Exodus 13:17-22

Good News Translation

The Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of Fire

¹⁷When the king of Egypt let the people go, God did not take them by the road that goes up the coast to Philistia, although it was the shortest way. God thought, “I do not want the people to change their minds and return to Egypt when they see that they are going to have to fight.” ¹⁸Instead, he led them in a roundabout way through the desert toward the Red Sea.^[a] The Israelites were armed for battle.

¹⁹^(A)Moses took the body of Joseph with him, as Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly promise to do. Joseph had said, “When God rescues you, you must carry my body with you from this place.”

²⁰The Israelites left Sukkoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ²¹During the day the Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and during the night he went in front of them in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel night and day. ²²^(B)The pillar of cloud was always in front of the people during the day, and the pillar of fire at night.

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Footnotes

Exodus 13:18 (in Hebrew literally “Sea of Reeds”) evidently referred to (1) a series of lakes and marshes between the head of the Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean, the region generally regarded as the site of the events described in Exodus 13, and was also used to designate (2) the Gulf of Suez, and (3) the Gulf of Aqaba.