Then Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are confused. They are trapped in the wilderness!’
Parallel translations
- WEB Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are entangled in the land. The wilderness has shut them in.’
- KJV For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
- BSB For Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, ‘They are wandering the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in.’
- NKJV For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’
- NASB For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God foretells that Pharaoh will misread Israel's position as hopelessly trapped, drawing him into pursuit.
Overview
Pharaoh will interpret Israel's encampment as the blunder of a confused people hemmed in by the desert. What looks like Israel's vulnerability is in fact God's bait, luring Egypt to its judgment. The Lord governs even the reasoning of His enemies, turning their misjudgments into instruments of His purpose.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Acts 4:28to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
- Ezek 38:17Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for years that I would bring you against them?
- 1 Sam 23:23See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself, and come again to me with certainty, and I will go with you. It shall happen, if he is in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.”
- Ps 3:2Many there are who say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah.
- Ps 139:2You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar.
- Ezek 38:10–11Thus says the Lord Yahweh: It shall happen in that day, that things shall come into your mind, and you shall devise an evil device:
- Ps 71:11saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”
- Exod 7:3–4I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
- Jer 20:10–11For I have heard the defaming of many, “Terror on every side! Denounce, and we will denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall. “Perhaps he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.”
- Deut 31:21It will happen, when many evils and troubles have come on them, that this song will testify before them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants; for I know their ways and what they are doing today, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.”
- Ps 139:4For there is not a word on my tongue, but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
- 1 Sam 23:7Saul was told that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in by entering into a town that has gates and bars.”
- Judg 16:2The Gazites were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light, then we will kill him.”
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 14:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.