Exodus 14:28 - Forerunner Commentary

Exodus 14:28

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Did the Pharaoh of the Exodus Drown in the Red Sea (Exodus 14:28)?
The most conservative scholarship considers that the pharaoh of Egypt at the time of the Exodus (c. 1446 BC) was Amenhotep II (1450-1424 BC). The overwhelming biblical and historical evidence is that he did not die with his army in pursuit of Israel.

In Psalm 136:15, we find that God "overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea." The Hebrew word translated here as "overthrew" is na'ar, also found in Exodus 14:27. It does not mean "to drown" or "to toss or tumble about as in the water" as some have attempted to assert. It simply means "shook off" as is mentioned in the margins of many Bibles and in the Brown, Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon. (Nehemiah 5:13 illustrates how na'ar should be translated: "Then I shook out the fold of my garment. . . .") Therefore, these verses simply say that God shook off the Egyptians, including Pharaoh, from their pursuit of the Israelites. These scriptures say nothing of who was drowned.

In Exodus 14:28, the waters cover "all the army of Pharaoh," but Pharaoh himself is not mentioned. Exodus 15:19 supports this: "For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them." Naturally, the horses and horsemen of Egypt were considered to be Pharaoh's. But this verse does not say that Pharaoh's personal horse, or that Pharaoh himself, drowned in the sea.

This is significant because the death of such an important person would almost certainly have been given special note in the Bible. The Old Testament contains many clear references to the deaths of enemy kings, most of them much less important than this pharaoh. Archaeology proves that Amenhotep II, if he is the Pharaoh of the Exodus, ruled for about 22 more years.

Additional Reading:
Escape From Box Canyon
The Real Prince of Egypt
Lamentations (Part One; 1989)
Escape From Box Canyon

Exodus 14:25-31
Excerpted from: Baptized in the Sea

Maybe the most significant thing that is in that entire chapter (at least to this sermon) is in the very last sentence, especially the last part. "The people feared the LORD, and believe the LORD and His servant Moses." This is interesting. Once Israel experienced their deliverance from the Egyptians, they saw their enemy totally destroyed. They saw them wash up on the seashore there. They saw this tremendous miracle that God had worked for them. Then, they were ready to fear and believe. That is to give the proper respect and reverence to God, and to believe God and Moses. It was not just God. It was Moses too. God was there, but Moses was the one they were following. They saw Moses.

Exodus 14:27-31
Excerpted from: Escape From Box Canyon

That is kind of interesting. It seems as if they got confused—which God said they did—and they were fleeing the wrong direction. That is the only thing that I could think of—He so confounded them, they did not know which way to go.

Because God wanted to have honor and victory over Egypt, He tells Moses to work the miracle in the other direction. And unrestrained, millions (or, billions) of gallons of water came crashing back! It smashed the Egyptian army to smithereens. All the men died. All the horses died. And, evidently, many of them washed up on the shore; and this is what armed Israel, for their wars with Amalek (that came on, later on) and later other wars.

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