Thematic Bible: By a circuitous route

When Pharaoh had let the people go, God carried them not through the land of the Philistines, though it were a nigh way. For God said, "The people might haply repent when they see war, and so turn again to Egypt." Therefore God led them about through the wilderness that bordereth on the reed sea. The children of Israel went harnessed out of the land of Egypt.