1. Then the Lord said to Moses,
2. “Tell the people to go back to Pi Hahiroth. Tell them to spend the night between Migdol and the Red Sea, near Baal Zephon.
3. Pharaoh will think that the Israelites are lost in the desert and that the people will have no place to go.
4. I will make Pharaoh brave, and he will chase you. But I will defeat Pharaoh and his army. This will bring honor to me. Then the people of Egypt will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did what he told them.
5. Pharaoh received a report that the Israelites had escaped. When he heard this, he and his officials changed their minds about what they had done. Pharaoh said, “Why did we let the Israelites leave? Why did we let them run away? Now we have lost our slaves!”
6. So Pharaoh prepared his chariot and took his men with him.