Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn
back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the
sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the
sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are
wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will
harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get
glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know
that I am the LORD.” And they did so.
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the
mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and
they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go
from serving us?” So he made ready his chariot and took his army
with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other
chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the LORD
hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the
people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out
defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and
chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped
at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their
eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they
feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.
They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt
that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you
done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to
you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For
it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die
in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand
firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you
today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see
again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be
silent.”
The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of
Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand
over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go
through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the
Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory
over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And
the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten
glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel
moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from
before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt
and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness.
And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all
night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD
drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea
dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel
went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a
wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians
pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all
Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the
morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked
down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a
panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.
And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the
LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea,
that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their
chariots, and upon their horsemen.” So Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the
morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw
the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and
covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh
that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But
the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the
waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the
Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the
Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the
LORD and in his servant Moses.
