Exodus 14:1-31

Crossing the Red Sea

2. At Etham the Israelites reached the Egyptian frontier, travelling in a northeasterly direction. Instead of crossing the frontier to the E. side of the Bitter Lakes they are commanded to turn southwards, keeping the Red Sea on their left. The reason for this change of route may have been a repulse by the garrison of one of the line of fortresses on the E. border of Egypt. None of the places mentioned here has been identified with certainty. There is even a doubt as to what is meant by the sea. Some have understood it to be the Mediterranean, in which case the host must have turned northwards, and the supposed Red Sea (Heb. 'sea of reeds'; see on Exodus 10:19) would be the Serbonian Lake, a large bog lying on the shore of the Mediterranean between Egypt and the SW. extremity of Canaan. It is usual, however, to understand by the 'sea of reeds' what is now called the Gulf of Suez. There is little doubt that at the time of the exodus the Gulf of Suez extended much further north than it does now, and that the modern Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lakes were connected with each other and the Gulf of Suez by necks of shallow water which in certain conditions might be swept almost dry. It is pretty certain that the Israelites crossed at some point north of the modern Suez.