (Calmet) or four, consisting each of three hours, (Menochius) which varied in length as the night was longer. (Haydock) --- Slew many by his thunderbolts, as Artapanus relates, and the Scripture elsewhere insinuates. (Chap. xv. 6, 12; Psalm lxxvi. 16, 18; Josephus, [Antiquities?] ii. 7.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The night was anciently divided, not by hours, as now it is, but by watches, which sometimes were accounted four, and sometimes but three; howsoever the last of them was called the morning watch. Then when they hoped for most advantage in the pursuit, they met with their greatest disaster.

The Lord; called the Angel of God, Exo 14:19. By which promiscuous use of these titles it sufficiently appears that this was no ordinary angel, but the Son of God.

The Lord looked with an eye of indignation and vengeance, (as that phrase is used, Job 40:12 see also Amo 9:4), and troubled them with most terrible and prodigious winds, and rains, and lightnings, and both claps and bolts of thunder, as may be gathered from Exo 15:10; Psa 77:18,19; and, as some ancient historians relate, with terrors also in their minds, &c.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24. In the morning watch — In New Testament times, the Jews divided the night into four watches, but in the Old Testament history mention is made of three only: the first, or “beginning of the watches,” from sunset to ten P.M., (Lam_2:19;) the “middle watch,” from ten P.M. to two A.M., (Jdg_7:10;) and the morning watch, from two A.M. to sunrise. It was, then, after two o’clock in the morning when the cloud, that had hung like a black curtain over and before the Egyptians, opened, and Jehovah “looked upon them” through his lightnings. Thus the Psalmist describes the scene. To appreciate its awfulness to the Egyptians we must remember that thunder and lightning are extremely rare in Egypt, and that the fearful grandeur of our thunderstorms is there wholly unknown. “The clouds streamed water, the skies lifted up their voice, yea, thine arrows (thunderbolts) flew. The voice of thy crash rolled round, (like a chariot in heaven;) lightnings illumined the world; trembled and shook the earth.” Psa_77:17-18.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In the morning watch. The morning watch" of the Hebrews at this period of their history lasted from 2 a.m. to sunrise. Sunrise in Egypt, early in April, would take place about a quarter to six. The Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians. The description in Psa_77:17, Psa_77:18, is generally regarded as belonging to this point in the narrative of the Exodus, and may be considered as the traditional exposition of it. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound; thine arrows also went abroad; the voice of thy thunder was in the heavens; the lightning lightened the world; the earth trembled and shook. " As Josephus says Showers of rain came down from the sky, and dreadful thunders and lightning, with flashes of fire; thunderbolts also were darted upon them; nor was there anything, wont to be sent by God upon men as indications of his wrath, which did not happen upon this occasion" (Ant. Jud: 2:16, And troubled the host. Or disturbed the host," i.e., threw it into confusion. (sunetaraxe, LXX).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord - Called the angel before, looked - With indignation, upon the Egyptians, and troubled the Egyptians - With terrible winds and lightnings and thunders, chap. xv, 10, Psalm lxxvii, 18, 19. Also with terror of mind.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

באשמרת הבקר IN THE MORNING WATCH — The three divisions of the night are each called an אשמורה “a watch” (Berakhot 3b), and that which immediately precedes the morning is called “the morning watch”. I am of opinion that because the night is divided for the watches (משמרות) of the song of the ministering angels — company after company — into three divisions, therefore each division of the night is termed, for all purposes, an אשמרת (another form of משמר the angel’s watch), and this is what Onkelos has in mind when he translates אשמרת by מטרת.

‎ וישקף means HE LOOKED, as much as to say, He turned towards them to destroy them (cf. Rashi on Genesis 18:16), and its rendering in the Targum, ואסתכי, is also an expression denoting looking, just as he translates (Numbers 23:14), “the field of the watchers (צפים)” by “the field of,סכותא” which denotes “looking”.

בעמוד אש וענן THROUGH THE PILLAR OF FIRE AND CLOUD — viz., the pillar of cloud descended and made it (the bed of the sea) like clay, and the pillar of fire made it boiling hot so that the horses’ hoofs fell off (Mekhilta).

ויהם has the meaning of confusion. old French estordison. He cast them into confusion; He took away their ensigns. And we read in the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi José, the Galilean: Wherever it speaks of מהומה (forms from the root המם) it signifies a thundering sound; and the following passage is the father of all of them (i. e. that from which this meaning is quite evident): (I Samuel 7:10) “And the Lord thundered with a great sound … upon the Philistines and discomfited them (ויהמם)”.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.