JPS, The Commentators’ Bible: The JPS Miqra’ot Gedolot
Old JPS – “But G-d led the people about, by way of the wilderness by the Red Sea.”
New JPS – “So G-d led the people roundabout, by way of the wilderness at the Sea of Reeds.”
Rashi on 10:19
Footnote:
Ibn Ezra
Rashi on 13:18
Footnote:
Ibn Ezra on 13:18
is much bigger than this sea.
Kaplan, The Living Torah
“G-d therefore made the people take a roundabout path, by way of the desert* to the Red Sea.*”
Footnote 13:18 – Red Sea. See not on 10:19 that this was most probably the Gulf of Suez. Literally, however, Yom Suf is the Sea of Reeds (Rashi), and not necessarily identified with the Red Sea. Some sources seem to indicate that it was at the mouth of the Nile (Sotah 12a, Rabbi Yoshia Pinto (Riph in Eyn Yaakov) ad loc; Sh’moth Rabbat 1:21; Radak on Pirkey Rabbi Eliezer 48:41). The “Sea of Reeds” would then be Lake Manzaleh at the eastern mouth of the Nile. This would agree with the opinion that “Freedom Valley”, the site of the crossing, was Tanis (see note on 14:2) a city just off Lake Manzaleh. Others maintain that the crossing occurred at Lake Sirbonis (See Avraham Gorman, Yetziath Mitzraim U’Mattan Torah, p. 334).
Significantly, in ancient Egyptian, Sufi or Thufi is the word for the swampy districts of the Delta. However, there was also an area know as Sau, which was a district west of the Red Sea (cf. Ibn Ezra here).
Note on 10:19 – Red Sea. Or “Erythrean Sea” (Septuagint cf. original Greek of 1 Maccabees 4:9; Wisdom of Solomon 10:18, 19:7). Yam Suf in Hebrew, literally, “Sea of Reeds” (Rashi on 13:18; see note on 2:3) or “End Sea”. (Ibn Ezra on 13:18). This probably denotes the Gulf of Suez, which separates Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula. See not on 13:18.
In ancient times, the term “Red Sea” or “Erythrean Sea” referred to what is now the Red Sea as well as its two arms, the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba (cf Rashi; Herodotus 2;11). However, it also included the rest of the waters to the south of Asia Minor, such as the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean (Josephus, Antiquites 1:1:3; Herodotus 4:37l Pliny 6:28; Strabo 16:765).
Some say that it is called the Red Sea because of the color of its reeds (see note on 2:3), the corals in its waters, the color of the mountains bordering its coasts, or the glow of the sky reflected in it. Others say that its name is derived from the ancient nation of Erythria, so named because its inhabitants painted their faces red (Dio Cassius 68:28; Philostratus, Apollonius 3:50; Arrian, Indica 37). It is possible that the name may be also associated with Edom (see Genesis 25:30), which means red. It is also said that it is called the “Red Sea” because it lies to the south, and the south is called the “red zone” (cf Photius 250;717).
Alter, The Five Books of Moses
“And G-d turned the people round by way of the wilderness of the Sea of Reeds,”
Footnote 18 -the Sea of Reeds. This is not the Red Sea, as older translations have it, but most likely a marshland in the northeast part of Egypt. (Marshes might provide some realistic kernel for the tale of a waterway that is at one moment passable and in the next flooded). But it must be conceded that elsewhere yam suf refers to the Red Sea, and some scholars have recently argued that the story means to heighten the miraculous character of the event through the parting of a real sea. Even if the setting is a marsh, the event is reported in strongly supernatural terms.
Etz Haim
“So G-d led the people roundabout, by way of the wilderness at the Sea of Reeds.”
Footnote – Sea of Reeds. Literal translation of yam suf. The Red Sea, its usual but incorrect translation, is more than 120 miles from the probable site of Goshen, where the Israelites lived in Egypt – too great a distance to cover even in one week in those days. The Hebrew word suf is derived from the Egyptian word for the papyrus reed, which grows in fresh water; therefore, yam suf would not be an appropriate designation for the present Red Sea, because its water is saline and does not favor the growth of that plant. This stage o the march probably took the Israelites to the far northeastern corner of Egypt, to one of the lagoons near the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.