1. Then the Lord said to Moses,
2. “Tell the Israelites to go back and set up their camp facing Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. Set up your camp facing north—by the sea.
3. Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are ⌊just⌋ wandering around. The desert is blocking their escape.’
4. I will make Pharaoh so stubborn that he will pursue them. Then, because of what I do to Pharaoh and his entire army, I will receive honor, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So that is what the Israelites did.
5. When Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) was told that the people had fled, he and his officials changed their minds about them. They said, “What have we done? We’ve lost our slaves because we’ve let Israel go.”
6. So Pharaoh prepared his chariot and took his army with him.