NnMB.xxxiii,30-G5. Deut. x, C, 7. Conjecturai, Site.
(1.) Moseroth. (2.) Mosera. Aiii et - Taii/ibek,
near the foot of Mount Hor.
(2.) Bene-jaakan. (1.) Beeroth of the 'Ain el-Webeh. cliildrenof Ja- akan.
(3.) Hor-hagidgad. (3.) Gudgodah. Wach/ el - Ghudhd-
cjUlh.
C4.) Jotbathah. (4.) Jotbath. Confli'.ence of wadu
el-Adlibeh witii el-Jerafeh.
2. The onty events recorded during this period (and these are interspersed with sundry promulgations of the ceremonial law), are the execution of the offender who gathered sticks on the Sabbath (Numb, xv, 32- 36), the rebellion of Korah (ch. s.vi), and, closely con- nected with it, the adjudgment of the pre-eminence to Aaron's house with their kindred tribe, solemnlv con- firmed l)y the judicial miracle of the rod that blossom- ed. This seems to have been followed by a more rigid separation between Levi and the other tribes as re- gards tlie approach to the tabernacle than had been practically recognised before (xxvii ; xviii, 22 ; comp. xvi, 40).
We are not told how the Israelites came into pos- session of the city Kadesh-Barnea, as seems implied in the narrative of their second arrival there, nor who were its previous occupants. The probability is that these last were a remnant of the Horites, who, after their expulsion bj' Edom from Mount Seir [see Edo:m], may have here retained their last hold on the tenitorj'- between Edom and the Canaanitish Amorites of "the south." Probably Israel took it by force of arms, which may have induced the attack of "Arad the Ca- naanite," who would then feel his border immediately
threatened (Numb, xsxiii, 40; comp. xxi, 1). This warlike exploit of Israel may perhaps be alluded to in Judg. V, 4 as the occasion when Jehovah " went out of Seir" and "marched out of the field of Edom" to give his people victory. The attack of Arad, how- ever, though with some slight success at first, only brought defeat upon himself and destruction upon his cities (xxi, 3). We learn from xxxiii, 3G only that Israel marched without permanent halt froni Ezion- geber upon Kadesh. This sudden activity, after their long period of desultory and purposeless wandering, may have alarmed king Arad. The itinerary takes here another stride from Kadesh to IMount Hor. There their being occupied with the burial of Aaron may have given Arad his fancied opportunity of assaulting the rear of their march, he descending from the north whilst they also were facing southwards. In direct connection with these events we come upon a single passage in Deuterononw (x, 6, 7), which is a scrap of narrative imbedded in Moses's recital of events atHo- reb long previous. This contains a short list of names of localities, on comparing which with the itinerary we get some clew to the line of march from the region Kadesh to Ezion-geber southwards. See Kadesh. VI 1. From Kadesh to Canaan. 1. This third division of the Israelites' route is more susceptible of identification than either of the others, after having fixed by the foregoing process some im- portant points, and in its latter portion is quite unmis- takable. The Israelites evidently retraced their steps down the 'Arabah, perhaps keeping along its western side, at the farthest distance from the borders of Edom, till the}' arrived once more at the well-watered tract of the descendants of Jaakan, about halfway between Kadesh and Mount Hor, or Mosera, to which they next crossed over, and where Aaron died (Deut. x, C). From this point, again avoiding the territory of the Edomitcs, they passed over by a considerable deflec- tion, in a south-westerly direction, through wady el- Jerafeh to wady el-Ghudhagidh (which we have be- fore identified with Gudgodah, or Ilor-hagidgad), on their former track, around through Jotbath (Deut. x, 7), and back again to the Red Sea at Ezion-geber and Elath (Deut. ii, 8, where, however, the two latter names occur in the reverse order). From this last point, having crossed the plain of the 'Arabah, they doubled the southern extremity of Mount Seir, through wady el-Ithm, and pitched at Zalmonah, probably in the edge of the eastern desert plain, near the junction of wady el-Amran. Pursuing thence their route north- easterly along the present road that skirts the l)ase of Mount Seir, they next arrived at Punon, which we may locate near the intersection of their route with the Haj road from Damascus. Keeping still along the base of the ^lount-Seir range, they next halted at Oboth, situated probably in the region of wady el-Ghuweit, where the first stream takes its rise, emptying into the Dead Sea from the south. Pursuing the same road northwards that travellers at this day take along this route, they doubtless passed near Tufileh (Tophel, one of the points in their wanderings, Deut. i, 1), and halted at Ije-abarim, probably near the wady el-Ahsy, which runs into wady el-Kurahy, the southern border of Moab. Their next stations are easily identified : the brook Zered can be no other than wady el-Deraah, the two forks of which inclose Kerak ; the brook Arnon is conceded to be wady Mojeb ; and Dihon-gad is evi- dently the modern Dhiban. From this last point they appear to have diverged considerably (apparently with a view to meet the hostile Sihon at Jahaz) to the east of the modern road, into the desert, where they passed, through several unknown localities (in short stages, while waiting for the return of messengers asking leave of passage), Almon-Diblathaim, Beer, Mattanah, and Nahaliel [see each in its alphabetical place], and then returned by a slight north-westerly circuit to Ba- moth (perhaps Jebel-Humeh), apparently some point