Hans Jordaens was born and trained in Antwerp and moved north after the Spanish recaptured that city in 1585, settling in Delft and founding a dynasty of painters there. This work probably belongs to the moment in the 1620s when Dutch figure painters moved away from Mannerism and absorbed the more tactile realism of Caravaggio. Jordaens seems also to have looked at Venetian painting, especially artists such as Paris Bordone and Jacopo Bassano, in order to render the effect of metal and rich stuffs. Moses stands in the background commanding the waters to close (creating a wonderful swirl of horse-and-water) accompanied by Miriam, who sings a triumphal song (hence her lute here), and a bearded man. The man in the foreground with the turban may be intended for Aaron or just a rich Israelite, for great play is made of the fact that they have all carried a considerable weight of metalwork across the sea. Perhaps this is to contrast with the Egyptians' loss of treasure or to remind us of the goods soon to be melted down to make the Golden Calf.

It is difficult to conceive that a Dutch painter could paint this subject without thinking of the deliberate breeching of the dykes in 1574 to relieve the Siege of Leiden, when the Dutch were engaged in fighting for their life against that latter-day Pharoah, Philip II of Spain.