The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 301

la.tter of these words, derived from l'Q! able in consequence, Knobel supposes it to "1ight hand," being the position of the south be the pass es-Bufah on the road between when regarded from the point of view of Petra and Hebron. But the border of Judah n mnn looking eastward, denotes the south- seems to have gone in a south-westerly ward direction (see above, eh. xii, 2). The direction. To Zin. Rather, in the direction fo1~ne1· word has reference to the physical of Zin, On the south side unto Ka.desh- conclitions of the country, its heat and ba.rnea.. Or, as e.l>ove, .so11thwa1·d of Kadesh- dryness. The LXX. does not attempt to barnea. The exact position of Ke.desh- ti;ansla te the former word and bas evidently Be.rnea. has not been ascertained. It was t:'1~~ for :,?~r,,. The wildemess or Zin. between the wilderness of Zin and that Not to be confounded with the wilderness of Paran (N um. xiii. 26 ; xx. 1). Dean Stanley identifies it with Petra, which was of Sin (Exodus n:i. 1; cf. Num. nxiv. e.bont 30 miles in a north-easterly direction 11, 36). This wilderness was on the from the Gulf of Ake.be. on the Red Sea, border of Edom (Num. xx. i. ; xxvii. 14). and close to Mount Hor. A more recent Thence the border of Judah (which here traveller (see Bartlett,' Egypt and Palestine,' mcludcs the small portion afterwards pp. 866-376) :identifies it with Ain Ge.dis; allotted to Simeon) e1:tended to the utmost about 60 miles to the westward of Petra, limits of the south (see eh. xix. 1, 9). A and he claims Winer, Kurz, Kalisch, and "e.11 of mountains extends sonth-westwe.rd Knobel as supporters of his view. The from the southern extremity of the Dead latter founds his view on the discovery of See., and formed the natural boundary of Ain Ge.dis by Rowlands, and supports it by Judma. the e.nthority of Ritter. Ritter, however, as Ver. 2.-The shore or the salt sea. Liter- his translator informs us, embodied the ally, the extremity, i.e., the south extremity. results of the investigations of Mr. Rowlands' From tile hay. Lit.ere.lly, tongue (so margin). while his work was preparing for the press, The LXX. translates by )\o'/>ia, ridge. The and did not give the matter that full con- -,,bole southern portion of the sea is cut off sideration which he was accustomed to do. from the rest by a peninsula near Kere.k, the The chief objection to it is that (see ver. 1) ancient Kir of Moab. It :is called the Lisan. Ain Ge.dis can hardly be described as on "the "Whoever was the writer of the Book of border of Edom.'' The general view ie that J osbua, these details prove him to have had it lay somewhat to the north-ea~t of Hezron an accurate acqne.inta.nce with the geography and to the north-west of Petra, at the foot of Palestine. He was no priestly inventor of the range of mountains which form the of fables attached to the temple at J ernse.lem. southern boundary of Judme.. Here the Canon Tristre.m gives a vivid description of spies brought their report to Moses (eh. xiv. the neighbourhood in his 'Land of Israel,' 6, 7 ; Num. xiii. 26). Here Miriam was eh. "'· The ridge of Jebel Usdum-one buried, and where Moses incurred the wrath large mass of rock salt-on the west of this of God from his mode of working the "tongne" of water, the salt marsh of the miracle which supplied the Israelites with Sebkha on the sooth-west, with :its treeless water (Num, xx.). It was "a city in the waste-" not a plant or a leaf could be uttermost border" of Edom (Num. xx. 16), seen save jnst under the hills "-and its and it was some distance from Mount Hor, mirage like that of Sahara, the barren out- for we find it described as a journey (Num. line of the Lisan itself, to the eastward xx. 22) ; and by passing from Ke.desh to rising to an elevation of from five to six Mount Hor, and thence by the way of the hundred feet, and the fertile oasis of the Red Sea the Israelites" compassed the lnnd Ghor-es-Safieb at the southern extremity of of Edom'. "(Num. xxi. 4), a fact which seems the Dead Sea, give an unique character to to prove that Petra and Kadesh-barnea this remarkable region. were not the same place. Ke.desh :is supposed Yer. 3. And it went out to the south side by M. Cbabe.s to be the " Qodesb of the to Ma.aleh-acrabbim.. Or, perhaps, and it country of the Ame.or," or Amorites, in t~e went to the southward of 1'Iaaleh-aerabbim, monuments of Seti I. and Rameses II. It 1s translated in Kum. xxx.iv. 4, "the ascent of depicted as " on a hillside with a stream on Acrabbirn." The literal meaning of Maaleh- one side," and is thus distinguished from e.crabbi.m is Bcorpion Ri&, (see Judg. i. 36). Qodesb of the Khete. or Hittites, whic_l;i is Reil thinks that 1t was a pass in the Mount in a flat country beside a lo.ke (Tomluns, Halak, or the Smooth Mountain, mentioned 'Studies of the Time· of Abraham,' p. 84). in eh. xi.17, xii. 7. "De Saulcy suggests Fetched a compass to Karkaa. Rather, the "\Yady Zouara, iwd testifies to the was deflected in the direction of lforlcaa, BCOrpions found under every pel>ble" (Stan- Nothing is known of ·the places here men- ley, ' Sinai and Palestine,' p. 113). And tioned. •Cl. N11m. xxxiv. 4, where Karkall, Amsworth, 'Travels in Asia Minor,' ii. 354, is not mentioned, but the deflection in the llB.ys that some spots are almost uninhabit- neighbourhood of Asmon is. CJJt. xy. t-6a.1 '!'HE BOOK OF J'OSHUA. 247