Exodus 15:7-10

"And in the greatness of thine excellency thou overthrowest them that rise up against thee: Thou sendest forth thy wrath, it consumeth them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters piled up, The floods stood upright as a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty waters."

This is a deeply impassioned and emotionally charged passage. Note the mingling of present and past tenses and the short, staccato sentences:

"I will pursue; I will overtake; I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword; I will destroy them!"

This whole passage is a classic of animated and powerful expression. There are powerful figures such as the anthropomorphic representation of the mighty winds as the breath of God's nostrils. Then there is the mention of the waters as being like "a heap," or "a wall," or "congealed." These are all bold figures of speech and should not be distorted to mean that the waters stood up vertically like a brick wall. "Heap" implies a contour for the waters which, by definition, forbids the idea of a vertical wall, and yet the effect was the same as that of a wall. Some commentators struggle valiantly to get a myth out of all this, leading to such views as that of Clements: "The great deep congealed: a reference to the drying up of the sea bed, which is couched in semi-mythological language, suggesting that the deep was like a dragon curling itself up."[24] Can you see a dragon curling itself up here? If so, may we suggest that you would also be able to see the king's invisible britches in the fable!