Exodus, Another Study of the Facts

Joseph F. Dumond

Isa 6:9-12 And He said, Go, and tell this people, You hear indeed, but do not understand; and seeing you see, but do not know. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land laid waste, a desolation, and until Jehovah has moved men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great.
Published: Feb 3, 2006

Newsletter 5842-026

Exodus, Another Study of the Facts

Have you ever read something many times and still not grasped the meaning in the words you have read?  Read on then for a surprise! Once you have read this explanation of the Exodus, I encourage you to then go to Nefertiti and Akhenaten: Now You know the rest of the story.

I love reading about and studying the Exodus. It has so much meaning and is so powerful. I love to watch Cecil B. De Mille’s™s The Ten Commandments. I first saw it in the movies theaters with my Nan in Newfoundland around 1962 and was amazed by the colors and the amazing story. I was 5 or so at the time and colored TV was not yet a reality . The movie has yet to bore me still; even after all these years.

But do you realize how much a movie like this can influence your thoughts? Even though it is not quite right when compared with Scripture.

All through high school I tried to prove how the waters could be divided by natural causes. I read how others had theorized on earthquakes or tidal flows and many other methods being the cause, but none explained the events with any clarity. But the answer has always been in the Bible. It is so amazing!

In recent years I have learned that the actual crossing site was a total of 82 meters (approximately 269 feet) deep at one point. To learn more on this I suggest the reader go online and order The Exodus Case by Lennart Moller at Amazon .com. http://www.amazon.com/Exodus-Case-3rd-Extended/dp/8772477083 which is a most intriguing read. You can also watch the trailers of The Exodus Conspiracy at http://www.exodusconspiracy.com/

I would point out to you Exodus 15:8 where Mariam, Moses sister, sings:
“And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together; The floods stood upright like a heap, the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.”  (The New King James Version)

How many times I have read right over this one verse? How many times have you done the same?

Now let’s look at the different translations and see what they say:

Young’s Literal Translation
Exodus 15:8 And by the spirit of Thine anger Have waters been heaped together; Stood as a heap have flowings; Congealed have been depths In the heart of a sea.

The Complete Jewish Bible
With a blast from your nostrils the waters piled up -the waters stood up like a wall, the depths of the sea became firm ground.

The New American Standard Bible
At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible
Psalms 78:13 He split the sea and brought them across; the water stood firm like a wall

The Holman Christian Standard Bible
Exodus 15:8 The waters heaped up at the blast of Your nostrils; the currents stood firm like a dam. The watery depths congealed in the heart of the sea.

Now, if we dissect this verse, we can see the following:

The waters gathered together comes from the (Strong’s Concordance) Hebrew word H- 6192 pronounced A’RAM and it means – (Niphal) to heap up, pile, be heaped up and this expression is used just this one time in all the Bible.

the flood comes from the Hebrew word lzn  and is Strongs H-5140, pronounced Nazal and it means to drip, or shed by trickling, to flow, distil, flow forth or down, trickle, drop

(Qal)
to flow , gush out, melt, pour down, running water, stream
1a streams, floods (participle) to distil

(Hiphil)
to cause to flow

This same word is translated as follows in other places in the Bible:

King James word usage – A total of 16 times:
flood- 3; flow- 3; stream- 2; pour out- 1; distil- 1; melted- 1; drop- 1; running waters- 1; flow out- 1; pour down1 and gush out- 1.

stood upright comes from the word bcn Strongs H-5324 pronounced Natsab and it means to stand, take one’s stand, stand upright, be set (over), establish
(Niphal):

to station oneself, take one’s stand, to stand, be stationed, to stand, take an upright position, to be stationed, be appointed, deputy, prefect, appointed, deputed (subst), to stand firm, (Hiphil), to station, set, to set up, erect, to cause to stand erect, to fix, establish, (Hophal) to be fixed, be determined, be stationary

King James Word Usage – Total: 75 stand 34, set 12, officers 6, set up 7, upright 2, appointed 1, deputy 1, erected 1, establish 1, Huzzab 1, miscellaneous 9

as an heap comes from the word dn Strongs # 5067 pronounced Ned and has just this meaning – heap , piling up; a mound ; ie a wave
and is always meant as “heap.”

King James Word Usage – Total: 6 heap 6

and the depths comes from the word ~wht Strongs # 8415 pronounced T@howm and has the following meaning – deep, depths, deep places, abyss, the deep, sea
deep (of subterranean waters), deep, sea, abysses (of sea), primeval ocean, deep, deep, depth (of river), abyss, the grave

King James Word Usage – Total: 36 deep 20, depth 15, deep places 1

were congealed comes from the word apq Strongs # 7087 pronounced Qapha’ and means – to shrink, to thicken, ( as unracked wine, curdled milk, clouded sky, frozen water), condense, congeal, settle, become dense, (Qal) to be condensed, thickening (participle), (Hiphil) to cause to curdle, congelation

King James Word Usage – Total: 5 congeal 1, settled 1, curdle 1, variant 1, dark 1

Job 10:10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Zep 1:12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
Zec 14:6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:

What I am seeing after I have dissected this one verse is a very different and unimaginable view.

I live in Canada and we have real winters here. I have been to the Georgian Bay and seen the waters in the middle of winter push the ice flows into shore and the strength of the wind has caused the ice to pile up on the shoreline in a heap. It is a beautiful wonder land when this happens. I have also been to Niagara Falls in February and seen the mountains of ice around the falls and seen pictures there of when the ice was 50 feet high. And just this year I saw (January 2005) on the news from Massachusetts, a winter storm blowing from the Atlantic covered houses and trees in 6″ of solid ice. It looked again like a wonderland of beauty.

One last thing; I work with heavy equipment in construction. In the spring and in the fall the conditions change in the ground from day to day. In early morning the frost can make the ground very hard. We can walk across the mud no problem. But after the heavy equipment goes over the same ground a number of times the ground breaks up and you have the mud and jagged pieces of frozen ground sticking up. By this time everything is sticking to the mud and it is very hard to walk around and by mid morning it is very hard to walk anywhere without getting all muddy and stuck in the mud or even to fall.

Now I would like you to stretch your imaginations with me and re-read this Exodus crossing; keeping the other translations and this understanding of what happens on the construction site in mind.

Here is what the Bible says in the NEW KING JAMES untouched:

Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. 25 And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” 26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” 27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. 29 But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 30 So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.

Exodus 15:8. And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together; the floods stood upright like a heap; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.

So that I may help you to better comprehend the events of this miraculous event, please allow me to say the following:

Now, with this new understanding in mind, let’s read from the book of Josephus, the 2nd chapter, vs. 15-16

NEW KING JAMES and my interpretation:
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. An east wind is always an ill wind or cold wind. This wind was so cold the salt water foam looked like white clouds, or curdling white milk. And they were frozen and piled up in heaps on top of itself, piled high. In fact the deepest part of the crossing was 82 meters or over 250 feet high in the middle. Frozen walls of ice with melting ice turning into water trickling down into streams. The ground was frozen so hard Israel could walk across on dry ground. Their wagons and animals and all others on foot. 22 So Moses led the way and commanded the Israelites to follow him because the people feared it was so dangerous looking. And so foreign. A winter wonderland. The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry frozen ground, and the waters were frozen also, as if into a wall in piles on their right hand and on their left. 23 And the Egyptians when the darkness was lifted were surprised to see the Israelites crossing in the midst of this frozen wonderland and were scared to pursue in such a dangerous condition. But they remembered each and every one of them having lost a first born from each family and they recalled their land was destroyed by plagues and down into this winter wonderland they pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. Six hundred chariots, with fifty thousand horsemen, and two hundred thousand footmen. All Armed for war. A fighting force of 50 brigades. 24 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, before dawn, as the Egyptian Army closed in on Israel, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and gave a glance back at them and He panicked the army of the Egyptians. 25 And He took off their chariot wheels as they became clogged in the mud, so that they drove them with difficulty; with the horses hooves breaking through the frost and sticking to the mud, and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” And they sounded the retreat. 26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” 27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, just as the first rays of the sun rising from the east over the mountains hit the frozen heaps of ice on the western shore, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. With thunder and lightening and a whirl wind and pouring rain. (Psalm 77:16-20)The walls of ice crashed down on the Egyptians smashing the chariots and wagons and men and horses to pieces. 28 Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. Approximately 251,200 men were destroyed. All of Pharaoh’s army and Pharaoh as well. 29 But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall of frozen heaps to them on their right hand and on their left. 30 So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.

This Passover season, put some life into the real story of the Exodus. Make it real as you read it. Make it personal!

Joe Dumond

Frozen railing at the Falls
by Gerry Kennedy

The continual spray coats everything around the Falls, producing fantastic ice shapes. The ice on this railing was about 6-8 inches thick.
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/8568/photo5.html

Like all tidewater glaciers, part of the leading edge is submerged. The Lamplugh glacier is 150-160 feet above water, and 10-40 feet below water.
http://www.lcss.net/glacierbay/Glacier_Bay_glaciers_11.htm

http://huey.colorado.edu/LTER/images/pictures/glaciers/icewall.html
This Glacier is only 60 Feet tall. The Red Sea Crossing would be 4 times as high.

http://huey.colorado.edu/LTER/
Photo Credit: Thomas Nylen
Caption: A waterfall flowing off Canada Glacier

Waterfall flowing off the Canada Glacier
I would imagine it looked a lot like this with the frozen sea bed going down then up the other side and melting trickling water, that looked like a cloudy sky or curdling milk, thickening. Remember none of the Israelites had ever seen a glacier let alone snow of any real amount. And it was night time, and one of the words can mean dark.

The Margerie Glacier’s height is 250 feet. The glacier also extends another 100 feet below the water line. By comparison, the Statue of Liberty is 307 feet tall.
http://www.lcss.net/glacierbay/Glacier_Bay_glaciers_01.htm

Now imagine walking through this. Having been a slave in Egypt all your life. Never having seen snow.

It’s dark, the Egyptian army is very close and the only thing separating you from them is the cloud of Yahweh which is now become very dark over the Egyptians to the West. There is no place to flee. The Red Sea is 20 miles across to the east. You have no boats. The Egyptian garrison is, to the north, Migdol. The mountains are impassable as they go right into the sea to the south. The wind is blowing and cold. Then, in the dim of torches, you see the sea disappear and the sea bed become hard. You also see the white frozen mounds of ice piled up on the side in heaps and are in wonder, having never seen snow or known of ice. You don’t know what to make of it.

Then, after a bit, this Moses guy walks to the front and says: “Come on and follow me” And then he starts to walk down into this chasm onto the hard sea bottom, going further out and down. With the torches flickering you wonder what to do. With the army only steps away and no place else to go, you start to go down after Moses. You are terrified! How can all this be happening? Where did the water go? What is all this white stuff? Then slowly, in a moment, the others start to follow.  Then suddenly they all begin to rush forward! They bring their animals and their wagons and all of the gold they had been given by the Egyptians.

Quickly and quietly they walk down deeper and deeper into the bottom of the sea, until they get to the half-way point and begin to ascend. But the torches reflect off the blue, white and green ice; as high as their necks could see in the dark. 250 feet up at the deepest part. They could hear the odd crashs and would then became frightened again. They could see in the torch light that the ice was melting and trickles of water were running down into streams. They could hear over the wind the water gushing in from streams behind the ice wall.

Two million Israelites and an unknown number of foreigners crossed that night in silence, and in awe. Trembling from the cold but also from the fear of the danger their lives were in. In constant danger of these walls crashing in on them. After all, they were a sea yesterday- and now, mountains of ice. They were in constant fear of the Egyptians still on the opposite shore. But, as they came out on the shores of Arabia, relief was in sight! They had survived this awesome and fearsome night but there were many still struggling to cross behind you. And as you looked back in the night, all you can hear is silence except for the shuffling of feet and carts, being pulled by animals making little noise. You can see hundreds of thousands of torches swaying with each step as your people walk out. And you see the awesome walls of blue and green and white ice reflecting in the shimmering torch lights. Beautiful and terrifying at the same time. And now you have just walked through this.

On the other side, the Egyptians had made camp in the darkness. Knowing that the Israelites only way out was through this wadi where the 250,000-strong Army of Egypt was now camped. And with smugness they knew they would have their revenge on this unarmed mob as soon as daylight broke. The only thing on their minds was getting revenge for the first born that every family in Egypt lost- at least one in each household. Revenge for the animals that also died that night as well as the ones that died during the hail and the crops that were eaten and destroyed by insects and hail. Revenge for all that these slaves had cost them.

Their other goal? To get back all of the gold, clothes and jewelry that they had given to these people they now pursued; intent on destroying. As they sat in the dark darkness, they pondered… “What were we thinking in giving away everything?”

It was still dark but the severe darkness was just now beginning to break forth into daylight. They could see and were stunned to learn the Israelites were no longer there. Pharaoh yells out for search teams to look for them and then he is told they went into the sea on dry ground, Pharaoh is beyond mad that, once again, he has been made a fool. He orders his army to go into the sea after them! His captains look at each other, thinking he was crazy. Look at the white stuff. And before they had time to reason their way out of the pursuit, Pharaoh reminds them of what they have lost; Fathers, sons, wives and animals. And again he gives the order to charge and to kill any who resisted.

The 600 Charioteers mounted up with an archer and spear man each to a chariot, and so did the 50,000 horsemen- and down the incline they went in hot pursuit. The 200,000 footmen in quick march also joined; torches in one hand, spears in the other and swords ready at their sides. Each and every one ignoring their fear as they charged down the slope in obedience. All the priests of the temple in their golden chariots and even Pharaoh in all his gold and splendor, went in to this strange phenomena; the frozen white mountains of ice on both sides getting higher and higher as they went down further. Their rage and thoughts of revenge over-riding their common sense to be fearful in such a surreal event.

From the East, the Israelites suddenly hear the echo of hooves and the rhythmic clatter of soldiers marching fast across the same frozen ground they had just passed over. As the Israelites ascend out they can look back and see the torches of Pharaoh’s army coming down the opposite slope. It is 20 miles back, but it looks like a stream of fire as it descends down the far slope. A flowing stream of fire moving fast towards them! There are still hundreds of thousands of their people who had still not yet made it out and those who had made it out begin to sound a warning: ˜Run! RUN! RUUUNNNNN!! They’re coming after us!!

Panic begins to go through Israel! People on the other side start to look for cover and those still in the sea begin to run now, despite being tired.

As the thunder of the chariots gets louder and gets closer many begin to tell Moses “We could just give up and go back. Why die out here for nothing?”

As the chariots grew closer, the frost in the ground begins to give out. The wheels were so thin and the chariot with the men so heavy, they break through the frost and become stuck in the mud. The horses, too, were stepping through the frost and no longer able to gallop. The footmen also found it difficult to quick-march with so much mud. Then, as dawn was about break, the cloud of fire that was in front of Israel and leading them turned to the rear just as Pharaoh was closing in on the last of the stragglers coming out of the sea. And the cloud gave a glance so fearsome to Pharaoh and his chariots and his horsemen, who were just about upon the Israelites, that it scared the rebelliousness out of them. Pharaoh had finally realized he had been fighting God and he sounded the retreat. But his wheels had already come off and the horses found it hard to drag the wheel-less chariots around. And they, all in a panic, tried to retreat with great difficulty due to the mud but to no avail.

Moses then stretched out his hand as God had told him too. And as the sun broke over the horizon and began to shine on the far Westerly shore, it began to melt the ice. The last of the Israelite came up out of the sea and were safe on the shore. They were all looking at the once mighty Pharaoh’s Army in retreat, and wondered what was going to happen next.

Suddenly, from the far side, they could see the ice crashing down; like dominoes the mounds of ice piled-high began to crash down all along both sides of the chasm they had just walked through. At the same time, there was lightening and thunder and heavy rain and a whirl wind and in an instant 251,200 men and horse were crushed, to death. Pharaohs army was no more. Not one person survived. No, not one.

Shalom,
Joe Dumond

1 Comment

  1. Phil Runciman

    The sea bed at the crossing site would have been different at the time of the crossing due to continental drift. Saudi Arabia is moving away from Africa at a directly measurable speed. Cambridge University used laser interferometry to measure the rate of movement during the International Geophysical Year at 25mm per annum. Of course this rate may have varied since the crossing but probably not my much. This means that the Saudi shore was closer and quite reasonably the sea shallower at the crossing point than it is now.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.