Exodus 14:21

In delivering His people, as in bringing the plagues on the Egyptians, God may have made use of natural means. A strong east wind blowing all night, and acting with the ebbing tide, may have laid bare the shallow neck of water joining the Bitter Lakes to the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to cross in safety: see on Exodus 14:2. Indeed, an Egyptian tradition says that Moses waited for the ebb tide in order to lead the Israelites across. The real difficulty in connexion with the passage of the Red Sea lies not in the baring of the sea bottom, but in the fact that the Israelitish host must have numbered about three millions: see on Exodus 12:37; This enormous multitude, encumbered as it was with young and old herds of cattle, must have taken a long time to cross the soft floor of the estuary. It is not impossible, however, that the number stated was the total of those who escaped from Egypt, but that they left in several companies, that led by Moses being the main detachment: see on Numbers 1.