Hebrews 11:28,29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Through faith From a lively apprehension and firm persuasion of the benefits signified and sealed thereby, and especially that God would assuredly send his angel on the vindictive design predicted, and would spare the houses properly distinguished; see Exodus 12:12; Exodus 12:23; he kept the passover and the sprinkling Or pouring forth, rather; of blood Namely, that of the paschal lamb, which he sprinkled on the lintels and the posts of the doors, as the mark of committing those who dwelt under such roofs to the divine protection; that he who destroyed the firstborn That is, the angel, whom God employed in that work as the executioner of his judgments, as he did afterward in the destruction of Sennacherib's army, and of Sodom; should not touch them That is, the Israelites or their cattle. By faith they Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites; passed through the Red sea That part of the Ethiopic ocean which lies between Egypt and Arabia. In the Hebrew it is constantly called ים שׂו Š, the sea of sedges, reeds or canes, from the multitude growing on its shore, as to this day. The Greeks called it ερυθραιος, or ερυθρα, red, not from the red colour of the waters, appearing so from the sand or the sun, but because it washed the borders of Edom, which signifies red: as by dry land As sedately as if they had marched on dry land, while its waters, by the divine command, divided and left the channel bare to them, so that they easily completed their march through it, and arrived safely on the opposite shore: which the Egyptians, assaying to do, were destroyed Κατεποθησαν, were drowned, swallowed up. This attempt of the Egyptians was the greatest height of folly and presumption that ever obdurate sinners arrived at in this world. They had seen all the mighty works which God had wrought in behalf of his people among them; they and their country were almost consumed with the plagues and judgments that were inflicted on them; and yet now, beholding this wonderful work of God in opening the sea to receive his people from their pursuit, they would make a venture, (as the original expression, πειραν λαβοντες, signifies,) to follow them into it. Vain and desperate attempt! and a high evidence of infatuation! It is one of the most signal examples of blindness of mind, confirmed by judicial hardness of heart, that is upon record in the whole book of God; nor is there any monument of equal folly and infatuation among the annals of time. Thus far the examples are cited from Genesis and Exodus; those that follow are from the former and the latter prophets.