turne] This turning was a returning: for they were before at Etham, whence now bending their course, (as here they are appointed) they coasted toward Memphis, (the chiefe Citie of Egypt Southward) whereas the land of Canaan (whither they were to goe) was Northward. Migdol] This was a garrison Tower or Castle of the Philistines: so that turning this way, they might be thought to have lost their way and to be intangled in the wildernesse, and that with such disadvantage (having that on one side, mountains on the other, the sea before them) Pharaoh, and the Egyptians might be drawn out, to pursue them, with hope to prevaile against them: that so the faith of the Israelites might be tryed, Gods power and providence the more declared, and the enemies more confounded, in their own destruction, and Gods strange deliverance of his people.