The Israelites had left Egypt in haste, urged on by the Egyptians; nevertheless, they were by no means unorganized: “But it was in battle formation that the sons of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt,” that is, possibly like an army in five parts, with vanguard, rear guard, main body, and two wings. Besides the able leadership of Moses, Jehovah made manifest his own leadership, at least as early as the encampment at Etham, by providing a pillar of cloud to lead them in the daytime, which became a pillar of fire to give them light at night.​—Ex 13:18-22.

The route through the Wadi Tumilat has also been favored because of the popular modern theory that the crossing of the Red Sea did not actually take place at the Red Sea but at a site to the N thereof. Some scholars even advocated a crossing at or near Lake Serbonis along the Mediterranean shore, so that after exiting from the Wadi Tumilat the Israelites turned N in the direction of the coast. This view directly contradicts the specific statement in the Bible that God himself led the Israelites away from the route that would go to the land of the Philistines. (Ex 13:17, 18) Others also favor a route through the Wadi Tumilat but argue for a “sea” crossing in the Bitter Lakes region N of Suez.

Red Sea, not ‘sea of reeds.’ This latter view is based on the argument that the Hebrew yam-suphʹ (translated “Red Sea”) literally means “sea of rushes, or, reeds, bulrushes,” and that therefore the Israelites crossed, not the arm of the Red Sea known as the Gulf of Suez, but a sea of reeds, a swampy place such as the Bitter Lakes region. In so holding, however, they do not agree with the translators of the ancient Greek Septuagint, who translated yam-suphʹ with the Greek name e·ry·thraʹ thaʹlas·sa, meaning, literally, “Red Sea.” But, far more important, both Luke, who was the writer of Acts (quoting Stephen), and the apostle Paul used this same Greek name when relating the events of the Exodus.​—Ac 7:36; Heb 11:29; see RED SEA.