The second passage (Nu 20"''"^') records Edom'a refusal to allow a passage through his territory to the children of Israel, in consequence of wnich they journeyed ' by the way to the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom ' (Nu 21^). Comparing this with Dt 2', very similar Ian<juage is there used to describe a compassing of Edom, which is assigned to an earlier stige of the joumeyings. It is reasonable to suppose that this circuitous route was adopted because a more direct course towards the E. side of the Dead Sea was not open ; Edom's conduct, as described in Nu 20, though not re- corded in Dt, was the cause of, and therefore prior to, the compassing mentioned in Dt. Hence both the events in Nu 20''", though in their present connexion they appear as incidents of the lortieth year, may belong to an earlier period of the joumeyings. Two distinct geograpliical pictures of the period are presented, — the one, that of JE, figures Kadesh as the scene of the middle portion of the journey, and is to be traced in Dt I. 2 (with which the brief summary in Jg ll"-'^ should be compared) ; the other, that of P, locates tliese events partly in Paran and partly in Zin. The combination of the two, with the introduction
EXODUS TO CANAAN
EXODUS TO CANAAX
805
of exact dates, has produced diiricultics which are to be explained, not by the assuiuption of two places bearing the name of Kadesh, nor hy tlie assumption of a second visit to Kadesh (which is nowhere indicated, and seems excluded by Dt 2'^), but by the resolution of the narrative into its original components.
In the list of stations (Nu 33) Kadesh does not occur until v.", where it is identified with Zin, im- mediately precedes Mt. Hor, and is only eight stations removed from the final settlement in the plains of Jordan. This itinerary makes the identi- bcation of Zin with Kadesh, which is implied in Nu 20, and refers to Kadesh for the first and only tiine towards the close of the journeyings. ft might be expected that Paran would be found in an earlier part of the chapter, but it is not ; the stations from Efrypt, as far as Hazeroth, corre- sjiond closely witli those mentioned in the narra- tive portions of Ex and Nu, but after Hazeroth [instead of either Paran or Kadesh] twelve stations are given (Hithmah . . . Hashmonah, vv.'* -'"), the names of which occur only in these verses, and no event happening in connexion with these places is an3'where recorded. It h.as been suggested that Kitlimah, or some other of tlie.se mimes, is a desig- nation of Kadesh, but nothing in the nature of an argument has been advanced in favour of such a hypothesis.
The wilderne.^s of Paran (Nu 13*) is a vague in- dication of locality for the events des(Tiijed in Nu 13. 14, and it may be that more than one of these twelve stations were within th.at area, but there is no indication that such is the case. The list of Nu 33 has been incorporated with the narra- tive without specifying the place where the im- portant events recorde<l in Nu 13. 14 and Dt I happened. In this respect the list is independent of the narrative, and any attempt to establish a connexion between the two must be conjectural.
The eight stations following Hashmonah (Mose- roth-Mt. Hor) must next be considered. With the first four may be compared the fragment of an itinerary preserved in Dt 10"'. They are as follows : —
NuS3«>«. Moeeroth.
Bene-Jaakan.
Jotbatliah.
Dt tO«- '. B«erotb Bene-Jaakan. Moscrah. Ouduodah. Jotbathah.
There can be little doubt that the same four piaces are referred to in both passages, and it seems also reasonable to suppose that the same part of the journeyings is described in both. The inversion of order, Mo.seroth preceding Bene-jaakan in the one, and following in the other, may Ije attributed to an error of transcription, or explained by sup- posing that some of the wells of tlio Bene-jaakan were visited both before and after the encamp- ment at Mo.seroth. Moserah is noted (Dt 10) as the place where Aaron died and was buried, and must therefore be close to Mt. Hor, i>robabIy the place of encampment at its base. Further, as Abronah and Ezion-geber follow these four places in Nu, and the position of Ezion-geber at the head of the (!ulf of Akabah is known, it follows that these stations describe the journey from Mt. llor down the Arabah to the Hed Sea. Pursuing the journey from this point, as described Dt 2", the children of Israel passed ' from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion-geber.' This is generally explained by suppo.sing that they comiileted the circuit of Edoiii by coinpassing it on its E. side. Prom the S. end of the Arabah a valley called Wadj- Ithem leads upwards in a N.E. direction to the high table-land which lies to the E. of Edom and Aloab, across which runs the /fuj route from Damascus to Mecca. Along or near
this route the children of Israel, after leaving the Arabah by Wady Ithem, passed in a N. direction until they reached lye-abarim in the wildemes? which is before Moab towards the sunri8ing(Nu 21), the next definite geographical indication afforded in the narrative.