Bible Timeline · About 1446 BC

Crossing the Red Sea

Days after the Passover, Pharaoh changed his mind and chased Israel to the sea. God drove the water back with a strong east wind all night, Israel crossed on dry ground, and the sea returned over Pharaoh's chariots.

Read it in the Bible: Exodus 13:17-15:21 Exodus 14:13-14 Exodus 14:21-22 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 Hebrews 11:29

The crossing of the Red Sea is the moment God finished Israel's escape from Egypt. Pharaoh chased the newly freed slaves with his chariots and trapped them against the sea. God sent a strong east wind all night, the waters split, and Israel walked across on dry ground. When the Egyptian army followed, the water came back and covered them. By the traditional count it happened in about 1446 BC, just days after the first Passover, or about 1270 BC on the later view. Israel would look back on this night for the rest of its history as the proof that Yahweh saves.

Why Did Israel End Up at the Sea?

The quickest road from Egypt to Canaan ran up the coast through Philistine country. God did not send them that way.

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road through the land of the Philistines, though it was shorter. For God said, “If the people face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” Exodus 13:17

God knew His people. They had been slaves for generations, not soldiers. So He led them the long way, toward the wilderness and the sea. Moses also carried Joseph's bones with them, keeping a promise made centuries earlier, Exodus 13:19.

Then God told them to turn back and camp by the sea, Exodus 14:2. To Pharaoh it would look like Israel was lost and boxed in. That was the point. God was setting the stage.

What Was the Pillar of Cloud and Fire?

From the start of the journey God went with them in a way everyone could see.

And Yahweh went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night. Exodus 13:21

It was a built in GPS and night light, and it never left them for forty years. At the sea it did something new. When Pharaoh's army arrived, the angel of God and the pillar moved behind Israel and stood between the two camps. It was dark on the Egyptian side and light on Israel's side all night long, Exodus 14:19 to 20.

How Did Moses Part the Red Sea?

Pharaoh had taken six hundred of his best chariots and the rest of Egypt's chariots too, Exodus 14:7. When Israel saw them coming, they panicked and turned on Moses with some top level sarcasm.

They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Exodus 14:11

Moses answered with one of the great lines of the Bible.

But Moses told the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see Yahweh’s salvation, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. Yahweh will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:13 to 14

God told Moses to lift his staff and stretch his hand over the sea.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night Yahweh drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and on their left. Exodus 14:21 to 22

Notice two things. God used a wind, and the text calls the water walls. Some readers focus on the wind and picture God working through nature at exactly the right moment. Others focus on the walls and picture a plain miracle. The Bible holds both together. Either way, the timing, the dry ground and the water returning on cue were the work of God.

Before dawn the Egyptians charged in after them. God threw their army into confusion and made their chariot wheels wobble. Even the Egyptians figured it out, crying out that Yahweh was fighting for Israel, Exodus 14:25. Moses stretched out his hand again, and the sea came back.

The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen … Not one of them survived. Exodus 14:28

The Song of Moses and Miriam

Israel stood on the far shore and sang. Exodus 15 is one of the oldest songs in the Bible, a victory hymn to the God who fights for His people.

Yahweh is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. Exodus 15:2

Then Miriam, Moses' sister, grabbed a tambourine and led the women in dancing. The girl who once watched her baby brother float in a basket on the water now danced beside the sea God had opened for him. Worship leaders, take note. The first worship team in the Bible had a tambourine section.

Was It the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds?

The Hebrew name is Yam Suph. Yam means sea, and suph usually means reeds or papyrus, the same word used for the reeds where baby Moses' basket was hidden, Exodus 2:3. So many modern scholars translate it Sea of Reeds.

The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, called it the Red Sea, and the New Testament does the same, Hebrews 11:29. The Bible also uses Yam Suph for the Gulf of Aqaba, 1 Kings 9:26, which is an arm of the Red Sea. So the traditional name has solid support, and the Owner's Manual follows it.

Where did they cross? We don't know for sure. The main ideas are:

The Gulf of Suez, the western arm of the Red Sea, the traditional view.
The lakes along today's Suez Canal, such as the Bitter Lakes, Lake Timsah or the Ballah Lakes. Scholars like James Hoffmeier and Kenneth Kitchen favor this area.
The Gulf of Aqaba, favored by those who place Mount Sinai in Arabia.

Some popular videos claim chariot wheels have been found on the sea floor. Archaeologists have not confirmed those claims, so this Bible does not lean on them. The Archaeology page on this site covers what has and has not been found.

What the Red Sea Means for You Today

For the rest of the Old Testament, the Red Sea is Israel's go to proof that God saves. The psalms sing about it, and the prophets bring it up whenever things look hopeless. Isaiah calls Yahweh the one who makes a way in the sea and a path through the surging waters, Isaiah 43:16.

Paul even calls the crossing a kind of baptism.

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 1 Corinthians 10:1 to 2

Israel went into the water as slaves of Egypt and came out the other side free, with their old master gone for good. That is a picture of what Jesus does. Through His death and resurrection, the power of sin is drowned behind us and we walk out free. In heaven, Revelation 15:3 says, the redeemed sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. The God who opened the sea did not stop making a way where there is no way.

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Questions People Ask

Did Moses really part the Red Sea?

Exodus 14 says Moses stretched out his hand and Yahweh drove the sea back with a strong east wind all night, so Israel crossed on dry ground. The Bible presents it as a real event and a miracle of God, and later Scripture refers to it again and again as history.

Is it the Red Sea or the Reed Sea?

The Hebrew Yam Suph can mean Sea of Reeds. The Greek Septuagint and the New Testament call it the Red Sea, and the Bible also uses Yam Suph for the Gulf of Aqaba, an arm of the Red Sea. Both names are honest translations.

Where did the Israelites cross the Red Sea?

No one knows for sure. The traditional view is the Gulf of Suez, many scholars favor the lakes along today's Suez Canal, and others suggest the Gulf of Aqaba.

What was the pillar of cloud and fire?

It was the visible sign of God's presence that led Israel by day as a cloud and by night as fire, Exodus 13:21. At the sea it moved behind Israel to block Pharaoh's army.

Did Pharaoh die in the Red Sea?

Exodus 14:28 says the whole army that followed Israel into the sea died, and Psalm 136:15 says God swept Pharaoh and his army into the sea. The Bible does not name which pharaoh this was.

Sources

Yam Suph, Wikipedia

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