‘He put darkness between you’: A version of the Deliverance at the Sea Narrative in Exodus 14:20 and Joshua 24:7

Abstract

My claim in this short paper will be that Ex 14:19-20 preserves a variant where YHWH uses a supernatural darkness alone, and not a cloud, to separate the two armies at the sea. This reading solves long perceived difficulties in the text of Ex 14:19-20, and coheres with the version of the incident related in Josh 24:6-7.