Exodus 14:21

Summary

The verse describes Moses stretching his hand over the sea, followed by Yehovah causing the sea to move back through a strong east wind blowing all night, turning the seabed dry and splitting the waters.

Key words

• yado ("his hand", H3027) — noun in construct form with pronominal suffix "his," specifying the body part Moses extends.
• yolekh ("he drove", H1980) — hiphil (causative) stem: not simply "the sea went," but "Yehovah caused [the sea] to go," marking Yehovah as the direct causal agent of the sea's movement.
• ruach ("wind", H7307) — feminine singular noun in construct form, linked to qadim ("east wind", H6921) to form the phrase "wind of the east."
• azzah ("strong", H5794) — feminine singular adjective agreeing with ruach, intensifying the wind's force.
• yibbaqe'u ("they were divided", H1234) — niphal (passive/reflexive) verb, plural, referring to ha-mayim ("the waters"); the grammatical subject undergoes the division without a stated agent in this clause.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of narrative clauses linked by the vav consecutive (va-), each introducing a new sequential action: Moses stretches out his hand (va-yet), Yehovah drives the sea (va-yolekh), he makes the sea into dry ground (va-yasem), and the waters are divided (va-yibbaqe'u). This chain structure presents the events as a tightly sequenced series rather than simultaneous occurrences.

The verb yolekh is in the hiphil stem, derived from the root meaning "to go" (H1980), which in this causative form means "to cause to go" — the text specifies Yehovah as the one actively causing the sea's movement, rather than describing the sea acting on its own. The wind is described with a construct phrase, ruach qadim ("wind of the east"), modified by the adjective azzah ("strong"), and its duration is marked by kol ha-laylah ("all the night"). The final verb, yibbaqe'u, is niphal — a passive/reflexive form — describing the waters as undergoing splitting; the clause itself does not name an agent for this specific action, in contrast to the two preceding verbs where Yehovah is the explicit subject.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew specifies qadim ("east wind", H6921), while the LXX renders this as νότῳ ("south wind"). The Vulgate does not specify a direction, instead describing the wind as "vehementi et urente" ("vehement and burning"). For the adjective azzah ("strong", H5794), the LXX uses βιαίῳ ("violent/forceful"). The Hebrew hiphil yolekh ("caused to go/drove") is rendered in the LXX as ὑπήγαγεν ("led away/withdrew") and in the Vulgate as "abstulit" ("took away, removed"), each framing Yehovah's action on the sea somewhat differently.