The name Paran thus corresponds in general out- line with the desert Et-Tih. Tlie Sinaitic desert, in- cluding the wedge of nietamorphic rocks, granite, sy- enite, and porphyrj', set, as it were, in a superficial margin of old red sandstone, forms nearly a scalene triangle, with its apex southward, and having its base or upper edge not a straight, but concave crescent line — the ridge, in short, of the Et-Tih range of moun- tains, extending about 120 miles from east to west, with a slight dip, the curve of the aforesaid crescent south- ward. Speaking generally, the wilderness of Sinai (Numb. X, 12 ; xii, IG), in which the march-stations of Taberah and Hazeroth are probably included towards its north-east limit, may be said to lie south of the Et-Tih range, the wilderness of Paran north of it, and the one to end where the other begins. That of Paran is a stretch of chalky formation, the chalk being cov- ered with coarse gravel, mixed with black flint and drifting sand. The caravan route from Cairo to Akaba crosses the Et-Tih desert in a line from west to east, a little south. In this wide tract, which extends north- ward to join the "wilderness of Beersheba"' (Gen. xxi, 21 ; comp. ver. 14), and eastward probably to the wil- derness of Zin [see Kadesh] on the Edomitish bor- der, Ishmael dwelt, and there probably his posterity originally multiplied. Ascending northward from it on a meridian to the east of Beersheba, we should reach Maon and Carmel, or that southern portion of the territory of Judah, west of the Dead Sea, known as "the South," where the waste changes gradually into an uninhabited pasture-land, at least in spring and au- tumn, and in which, under the name of "Paran," Na- bal fed his flocks (1 Sam. xxv, 1). Between the wil- derness of Paran and that of Zin no strict demarcation exists in the narrative, nor do the natural features of the region, so far as yet ascertained, yield a well-de-
PARAN
064
PARASHIOTII
fined boundary. The name of Paran seems, as in the story of Islimael, to have predominated towards the ■western extremity of the northern desert frontier of Et-Tih, and in Numb, xxxiv, 4 the wilderness of Zin, not Panin, is spoken of as the soutiiern border of the huid or of the tribe of Judah (Josh, xv, 3). Ifhy the Paran region we understand " that great and terrible wilderness" so emphaticall}- described as the haunt of noxious creatures and the terror of the wayfarer (Deut. i, 19; viii, 15), then we might see how the adjacent tracts, which still must be called " wilderness," might, either as having less repulsive features, or because they lay near to some settled countr}', have a special nomenclature of their own. For the latter reason the wilderness of Zin, eastward towards Edom and Mount Seir, and' of Shur, westward towards Egypt, might be thus distinguished; for the former reason that of Zin and Sinai. It would not be inconsistent with the rules of scriptural nomenclature if we suppose these acces- sory wilds to be sometimes included under the gen- eral name of "wilderness of Paran ;" and to this extent we may perhaps modify the previous general state- ment that south of the Et-Tih range is the wilderness of Sinai, and north of it that of Paran. Still, con- strued strictlj', the wildernesses of Paran and Zin would sesm to lie as alread}^ approximate!}' laid down. If, however, as previously hinted, they may in another view be regarded as overlapping, we can more easih' understand how Chedorlaomer, when he "smote" the peoples south of the Dead Sea, returned round its south-western curve to the El-Paran, or " terebinth- tree of Paran," viewed as indicating a locality in con- nection with the wilderness of Paran, and j'et close, apparently, to that Dead Sea border (Gen. xiv, 6).
It is worth}' of special note that tiie wanderings of the Israelites through Paran became to it as a new baptism. Its name is now, and has been for ages, Bedu et-Tih, "The wilderness of wandering" (Abul- feda, Tab. Syr. ed. Kohler, p. 4 ; Jaubert's Edrisi, i, 3G0). In addition to the authorities already referred to, notices of Paran will be found in the writings of Burckhardt {Travels in Syria, p. 444) ; Seetzen (Zach's Monatl. Corresp. eh. xvii) ; Kuppell [Reisen, p. 241); Bartlett {Forty Days in the Desert, p. 149 sq.) ; Eitter {Pal. unci Syr. i, 147 sq., 1079 sq.) ; Olin {Travels in Egypt, etc. ii, 59 sq.) ; Miss Martineau {Eastern Life, p. 418 sq.) ; and especially in Palmer's Desert of the Ex- olus, (1872).
2. Mount Paran ("^XS "il) is mentioned onlj' in two passages, both sublime odes celebrating tiie Di- vine Majesty. The same glorious event, whatever it may have been, is plainly alluded to in both. Moses says, "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from Mount Paran,'''' etc. (Deut. xxxiii, 2); and Ilabakkuk writes: "God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran'' (iii, 3). The object of both writers is to call attention to those places where the most striking man- ifestations of divine power and majesty were made to Israel. Next to Sinai, Kadesh stands out as the the- atre of the Lord's most remarkable workings. It lies in the valley of the Arabah, with Seir on the one side and the highlands of Paran on the other. The sum- mits of botii these ranges were, doubtless, now illu- mined, now clouded, like the brow of Sinai, by the divine glory (comp. Numb, xvi, 19-85, 42; xx,"l, G- 12). Teman was another name for Edom, or Seir; and hence the local allusions of Moses and Habakkuk arc identical. It may therefore be safely concluded that Mount Paran is that ridge, or series of ridges, al- ready descril)ed, lying on the north-east part of the wilderness of Tih. There is nothing in Scripture which would lead us to connect it more closely with Sinai than with Seir, or to identify it with Jehel Ser- ial, which overlooks AV^ady Feiran, as is done by Stan- ley and some others.