The Sea That Cannot Resist and the Scheme That Returns

"And the LORD said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea"—the sea does not stand against you. "And the waters returned upon Egypt, upon his chariots and upon his horsemen." He turned the wheel back upon them, that their malice should return upon them. In the very intent they devised it, I judge them: they planned to destroy My children by water, so I too will destroy them only by water. And so it says, "He dug a pit and hollowed it out, and he fell into the ditch he made" (Psalms 7:16); "Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone returns upon the one who rolls it" (Proverbs 26:27); "One who digs a pit will fall into it, and one who breaks through a wall, a snake will bite him; one who quarries stones will be hurt by them, and one who splits wood will be endangered by it" (Ecclesiastes 10:8–9). And it says, "His mischief returns upon his own head, and his violence comes down upon his own skull" (Psalms 7:17). So Solomon says, "From the fruit of a man's mouth he is filled with good, and the work of a man's hands returns to him" (Proverbs 12:14). So Isaiah says, "According to their deeds, accordingly will He repay: wrath to His foes, recompense to His enemies; to the coastlands He will render recompense" (Isaiah 59:18). So Jeremiah says, "Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the children of man, to give to each according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds" (Jeremiah 32:19). So Elihu says, "Far be it from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to do wrong" (Job 34:10). So Jethro says, "Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods, for in the very thing they schemed against them" (Exodus 18:11)—formerly I recognized Him, and now all the more—for in the very intent that Egypt devised to destroy Israel, by it the Omnipresent judged them, "for in the very thing they schemed against them." Always they have said: by the measure a person measures, it is measured to him.