תהלים, פרק ע״ז, פסוק י״ח

The divine intervention during the Exodus from Egypt, particularly at the splitting of the Red Sea, was not merely an earthly event but a true cosmic upheaval. Forces of nature, from the highest heavens to the depths of the sea, were mobilized by God to strike terror into the Egyptian camp and bring salvation to Israel. Thick clouds poured down a massive, fierce flood of water [רש״י, מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ, המאירי]. This violent rain pounded the Egyptians as they crossed the sea, serving to stun and confuse them [מצודת דוד]. This heavy downpour is also linked to the plague of hail, where thick, frozen drops containing miraculous fire rained down upon them [אלשיך].

Alongside the storm cascading from the clouds, a powerful sound echoed from above, universally understood by commentators as the crash of thunder [מצודת דוד]. While some identify the source of this sound simply as the physical sky [מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ], a deeper perspective suggests it represents a higher spiritual dimension. In this view, these upper heavens are the realm of angels and the source of miracles, and the thunderous sounds were divine voices descending from a place of miraculous governance directly into the natural world [מלבי״ם, אלשיך].

As the storm raged, the skies released further weapons. The primary approach among commentators is that this refers to lightning bolts, which God shot down like arrows [רש״י, מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ, מלבי״ם, מצודת דוד]. These flashes of lightning illuminated the path from within the pillar of fire that accompanied the Israelites [אבן עזרא], or manifested as a spiritual fire moving within the hailstones [אלשיך]. In contrast, other commentators suggest that actual gravel and small river stones flew through the air, raining down on the Egyptians to amplify the chaos in their camp, even though this specific detail is not explicitly recorded in the Torah's account of the event [רד״ק, המאירי].

Ultimately, this reveals a continuous chain of miracles descending from on high. The upheaval began in the upper spiritual realms, cascading down into the lower skies. Spiritual thunder and lightning transformed into physical storms in the natural world, all converging to split the sea and throw the Egyptian camp into complete disarray [מלבי״ם].