Exodus 13:17 reads: "When Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not let them take the road to the Philistines' territory, although that was the shortest(1) 'in case', God thought, 'the prospect of fighting makes the people a roundabout way through the desert of the Sea of Reeds(2)."


(1) "The normal highway running parallel with the coast and going by way of Sileh (the modern el-Kantara); there are wells and military posts at intervals along its course. The fugitive group certainly did not take it. The group driven out of Egypt may have done so. On it, the three geographical names mentioned in 14:2 may most convincingly be sited, but the flight-Exodus, being the more important, has assimilated memories from the other tradition."

(2) "The words 'the Sea of Reeds', in Hebrew yam suph, are additional. The original text gave only a general indication: the Isralites took the desert route, to the east or south-east. The meaning and location of what is termed 'the Sea of Suph' are uncertain: it is not mentioned in the ch. 4 narrative, which only speaks of 'the sea'. The sole ancient text to mention the 'Sea of Suph' or 'Sea of Reeds' (translating the Egyptian term--see also the phrase in Numbers 21:4) is 15:4, which is poetic.