Exodus 14:3 (DBY)

Passage

And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has hemmed them in.

Nearby Context

Exodus 14:1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

Exodus 14:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea: before Baal-Zephon, opposite to it, shall ye encamp by the sea.

Exodus 14:3 And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has hemmed them in.

Exodus 14:4 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he may pursue after them; and I will glorify myself in Pharaoh, and in all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah. And they did so.

Exodus 14:5 And it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his bondmen was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from our service?

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "pharaoh", "children", "israel", "entangled", "land", "wilderness", and "hemmed". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "pharaoh" and "children", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 2's "Speak unto the children of Israel that..." into verse 4's "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart that...", so "pharaoh" and "children" belong inside that flow. In Exodus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "pharaoh" and "children" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.