What Does Exodus 14:26 Mean?

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." The second hand-stretching command, the first (verse 16) opened the sea; the second (verse 26) closes it, is the sea crossing's bookend structure. The miracle has two acts: opening (for Israel's passage) and closing (for Egypt's destruction). Both acts are commanded through Moses' hand-stretching over the sea; both are the same prophetic gesture serving opposite purposes for the two parties simultaneously in the sea bed.

"That the water may come back": the return of the water is not a failure of the miracle but its completion. The sea-opening was not the permanent alteration of the sea's nature but a one-time divine act for Israel's specific need. When Israel has fully crossed and Egypt is fully in, the miracle's second phase begins: the water returns. The returning water is as miraculous as the departing water: the same divine control over the sea that opened it closes it at the exact moment when every Egyptian is in the sea bed and every Israelite is out.

The dual-handedness of the sea miracle, Moses raises his hand to open, raises it again to close, is structurally identical to Moses' raised staff in the Amalek battle (Exodus 17:8-16): when Moses' hand is raised, Israel prevails; when the hand drops, Amalek prevails. The raised hand is consistently the physical corollary of Moses' prophetic partnership with YHWH's power. The sea crossing's two-stage hand-raising is the template for subsequent Moses-and-Israel battle theology.