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Share(1) The LORD said to Moses: (2) "Tell the Israelites to return and encamp before Pi-hahirot, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. (3) Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, “They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.” (4) Then I will stiffen Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue them, that I may gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD."
And they did so.
(2) ויחנו לפני פי החירת AND ENCAMP BEFORE PI-HAHIROT — This is identical with Pithom (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 14:2:2), but now it obtained the name of פי החירת, because there they became בני חורין free-men (חירת is explained as חרות freedom). This was two high, precipitous rocks and the valley between them was called פי הסלעים the mouth (opening) of the rocks.
(4) ערי מסכנות — Translate this as the Targum does: CITIES WHICH ARE PLACES FOR TREASURES; similarly we have, (Isaiah 22:15) “Go, get thee unto this steward (הסוכן)” — the treasurer appointed over the stores (Exodus Rabbah 2:1).
PI-HAHIROT. Pi-hahirot is elsewhere called Pene-hahirot (Num. 33:8). It is so called because the mouth (peh) is on the face (panim). It is the name of a place.
(7) They set out from Etham and turned about toward Pi-hahirot, which faces Baal-zephon, and they encamped before Migdol. (8) They set out from Pene-hahirot and passed through the sea into the wilderness; and they made a three-days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham and encamped at Marah.
משגיא לגוים ויאבדם. יש אומרים כאשר עשה למצרים בהשיגם את ישראל לפני בעל צפון (שמות יד) שגו ואמרו תדעו שהסכים עמנו לטבעם בים כאשר גזרנו כל הבן הילוד היאורה תשליכוהו (שם א) וקשה יראתו של בעל צפון שלא נעשו בו שפטים ככל אלקי מצרים וגרם המקום להשגותם כדי לטבעם
He makes nations great and destroys them Heb. משׂגיא. Some say, as He did to the Egyptians when they overtook Israel before Baal-zephon (Exod. 14:9). They erred and said, “You should know that He agreed with us, to drown them in the sea as we decreed, ‘Every son that is born you shall cast into the river’ (ibid. 1:22), and [they also said] that their deity Baal-zephon is mighty, seeing that no acts of judgment were performed upon it, as [they were upon) all the [other] gods of Egypt, and the Omnipresent caused them to be misled in order to drown them.
(7) They removed from Etham, and returned unto Pumei Chiratha, which lie in front of the idol of Zephon, and encamped before Migdol.
(3) Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, “They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.”
סגר עליהם המדבר. A reference to the Egyptian deity Baal Tzefon whom Pharaoh credited with this accomplishment of halting the Israelites.
Changing the Landscape
The wild – the midbar – is a place of anarchy, unexpected hardships, and harsh physical conditions that can bewilder and swallow visitors. When the Israelites finally fled Egypt, God said that Pharaoh would come after them precisely because they were going to the wilderness: “They are astray in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them” (Ex. 14:3). Pharaoh did not think they could go far, imprisoned as they would be by nature. The wilderness closes in on people. The Hebrew term in the verse, “sagar,” implies a place that treacherously imprisons inhabitants. The landscape locks people in, and they do not come out. God used the very same rationale in having them enter the wilderness in the first place: “God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer, for God said: ‘The people may have a change of heart when they see war and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people roundabout, by way of the wilderness” (Ex. 13:17–18). In the wilderness, the Israelites would suffer disorientation and would, therefore, not be able to find their way back to Egypt even if they were to change their minds in fear. Remorse and regret have no place to lodge because the wilderness constrains its inhabitants, punishing them with its sameness, blinding them to exit routes and clarity.
