Thematic Bible: By a circuitous route

It happened, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not 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;" but God led the people around by the way of the wilderness by the Sea of Suf; and the children of Israel went up in five [divisions] out of the land of Egypt.