The Earth Swallowed Them and the Oath of Burial

"You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them" (Exodus 15:12). Scripture tells that all souls are in the hand of Him who spoke and the world came into being, as it says, "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing" (Job 12:10). "The earth swallowed them." By what merit was burial granted to them? Because they said, "The LORD is righteous" (Exodus 9:27). The Omnipresent said to them: You justified the judgment upon yourselves; I will grant you burial -- "You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them." Another interpretation: "You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them." Because the sea was casting them onto the dry land and the dry land was casting them back into the sea. The sea said to the dry land, "Receive your hordes," and the dry land said to the sea, "Receive your hordes." The dry land said: If, at the time I received only the blood of Abel alone, it was said of me, "And now you are cursed from the ground" (Genesis 4:11), how now can I receive all this multitude? -- until the Holy One, blessed be He, swore to it that He would not hold it accountable in judgment, as it says, "You stretched out Your right hand [Your oath]." For "right hand" means nothing other than an oath, as it says, "The LORD has sworn by His right hand" (Isaiah 62:8). Another interpretation: "You stretched out Your right hand." Scripture tells that when the Omnipresent stretches out His hand, the wicked depart from the world, as it says, "And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria" (Zephaniah 2:13), and "I will stretch out My hand upon the Philistines and cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the sea coast" (Ezekiel 25:16), and "I will stretch out My hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (Zephaniah 1:4). They told a parable: to what may this be likened? To eggs set in a person's hand; if he tilts his hand even a little, at once they fall and shatter. So too when the Omnipresent tilts His hand, "both he that helps shall stumble and he that is helped shall fall, and they all shall fail together" (Isaiah 31:3).