The Mekhilta draws a striking comparison between the experience of the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish and the fate of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea — and the Egyptians had it far worse.
Jonah descended to one depth. As he himself testifies: "The depth surrounded me" (Jonah 2:6) — singular. He sank into a single layer of the sea's abyss. The Egyptians, by contrast, descended to two depths: "The depths covered them" (Exodus 15:5) — plural. They sank twice as deep as Jonah.
The Mekhilta then sharpens the comparison further. Jonah descended into one metzulah — one whirlpool (Jonah 2:4). A single vortex of churning water pulled him down. But the Egyptians descended into "metzulot" — multiple whirlpools. The sea did not simply swallow them; it spun them through a series of devastating vortexes, each one dragging them deeper than the last.
And the prophet Nehemiah adds the final image: "And their pursuers You cast into metzulot, as a stone into raging waters" (Nehemiah 9:11). A stone thrown into raging waters does not float. It does not resurface. It plummets straight to the bottom and stays there permanently.
The Mekhilta's arithmetic is deliberate. Jonah endured one depth and one whirlpool — and survived to tell the story. The Egyptians endured double depths and multiple whirlpools — and were annihilated. God measured the punishment precisely: enough to correct Jonah, enough to destroy Pharaoh's army. The same sea served both justice and mercy, calibrated to each case.