Xuất Ai Cập Ký 14

Pharaoh chases Israel

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Tell the Israelites to turn around and set up camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. Make your camp beside the sea, across from Baal-zephon. ³Pharaoh will say about the Israelites, ‘They are lost and wandering about the country; the wilderness has trapped them.’ ⁴I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn, and he will chase after them. Then I will win glory at the expense of Pharaoh and all his forces, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” The Israelites did as they were told. ⁵Word reached the king of Egypt that the people had run away, and Pharaoh and his officials turned against them. “Why did we do this?” they said. “We have let Israel go, and they will no longer serve us!” ⁶Then Pharaoh had his chariot harnessed and took his troops along. ⁷He took 600 picked chariots and the rest of Egypt’s chariot force too, with officers over the whole of it.^{a 8}The LORD made the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, stubborn, and he went after the Israelites, who were leaving with heads held high.^{b 9}The Egyptians, all Pharaoh’s chariot horses, his horsemen and his army, went after them and caught up with them where they were camped by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, facing Baal-zephon. ¹⁰Pharaoh was drawing closer. When the Israelites looked up, they saw the Egyptians advancing behind them, and they were filled with fear. The Israelites cried out to the LORD. ¹¹They said to Moses, “Did Egypt have no graves, that you had to bring us out here to die in the wilderness? What a thing to do to us, leading us out of Egypt! ¹²Did we not tell you this very thing back in Egypt? We said, ‘Let us be, and we will serve the Egyptians.’ Serving the Egyptians was better for us than dying here in the wilderness!” ¹³But Moses told the people, “Have no fear! Hold your ground and watch how the LORD will save you today. You see the Egyptians today, but you will never see them again. ¹⁴The LORD will fight on your behalf, and you can stay quiet.”

Crossing the sea on dry ground

¹⁵Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to break camp and go forward. ¹⁶As for you, lift up your staff, reach out your hand over the sea, and split it open, so that the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷As for me, I am going to make the Egyptians stubborn, so that they follow them in. Then I will win glory at the expense of Pharaoh and his whole army, his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁸The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I have won glory at the expense of Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” ¹⁹The angel of God, who had been going ahead of Israel’s camp, moved and went to the rear, and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. ²⁰It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. The cloud was there, and the darkness, and it lit up the night; and all night long neither camp approached the other.^{c 21}Moses held his hand out over the sea, and all night long the LORD pushed the sea back with a powerful east wind. He turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were split apart. ²²The Israelites went into the middle of the sea on dry ground, and the water was a wall for them, to the right and to the left. ²³The Egyptians gave chase and followed them into the middle of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and his horsemen. ²⁴In the last hours of the night, before morning, the LORD looked down on the Egyptian camp from the pillar of fire and cloud and threw the camp into panic. ²⁵He made the wheels come off their chariots, so that they could hardly drive. Then the Egyptians said, “We must run from Israel, because the LORD is fighting on their side against Egypt!”^{d 26}The LORD said to Moses, “Hold your hand out over the sea, and the waters will flow back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” ²⁷So Moses held his hand out over the sea, and as morning broke the sea went back to its usual flow. The Egyptians were fleeing straight into it, and the LORD shook them off into the middle of the sea. ²⁸The waters came back and covered the chariots and the horsemen, the whole of Pharaoh’s army that had followed Israel into the sea. Not a single one of them was left. ²⁹The Israelites, though, walked on dry ground through the middle of the sea, with the water a wall for them to the right and to the left. ³⁰So on that day the LORD saved Israel from the power of Egypt, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead along the edge of the sea. ³¹Israel had seen the great hand of the LORD at work against Egypt. So the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in Moses, his servant.