Exodus 13:20

Encamped in Etham. According to this text and Num. 33:6 the second Israelite encampment lay at the “edge of the wilderness.” Its site has not yet been identified.

Perhaps, however, the Hebrew word Etham is a transliteration of the Egyptian khetem, “fortress.” Egyptian records inform us of the existence of a line of border fortifications from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Suez (see on Ex. 2:15), built with the avowed purpose of preventing the tribes of the eastern desert from entering Egypt and at the same time designed to control traffic between Egypt and Asia. Since these border fortresses lay at the edge of the eastern desert, it is possible that one of them is referred to here. In the case of Moses, at least, these border posts did not prevent a lone fugitive from slipping through and making good his escape into the desert (see on ch. 2:15), but it is obvious that the hosts of Israel could not have passed through without the consent of the guards. Pharaoh apparently never intended more than that the Hebrews should enter the eastern Egyptian desert and worship God there. Perhaps it was when the border guards reported that the Israelites were pressing on through the desert to the Red Sea that Pharaoh set out in pursuit of them (ch. 14:3; PP 283).