Exodus 13:17-18

World English Bible

¹⁷ When Pharaoh had let the people go, God didn’t lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and they return to Egypt”; ¹⁸ 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.