出埃及記 14:30 註釋：Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam & Sforno

וירא ישראל את מצרים מת AND ISRAEL SAW THE EGYPTIANS DEAD — because the sea threw them out on its shore in order that the Israelites should not say: “Just as we have come up from out of the sea on this part, so they have come up on another part of this shore, but far away from us, and they will pursue us” (Mekhilta; Pesachim 118b; Arakhin 15a).

On that day Ad-noy delivered. Only now were B’nei Yisrael delivered from the Egyptians because until this point they were still in fear of Pharaoh. [B’nei] Yisrael saw the Egyptians dead. It is written later on that the Egyptians “sunk” into the sea (15:4) and that the earth, “swallowed them up” (15:12). Therefore the statement that B’nei Yisrael “saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore” must mean that B’nei Yisrael saw the Egyptians dead in the middle of the sea while they themselves were on the shore.

וירא ישראל, the ones on the far shore of the Sea of Reeds, את מצרים, dying and drowning על שפת הים, while they themselves were safely on the beaches of the sea. As soon as the last Israelite had climbed out of the bed of the sea, they saw that the sea had turned back to engulf the pursuing Egyptians and that these were drowned in it. This is in line with the plain meaning of the verse, something I already explained in connection with Genesis 3:8 on the expression וישמע את קול ה', that the perception by the Israelites of Egyptians dying was more of an aural kind than a visual kind. [the fact that on occasion the ear can be as powerful and reliable an instrument of perception as the eye, has been proved in Exodus 20,14 where רואים את הקולות means that the noise was as convincing as if a visual image had been seen. Ed.]