Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.
Speak ... that they turn and encamp. The Israelites had now completed their journey to the wilderness, and at Etham the decisive step would have to be taken whether they would celebrate their intended feast and return, or march onwards by the head of the Red Sea into the desert, with a view to a final departure. They were already on the borders of the desert, and a short march would have placed them beyond the reach of pursuit, as the chariots of Egypt could have made little progress over dry and yielding sand. But at Etham, instead of pursuing their journey eastward, with the sea on their right, they were suddenly commanded to diverge to the south, keeping the gulf on their left; a route which not only detained them lingering on the confines of Egypt, but in adopting it, they actually turned their backs on the land of which they had set out to obtain the possession.
A movement so unexpected, and of which the ultimate design was carefully concealed, could not but excite the astonishment of all, even of Moses himself, although, from his implicit faith in the wisdom and power of his Heavenly Guide, he obeyed. The object was to entice Pharaoh to pursue, in order that the moral effect which the judgments on Egypt had produced in releasing (God's people from bondage, might be still further extended over the nations by the awful events transacted at the Red Sea, х wªyaashubuw (H7725), turn.]
The ordinary meaning the verb х shuwb (H7725)] is to turn about, to turn back, to return. But it also signifies sometimes to turn in a new or different direction (cf. Psalms 73:10; Ezekiel 35:7; Zechariah 7:14), and it bears this sense here, because the Israelites were commanded, instead of pursuing an easterly course until they had rounded the head of the gulf, to turn southward, and go down the western side of the gulf. Although all the roads from Egypt to the Red Sea must have been perfectly well known to Moses, and it may be safely inferred from the weight of responsibility laid upon him by the difficult enterprise to which he had been called, of conducting so mighty a multitude through the deserts to Canaan, he would, if left to the free exercise of his own judgment, have chosen an easy, though it might be a circuitous route-there is no ground afforded by the Scripture narrative for supposing that Moses was aware of the divine purpose to make a miraculous passage for his people through the Red Sea; and therefore his implicit obedience to the command of the Lord to "turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth" was a striking proof of his full and unwavering confidence in the power, wisdom, and care of the Almighty leader.
Pi-hahiroth - if a Hebrew word, it would signify 'the mouth of the caverns' or defiles. 'But,' says Gesenius, on the authority of Jablonsky, 'it is doubtless an Egyptian name, Pi-achi-roth, the sedgy place.
Between Migdol and the sea, х Migdol (H4024)]. It could not be the town Migdol-for that was situated in the northern extremity of Egypt; nor can it, according to our preceding explanations, be the defile Micktal or Muktala, or Suez, as Laborde and Wilkinson suppose; but, as the word signifies a tower, or an elevated peak, so it is here obviously used for the lofty mountain Jebel Attakah. [The Septuagint, however, has: ana meson Magdoolou-referring to the town called by the Greeks Magdolon.]
Over against Baal-zephon - a place sacred to Typhon. The name was very appropriate to such a locality, as the wild desert regions between the Nile and the Red Sea were considered the habitation of Typhon, the Egyptian evil demon. 'On the left, at the mouth of Wady Tawarik, is Migdol (Ras-Attakah); in front the sea; on the right, in the defiles between the ranges of Jebel Deraj, Pi-hahiroth (openings of the caverns); and probably somewhere near was "Baal-zephon," in the form of a temple dedicated to Typhon' (Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' p. 54). The wilderness hath shut them in. Pharaoh, who would eagerly watch their movements, was now satisfied that they were meditating flight, and he naturally thought, from the error into which they appeared to have fallen by entering that defile, he could intercept them. He believed them now entirely in his power, the mountain chain being on one side, the sea on the other, so that, if he pursued them in the rear, escape seemed impossible. They marched now with the Attakah range on their right, and the sea on their left, and the mountain heights of Abu-Deraj, on the south of Wady Tawarik, in front; so that, with the Egyptians behind them, extrication from this cul de sac was by natural egress impossible. The route, however, was broad enough to allow the march of a large body of people.