52:12 Yet do not depart quickly
or leave in a panic. 1
For the Lord goes before you;
the God of Israel is your rear guard.
14:19 The angel of God, who was going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar 2 of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.
1 tn Heb “or go in flight”; NAB “leave in headlong flight.”
2 sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 400-401) makes a good case that there may have been only one pillar, one cloud; it would have been a dark cloud behind it, but in front of it, shining the way, a pillar of fire. He compares the manifestation on Sinai, when the mountain was on fire but veiled by a dark cloud (Deut 4:11; 5:22). See also Exod 13:21; Num 14:14; Deut 1:33; Neh 9:12, 19; Josh 24:7; Pss 78:14; 105:39.