What Does Exodus 14:17 Mean?

"And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen." The hardening of the Egyptians (plural: not just Pharaoh but his army) to pursue Israel into the sea is the final and most devastating application of the hardening motif: an army follows Israel into the sea bed that God opens because divine hardening is overriding their instinct for self-preservation.

The Egyptian soldiers who see the walls of water on either side and Israel walking on dry ground between them should recognize the supernatural and retreat. Instead, the hardened hearts pursue: and die.

The glory that YHWH "will get" (verse 4's promise, now repeated in verse 17) is the frame around the entire sea-crossing narrative: it begins with the glory-purpose (verse 4) and ends when the glory is achieved (verse 18). The sea crossing is not primarily Israel's liberation miracle (though it is that) but YHWH's glory-demonstration. The glory (kabod, weight/honor/radiance) is YHWH's self-disclosure in acts of incomparable power: in Egypt through the plagues, and now at the sea through the sinking of the world's premier chariot force. The sea crossing is the Exodus glory-act that supersedes all the plagues in its completeness.

The specificity "his chariots, and his horsemen": cataloguing Pharaoh's military force: is the narrative's way of ensuring the reader tracks the military hierarchy being destroyed. Pharaoh himself, his host (army), his chariots (the premier offensive weapon), his horsemen (the cavalry): all categories of Egyptian military power are included in the glory-victory YHWH announces. No element of Egypt's martial system will survive the sea. The complete military catalog in the glory-announcement prepares for the complete military catalog in the drowning report (verse 28).