The strong east wind that God sent ( Exodus 14:21) recalls the wind from God that swept over the face of the primeval waters in creation ( Genesis 1:2). The cloud became a source of light to the fleeing Israelites but darkness to the pursuing Egyptians ( Exodus 14:19-20). [source][source][source]
"Thus the double nature of the glory of God in salvation and judgment, which later appears so frequently in Scripture, could not have been more graphically depicted." [1][source]
The angel switched from guiding to guarding the Israelites. The strong east wind was another miracle like those that produced the plagues ( Exodus 14:21; cf. Psalm 77:16-19). [source][source][source]
The two million Israelites could have passed through the sea in the time the text says if they crossed in a wide column, perhaps a half-mile wide ( Exodus 14:22). Some interpreters take the wall of water literally and others interpret it figuratively. [source][source][source]
"The metaphor [2] is no more to be taken literally than when Ezra 9:9 says that God has given him a "wall" (the same word) in Israel. It is a poetic metaphor to explain why the Egyptian chariots could not sweep in to right and left, and cut Israel off; they had to cross by the same ford, directly behind the Israelites." [3][source]
Nevertheless nothing in the text precludes a literal wall of water. [4] This seems to be the normal meaning of the text. [source][source][source]
The text does not say that Pharaoh personally perished in the Red Sea (cf. Exodus 14:8; Exodus 14:10; Exodus 14:28; Psalm 106:7-12; Psalm 136:13-15). [5][source]