by jimwalton » Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:22 am
The Israelites had lived in Egypt a long time. They knew that the Egyptians, just like the Israelites, believed in the concept of the Divine Warrior—that their deity would fight for them. It was a common theology in the ancient Near East. So the writer is using, if I may put it this way, a little literary creativity to speculate (and probably accurately) what the Egyptians were thinking when their superior army and their chariots were being defeated by a slave army that wasn't even fighting. Since the Israelites were not mounting a military offensive against the Egyptians, and since the forces of nature (a common "weapon" of the gods) were against them, it's easily to surmise that this is exactly what the Egyptians are thinking.
The Israelites had lived in Egypt a long time. They knew that the Egyptians, just like the Israelites, believed in the concept of the Divine Warrior—that their deity would fight for them. It was a common theology in the ancient Near East. So the writer is using, if I may put it this way, a little literary creativity to speculate (and probably accurately) what the Egyptians were thinking when their superior army and their chariots were being defeated by a slave army that wasn't even fighting. Since the Israelites were not mounting a military offensive against the Egyptians, and since the forces of nature (a common "weapon" of the gods) were against them, it's easily to surmise that this is exactly what the Egyptians are thinking.