Through the Wilderness. 115

them ; and the Egyptians hurried them away,
so afraid were they of keeping them any
longer. Thus it happened that the Israelites
got out of Egypt at last. And the Lord led
them by a pillar of a cloud that went before
them all day, and changed to a pillar of fire
by night.

“So they came to the shore of a sea which
lay between them and the road to the Pro-
mised Land, and here they found that Pharaoh
had repented of letting them go, and was
coming after them with his soldiers to get
them back. The Israelites were terrified ; the
sea before them, the enemy behind, they
could see no escape.

“But the Lord told Moses that they must
go forward, and He made the waves to roll
back to the right hand and to the left, and
leave a path for them in between. So the
children of Israel went on dry land through
the sea; but when the Egyptians tried to
follow, the water flowed back again and
drowned them all.

“On the other side of the sea there was a
great desert that the Israelites had to pass
through, where the Lord did many wonderful
things for them, and where He gave them His
ten commandments.