Exodus 14:31

Exo 14:31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.

Ver. 31. {See Trapp on "Exo 14:30"}

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 14:31. The people feared the Lord — This great work, which the Lord had done upon the Egyptians, was a means of begetting in them, for the present at least, awful thoughts of God, and devout affections toward him. And they believed the Lord and his servant Moses — Now they were ashamed of their distrusts and murmurings; and in the mind they were in, they would never again despair of help from heaven, no, not in the greatest straits! They would never again quarrel with Moses, nor talk of returning to Egypt. How well were it for us if we were always in as good a frame as we are in sometimes!

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

14:31 Finally, the people of Israel were moved to put their faith in the Lord: Sadly, it was very short-lived (see 15:24; 16:3). • To be the Lord’s servant is a position of high honor (see Isa 42:1-4; Matt 12:18).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That is, the doctrine which he taught them in the Name of the Lord.

Hebrew, hand.

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

Verse 31. The people feared the Lord] They were convinced by the interference of Jehovah that his power was unlimited, and that he could do whatsoever he pleased, both in the way of judgment and in the way of mercy.

And believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.] They now clearly discerned that God had fulfilled all his promises; and that not one thing had failed of all the good which he had spoken concerning Israel. And they believed his servant Moses - they had now the fullest proof that he was Divinely appointed to work all these miracles, and to bring them out of Egypt into the promised land.

Thus God got himself honour upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and credit in the sight of Israel. After this overthrow of their king and his host, the Egyptians interrupted them no more in the journeyings, convinced of the omnipotence of their Protector: and how strange, that after such displays of the justice and mercy of Jehovah, the Israelites should ever have been deficient in faith, or have given place to murmuring!

1. THE events recorded in this chapter are truly astonishing; and they strongly mark what God can do, and what he will do, both against his enemies and in behalf of his followers. In vain are all the forces of Egypt united to destroy the Israelites: at the breath of God's mouth they perish; and his feeble, discouraged, unarmed followers take the prey! With such a history before their eyes, is it not strange that sinners should run on frowardly in the path of transgression; and that those who are redeemed from the world, should ever doubt of the all-sufficiency and goodness of their God! Had we not already known the sequel of the Israelitish history, we should have been led to conclude that this people would have gone on their way rejoicing, trusting in God with their whole heart, and never leaning to their own understanding; but alas! we find that as soon as any new difficulty occurred, they murmured against God and their leaders, despised the pleasant land, and gave no credence to his word.

2. Their case is not a solitary one: most of those who are called Christians are not more remarkable for faith and patience. Every reverse will necessarily pain and discompose the people who are seeking their portion in this life. And it is a sure mark of a worldly mind, when we trust the God of Providence and grace no farther than we see the operations of his hand in our immediate supply; and murmur and repine when the hand of his bounty seems closed, and the influences of his Spirit restrained, though our unthankful and unholy carriage has been the cause of this change. Those alone who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, shall be lifted up in due season. Reader, thou canst never be deceived in trusting thy all, the concerns of thy body and soul, to Him who divided the sea, saved the Hebrews, and destroyed the Egyptians.

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

(31) Israel saw that great work.—The destruction of the Pharaoh’s chariot force and cavalry in the Red Sea secured the retreat of Israel, and saved them from any further molestation at the hands of the Egyptians. The spirit of the nation was effectually broken for the time; and it was not till after several reigns, and an interval of anarchy, that there was a revival. The king himself probably despaired of effecting anything against a foe that was supernaturally protected; and the army, having lost the flower of the chariot force, on which it mainly depended for success, desired no further contest. The Israelites, as will be seen further on, in their rapid march to Sinai avoided the Egyptian settlements, and having once reached the Sinaitic region, they were beyond the dominion of Egypt, and for forty years quite out of the path of Egyptian conquest. The episode in the life of the nation begun by the descent of Jacob into Egypt now terminated, and a fresh beginning was made. In the open air of the desert, cut off from all other races, admitted to close communion with Jehovah, the people entered upon that new and higher existence which culminated in the teaching of the prophets, in the noble struggles of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in the memorable stand on behalf of religious truth and national independence which was made by the Maccabees.

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

31. The effects of the great deliverance thus wrought for Israel: an increased fear of God, and belief in God, and also in Moses’ Divine commission.

work] Heb. hand, fig. for act or work; cf. Deu_34:12, Psa_78:42.

believed in] ‘The idiom rendered “he believed in” (האמין ב) is a very striking one: the belief intended is, not merely a crediting of a testimony concerning a person or a thing (this would be האמין ל), but a laying firm hold morally on a person or a thing, without the help of any intermediate agency’ (Cheyne, s.v. Faith in EB.). Cf. Gen_15:6. The root idea of האמין is to shew firmness or steadiness towards (ל) or on (ב) a person or a word: cf. Job_39:24 RVm., and the cognate subst. in ch. Exo_17:12 (Lex. ‘Moses’ hands were firmness’).

his servant] A title applied to Moses elsewhere in the Pent. only Num_12:7-8, Deu_34:5 (both JE). It is very common in the book of Joshua (mostly in parts which are the work of the Deuteronomic editor): Jos_1:1-2; Jos_1:7; Jos_1:13; Jos_1:15, Jos_8:31; Jos_8:33, Jos_9:24, Jos_11:12; Jos_11:15, Jos_12:6, Jos_13:8, Jos_14:7, Jos_18:7, Jos_22:2; Jos_22:4-5.

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 Israel saw the great work,.... Or "hand" (l); the hand of the Lord, the mighty power of God, and took notice of it, and seriously considered the greatness of it:

which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; which mighty hand he laid upon them, and which great power he exercised on them, and which great work, the effect thereof, he wrought in destroying them in such a manner, by causing the waters, which divided for them and their safety, to return upon the Egyptians to their utter destruction:

and the people feared the Lord; had an awe of his power and greatness upon their minds, and a sense of his goodness to them upon their hearts, which influenced their fear of him, and caused them to fear him with a filial and godly fear:

and believed the Lord and his servant Moses; they believed the Lord to be the only Jehovah, the supreme Being, the one only living and true God, faithful to his word, able to do all things, and wise to do them in the fittest season, for his own glory and his people's good; and they believed his promises, and the fulfilment of them; and that as he had now saved them out of the hands of the Egyptians, he would bring them to the land of Canaan, which he had promised their fathers to give unto them; and they believed Moses was sent of God to be their deliverer out of Egypt, and to be their leader to the promised land; see Psa 106:12 and who were now by the apostle said to be baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, Co1 10:1 and of their passage through the Red sea under the direction of Moses being an emblem of baptism; see Gill on Co1 10:1.

(l) Sept. Manum, Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Next: Exodus Chapter 15

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Sea-shore. The Hebrews would thus again be enriched by their spoils. (Calmet) --- Servant. Those who believe God, submit to the directions of his ambassadors. (St. Jerome in Philemon 5.) In this merited catastrophe of the Egyptians, which fixed the last seal to the mission of Moses, the fathers contemplate how God’s servants are rescued by baptism, and by the merits of Jesus Christ, from Satan and from all sin. (1 Corinthians x. 1, 4; Origen, hom. 5.) (Haydock)

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).

And Israel saw that great work. The work" was, at the least,

(1) the (almost) entire destruction of that arm of the service the chariot force-on which the Egyptian kings mainly relied for success in all their wars; and

(2) the defeat and disgrace of the Egyptian king himself, in an expedition for which he was alone responsible, involving permanent discredit to his military capacity, and naturally tending to shake his authority over his subjects. It secured the Israelites from further persecution, mainly by the reminiscences which it left behind, but partly also by removing them to a distance from the natural course of Egyptian warlike or commercial movement. Though Egypt had mining establishments in the Sinaitic peninsula, at Wady-Magharah and Sarabit-el-Khadim, yet as these were avoided by the Israelites on their way to Sinai, and never afterwards approached, there naturally was no collision between them and the Pharaonic garrisons at those sites. Still more remote were they during their wanderings from the Egyptian military route, which proceeded along the coast from Pelusium to Gaza, and then ran northwards through the Shephelah. Thus the Passage of the Red Sea brought one phase in the life of the people to an end, and was the commencement of another. It separated them from Egypt until the time came when their king would hold communication with its monarch on equal terms. (1Ki_3:1) It secured their independence, and raised them at once into a nation. It further caused them to exchange the artificial life of a bureaucratical and convention-loving community for the open space and untrammelled freedom of the desert. It thus rejuvenated and reinvigorated the race, and enabled them to enter on that career of conquest which culminated in the Kingdom may we not say the Empire? of David. some writers have supposed that the blow to the Egyptian power was greater than here represented. They believe the entire warrior caste or class to have taken part in the expedition, and to have been destroyed in the Red Sea Thus they describe the calamity as the total annihilation of the whole military force of the Egyptians" (Kalisch). They also believe the Pharaoh to have perished with his host. To the present writer it seems that the former opinion is contrary both to the text of Scripture, and to the after course of Egyptian history, for it is agreed on all hands that Egypt continued nearly as powerful as before, while the latter he regards as at least exceedingly doubtful. Psa_86:15, is quoted as asserting it; but it appears to him

(1) that overthrow" is not necessarily death; " and

(2) that Pharaoh and his host may be put for Pharaoh"s host" by hendiadys. The absence of any prophecy that God would take the Pharaoh"s life, and the entire silence of Moses on the subject in chs. 14. and 15. seems to be scarcely explicable on any other theory than that he escaped, not having accompanied his chariot force in its rash pursuit of the Israelites.

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

And Israel feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses - Now they were ashamed of their distrusts and murmurings; and in the mind they were in, they would never again despair of help from heaven; no not in the greatest straits! They would never again quarrel with Moses; nor talk of returning to Egypt. How well were it for us, if we were, always in as good a frame, as we are in sometimes!

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

feared

(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

את היד הגדלה denotes THE GREAT power which the HAND of the Holy One, blessed be He, had exercised. There are many meanings that are appropriate to the expression יד, hand, but all of them really signify the actual hand, and he who is explaining it must adapt the language according to the meaning of the passage.

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.

AND ISRAEL SAW THE GREAT HAND. “I.e., the great power which the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, had exercised. There are many meanings that are appropriate for the word yad (hand), but all of them signify the actual hand, and the interpreter must adapt the meaning according to the theme of the subject discussed.” Thus the language of Rashi. But Onkelos did not explain the great hand as referring to power, for he translated: “the might of the great hand.” And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that it means “the great blow.” And so it also says, Behold, the hand of the Eternal is upon the cattle, [which means that a great plague will overtake them]; The hand of G-d was very heavy there, [which means that a great calamity befell the Philistines].By way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], the verse is stating that the great hand, which is the attribute of justice that G-d exercised upon the Egyptians, became revealed to them, since it was there inflicting punishment upon the Egyptians. This is like the verse, And upon earth He made thee to see His great fire. This is the right hand which dashes in pieces the enemy, and it is the arm of the Eternal, concerning which Scripture says, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Eternal; Art thou not it that dried up the sea?, Verse 10.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

[B’nei] Yisrael saw. When the people saw the tremendous blow that befell the Egyptians they feared Hashem.

And believed in Ad-noy. They believed that He is the true God and that Moshe was His faithful servant who never deviated from Hashem’s command.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.