Discovery BoxExodus 14:16 
Context14:16 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 14:27
Context14:27 So Moses extended his hand toward the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state 3 when the sun began to rise. 4 Now the Egyptians were fleeing 5 before it, but the Lord overthrew 6 the Egyptians in the middle of the sea.
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 The Hebrew term לְאֵיתָנוֹ (lÿ’etano) means “to its place,” or better, “to its perennial state.” The point is that the sea here had a normal level, and now when the Egyptians were in the sea on the dry ground the water would return to that level.
4 tn Heb “at the turning of the morning”; NASB, NIV, TEV, CEV “at daybreak.”
5 tn The clause begins with the disjunctive vav (ו) on the noun, signaling either a circumstantial clause or a new beginning. It could be rendered, “Although the Egyptians…Yahweh…” or “as the Egyptians….”
6 tn The verb means “shake out” or “shaking off.” It has the significance of “throw downward.” See Neh 5:13 or Job 38:13.
