⁸ They set out from Pi-hahiroth,^[a] passed through the sea into the wilderness, went a three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and camped at Marah.^(A)

Bitter Water Made Sweet

²² Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea,^[a] and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.^{(A) 23} When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah.^{[b](B) 24} And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”^{(C) 25} He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord^[c] made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he put them to the test.^{(D) 26} He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.”^(E)

²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.^{(A) 22} The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.^{(B) 23} The Egyptians pursued and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. ²⁴ At the morning watch the Lord, in the pillar of fire and cloud, looked down on the Egyptian army and threw the Egyptian army into a panic.^{(C) 25} He clogged^[a] their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”^(D)

The Pursuers Drowned

²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” ²⁷ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea.^{(E) 28} The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained.^{(F) 29} But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.^(G)

³⁰ Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.^{(H) 31} Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.^(I)