SCRIPTURE READING Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29
5When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of
Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said,
“What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?” 6So he had his
chariot made ready, and took his army with him; 7
he took six hundred
picked chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all
of them.
10As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the
Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the
Lord. 11They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in
Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have
you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? 12Is this not the very thing we
told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’? For it
would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the
wilderness.” 13But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand
firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you
5
today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.
14The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”
21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea
back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and
the waters were divided. 22The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground,
the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23The
Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s
horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. 24At the morning watch the Lord in
the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and
threw the Egyptian army into panic. 25He clogged their chariot wheels so
that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the
Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” 26Then the
Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water
may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot
drivers.” 27So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the
sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord
tossed the Egyptians into the sea. 28The waters returned and covered the
chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had
followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. 29But the Israelites
walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for
them on their right and on their left.
Reader: Word of God. Word of Life.