The Egyptian chariot was a weapon of speed and intimidation.\u00a0 A pair of soldier operated each chariot: a driver and an archer.\u00a0 The driver would control a team of horses and focus on driving, while the archer could fire his arrows off in practically any direction.\u00a0 The combination of driver and archer made the Egyptian chariot deadly and fast, a fearsome weapon.<\/p>\n

The wheels on these chariots were thin, like the wheels on a ten-speed bicycle.\u00a0 This was an adaptation of the Levantine chariot to Egyptian sandy conditions.\u00a0 These chariot wheels were designed to cut through sand, and the carriages were made out of light-weight materials.\u00a0 So if the chariot got stuck in sand, it could be lifted out of the sand easily.<\/p>\n

However, this same design that worked so well in dry sand had the opposite effect in silt.\u00a0 The wheels cut into the mud which caused them to get stuck and even caused the wheels to break off from their axils (Exod14:25).\u00a0 And in the morning, the Israelites found the Egyptians dead on the seashore (Exod 14:29).\u00a0 With the charioteers stuck and burdened with heavy armor, even 20 ft of water proved too much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Movie versions of the exodus portray the parting of the Reed (Red) Sea as massive vertical walls of water that the Israelites passed between.\u00a0 The Egyptians are shown blindly following after the Israelites, possibly out of fear of Pharaoh.\u00a0 But I have to ask.\u00a0 Who in their right mind would enter into a box canyon…<\/p>\n