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Samael Sent Six Hundred Chariots to Lead Egypt Against Israel

Pharaoh drove his own chariot toward Israel. Samael had already added six hundred supernatural chariots to lead the Egyptian vanguard.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Pharaoh Hitches His Own Chariot
  2. Six Hundred Chariots From a Different Source
  3. Samael at the Sea
  4. What the Sea Swallowed

Pharaoh Hitches His Own Chariot

He did not send a general. Pharaoh hitched his own chariot himself, in a fury that had moved past tactics into something more personal. Four hundred years. Four hundred years the Israelites had been his property, had built his cities and fattened his storehouses and made Egypt what it was, and then the plagues had come and broken everything he had built on that labor, and now they were walking out. Walking out in broad daylight, with Egyptian gold on their necks and Egyptian silver in their arms, with the smell of death still on every Egyptian house where a firstborn had stopped breathing.

He was not going to delegate the retrieval.

He drove his chariot to the front of the column himself, and the army assembled behind him, and the count of what assembled was staggering: the Israelites were outnumbered three hundred to one. Pharaoh packed three drivers into each chariot instead of the standard two, maximizing every advantage he could calculate. The Egyptian cavalry covered in a single day the distance Israel had traveled in three. The dust cloud rising behind them would have been visible long before the hoofbeats became audible.

Six Hundred Chariots From a Different Source

But the vanguard of the Egyptian pursuit was not entirely Egyptian. The tradition preserved in Midrash Rabbah records that Samael, the prosecuting angel, contributed six hundred supernatural chariots to Pharaoh's force. They ran ahead of the Egyptian military units, ahead even of Pharaoh's own chariot, forming the leading edge of the assault. They were not manned by soldiers. They were driven by forces that belonged to neither Egypt nor Israel but to the cosmic prosecution that had been arguing against Israel since the debates in heaven began.

The number was not arbitrary. Six hundred against the six hundred thousand Israelites who had come out of Egypt: one supernatural chariot for every thousand Israelites, a ratio of opposition shaped to match the number of those who had been released. The tradition reads the precision as deliberate. Samael was not improvising. He was making an argument at the Red Sea, the same argument the prosecuting angels had been making since Israel stood at the edge of the water and the sea refused to split.

Samael at the Sea

The prosecuting angel's argument at the Red Sea runs through several layers of the tradition. He stood before God and pointed at Israel and pointed at Egypt and said: these people worshipped idols and those people worshipped idols. What distinguishes them? On what basis do You drown one nation and deliver the other? The six hundred chariots were not only military force. They were legal argument in material form: the armed case for why Israel deserved to be swallowed by the sea alongside the Egyptians who had enslaved them.

God's answer came through the water. The sea split. The Israelites walked through on dry ground. The Egyptian army and the six hundred supernatural chariots followed, and the sea came back.

What the Sea Swallowed

The tradition tracks the Egyptian losses carefully. The account in Ginzberg's synthesis describes bodies washing up on the shore within sight of Israel. Some accounts identify specific Egyptian commanders among the drowned, matching named individuals to named plagues and named punishments. The precision was intentional: every Egyptian who died in the sea died for a specific account, matched exactly to what that Egyptian had done or ordered or permitted during the years of slavery.

Samael's six hundred chariots went into the sea with the rest of them. The prosecuting angel who had lent his forces to the pursuit lost them in the same water that swallowed Pharaoh's cavalry. The legal argument he had assembled at the sea's edge, the armored case for Israel's destruction, was answered by the sea closing over every soldier who had ridden in response to it.

SamaelPharaohExodusRed SeaAngelsEgyptDivine Justice
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Mekhilta Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 2:28Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael

(Exodus 14:7) "And he took six hundred choice chariots": Whence came the horses required for the chariots? If you would say, from Egypt, is it not written (re the plague of pestilence, Ibid. 9:6) "and all the cattle of Egypt died"? And if you would say, from Pharaoh, is it not written (Ibid. 3) "Behold, the hand of the L–rd is in your cattle in the field, in the horses, etc."? And if you say, from Israel, is it not written (Ibid. 10:26) "And our cattle, too, will go with us; not a hoof will remain"? Whence, then, did they come? From those (of his servants) who feared the word of the L–rd (viz. 9:20) and drove his horses from the field into the houses. We find, then, that the cattle driven off by those who feared the word of the L–rd proved to be an impediment to Israel, whence R. Shimon says: "the best of the gentiles, kill! The best of the serpents, crush its head!"

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Legends of the Jews 1:23Legends of the Jews

Take the story of the Exodus, the moment when the Israelites were fleeing Egypt. They’re trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the raging sea. A miracle is needed. But according to Legends of the Jews, as retold by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, there was another threat at play: Samael (the angel of death).

Samael isn't exactly an independent rebel. Think of him more like a celestial prosecutor, an adversary. According to tradition, he's been lodging accusations against Israel ever since they left Egypt. He's constantly pointing out their flaws, their past idolatry. "Look at them, God," he's saying, "are these really the people worthy of your miracles?"

Ginzberg paints a vivid picture: God, facing Samael's relentless accusations, acts like a seasoned shepherd. Imagine the scene: a flock needs to cross a rushing stream, but a hungry wolf is eyeing them, ready to strike. What does the shepherd do? He throws the wolf a strong ram – a distraction. While the wolf is busy with the ram, the rest of the flock crosses to safety. Then, the shepherd returns and rescues the ram.

That’s what God does, metaphorically. Samael, ever the critic, challenges God: "These Israelites? You’re going to split the sea for them? They were just worshipping idols!"

So, what does God do? He offers up… Job. "While he busies himself with Job," God says, "Israel will pass through the sea unscathed, and as soon as they are in safety, I will rescue Job from the hands of Samael." Job, the epitome of righteousness, becomes the distraction, the "ram" in this divine strategy. While Samael is busy tormenting Job, questioning his faith, putting him through unimaginable trials… the Israelites are making their escape.

It’s a stunning example of divine chess. A cosmic balancing act where one person's suffering, however unjust, becomes the means for another's salvation. It raises so many questions, doesn’t it? About justice, about sacrifice, about the unseen forces at play in our lives.

We might never fully understand the reasons behind suffering, but this story from Legends of the Jews offers a glimpse into a world where even hardship can be part of a larger, ultimately redemptive plan. It challenges us to consider the unseen battles being fought on our behalf, and perhaps, to find meaning even in the midst of our own trials.

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Shemot Rabbah 18:11Shemot Rabbah

Shemot Rabbah turns to Six Hundred Thousand Israelites March Out of Egypt.

What about the bigger picture? How long were they really in Egypt?

(Exodus 12:41) says, "It was at the end of four hundred and thirty years, it was on that very day that the entire host of the Lord departed from the land of Egypt.” Four hundred and thirty years. That’s a long time! But wait a minute…

The Sages, in Shemot Rabbah, dig deeper. The 430 years, they suggest, started not from the actual descent into Egypt, but from the moment God decreed that Abraham's descendants would suffer in a foreign land. Think back to (Genesis 15:13), where God tells Abraham about this future hardship. If you count from that decree, the Israelites were actually in Egypt for only 210 years.

Now, isn't that fascinating? And it gets even more interesting. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) tells us that the day they went down to Egypt was the very same day, years later, that they came out. On that very day, Joseph, too, emerged from prison! Talk about a day packed with divine timing!

This, the Rabbis say, is why that night, the night of Passover, is a night of celebration for all of Israel. "It was a night of vigil for the Lord," (Exodus 12:42) declares.

Shemot Rabbah reflects on the nature of that night. In this world, God performed a miracle for them at night, but it was, in a way, a "transient" miracle. What does that mean? Well, the Israelites would still face future hardships and suffering. The redemption from Egypt, as glorious as it was, wasn't the end of the story.

But there’s hope for the future! As (Isaiah 30:26) promises, "The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold…" In the future, the night will turn into day. It will be like the original, primordial light that God created at the very beginning and then stored away in the Garden of Eden. A light of pure, unadulterated goodness.

So, what does it all mean? Perhaps it’s a reminder that even in the darkest of times, even when we feel lost and oppressed, the seeds of redemption are already being sown. And maybe, just maybe, the day of our liberation is closer than we think. The story of the Exodus isn't just about the past; it’s a promise for the future.

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