The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 14:20 describes the strangest cloud in the Torah. It comes between the camp of Israel and the camp of the Mizraee, and it has two sides simultaneously.
"One half of which was light and one half darkness." The Egyptian side was dark as night. The Israelite side shone as if it were noon. The same cloud, the same hour, two opposite experiences.
"On the one side it darkened upon the Mizraee, and on the other side it shined upon Israel all night." The Targum's phrasing insists on the paradox. This is not a trick of perspective. It is a physical fact of the cloud: its substance is bifurcated.
And the result is peace for one night. "One host did not attack the other all the night." The darkness blinded the Egyptian archers; the light made the Israelite camp visible only to itself. Each side, in its own way, could not reach the other.
The Targum is painting an image of divine judgment that is already in motion before the sea splits. Egypt is already in the dark. Israel is already in the light. Before the waters even divide, the verdict is being rendered in the sky above them.
The same cloud can be a barrier or a lamp depending on which side you stand. The same God, the Targum quietly suggests, is darkness to those who pursue His people and light to those who walk with them.
Takeaway: the Targum teaches that one reality can look like punishment and protection at the same time.