After a long time passed, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites still groaned because they were slaves. So they cried out, and their cries for help went up to God.
So they said, “May the Lord see what you have done and judge you! You have made Pharaoh and his officials hate us. You have given them an excuse to kill us.”
“Go and announce to Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: I remember the unfailing loyalty of your youth, the love you had for me as a bride. I remember how you followed me into the desert, into a land that couldn’t be farmed.
So they left the mountain of the Lord and traveled for three days. The ark of the Lord’s promise went ahead of them a distance of three days’ journey to find them a place to rest.
who went ahead of you to find places for you to camp. He appeared in a column of fire at night and in a column of smoke during the day to show you which route to take.
The Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched over you as you traveled through this vast desert. For 40 years now the Lord your God has been with you, and you haven’t needed a thing.
He was the one who fed you in the desert with manna, which your ancestors had never seen. He did this in order to humble you and test you. But he also did this so that things would go well for you in the end.