DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
They might face war and turn back. Exodus says God "did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer." The reason is God's own thought: "If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt" (Exodus 13:17). So they go "by the roundabout way of the wilderness bordering the Red Sea" (Exodus 13:18).
Why it’s interesting
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, a study Bible, says that coast road ran along the Mediterranean. It calls it the shortest land route from Egypt to Canaan, the land they were heading for. It says the Philistines settled there in the early 1100s BC.
Scholarly consensus
Learn the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.