The pursuit at the sea
1Then Yahweh said to Moses: 2“Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal-zephon; you are to camp facing it, by the sea. 3Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, ‘They are wandering in confusion in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.’ 4And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will gain glory over Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.” And they did so. 5When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the hearts of Pharaoh and his officials turned against the people. “What have we done, letting Israel go from serving us?” they said. 6So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 7He took six hundred of the best chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. 8Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the Israelites as they marched out defiantly. 9The Egyptians pursued them — all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his horsemen and his army — and overtook them camped by the sea, near Pi-hahiroth, opposite Baal-zephon. 10As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified. The Israelites cried out to Yahweh, 11and they said to Moses, “Were there no graves in Egypt, that you brought us out to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? 12Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and see the salvation Yahweh will bring you today, for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. 14Yahweh will fight for you; you need only to keep still.”
The sea divides
15Yahweh said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move forward. 16As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it, so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17And I — I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will go in after them, and I will gain glory over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots and his horsemen. 18The Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh, when I have gained glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 19Then the angel of God, who had been going ahead of the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20coming between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. The cloud brought darkness to one side, yet it lit up the night on the other, and neither camp came near the other all night long. 21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh drove the sea back with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split, 22and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with the water a wall to them on their right and on their left. 23The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the sea — all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24In the morning watch, Yahweh looked down on the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into confusion. 25He made the wheels of their chariots come off, so that they drove them with difficulty. “Let us flee from Israel,” the Egyptians said, “for Yahweh is fighting for them against Egypt.” 26Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” 27Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its place. The Egyptians fled straight into it, and Yahweh swept them into the sea. 28The water came back and covered the chariots and the horsemen — the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. 29But the Israelites had walked through the sea on dry ground, the water a wall to them on their right and on their left. 30That day Yahweh saved Israel from the hand of Egypt, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea. 31Israel saw the great power Yahweh had used against Egypt, and the people feared Yahweh; they trusted in Yahweh and in Moses his servant.
