Exodus 13:17-22

17 when Pharao had let the people goo, God caried them not thorow the londe of the Philistines, though it were a nye waye. For God sayde: the people myghte happly repent when they se warre, and so turne agayne to Egipte:

18 therfore God led the aboute thorow the wyldernesse that bordreth on the redd see. The childern of Israel went harnessed out of the lade of Egipte.

19 And Moses toke the bones of Ioseph with him: for he made the childern of Israel swere saynge: God will surely vyset you, take my bones therfore away hence with you,

20 And they toke their iorney from Suchoth: and pitched their tentes in Etham in the edge of the wyldernesse.

21 And the Lorde went before them by daye in a piler of a cloude to lede them the waye: and by nyghte in a piler of fyre to geue the lighte: that they myghte goo both by day ad nyghte.

22 And the piler of the cloude neuer departed by daye nor the piler of fyre by nyghte out of the peoples sighte.

Exodus 13:17-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 13

This chapter begins with an order to sanctify or set apart the firstborn of man and beast to the Lord, Ex 13:1,2 and the people of Israel are charged to keep the feast of unleavened bread in its season, from year to year, when they came into the land of Canaan, the reason of which they were to acquaint their children with, Ex 13:3-10 and they are also directed, when come into the land of Canaan, to set apart every firstling of a beast unto the Lord, and particularly the firstling of an ass was to be redeemed with a lamb, or its neck to be broke, and all the firstborn of men were to be redeemed also, Ex 13:11-13, and when their children inquired the reason of it, they were to be told it was on account of the Lord's slaying the firstborn of men and beast among the Egyptians, when Pharaoh would not let Israel go, and of saving the firstborn of his people, Ex 13:14-16, and it is observed, that when the children of Israel went out of Egypt, they were not led by the nearest way, the way of the land of the Philistines, but a round about way, the way of the wilderness of the Red sea, when they took the bones of Joseph with them, as he had adjured them to do, Ex 13:17-19, and the chapter is concluded with an account of their journeying from Succoth to Etham, the Lord going before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, Ex 13:20-22.