What Does Exodus 14:28 Mean?

The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. The total destruction report is the sea crossing's most complete statement: not one remained. Every member of the Egyptian military force that entered the sea, the chariots, the horsemen, all the host, drowned. The "not one of them remained" is the absolute completion of YHWH's victory: the Egyptian military power that has been the context of Israel's oppression since the "new king arose who did not know Joseph (Exodus 1:8) is annihilated without survivor.

The coverage by water of "the chariots and the horsemen" brings the sea crossing's running catalog to its conclusion: the chariots that were readied (verse 6), deployed (verse 7), promised to be gloried-over (verse 17), catalogued entering the sea (verse 23), had their wheels clogged (verse 25), and fled (verse 27) are now covered by the returning sea. The narrative's chariot-tracking from verse 6 to verse 28 is the careful accountancy of the military force that God promised to defeat: the reader has been kept informed of the chariots through every stage of their deployment and destruction.

Psalm 136:15 summarizes the sea crossing in one verse: "but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever." The sea crossing becomes the paradigmatic steadfast-love (hesed) act of Israel's history: the event that proves YHWH's covenant loyalty extends to complete military victory when Israel faces impossible overwhelming odds. Every generation that prays "his steadfast love endures forever" in the Psalm 136 antiphon is claiming the sea crossing's evidence as the ground for trust in YHWH's ongoing hesed.