Red Sea
A place in the Bible
The sea between Egypt and Arabia. The Israelites crossed it when they left Egypt.
What happened here
- Crossing the sea: Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened it with a strong wind. The Israelites walked through the middle on dry ground.
- Pharaoh’s chariots: the waters flowed back and covered the chariots and the horsemen who were chasing them.
- Miriam’s song: Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine, and the women sang and danced with her.
Today
It is still the Red Sea. No one knows for sure where they crossed it.
Where it appears in the Bible
Exodus 13:18; Exodus 14:21-22; Exodus 14:28; Exodus 15:20-21
What the Bible says
Exodus 13:18
But he led them about by the way of the desert, which is by the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 14:21-22
21And when Moses had stretched forth his hand over the sea, the Lord took it away by a strong and burning wind blowing all the night, and turned it into dry ground: and the water was divided. 22And the children of Israel went in through the midst of the sea dried up: for the water was as a wall on their right hand and on their left.
Exodus 14:28
And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharao, who had come into the sea after them, neither did there so much as one of them remain.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Red Sea”; Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), “Red Sea”