Texts in Conversation
In Genesis, God sends a wind across the floodwaters, so they recede and dry land appears. Exodus 14 describes a similar act, where a strong east wind drives the water apart and Israel walks across on dry ground.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 8:1
Hebrew Bible
1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over the earth and the waters receded. 2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, and the rain stopped falling from the sky. 3 The waters kept receding steadily from the earth, so that they had gone down by the end of the 150 days.
Exodus 14:21
Hebrew Bible
20 It came between the Egyptian camp and the Israelite camp; it was a dark cloud and it lit up the night so that one camp did not come near the other the whole night. 21 Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord drove the sea apart by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided. 22 So the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground, the water forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
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Notes and References
“... a wind from God Hebrew ruah means “wind, breath, spirit.” “Wind” is the most popular rendering of the word in ancient and medieval Jewish sources. As a physical phenomenon, wind conforms to the general picture of primal chaos evoked by this verse, except that, unlike darkness and water, it is not mentioned again in the Creation story. One possible explanation may be that wind reappears as the agent by means of which the water is separated—that is, blown back—as in Genesis 8:1 at the conclusion of the Flood and in Exodus 14:21 at the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. Wind often functions as a divine agent in the Bible. Another interpretation takes it in the sense of God’s creative, life-giving, sustaining energy. Still a third possibility lies in its use as a term heralding the arrival of God, expressing His immanence, signifying His presence. ...”
Sarna, Nahum M
Genesis: The Traditional Hebrew Text with New JPS Translation
(p. 6) Jewish Publication Society, 1989
* 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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