Here Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives us one of its boldest expansions. The Hebrew says only: Thou stretched out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. The Targum opens this single image into a courtroom drama between the elements.
The sea, it says, spoke to the earth: Receive thy children. The earth answered back: Receive thy murderers. Neither wanted them. The sea did not want to overwhelm them. The earth did not want to swallow them.
Why the reluctance? The Targum gives the earth's reason with chilling precision. She was afraid that on the day of great judgment in the world to come, the blood of the drowned Egyptians would be required of her, just as the blood of <a href='/texts/bereshit-rabbah-22-1.html'>Habel</a> (Abel) was required of her when Cain shed it on the ground and the earth opened her mouth to receive it (Genesis 4:11).
Then the Holy One stretched out His right hand and swore an oath: the blood of Pharaoh's army would not be required of her on the day of judgment. Only then did the earth open her mouth and consume them.
Read slowly, this is a staggering teaching. Even the elements have moral memory. Even the dust remembers whose blood it has absorbed. And even the drowning of the wicked is not done lightly; it must be ratified by a divine oath, with the earth as consenting witness.
The Maggid's takeaway: every act of justice in this world leaves a ledger in the next. Heaven and earth keep their books. The right hand that cuts down a tyrant must also reassure the ground that will hold him.