The water comes back.

All night the east wind held the sea apart, walls of water on the right and on the left, Israel walking through on dry ground. Then Moses stretches his hand over the sea and the waters return. Chariots, horsemen, the entire army of Pharaoh disappear beneath the surface. The text says not so much as one of them remained.

And Israel sings.

The Song of the Sea celebrates the drowning of Egyptian soldiers in language so vivid it has made readers uncomfortable for three thousand years. “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.” Readers trained in the language of charity and love for all of God’s children find that celebration genuinely difficult. The discomfort is worth sitting with rather than resolving quickly.