Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the Torah says "the sea returned towards morning to its eithano" (Exodus 14:27). That final word — eithano — becomes the subject of a rabbinic debate that reveals two different ways of understanding the miracle at the Red Sea.
The first interpretation reads eithano as derived from the word for "strength." The sea returned to "His strength" — meaning God's power. The sea had been held apart by divine force, and when that force was redirected, the waters crashed back together with the full strength of the Creator behind them. This reading connects to the verse "Eithan is your dwelling" (Numbers 24:21), where the word implies something unshakeable and mighty. The sea's return was not a passive settling — it was a violent reassertion of divine power.
Rabbi Nathan offers an alternative. He reads eithano as "hardness," connecting it to the verse describing a nation that is "eithan" — enduring, relentless, unyielding (Jeremiah 5:15). In this reading, the sea returned with a terrible hardness, an implacable crushing force that no Egyptian could withstand or escape.
The Mekhilta adds a final detail that amplifies the terror. "And Egypt fled towards it" — wherever the Egyptians ran, the sea pursued them. This was not a flood that spread uniformly. The waters actively hunted the fleeing soldiers. Every direction was a dead end because the sea was not acting on its own. It was following orders, chasing down every last Egyptian who tried to escape God's judgment.