Verses 16-20 are a highly compact and sublimely dramatic description of the miracle of deliverance at the Red Sea. The details in these verses provide valuable incidental additions to the narrative in Exodus (see PP 287). Compare the narrative in Ex. 14:27-29.
Saw.
The personification, in which the waters are represented as recognizing the presence of God and fleeing in fear, is eminently sublime. The waters fled to make way for God’s people.