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Exodus reports that the sea swept Pharaoh’s army away with not one survivor. Rabbinic tradition in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer keeps Pharaoh alive, making him the king of Nineveh who later repents at Jonah’s preaching.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 14:28
Hebrew Bible
27 So Moses extended his hand toward the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state when the sun began to rise. Now the Egyptians were fleeing before it, but the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. 28 The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that was coming after the Israelites into the sea—not so much as one of them survived! 29 But the Israelites walked on dry ground in the middle of the sea, the water forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 43:8
Rabbinic
A parable—To what is the matter comparable? To a man who wished to take a voyage at sea. If he did not take with him bread and water from an inhabited land, he will not find anything to eat or to drink on the sea. Again, || if a man wish to go to the end of the wilderness, unless he take from some inhabited place bread and water, he will not find anything to eat or to drink in the wilderness. Likewise, if a man did not repent in his lifetime, after his death he cannot repent. But (God) gives to a man according to his ways, as it is said, "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer. 17:10). Rabbi Nechunia, son of Haḳḳanah, said: Know thou the power of repentance. Come and see from Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who rebelled most grievously against the Rock, the Most High, as it is said, "Who is the Lord, that I should hearken unto his voice?" (Ex. 5:2). In the same terms of speech in which he sinned, he repented, as it is said "Who is like thee, O Lord, among the mighty?" (Ex. 15:11). The Holy One, blessed be He, delivered him from amongst the dead. Whence (do we know) that he died? Because it is said, "For now I had put forth my hand, and smitten thee" (Ex. 9:15). He went and ruled in Nineveh. The men of Nineveh were writing fraudulent deeds, and everyone robbed his neighbour, and they committed sodomy, and such-like wicked actions. When the Holy One, blessed be He, sent for Jonah, to prophesy against (the city) its destruction, Pharaoh hearkened and arose from his throne, rent his garments and clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes, and had a proclamation made to all his people, that all the people should fast for two days, || and all who did these (wicked) things should be burnt by fire. What did they do? The men were on one side, and the women on the other, and their children were by themselves; all the clean animals were on one side, and their offspring were by themselves. The infants saw the breasts of their mothers, (and they wished) to have suck, and they wept. The mothers saw their children, (and they wished) to give them suck. By the merit of 4123 children more than twelve hundred thousand men (were saved), as it is said, "And should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city; wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" (Jonah 4:11); "And the Lord repented of the evil, which he said he would do unto them" (Jonah 3:10). For forty years was the Holy One, blessed be He, slow to anger with them, corresponding to the forty days during which He had sent Jonah. After forty years they returned to their many evil deeds, more so than their former ones, and they were swallowed up like the dead, in the lowest Sheol, as it is said, "Out of the city of the dead they groan" (Job 24:12). The Holy One, blessed be He, sent by the hand of His servants, the prophets, to Israel (saying), "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God" (Hos. 14:1). (Even) unto Him whose voice ye heard at Mount Sinai, saying, "I, the Lord, am to be thy God" (Ex. 20:2).
Date: 630-1030 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer 43: Rabbi Nehuniah b. Haqqanneh said, ‘If you want to learn about the power of repentance, come and see it with pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who had greatly risen up against the most high rock: Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice? (Exodus 5:2). And with the same expression with which he had sinned, he repented: Who is like you among the gods, Yahweh? (Exodus 15:11, the Midrash puts this saying in the mouth of pharaoh). And God saved him from death. From where can it be demonstrated that pharaoh did not die? Because it says, For otherwise I would have stretched out my hand and struck you, and you would have been wiped out from the earth (Exodus 9:15). But God left him alive in the midst of the dead, so that he might recount the power of his strength. And how do we know that he left him alive? Yet because of this I left you alive, so that I might let you see my power (Exodus 9:16). Pharaoh went and became king of Nineveh. The people of Nineveh issued edicts of oppression and stole from one another and had unnatural fornication with one another, and other evil works like this. When God sent Jonah to prophesy against the city that it would be destroyed, pharaoh heard this and rose from his throne and tore his garments and clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes.’ ...”
Strack, Hermann L., and Paul Billerbeck
A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, Volume 1: Matthew
(p. 1206) Lexham Academic, 2022
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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