And in the morning watch is literally “in the night watch of the morning.” This was the third of three “watches” during the night, the period of time just before dawn. So New International Version has “During the last watch of the night,” and New American Bible has “In the night watch just before dawn.” But Good News Translation provides a good model, “Just before dawn.” In some languages this will be expressed as “Just before the sun rose.” The LORD, of course, is Yahweh, who looked down upon, meaning that Yahweh was at a higher level. The host of the Egyptians uses the same word as verse 19, which is better translated as “the Egyptian army” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), or even “the Egyptian soldiers.”

In the pillar of fire and of cloud speaks of just one pillar, suggesting that it was a combination of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire in 13.21-22. New American Bible calls it “the column of the fiery cloud.” The Hebrew, however, has “a pillar,” as in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, not “the pillar”; yet most translations interpret it as “the.” The word for in is a preposition that can also mean “from” or “through” (King James Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible). It is not clear whether Yahweh is thought to be in the fiery cloud or above it. It is probably best to place Yahweh in it, but looking down from it. So one may also say “Yahweh looked down at the Egyptian soldiers from the fiery cloud [or, the cloud that was burning].”

And discomfited is a word that means to cause confusion or “panic” (Good News Translation). Here it is suggested that Yahweh’s glance actually “threw them into a panic.” We are not told in this verse how the LORD did this, but the following verse gives a clue. “Panic” suggests sudden fear, or the desire to run away because of being terrified. So one may translate in this context “and caused them [the Egyptians] to become afraid and want to escape.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .