The story of how Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the waters parted, allowing the Israelites to walk across dry land and escape from the Egyptians, is well known. Now a team of scientists from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has come up with a computer simulation showing how it might have been done. In popular imagination, Moses lifts up his staff, stretches out his hand, and the waters instantly part. However, that is not what the Biblical account actually says.
Exodus 14:21-22 says: “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” Thus the parting of the waters was not described as instant; it was described as being the result of a strong east wind blowing all night.
The NCAR researchers have shown using computer modelling how a strong east wind, blowing all night at a location where a coastal lagoon is believed to have merged with a river, could have pushed the water back into both waterways, enabling people to walk across the exposed mud flats. When the wind died down, the water would have rushed back in, to the detriment of the Egyptian pursuers.