ii. FitoM EoYl'T TO Sinai.— After cros.sing the frontier of Egypt the Israelites go three days in the wilderness and find no water. It has "been suggested that thej' went by the /cy route right across the plateau of the Tib to Akabah, and that this Akabah (or Elath, as it is called in OT) is the Elim of the itinerary, where they found wells of water and palm trees, and from which they pro- ceeded to a Mt. Sinai in Midian. We are not able to accept the theory of a Midianite Sinai. It seems more probable that the route described is
804
EXODUS TO CANAAK
EXODUS TO CANAAN
that taken by travellers to the traditional Sinai, which is the same as was taken by St. Silvia of Aquitaine in the 4th century. The route goes along the wilderness between the plateau of the Tih and the E. shore of the Red Sea. Marah (see Sep. art.) is not identified with any reasonable probability ; but Elim, which follows it, may very well be the Wady Glmrundel, where there are even at the present time wells and palms (see Elim). From this point the road to Sinai bifur- cates ; the northern road goes by the Egyptian mines and temples of Sarbut el-Khadeem, the southern winds by the Wady Tayibeh untU it strikes the seashore : this is, then, the encampment by the sea (see sep. art.) of Nu 33'° ; following the shore, the ancient Egyptian port and road are reached, and the route turns inland, passing the entrance to the Wady Maghara, where are the oldest Egyptian mines. This is probably the station Dophkah (see sep. art.) of Numbers, Dophkah being a misreading of Mafkah, the Egyp. name for the blue stone which they ob- tained from the mines in this region. The next station, Alush, is not known ; it was probably not far beyond the Wady Mukattab or ' written valley through which the road now passes. The next stage is Rephidim, which is commonly iden- tified with Feiran, the oasis of the peninsula, the ancient Faran and Paran, and from this point the road winds through the long Wady es-Sheykh, until by a long detour (or, if preferred, by a short cut through a pass called Nukb el-Hawa, or ' Pass of the Wind ') the plain is reached at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where the Israelites are supposed to have assembled for the gi^^ng of the Law. The most striking identification on this route is the encampment on the seashore five days after having left it. But it is clear that, strikmg as this is, the same thing is true of the route of the Mecca pilgrims : so it can hardly be called a conclusive identification. It is a very weighty consideration that the name Sinai implies a place of sanctity [Sin = the Babylonian moon-god] from very early times ; but no Babylonian signs or inscriptions have been found which would settle conclusively that the traditional Sinai is the same as the biblical one. The route described is an ancient trade route of Nabatsean traders before the Christian era and in the early years of the Christian era. It is not a roacf worked out by biblical explorers, as has sometimes been sug- gested. See further art. SiNAI.
LiTERATURB. — The student should consult, inter alia, Robin- son, Biblical Jiesearchea (1841, 3rd ed. 1867) ; Ebers, Durch Gosen zum Sinai ('2nd ed. Leipzig. ISSl) ; Lepsius, Tour from Thebes to the Peninnda of Sinai in 1S45 (Eng. bv Oottrell, London, 1846); Naville, .Store City of PUhom (Publications oJ Egj-pt ^plor&tion Fund) ; Bnit^sch. L'Exode et lei Monuinenti Kgyptiens (Leipzig, 1875, Eng. tr. 1879) ; Gamurrini, Peregrinatio Sylvia (Rome, 1887).
iii From Sinai to Kadesh.— About this portion of the route little need be said. The account in Nu 10" states that the first march from Sinai was into the wilderness of Paran. This is described in v." as a three days' journey ; and the places mentioned as on the route are Taberah(Nu U*), Kibroth-hattaavah,and Hazeroth (ll**-"), whence they removed into the wilderness of Paran (12'"), and from this place (13') the spies were sent out. Taberah is not mentioned in the itinerary of Nu 33. In Dt 1* the whole route from Horeb to Kadesli-barnea ie described as eleven days' journey by the way of Mt. Seir. This indicates a route from Sinai by way of 'Alfabah to Kadesh, and accordingly travellers have sought to identify Kibroth-hattaavah and Hazeroth with points in the route between Sinai and 'Akabah. Further particulars are given in the articles on those names ; and for the names which follow
Hazeroth in Nu 33, see iv. and the article on Kadesh.
iv. From Kadesh to the Jord.vn. — Th» accounts of this part of the route are found in Nu 20. 21, Dt 1. 2, and in the itinerary of Nu 33. Nu 20. 21 are composite in character, as will be seen from the following analysis (taken from Driver's iO J » p. 66):—
p 20" * "*^ '"'* **"* ** '*•"
jg lb u • M-n SI'"* ^^
P 22'
JE 21"-»
The first verse of Nu 20 deserves special notice. Its first clause (as far as the word ' month ') is due to P. According to that authority, the spies were sent out from the wilderness of Paran, and in that wilderness (Nu 14^) the children of Israel re- mained until the rebellious generation had been consumed. They then moved in the first month (apparently of the fortieth year, and for the first time) into the wUdemess of Zin. The next clause, 'and the people abode in Kadesh,' etc., is due to another source, which represents the stay in Kadesh as a prolonged one, and associates with that stay many events, but without assigning dates. Two of these events are recorded in Nu 20-'*' : the first, tlie judgment passed on Moses and Aaron at Meribah (vv. '■''), presents diflficulties which cannot here be fully discussed, but the following considerations make it probable that this incident occurred at an early period of the sojourn at Kadesh : (a) the account is in many points simUar to that in Ex 17''' ; (4) lack of water would have been felt soon after the arrival at Kadesh, rather than at the close of their sojourn there ; and the complaint, Nu 20*- •, seems more appropriate in the mouths of those who remem- bered the fleshpots of Egypt, than of those who, ha\Tng left Egypt in youth, had since passed forty years In the desert ; (c) according to Dt I" the exclusion of Moses from the promised land was decreed about the same time as the general sentence was pronounced against the generation which came up out of Egypt. Hence two alternatives : either tne account Nu 20-'" wliich gives the reason for the exclusion must describe the same event as that referred to Dt 1" (i.e. an event which happened soon after the return of the spies, and therefore at an early period of the joumeyings), or there are two varying traditions as to when and why Moses was not permitted to cross the Jordan.