Midrash su Isaia 43:16

THE GATHERING OF THE WATERS
ON the third day all the earth was flat like a plain and the waters covered the surface of all the earth. When the word of the Almighty was uttered, "Let the waters be gathered together" (Gen. 1:9), the mountains and hills arose from the ends of the earth and they were scattered over the surface of all the earth, and valleys were formed over the inner parts of the earth; and the waters were rolled together and gathered into the valleys, as it is said, "And the gathering together of the waters he called seas" (Gen. 1:10). Forthwith the waters became proud and they arose to cover the earth as at first, when the Holy One, blessed be He, rebuked them || and subdued them, and placed them beneath the soles of His feet, and measured them with the hollow of His hand that they should neither decrease nor increase. He made the sand as the boundary of the sea, just like a man who makes a fence for his vineyard. When they rise and see the sand before them they return to their former place, as it is said, "Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea?" (Jer. 5:22).

Another interpretation (of Is. 55:8): FOR MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS. When a king of flesh and blood is provoked with < some > humans, he expels them from the country. Could he possibly make a way in the sea to bring them down < into it > and drown them in its midst? [The Holy One, however, is not like that. Rather, when he was angry with the Egyptians, he did make a way in the sea, bring them down < into it >, and drown them in its midst.] Where is it shown? Where it is stated (in Is. 43:16): < THUS SAYS THE LORD >, WHO SETS HIS WAY IN THE SEA AND A PATH IN THE MIGHTY WATERS. And what one is greater than all of them? The one who (according to Exod. 15:1, 21) brings forth rider and horse, army and warrior. Ergo (in Is. 55:8): FOR MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT < YOUR THOUGHTS, AND YOUR WAYS ARE NOT MY WAYS >.

Rabbi Tanḥuma said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon: It is written: “Who makes a way in the sea” (Isaiah 43:16); that is not a difficult feat. “And a path in mighty waters” (Isaiah 43:16); this is not a difficult feat. Rather, what is a difficult feat? “Who brings out chariots and horse, an army, and a mighty force” (Isaiah 43:17). Rabbi Yudan said: A great hunt and pursuit would begin from the archers. Each would push and chase the other, and [their horsemen] would drive them into the sea.
Rabbi Ḥanan said: What did the virtuous and modest daughters of Israel do? They would take their sons and conceal them in burrows and the wicked Egyptians would take their small children and bring them into the Israelite houses and pinch them. They would cry and the Israelite baby would hear the sound of his counterpart crying and would cry with him. [The Egyptians] would then take them and cast them into the Nile. That is what is written: “Catch foxes for us, little foxes.”¹⁴⁰The verse is interpreted by the midrash to mean: Foxes would catch us. They monitored them to cast them into the Nile.
How many babies did they cast into the Nile? Ten thousand, as it is stated: “[I rendered you] as numerous [revava] as the plants of the field” (Ezekiel 16:7).¹⁴¹The word revava also means ten thousand. The midrash means that God replenished their numbers such that the ten thousand were replaced (Matnot Kehuna). Rabbi Levi said: Six hundred thousand, as Moses said: “Six hundred thousand men on foot is the people in whose midst I am” (Numbers 11:21).¹⁴²Each of the men had, on average, one child who had been cast into the Nile (Matnot Kehuna).
What would the Egyptians do? They would bring their children from their academies and would send them to their bathhouses¹⁴³The bathhouses used by the Israelite women. and they would see which Israelite women were pregnant and they would make a note for themselves and return and say to their fathers: ‘So and so has three months, so and so has four months, or five months.’ According to their calculation,¹⁴⁴When they calculated that the baby had already been born. they would take them from their [mothers’] breasts and cast them into the Nile. That is what is written: “Catch foxes for us, little foxes.” ¹⁴⁵The verse is interpreted by the midrash to mean: Foxes would catch us, little foxes. “Seized us,” “killed us” is not written here, but rather “catch [eḥezu] us.” They monitored them to cast them into the Nile.¹⁴⁶The Egyptian children, referred to here as little foxes, would monitor us so that the Egyptians could throw our babies into the Nile.