Exodus Chapter 13 verse 18 Holy Bible
but God led the people about, by the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.
read chapter 13 in ASV
But God took the people round by the waste land near the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up in fighting order out of the land of Egypt.
read chapter 13 in BBE
And God led the people about, the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went arrayed out of the land of Egypt.
read chapter 13 in DARBY
But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.
read chapter 13 in KJV
But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up harnassed from the land of Egypt.
read chapter 13 in WBT
but God led the people around by the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.
read chapter 13 in WEB
and God turneth round the people the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and by fifties have the sons of Israel gone up from the land of Egypt.
read chapter 13 in YLT
Exodus 13 : 18 Bible Verse Songs
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 18. - God led the people about. Or "led the people a circuit," i.e., made them take a circuitous route to Canaan, the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea - i.e., by the southern wilderness, or what is now called "the wilderness of Sinai." Kalisch shows the wisdom of this course - how it gave time for the nation to be "gradually accustomed to fatigues and hardships by a long and tiresome march in the desert" - to learn obedience to their chief - and finally to be "trained to military discipline and martial, virtue by occasional expeditions against the weaker tribes of the desert." He errs, however, in ascribing the wisdom of the course taken to Moses, since Moses expressly declares that the conception was not his, but God's. And the children of Israel went up harnessed. The word here translated "harnessed," is generally thought to mean either "with their loins girded" (Onkelos, Kimchi, Kalisch) or "in military order" (Gesenius, Lee, Knobel). Ewald, who inclines to the latter of these two senses, suggests that, strictly, it means "in five divisions" - viz., van, centre, two wings, and rearguard. The word is, apparently, a derivative from khamesh, "five."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(18) But God led the people about.--Or, led the people a circuit--took them, not by the direct route, through Pelusium, past Lake Serbonis, to Rhinocolura and Gaza, but led them by the most circuitous route possible--the way of the Red Sea and the wilderness of Sinai to the Transjordanic region, the land of the Amorites, and so across Jordan to Canaan proper. The passage seems to dispose altogether of Dr. Brugsch's theory, that the "Red Sea" of the writer of Exodus was the Lake Serbonis, and that it was not until after this lake was passed that their journey was deflected to the south.The children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.--It is generally agreed that this is a wrong translation. Very few of the Israelites can have possessed suits of armour until after the passage of the Red Sea, when they may have stripped the bodies of the slain Egyptians. Nor has the word used ever the force of "harnessed." It might mean "with their loins girded," but such an exposition would deprive the statement made of any force. Loins were always girded in preparation for a journey, and there would be no need to mention the fact. The best explanation is, that the word here means "organised," "in military order" (Saadia, Gesenius, Lee, Knobel, Cook). It was clearly necessary, to prevent confusion, that a military order should have been adopted, and there are not wanting indications that during the year of contention with Pharaoh such an organisation was introduced and proceeded with. (See Exodus 4:29; Exodus 4:31; Exodus 6:26; Exodus 12:3; Exodus 12:21; Exodus 12:51.) It must have been brought to a high pitch of perfection for the Exodus to have taken place, as it seems to have done, without serious confusion or entanglement. . . .
