The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. The poetic description of the Egyptian army's fate uses the language of primordial waters. The deep — tehom — is the same word as the deep in Genesis 1:2, the formless chaos over which the Spirit of God hovered. The waters of chaos, which God separated and ordered at creation, have closed over those who pursued His people. The sinking like a stone is permanent and final — stones do not float back up. Nehemiah 9:11 recalls this verse in its historical recitation: you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. The poetry of Exodus 15 becomes the theological vocabulary for how Israel describes God's definitive acts of judgment and salvation throughout the rest of Scripture.

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