(Exodus 15:12) declares: "You inclined Your right hand — the earth swallowed them up." The Mekhilta reads this verse not primarily as a description of the Egyptians' death, but as a revelation about the nature of all souls. God's right hand did not merely gesture at the sea. It held something — every soul in creation.
The proof comes from (Job 12:10): "In His hand is the soul of every living thing." Every soul — not just the righteous, not just the Israelites, but every living creature — rests in God's hand. The souls of the Egyptians were in that hand. The souls of the Israelites were in that hand. The souls of every animal, every bird, every fish — all held.
(Psalms 31:6) adds the human response to this truth: "Into Your hand do I commend my spirit." David did not pray this as a desperate last resort. He prayed it as a recognition of reality. Our spirits are already in God's hand — the prayer simply acknowledges what has always been true.
This teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael (Tractate Shirah 9:1) transforms a verse about military victory into a statement of cosmic theology. When God "inclined His right hand" at the Red Sea, He was exercising authority over what He already possessed — the souls of the living and the dead. The earth swallowed the Egyptians because the hand that held their souls opened and released them into the deep.