Exodus - 15:12



12 You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Exodus 15:12.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
Thou hast stretched out Thy right hand, Earth swalloweth them!
When your right hand was stretched out, the mouth of the earth was open for them.
Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand- The earth swallowed them.
You extended your hand, and the earth devoured them.
Extendisti dexteram tuam, deglutivit eos terra.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

The earth swallowed them - It is very likely there was also an earthquake on this occasion, and that chasms were made in the bottom of the sea, by which many of them were swallowed up, though multitudes were overwhelmed by the waters, whose dead bodies were afterward thrown ashore. The psalmist strongly intimates that there was an earthquake on this occasion: The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the world; the Earth Trembled and Shook; Psalm 77:18.

Thou stretchedst out thy right hand,.... That is, exerted his power, and gave a display and proof of it; of which the right hand is an emblem:
the earth swallowed them; meaning Pharaoh and his host; for though they were drowned in the sea, that being a part of the terraqueous globe, they may be said to be swallowed in the earth; as Jonah, when in the depth of the sea, the earth and its bars are said to be about him, Jonah 2:6 and besides, many of Pharaoh's army might be swallowed up in the mud at the bottom of the sea: nor is it improbable that those that were cast upon the banks and sand, whom the Israelites stripped, might be afterwards swallowed up therein.

The earth swallowed them - Their dead bodies sunk into the sands on which they were thrown, which sucked them in.

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