The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 14:9 pictures a scene the Hebrew leaves blank. While Pharaoh's chariots thunder toward them, what is Israel doing? The Targum says they are gathering pearls and goodly stones.
And not ordinary pearls. The Targum traces a cosmic supply chain. The Pishon river, one of the four rivers of Eden (Genesis 2:11), had carried pearls and precious stones out of the garden. The Pishon emptied into the Gihon, another Eden river. The Gihon emptied into the Sea of Reeds. And the Sea had washed those Eden-born gems onto its bank.
So as the Egyptian army approached, Israel crouched on the shore picking up gemstones that had drifted all the way from paradise. The wealth they had taken from Egypt (Exodus 12:35-36) was being supplemented by a stranger wealth: the wealth of Eden itself.
The image is audacious. Redemption runs through geography. The same water that once flowed through the garden God planted for Adam and Eve now deposits its treasures at the feet of their freed descendants. Even as Egypt closes in, the land is returning Israel's inheritance.
"But all the chariot horses of Pharoh, and his horsemen, and his hosts, were coming." The Targum cuts from pearls to cavalry. Eden is open on one side, extinction on the other. Israel will have to cross the sea with both hands full.
Takeaway: the Targum teaches that even in the narrow place between the desert and the enemy, the Garden is never far.