1. Then the Lord said to Moses,
2. “Tell the Israelites to turn back to Pi Hahiroth and to camp between Migdol and the Red Sea. Camp across from Baal Zephon, on the shore of the sea.
3. The king will think, ‘The Israelites are lost, trapped by the desert.’
4. I will make the king stubborn again so he will chase after them, but I will defeat the king and his army. This will bring honor to me, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” The Israelites did just as they were told.
5. When the king of Egypt was told that the Israelites had left, he and his officers changed their minds about them. They said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites leave. We have lost our slaves!”
6. So the king prepared his war chariot and took his army with him.
7. He took six hundred of his best chariots, together with all the other chariots of Egypt, each with an officer in it.
8. The Lord made the king of Egypt stubborn, so he chased the Israelites, who were leaving victoriously.
9. The Egyptians—with all the king’s horses, chariot drivers, and army—chased the Israelites. They caught up with them while they were camped by the Red Sea, near Pi Hahiroth and Baal Zephon.