Exodus 14:16

14:16 And as for you, ¹  lift up your staff and extend your hand toward the sea and divide it, so that ²  the Israelites may go through the middle of the sea on dry ground.

Exodus 14:21

14:21 Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord drove the sea apart ³  by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided.

Exodus 15:19

15:19 For the horses of Pharaoh came with his chariots and his footmen into the sea,

and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea on them,

but the Israelites walked on dry land in the middle of the sea.”

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¹ tn The conjunction plus pronoun (“and you”) is emphatic – “and as for you” – before the imperative “lift up.” In contrast, v. 17 begins with “and as for me, I….”

² tn The imperfect (or jussive) with the vav (ו) is sequential, coming after the series of imperatives instructing Moses to divide the sea; the form then gives the purpose (or result) of the activity – “that they may go.”

³ tn Or “drove the sea back” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV). The verb is simply the Hiphil of הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk, go”). The context requires that it be interpreted along the lines of “go back, go apart.”