Pi-HaHiroth

Pi-HaHiroth (פִּי הַחִירֹת Pī haḤīrōṯ), is the fourth station of the Exodus mentioned in Exodus 14:2. The fifth and sixth stations Marah and Elim are located on the Red Sea. The biblical books Exodus and Numbers refer to Pi-HaHiroth as the place where the Israelites encamped between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon, while awaiting an attack by Pharaoh, prior to crossing the Red Sea.^[1] Reaching Pi-HaHiroth involved turning back from the direction they had been traveling and going south directly opposite of God's preferred proximate destination of Kadesh Barnea at the entrance to the Philistine territory, which was done in order to gain time to boost the morale of the Israelites; their ultimate destination was the Abrahamic city of Hebron, east of the Philistine capital Gaza.^[2]