What Does Exodus 14:27 Mean?
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea turned back to its strength at the face of the morning, and the Egyptians fled to meet it, and the LORD shook the Egyptians out into the midst of the sea.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.THE KEY
Moses, whose name is tied to being drawn out of water, stands beside a sea that now closes over Egypt.
THE MEANING
You are shown a way through that does not stay open: the sea returns to its strength, and the LORD shakes Egypt off within it. Moses, whose name is tied to being drawn out of water, stands in the same scene as Egyptians overthrown in water.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A way that opens is not automatically a lasting guarantee of safety.
THE ROOT
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
מָשָׁה
To draw out, especially from water.
Exodus 2:10 links Moses’s name to the act of drawing him out of water. Here, that water-linked name stands beside the returning sea, sharpening the contrast between the one drawn out and the Egyptians shaken off within it.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: Draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb is the seed behind the name’s water-related wordplay.
m'shītihū: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
Exodus 2:10 uses this form to connect Moses’s name with being drawn out of the water.
וַיָּשָׁב
vayashav
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
To turn back, return.
“turned back” in this verse is vayashav. The verse describes more than the sea growing strong again: it turns back to its strength. That return is the pivot of the reversal, as the waters resume their force and Egypt is shaken off within them.
ALSO GROWS
hēshīv: Bring back, restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows that the same root can describe bringing something back, echoing the sea’s return to its force.
teshuvah: Return, turning.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The noun preserves the root’s sense of turning back, fitting the verse’s reversal in direction.
וַיְנַעֵר
vayenaʿer
GROWS FROM
נ־ע־ר
To shake, shake out, shake off.
“shook out” in this verse is vayenaʿer. The Hebrew verb gives a physical image beneath “overthrew”: the LORD shakes Egypt off within the sea. The wording holds that violent act together with the sea’s return to strength.
ALSO GROWS
lenaʿer: To shake, shake out, shake off.
לְנַעֵר
The infinitive keeps the concrete motion visible beneath the English rendering.
hitnaʿari: Shake yourself free.
הִתְנַעֲרִי
Isaiah 52:2 uses this reflexive form for shaking off dust and bonds, showing the same root’s forceful image of shaking loose.
THE PATTERN
The sea’s power is not autonomous: its return, boundaries, and stillness all answer to divine command.
And it came to pass, when the priests who lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan turned back to their place, and flowed over all its banks, as before.You set a boundary they may not cross; they do not return to cover the earth.And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, and let the waters turn back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.The Hebrew verb translated “come again” is the same return-root rendered “returned” here. This verse enacts the command: the waters turn back upon Egypt, and the LORD shakes them off within the sea.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us