Exodus 14:22

Summary

The verse narrates that the people of Israel entered into the middle of the sea on dry ground, while the water stood as a wall for them on their right and on their left. It describes the physical configuration of the crossing: dry ground underfoot, water positioned on both sides.

Key words

• va-yyavo'u ("and they went", H0935G) — qal narrative verb with the story-chaining vav, marking the next event in sequence: the people's entry into the sea.
• toch ("middle of", H8432) — masculine singular construct noun, requiring a following genitive (ha-yam, "the sea"); together they form "middle of the sea," indicating spatial location.
• ba-yabbashah ("on the dry ground", H3004) — feminine singular noun with prepositional prefix be- and article, describing the surface condition of the ground being traversed.
• chomah ("a wall", H2346G) — feminine singular noun, used here without article, functioning as a predicate describing what the water became/was for the people (la-hem, "for them").
• mi-yminam ("from their right", H3225G) — feminine singular construct noun with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, paired with mi-ssemolam ("from their left", H8040G) to mark the two flanking positions of the water.

What the text says

The clause structure divides into two parts joined by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002). The first part uses the narrative verb va-yyavo'u ("and they went", H0935G) with its subject bene Yisra'el ("sons/people of Israel", H1121G + H3478), followed by two prepositional phrases: be-toch ha-yam ("in the middle of the sea") and ba-yabbashah ("on the dry ground"). The construct chain toch ha-yam links "middle" tightly to "the sea," while yabbashah stands as an independent noun describing the ground's dry state.

The second part shifts to a non-verbal (nominal) clause: ve-ha-mayim lahem chomah ("and the water [was] for them a wall"). Hebrew here has no explicit verb "to be" — the predicate chomah ("wall", H2346G) is simply placed after the subject ha-mayim ("the water") and the prepositional phrase lahem ("for them", H9038). This construction states a state or condition rather than an action. The final phrase mi-yminam u-mi-ssemolam ("from their right and from their left") uses two construct nouns with matching pronominal suffixes (-am, "their", H9028), positioned symmetrically to indicate the water's location on both flanks.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chomah ("wall", H2346G) as τεῖχος twice — once for "right" and once again for "left" (τεῖχος ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ τεῖχος ἐξ εὐωνύμων), producing two walls, whereas the Hebrew states one wall (chomah, singular) with two directional phrases attached. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew singular with murus ("wall," singular), stating water was "like a wall" (quasi murus) on both sides, adding a comparative sense not explicit in the Hebrew nominal clause.