Pi-Hahiroth

Israel’s camp at Pi-hahiroth was a place of no good options. The LORD told Moses to turn back and camp “between Migdol and the sea,” and before long Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and army overtook them there, with the water in front and the Egyptians behind. The name is spelled Pihahiroth in the King James text. Numbers 33 records the same spot in the travel list: the people “departed from before Pihahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea.” To follow the story, read Exodus 14, which begins with that instruction and ends on the far shore.

4 verses

Exodus

Exodus 14:2

Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.

Exodus 14:9

But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.

Numbers

Numbers 33:7

And they removed from Etham, and turned again unto Pihahiroth, which is before Baalzephon: and they pitched before Migdol.

Numbers 33:8

And they departed from before Pihahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Place where the reeds grow (LXX. and Copt. read “farmstead”), the name of a place in Egypt where the children of Israel encamped (Ex. 14:2, 9), how long is uncertain. Some have identified it with Ajrud, a fortress between Etham and Suez. The condition of the Isthmus of Suez at the time of the Exodus is not exactly known, and hence this, with the other places mentioned as encampments of Israel in Egypt, cannot be definitely ascertained. The isthmus has been formed by the Nile deposits. This increase of deposit still goes on, and so rapidly that within the last fifty years the mouth of the Nile has advanced northward about four geographical miles. In the maps of Ptolemy (of the second and third centuries A.D.) the mouths of the Nile are forty miles further south than at present. (See EXODUS.)

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

a place before or at which the Israelites encamped, at the close of the third march from Rameses (the last place before they crossed the Red Sea), when they went out of Egypt. (Exodus 14:2,9; Numbers 35:7,8) It is an Egyptian word, signifying "the place where sedge grows."