Exodus 14: 21 Commentary

Concerning the “EAST WIND” in this verse, I read, heard, or studied something, somewhere, that there was no TRUE east wind, but only a North of South wind that turned east as the earth spins in an eastern direction on its axis. The point made was that the East Wind came directly from the presence of God. It was a powerful and strong wind in that it divided the sea. The obvious problem is that with such a STRONG WIND, the children of Israel could not have crossed into the sea in the face of such a strong headwind. Additionally it was stated that with the earth spinning eastward, such a thing as an purely eastern wind is impossible. This was attributing to the fact that God was/is in control of this wind and by the Bible stating unequivocally that it was an EAST wind, it gave credence to the fact that there was no TRUE east wind. In the book of Revelation, it makes mention of four angels holding back the four winds at the four corners of the earth. My question is, is there any information along these lines and has anyone heard such a thing, but me. LOL! In Matthew Henry’s commentary, he writes: “The Hebrew word kedem, however, rendered in our translation, “east,” means, in its primary signification, previous; so that this verse might, perhaps, be rendered, “the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong previous wind all that night”; a rendering which would remove the difficulty of supposing the host of Israel marched over on the sand, in the teeth of a rushing column of wind, strong enough to heap up the waters as a wall on each side of a dry path, and give the intelligible narrative of divine interference.”

I’d appreciate any comments on this and any help.

By Eddie (wrote 1 Bible Commentary - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 12/26/2007 19:42 pm