Commentaria in Exodum
In like manner an Angel led out the armies of the Christians wandering in a trackless place in the Holy Land. For in the year of the Lord 1144, when the army of the Christians, surrounded by ambushes and cast into the utmost straits, was withdrawing from the siege of Bostra, the metropolis of the Arabs, they all returned safe to their own with a heavenly messenger as leader. For when they had fallen into inevitable perils, and all were wandering in a trackless place and not in a way, and were shut in by the narrowness of the places, to be cut down by enemies pressing on, and had no leader to go before the columns and to know the places through which they were to pass: behold, suddenly a certain soldier, going before the cohorts, unknown, a rider on a white horse, bearing a banner of cloud colour, clad in a cuirass, with sleeves short to the elbows, went before the army. He, as an Angel of the Lord of hosts, following the short cuts of the roads, taught them to pitch their camp at waters before unknown, in fitting and convenient stations: who, having led them to Jerusalem, having performed that wonderful ministry, presently vanished from the eyes of all. So William of Tyre, book 16 of the Holy War, chap. 12, and from him Baronius, in the year of Christ 1144.
20. AND IT WAS A DARK CLOUD, AND ENLIGHTENED THE NIGHT, SO THAT THEY COULD NOT COME NEAR ONE ANOTHER ALL THE NIGHT,—as if to say: This pillar of cloud on that side on which it faced the Egyptians was so condensed, and spread itself out like a thick cloud, that the Egyptians could neither see nor approach the Hebrews; they would follow, however, the pillar of cloud going before them: but the same pillar on that side on which it faced the Hebrews had the appearance of fire, lighting up their camp, that they might set out and cross the Red Sea; for the Hebrews were setting out continually this night, as I have already said. Whence the Chaldee renders, there was a cloud, and darkness to the Egyptians, but to Israel there was light all the night. Behold how the same pillar God protects His own and smites enemies. So tropologically, says Rupert, the same virtue which shines on the pious blinds the impious; so the cross of Christ is a power to believers, but to the Jews a stumbling-block.
21. AND WHEN MOSES HAD STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND (having first invoked the Deity, says Josephus) OVER THE SEA, THE LORD TOOK IT AWAY BY A STRONG (at the same time a wind blew) AND BURNING WIND BLOWING ALL THE NIGHT, AND MADE THE SEA DRY.—Some think, as St. Basil in the Catena, that this division of the sea was made by a burning wind, either driving and thrusting out the waters, or drying and consuming them; but this is hardly credible, for the same wind could not at once drive the waters or dry them, and at the same time hold them up, that they should not flow down into the empty bed. Secondly, granting that this could have been done, yet as soon as the wind ceased, the waters of the sea, raised up, would have flowed back into their former bed, so deep; but the wind ceased while the Hebrews were passing, for otherwise it would have made their passage most troublesome.
Therefore, Moses extending his rod over the sea, presently not the wind but the Angel divided the sea, so that on both sides, swelling up like a wall, it stood, leaving in the midst a way by which the Hebrews might pass; the wind, however, was sent by God only to this end, that it might altogether dry and harden the bed already divided and emptied of water, by taking away whatever of moisture and mud was left in it.
The division of the sea, then, in so great a breadth, was made suddenly by the Angel; but the drying of the sea-bottom by the wind was made successively, says Cajetan. So also Abulensis and Pererius.
Note: How great the division was. This division of the sea was huge, both as to breadth (for the Red Sea has a space of six leagues in breadth, as Adrichomius teaches), and as to length; for through it, within the space of one night, nay of half a night only, the whole camp of the Hebrews had to pass, which, besides chariots and beasts, easily consisted of three million men: the length of this cleft in the sea had therefore to be immense, that many ranks of men and animals might go in and pass through it at once: for if one after another had passed, they would have spent in the passage not only days but weeks. This confidence of Moses St. Hilarion imitated, and worked a like miracle at sea. For, surrounded by pirates, while all trembled, he smiled: “O ye of little faith, why do you tremble? Are they more than Pharao’s army? yet all were drowned by God’s will”: and, with outstretched hand against those coming: “Let it suffice to have come thus far”; and at once the pirates, however they rowed, were driven back to the shore,” says St. Jerome in his Life.
BY A STRONG AND BURNING WIND.—In Hebrew it is, with a strong east wind. But the east wind is hot and burning. The Septuagint and Philo think it was the South wind, and consequently that by the contrary, namely the North wind, the sea was brought back when it overwhelmed the Egyptians; since, as the South is reckoned with the East, so also the South wind with the east wind Eurus. See Is. 27, 8. So also the Vulgate interpreter, who renders, with a vehement and burning wind, because the east wind is elsewhere said to scorch.
Note: The Hebrews came to the sea at the beginning of the night, at the first watch: presently Moses struck the sea, and the Angel at once divided it, and at once brought in a strong and burning wind, which from the beginning of the night until midnight and beyond, blowing continually, dried the bed: the bed being dried, and the wind ceasing, the Hebrews after midnight, in the third watch, entered the bed of the sea, and about the middle of the fourth watch all got over to the other shore: the Egyptians, however, about the end of the third watch, pursuing the Hebrews, entered the sea; but as morning approached, in the fourth watch, when the Hebrews had already crossed the sea, and the Egyptians were all in the midst of the sea, that is, the bed, presently, Moses striking the waters with the rod, they, returning into their former bed, overwhelmed and crushed Pharao and all the Egyptians.
The Pseudo-Moses of Crete, in the time of the Emperor Theodosius, about the year of the Lord 433, pretended that he wished to imitate this miracle of Moses. Hear Socrates, book 7 of the History, chap. 38: “A certain Jewish impostor,” he says, “pretended to be Moses, and said that he was sent down from heaven, to lead the Jews who dwelt in the island of Crete through the sea to the mainland, into the promised land: for that he was the same who once, leading Israel through the Red Sea, had preserved them. When the day appointed by him came, he began to go before, and all to follow. He led them, therefore, to a promontory overhanging the sea and ordered them to throw themselves down, the first doing so, some, dashed by the fall, some, drowned in the water, perished; and many more would have perished had not Christian fishermen and merchants drawn them out, and prevented others who wished to throw themselves down. The Pseudo-Moses, sought for, did not appear: whence it was the opinion that he had been a demon: thence many Jews were converted to Christ.”
ALL THE NIGHT.—Not that this wind blew the whole night, but that it blew through the greater part of it, namely up to the entrance of the Hebrews into the sea, which was made after midnight; for they before daybreak not only entered but also crossed the bed of the sea, the wind now ceasing: for after the Hebrews had crossed the sea, the Egyptians pursuing them were drowned in the morning watch.
AND THE WATER WAS DIVIDED.—The Hebrews hand down, whom Origen follows here, homily 5, and Genebrard on Psalm 135, that the Red Sea was divided into 12 sections or parts, so that the 12 tribes walked through it with equal step: for each walked in its own section. And they prove this from Psalm 135, verse 13, where it is said: “Who divided the Red Sea into parts”; there were therefore many, namely 12, for so many were the tribes.