First, if the text is referring to what we today call the Red Sea, and if the escaping slave people’s plan was to return to what they called their Promised Land, then they went far out of their way. Second, the Red Sea is approximately two hundred miles wide, which would make the miracle quite stupendous. Third, the words in the Hebrew text that are translated “Red Sea” are Yam Suph, which literally means not “Red Sea,” but “Sea of Reeds.” That body of water would be located on a direct route; it was an area of swampy land where the Suez Canal would later be built. So the dominating miracle
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