| Body: | Kadesh-Barnea
(its importance and probable site, with the story of a hunt for it:
including studies of the route of the exodus and the southern boundary of
the Holy Land)
Henry Clay Trumbull, 1884 AD
(Kadesh-Barnea Henry Clay Trumbull, 1884 AD)
KADESH-BARNEA
ITS IMPORTANCE AND PROBABLE SITE
THE STORY OF A HUNT FOR IT
INCLUDING
STUDIES OF THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS
AND THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY
OF THE HOLY LAND
H. elAY TRUMBULL D. D.
Editor of "The Sunday School Times"
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 1884
COPYRIGHT BY H. elAY TRUMBULL
PHILADEPHIA
TO
THE REV. JOHN ROWLANDS
AND TO THE MEMORY OF
PROFESSOR EDWARD HENRY PALMER
AND
THE REV. F. W. HOLLAND
THE EARLIEST THE MOST EMINENT
AND THE MOST WIDELY EXPERIENCED
OF ENGLISH EXPLORERS
IN THE SEARCH
FOR
KADESH-BARNEA
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED
BY
AN AMERICAN FOLLOWER IN THEIR TRACK
AND ADMIRER OF THEIR
SPIRIT AND WORK.
CONTENTS.
TITLE PAGE 1
DEDICATION 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS 5
INTRODUCTION . 9
I.
KADESH-BARNEA:
ITS MANIFOLD IMPORTANCE.
(1.) IN STORY AND IN PROPHECY, 15. (2.) FROM SINAI TOKADESII, 1C. (3.)
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS AT KADESH, 17. (4.) THE LINKINGS OF KADESH, 24.
II. KADESH-BARNEA:
BIBLICAL INDICATIONS OF ITS SITE.
(1.) THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF HISTORY, 31. (2.) KEDOR-LA OMER S ROUTE, 35.
(3.) A STRATEGIC HALTING-PLACE, 42. (4 ) THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL, 44.
(5.) A TYPICAL TRAINING-PLACE, 58. (6.) GERAR AND BERED, 61. (7.) THE
MOUNTAIN OF THE AMORITES, 65. (8.) PARAN AND ZIN, 67. (9.) AN ELEVEN DAYS
COURSE, 71. (10.) THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR, 74. (11.) THE AMORITE HILL-COUNTRY
ROAD, 80. (12.) THE BORDER OF EDOM, 83. (13.) A SWEEP TO GAZA, 102. (14.)
THE PROMISED LAND S SOUTHERN BOUNDARY, 106. (15.) SEL A PETRA THE ROCK,
124. (16.) THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR, 127. (17.)
THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS, 139. (18.) KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS, 147.
5
6 CONTENTS.
III. KADESH-BARNEA:
ANCIENT REFERENCES TO IT OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLE TEXT.
(1.) IN THE EGYPTIAN RECORDS, 159. (2.) IN THE APOCRYPHA, 165. (3.) IN THE
RABBINICAL WRITINGS, 167. (4.) IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN NAME LISTS, 178.
IV. KADESH-BARNEA:
LATER ATTEMPTS AT ITS IDENTIFYING.
(1.) WHY IT DROPPED FROM NOTICE, 185. (2.) A GLEAM DURING THE CRU SADES,
186. (3.) NATURAL MISTAKES OF MEDIAEVAL WRITERS, 188. (4.) BEGIN NINGS OF
FULLER RESEARCH, 191. (5.) FRESH HINTS AND SURMISES FROM DESERT TRAVEL,
203. (6.) ROBINSON S PROPOSED IDENTIFICATION, 208. (7.) ROWLANDS S
DISCOVERY, 211. (.8.) THE CONFUSION OF SITES, 216. (9.) FAIL URES TO
RE-FIND ROWLANDS S SITE, 229.
V.
KADESH-BARNEA:
STORY OF A HUNT FOR IT.
(1.) ITS ARAB GUARDIANS, 237. (2.) A MID-DESERT STARTING POINT, 243. (3.)
FAVORING CIRCUMSTANCES AT NAKIIL, 247. (4.) A MOVE NORTHWARD, 253. (5.)
YANKEE CATECHISING, 255. (6.) A RESTLESS NIGHT, 259. (7.) HELP FROM A
NOTABLE DRAGOMAN, 260. (8.) OFF FROM THE MAIN TRACK, 263. (9.) DES ERT
DANGERS, 265. (10.) TRACES OF OLD-TIME OCCUPANCY, 269. (11.) HOPE DEFERRED,
271. (12.) THE LOST SITE RE-FOUND, 272. (13.) A BLOODLESS EN COUNTER, 275.
(14.) A PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE, 277. (15.) LOST IN THE DESERT,
CONTENTS.
278. (16.) AN ANCIENT VILLAGE, 280. (17.) AYN EL-QADAYRAT DISCOVERED, 282.
(18.) A RIDE IN THE DARKNESS, 284. (19.) INTO CAMP AGAIN, 286. (20.) A
SECOND DAY S PLAN, 287. (21.) THE THIRD WELL VISITED, 288. (22.) ANOTHER
LANDMARK RECOGNIZED, 289. (23.) AN ARAB S SHORT CUT, 292. (24.) OWDY S USE
OF SALT, 293. (25.) A CAMP AT EL- AUJEH, 295. (26.) ARAB MODE OF BALANCING
AN ACCOUNT, 296. (27.) AN AZAZIMEH PRO TEST, 298.
VI. KADESH-BARNEA:
THE SITES COMPARED.
(1.) SUGGESTED IDENTIFICATIONS, 303. (2.) THE Two REPRESENTATIVE SITES,
304. (3.) elAIMS FOR AYN EL-WAYBEH, 305. (4.) OBJECTIONS TO AYN EL-WAYBEH,
306. (5.) OBJECTIONS TO AYN QADEES, 309. (6.) THE ARGUMENT FOR AYN QADEES,
311. (7.) FAIR CONCLUSIONS, 320.
THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.
A SPECIAL STUDY.
(1.) THE BARRIER TO ISRAEL S PASSAGE, 325. (2.) KHETAM AND ETHAM, 327. (3.)
THE THREE ROADS DESERTWARD, 337. (4.) THE PIIILISTIA ROAD, 338. (5.) THE
WALL ROAD, 340. (6.) THE YAM SOOPH ROAD, 352. (7.) THE MANY MIGDOLS, 364.
(8.) No CITIES ox THE ROUTE, 379. (9.) TAKING TIME AND BAKHSHEESII, 384.
(10.) THE PLACE OF RENDEZVOUS, 392. (11.) THE FIRST UNITED MOVE, 395. (12.)
A SHARP TURN AND ITS PURPOSE, 396. (13.) THEO RIES OF THE ROUTE, 402. (14.)
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL, 405. (16.) UNLOOKED-FOR PURSUIT, 423. (16.)
THE GREAT WALL FLANKED, 425. (17.) POINTS NOW MADE clear, 429.
g CONTENTS.
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
MAP OF BIBLE LANDS (FROM ELAM TO EGYPT) ... In front.
VIEW OF CASTLE NAKHL. "EL-PAKAN" ... . Frontispiece.
OUR SINAITIC SHAYKII : SIIAYKH MOOSA .... Facing page, 247 OUR DRAGOMAN :
MUHAMMAD AHMAD HEDAYAH ..." " 2C1
AYN EL-WAYBEH (TWO VIEWS) " " 308
SECTION THROUGH THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ " 341
MAP OF THE NEGEB AND SURROUNDINGS (SHOWING THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE
HOLY LAND, AND THE FIELD OF THE EXODUS AND WANDERINGS) . . . . In pocket of
second cover.
INDEXES.
PAGE.
. 435
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED
INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED 44G
INDEX OF FOREIGN WORDS CITED 453
INDEX OF BIBLE TEXTS CITED 458
TOPICAL INDEX ... .463
INTRODUCTION.
At first thought, Kadesh-barnea may seem a small subject for a large book ;
and it may even be deemed a subject of minor interest in the realm of
biblical and geographical research. But Kadesh-barnea was a site of
importance forty centuries ago. It was more than once the scene of events
on which, for the time, the history of the world was pivoting. And for now
well-nigh twenty centuries the location of Kadesh-barnea has been a matter
of doubt and discussion among Jewish and Christian scholars.
Going into the desert of Arabia for the express purpose of avoiding study,
on an enforced-vacation ramble, I was enabled, most unexpectedly, to
re-discover a long-lost site which had borne an important part in the
discussions over Kadesh-barnea. This laid upon me the duty of giving to the
public the results of my personal observations. Desiring, however, to
present the facts of my discovery in the light of kindred facts brought out
by prede cessors in this field of research, I delayed the publication of my
story until I could examine anew the more important works already treating
on this subject. Giving a mere announcement of my discovery, in the
Quarterly Statement of the (London) Palestine Exploration Fund, on my
return from the East, in the summer of 1881, I set myself at the study of
the facts involved.
The linkings of Kadesh-barnea proved far more numerous and varied than I
anticipated, and the possibilities of gain from farther
1 INTR OD UCTION.
investigation in the fields of ancient and modern scholarship, opened more
widely at every step of my progress. The four hundred volumes specifically
cited, and the more than two thousand notes separately given from those
volumes, indicate but a minor portion of the many volumes searched, and of
the many note worthy passages examined, in the course of that prolonged
investigation. But the results have fully justified the belief, that to
settle the location of Kadesh-barnea would be to settle many another point
in dispute ; and I think it will be found that this volume furnishes the
material for determining the Route of the Exodus, the main outline of the
Wanderings, and every landmark on the line of the Southern Boundary of the
Land of Promise.
The necessity of furnishing the proof of old errors assailed, and of truths
newly declared, has expanded this volume far beyond its original plan, and
has multiplied its citations of works in various tongues. Yet the main text
of the work is so written as to be complete by itself, and intelligible to
a reader who understands only English. The appended notes are largely for
the benefit of those who desire to verify, or to test, my statements ;
although many of them are in fuller illustration of points made in the
text.
Having fresh evidence, at every stage of my studies, of the frequent errors
of my predecessors through their failure to verify quotations, I have been
careful in every citation to cite directly from the authority quoted ;
except in the few instances where I have specifically mentioned an
intermediary agency through which alone I was able to refer to a work
cited.
I have reason to acknowledge gratefully the kind assistance, at one point
and another in my researches, of the late Professor Edward Henry Palmer,
the Rev. John Rowlands, Mr. Walter Besant, and Mr. Trelawney Saunders, of
England ; of the Rev. Dr. II. H. Jessup, of Syria, and Mr. Edward Van Dyck,
of Egypt ; also of Professors Isaac H. Hall, J. A. Paine, C. H. Toy,
Charles A. Briggs, S. T. Lowrie, C. D. Hartrauft, and T. W.
INTROD UCTION. 1 1
Coit, the Rev. Dr. T. W. Chambers, and of Drs. W. C. Prime, and J. Hammond
Trumbull, and Mr. M. Heilprin, on this side of the Atlantic. Moreover, I
desire to recognize my special indebtedness to Mr. John T. Napier, of
Philadelphia, without whose varied and accurate scholarship, and unvarying
readiness of efficient service at every point in my researches, I should
never have been able to bring this work to completion, or to give it the
exceptional value in its peculiar line, which 1 think it will be found to
possess.
The transliterating of Oriental words has naturally proved a vexed question
; there being n jommonly recognized system to which I could conform, and no
possibility of framing a system which should fully meet every difficulty in
the premises. My endeavor has been, to employ such phonetic equivalents as
will best convey the sound of the original, according to the English (or
the American) uses of the Roman letters. My spelling, in this line, differs
at some points from that of any one writer with whom I am familiar ; yet it
follows at each point some such authority as Lane, or Wilkinson, or
Robinson, or Palmer, or Birch, or Meyer, or Burton. Its peculiarity is,
that at nearly all points it is conformed to a common standard.
In my citations I have adopted the spelling of the writer cited ; and so in
the case of all biblical names, except the name of " Kedor- la omer," for
which I have employed two forms. A thoroughly established proper name, like
" Cairo," I have given in its popular form. The vowels I have employed, as
nearly as may be, in their ordinary English force, instead of in their
French or German or Italian force. For example, the designation of the
Arabs of the desert is here given as Bcd wcen, rather than as the
French-English Bedouin, or the German-English Bedaitfin. The double vowel
ee has its sound as in meet; and oo, as in moon. With a circumflex sign, d
has a long and broad sound, somewhat as in bard. With the same sign, 6 is
sounded long, as in gore. With a long quan tity, d is sounded long, as in
day. The diphthong ay, in the body
12 INTRODUCTION.
of a word, is sounded as a cross between the ei in vein and the ey in eye;
where (in the Arabic) it is modified by a preceding guttural, as in ayn,
its sound is more nearly that of the latter, ey in eye. The sign of the
aspirate, as in ayn, marks a peculiar guttural sound unattainable by the
ordinary American.
To distinguish between the Arabic letters, qaf and kaf, q is used for the
former, and k for the latter. The fifth letter of the Arabic alphabet is
pronounced by the Egyptians as hard g; while in Palestine and the Sinatic
desert it is pronounced as j; and that distinction I have recognized by the
use of g and j in the same word as it appertains to the different regions:
thus the Gebel (Mountain) in Egypt, is the Jebel (Mountain) in Palestine.
The phototype illustrations are from photographs taken, with this work in
view, by Mr. Edward L. Wilson, of Philadelphia, who subsequently went over
a portion of the desert traversed by me (as also to Petra, and beyond),
under the guidance of my old dragoman ; bringing back from his tour a
choice collection of pho tographic views. The maps are compiled from the
best available sources, with such tentative changes as will indicate to the
reader the geographical points made in the text of my work. Having no new
survey of the region, I cannot be sure of its topography, be yond the
statements in my verbal description.
That there are errors in this volume I cannot doubt. That it throws fresh
light upon the subject of which it treats, I firmly believe. That, as a
whole, it will prove a means of correcting time-honored mistakes, and of
bringing overlooked truths into prominence, I sincerely hope. It is,
moreover, my confident expectation that more good will come from the new
discussion which this volume provokes, than from the immediate conclusions
of its own discussion of the main points at issue.
H. elAY TKUMBULL.
PHILADELPHIA, December 1, 1883.
KADESH-BAKKEA . ITS MANIFOLD IMPORTANCE,
KADESH-BAKNEA.
1. IN STORY AND IN PROPHECY.
KADESH-BARNEA has a manifold importance in the sacred story. Its
historical, its geographical, and its providential rela tions, as disclosed
in the inspired record, are of no ordinary or mean degree. A study of
Kadesh-barnea in its varied biblical associations involves a study of the
story of God s peculiar people, from the days of their great progenitor
Abraham to the still vague and shadowy days of unfulfilled prophecy
concerning their re-gathering and re-establishing.
This place comes into view as a strategic stronghold in the earliest
military campaign of history; at the beginning in the time of the Father of
the Faithful of the yet progressing strug gle of the world-powers with the
kingdom of God on earth. It looms up as the objective point of the
Israelites in their movement from Sinai to the Promised Land. It is the
place of their testing, of their failure, of their judging, and of their
dispersion. It is their rallying centre for the forty years of their
wandering, and the place of their re-assembling for their final move into
the land of their longings. It is the scene of repeated and varied displays
of God s power and of his people s faithlessness. And finally it is the
hinge and pivot of the southern boundary of the Holy Land in history, and
of the Holy Land
in prophecy.
15
16 KADESH-BARNEA.
To ascertain the location, and to consider the associations of a place of
such importance as this, cannot be unworthy of the attention of any careful
student of sacred history, of biblical geography, or of God s providential
dealings with his chosen people. And to enter upon such a study
intelligently, it is de sirable to look first at the place as it is shown
in its more promi nent relations to the movements of that people in the
days of their exodus and wanderings.
2. FROM SINAI TO KADESH.
In the history of the Israelitish wanderings, Kadesh-barnea stands over
against Sinai in interest and importance. Even Sinai takes a minor place
when the element of time is considered ; for the Israelites were at the
latter point less than a year, while Kadesh-barnea seems to have been their
head- quarters, or chief rallying-place, during a space of more than
thirty-seven years.
When the unorganized throng of Israelites, which had been hurried out from
the bondage of Egypt into the lawless freedom of the desert, had become a
compact nation, with its divinely given government and rulers, and its
experiences of discipline, the divine command was given for the departure
of the mighty host of that nation, from the forming-school of Sinai, across
the desert to the sacred rendezvous of Kadesh l the divinely chosen camp
ing ground and sanctuary, on the borders of the Promised Land. "The Lord
our God spake unto us in Horeb," says Moses, "say ing, Ye have dwelt long
enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount
of the Amorites. . . . And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all
that great
1 The Hebrew word, Kadesh, or Qadhesh (EHp), means Holy, or Sacred. It
corresponds with the Arabic Quds, ((jwjLs) or, with the article, J^l-Quds,
which is applied to Jerusalem. Concerning the use of this term in biblical
and elassical history, Bee Prideaux s Connection, Part I., Book 1, p. 87 /.
LIGHTS AND SHAD OWS AT KADESH. 1 7
and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the AYay of the Mountain of the
Arnorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea."
l
3. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS AT KADESH.
Kadesh-barnea once reached, and history was there made rapidly, by the
people who were yet unready for their inheritance.
From that mountain-shielded covert 2 Moses sent forward spies into Canaan,
to examine the land in order to learn its possessions and its
possibilities. 3 On the return of those spies to Kadesh, 4 their report
caused a fright of the Israelites, which led to a general murmuring and
rebellion. 5 It was then that the people turned from their divinely
appointed leader, and refused to accept the divine plan for their
inheritance ; even choosing a captain of their own, with a view to their
return to the bondage of Egypt. 6 For this cause, that boundary-line
gathering-place of the chosen people on their way to the Promised Land
became a limit to their progress for a full generation, and a place of
dispersion for a people under the divine displeasure. Kadesh, the
sanctuary, now became, or again became, En-mishpat 7 ( Ayn 8 Mishpat), a
Fountain of Judg ment ; and there the guilty people were sentenced to
complete a period of forty years, as wanderers in the desert they had
already once passed successfully.
1 Dent. 1 : 6, 7, 19. * Deut. 1: 20, 24; Num. 14: 40.
"Num. 13: 1-20; 32: 8; Deut. 1: 20-24; Josh. 14: 7.
* It is thought by some, that the spies were sent from the wilderness of
Paran (Num. 13: 3) before reaching Kadesh, although one statement (Deut. 1:
19, 22) would show that they were sent from the latter place; and again
(Num. 13 : 20) the two places are spoken of interchangeably.
5 Num. 14: 1-34. Num. 14: 4; Neh. 9: 16, 17.
7 In Gen. 14: 7, it is called En-mishpat (33190 } #"), or Fountain of
Judgment. The probable origin of this name is treated farther on in this
volume.
8 In modern Arabic ayn (literally "an eye") means "a fountain," a natural
spring of waters, as distinct from beer, " a well " that has been dug.
1 8 KA DESII-BARNEA.
Unwilling to lose all they had gained in reaching that threshold of their
coveted inheritance, the rebellious Israelites determined to make at least
a struggle for possession by venturing forward into the land which was now
forbidden them. 1 elambering the moun tain-pass immediately above their
secure possession, in disregard of the warning of Moses, they pushed up
into the South Country the Xcgeb, 2 or tract of high land between the
desert and Canaan proper ; but they were met and discomfited by the
Amorites and Amalek- ites 3 of the region they had invaded. All this was
within three years after the coming out of Egypt ; probably within two
years. 4
. 14: 39, 40.
2 The Hebrew word ^cghelh or Xegcb pjj) which is rendered in the King James
Version "the south," or the "south country," or "southward," (e. <j.
Gen. 12: J; 24: G2 ; Num. 13: 17,) is a proper name the Xegeb and should
commonly be so rendered, in order to its better understanding. " The tract
below Hebron, which forms the link between the hills of Judah and the
desert, was known to ancient Hebrews by a terra originally derived from its
dryness (Xe- geb). This was the Soutli Country." (Grove, in Smith- Hackctt.
Lib. Diet., s. v. "Palestine.") "It was a line of stoppe-land with certain
patches here and there that admitted of cultivation, but in which tracts of
heath prevailed, for the most part covered with grass and bushes, where
only grazing could be carried on with any success. The term which Eusebius
and Jerome employ for Xegeb in the Onomasticon is Daromas, but they carry
it farther northward than the Xegeb of the Old Testament." (Keil and
Delitzsch s Bib. Com. at Josh. 15: 21-32.) "Asa geographical term the name
has been entirely ignored in the English version; . . . and the
misapprehension has given rise to several absurd contradictions in terms."
(Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 2!2.) "The rendering south in our Authorized
Ver sion, is apt to confuse the general reader." (Edersheim s Exod. and
Wand., p. 1C5.) This point is treated at length in Wilton s The Xegeb.
3 In Deut. 1: 44 the Amorites are mentioned, and in Num. 14: 45 the
Amalekites. As Kurtz says (Hist, of Old Cor., III., 254) : " In the passage
in which the historical facts are narrated with greater precision,
Amalekites are spoken of along with the Amoritcs or Tanaanites, whereas in
Deuteronomy the Amorites (i. c. Canaanites), who were incomparably more
important, are mentioned alone."
4 It is not clear, from the text, how long the Israelites were journeying
from Sinai to Kadesh. The season of the year is plain, but not the year
itself, as various critics have shown in their attempts to prove it clear ;
e. fj., Kurtz says (as above, III., 215 /.), "On the twentieth day of the
second month (early in May), in the second year of
LIGHTS AND SHADO WS A T KADESH. \ 9
Then came a long halt at Kadesh. " So ye abode in Kadesh many days,
according unto the days that ye abode there." l No mention is made in the
sacred narrative of any formal departure of the Israelites from Kadesh,
until the time came for a new move toward Canaan, at the elose of their
prescribed wanderings; and then, it is said, all the people, "even the
whole congregation," : had again come together in Kadesh, as if in
re-assembling at the recognized rendezvous and rallyiug-point of the
scattered nation. The indications of the text are, that when the people
found their progress into Canaan barred for a generation, they gradually
scat tered themselves in larger or smaller groups among the wadies 3 of
the exodus, the people departed from Sinai (Xum. 10: 11). On their arrival
at the desert of Paran they sent out spies to Palestine (from
Kadesh-barnea; Num. 32: 8; Deut. 1: 19 /.; Josh. 14: 7), at the time of the
first grapes (Xum. 13: 21) that is, August (or earlier). . . . Forty days
afterwards the spies returned to the camp at Kadesh (Xum. 13: 27). The
people murmured at the reports of the spies, and Jehovah pronounced the
sentence upon them." Lowrie, in the Schaff-Lange Com mentary (at Num. 14:
1-45), would add at least a year to this computation. He says: "We must
infer that the journey from Sinai to Kadesh lasted at least from May of the
second year of the exodus to July or August of the third year, i, e.,
fourteen to fifteen mouths. ... It may even have lasted longer."
1 Deut. 1 : 46. The rabbins held that this indicates that the Israelites
remained at Kadesh as long as at all the other stations combined; or, say,
nineteen years. Light- foot takes the meaning to be, as long as the stay at
Mount Sinai. Patrick, following older authorities, understands it, as long
after the mutiny as before; or, forty days. Keil, and Lange, and others,
consider the phrase as intentionally indefinite ; the facts being well
understood by the Israelites to whom Moses was speaking. Fries, as followed
by others, woxild find here an intimation of the permanent stay at Kadesh,
until the march Canaanward was finally resumed. "So ye abode [or, waited]
at Kadesh, according unto the days that ye abode [or, as long as ye were
sentenced to be waiting]." For light on this point see Critici Sacri, Pool
s Synops. Crit., Barrett s Synops. of Crit., Schaff-Lange Com., Keil and
Delitzsch s Bib. Com., all in loco; also Fries s " Ueber die Lage von
Kades," in Stud. u. Krit., 1854, p. 55.
2 Xum. 20: 1; Deut. 2: 1.
3 A "wady" is any depression of the desert surface, or any space between
the hills, which becomes the bed of a water-course in the rainy season.
From its extra water supply a wady is more fertile and arable than the
higher ground about it. It is commonly marked with some signs of vegetation
throughout the year.
20 KADESH-BARNEA.
the desert, living a nomad life, .seeking sustenance by sowing and reaping
with the divinely added supply of daily manna, having, all this time,
Kadesh as the northernmost limit of their roving, and as, in a peculiar
sense, the centre of their occupancy, or the pivot of their wanderings.
Meantime, the tabernacle, with its ministry, would seem to have moved,
under the divine guidance, from place to place within the limits of the
wanderings, as if on circuit, in order that Moses and Aaron might retain a
spiritual oversight of the scattered people.
Certain it is, that the popular opinion, of a formal marching to and fro in
the desert for the forty years of wandering, finds no more countenance in
the text than it does in reason in view of the purposes of God with his
people, and of the habits of Oriental nomads. 1 In this light of the
narrative, the stations named in the sacred text, for the period of the
wanderings, 2 may be taken either as the stations of the tabernacle on its
circuit ; or as the excep tionally prominent encampments of the people as a
whole, at the earlier or at the later portion of that period. 3
Hardly a glimpse is given us of the covenant people, in all those years
between their first and second formal gatherings at Kadesh ; nor can it be
supposed that this inspired silence is with out a substantial reason.
Students of the covenant record, and historians of the covenant people,
have recognized a pregnant meaning in the very shadows which obscure the
life-story of Israel from Kadesh to Kadesh. "So far as the sacred records
1 Yet Cok-nso (The Pentateuch, etc., I., 124) insists that the popular
opinion is the biblical view, as precedent to his elaim that the biblical
view is an unreasonable one.
2 Num. 33: l$-3<3.
3 This reasonable view of the settlement, or the prolonged stay, of the
Israelites at Kadesh, and of the nmnadic character of the forty years life
in the wilderness, is held by many careful and judicious students of the
Bible text; however those stu dents may differ in an understanding of the
list of stations given in Numbers 33. For example, see: Hasius, in Ileg.
David. ctSo.L, pp. 211-214; Ewald, in IKst. of Israel, II., 193 Jf.;
Hitter, in Geotj. of Pal., I., 42S/.; Kurtz, in Hist, of Old Coi:, III.,
202-
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS A T KADESH. 21
were concerned," says Kurtz, 1 "there was no history between the first and
second encampments at Kadesh. But whatever happened while the first
encampment lasted, and whatever occurred after the second encampment had
taken place, was regarded as forming part of the history to be recorded. .
. . Nothing of a stationary (or retrograde) character \vas regarded as
forming part of the history to be recorded; but only that which was
progressive. . . . During the thirty-seven years, about which the
scriptural records are silent, the history of Israel did not advance a
single step towards its immediate object, the conquest of the Promised
Land. . . . The thirty-seven years were not only stationary in their
character, years of detention and therefore without a history, but they
were also years of dispersion. The congregation had lost its unity, had
ceased to be one compact body ; its organization was broken up, and its
members were isolated the one from the other. ... It was only Israel as a
whole, the combination of all the component parts, the whole congregation,
with the ark of the covenant and the pillar of eloud in the midst, which
came within the scope of the sacred records." 2
" Not only are the names of the encampments [during the wan-
288; Winer, in Bibl. Realworterb., Art. " Wiiste, Arabische;" Tuch, in
"Kemarks on Gen. XIV.," in Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 91; Fries, in
"Ueber die Lage von Kades," in Stud. u. Krit., 1S54, p. 55; Lange (and more
fully Lowrie, his translator), in Schaff-Lange Com. "Numbers"; Espin, in
Speaker s Com., at Num. 20: 1; Hayman, in Smith-Hackett Bib. Diet., Art.
"Wilderness of the Wan dering;" Palmer, in Des. of Exod., II., 515-519;
Edersheim, in Exod. and Wand., pp. 171-174; Smith, in Student s Old Test.
Hist., pp. 187, 189; Payne Smith, in Bible Educator, I., 228 ff. ; Geikie,
in Hours with Bible, II., 347. And the rationalistic Wellhausen agrees with
his more evangelical fellow-critics on this point, as shown in his article
on "Israel" in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition.
1 Hist, of Old Cov., III., 270 /.
3 "The subject divides itself into two parts; the emancipation and the
preparation for conquest. Both of these, Moses treats at large. The space
of years which he passes over in silence, is, if I may so speak, the
interlude between the two acts of the great drama." (Palfrey s Lect. on
Jewish Script and Antiq , I., 373)
22 KADESH-BARNEA.
derings] still lost iu uncertainty," says Stanley, 1 " but the narrative
itself draws the mind of the reader in different directions ; and the
variations, in some instances as it would seem, of the sacred text itself,
repel detailed inquiry still more positively. To this out ward confusion
corresponds the inward and spiritual aspect of the history. It is the
period of reaction, and contradiction, and failure. It is chosen by Saint
Paul 2 as the likeness of the corres ponding failures of the first efforts
of the primitive Christian church; the one type of the Jewish history
expressly mentioned by the w r riters of the New Testament."
In this view of the pivotal and typical character of the Israel ites halt
at Kadesh 3 a peculiar interest attaches to every gleam of light on the
place itself, and on the incidents having their centre there. It is
possible that the rebellion of Ivorah and his company 4 occurred at Kadesh;
5 and that thus the attempt to wrest the priestly power from Aaron was made
at the same place as the effort to take the civil government from the hands
of his brother. 6 If this was
1 Hist. of Jewish Ch., I., 199 /.
2 1 Cor. 10: 11. These things happened unto them for examples types in the
original. This is the true meaning of the word ; and it is the only case in
which it is applied in the New Testament to the Jewish history."
8 In the parting blessing, or dying song of Moses, wherein the story of the
The- ophany is rehearsed to Israel, the Septuagint gives " myriads of
Kadesh," where our text gives "tun thousands of saints" (Deut. 33: 2); thus
showing Sinai, Paran, Seir, and Kudesh, as uplifted into pre-eminence, as
boundary limits of the place of God s chief wonder-working for his people,
during their years of training. On this point, see Critici Sucri, Pool s
Synops. Crit., Barrett s Synops. of Crit., and Kchuff- Lunge Com., all in
loco; Ewald s Ilist. of Israel, vol. II., p. 198, note; Stanley s Sinai and
Pal., p. 90.
* Xum. 16.
5 So elaim Kurtz (Ifist. of Old Cov., III., 257); Lange (Schaff-Lange Com.
" Exod. and Lev." "Introduction" p. 25; and "Xum. and Deut." p. 85); and
others. Forster (Israel in Wild., pp. 290-303) shows reason for believing
that Korah s rebellion occurred not earlier than say twenty years after the
exodus ; but the ques tion of its dote is apart from the question of its
place.
6 Xum. 14: 4; Xeh. 9: 16, 17.
LIGHTS AND SHADO WS A T KADESH. 23
so, Kadesh became yet again the " Fountain of Judgment " against the
insurgents, when there "the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up ;
" and a consuming fire came from the Lord ; and a pestilence was among the
people, destroying " fourteen thou sand and seven hundred, besides them
that died about the matter of Korah." And it was then and there, also, that
the rod of Aaron budded 1 in confirmation of his priestly authority from
Jehovah.
It was certainly at Kadesh that Miriam died and was buried; 2 that the
people murmured for water ; and that Moses struck the Rock, when he had
been told only to speak to it, and the Lord caused it to give forth again
its waters in abundance. 3 And Kadesh, on this latter occasion, became
(perhaps for the third time) the " Fountain of Judgment," the place of the
uttering of a sen tence of God s condemnation, by the Lord s passing
judgment on Moses for his presumption, his impatience, and his lack of
rever ent obedience ; sentencing him, as also Aaron, to die outside of the
Land of Promise. 4 Then it was, also, that Kadesh, the Holy, became
Meribah, or Strife. 5
It was from Kadesh-barnea that Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom,
asking if the Israelites might pass through his country on their way to
Canaan ; 6 and from the same point, also, a like request was made of the
king of Moab. 7 Nor does Kadesh lose its pre-eminence in the story of the
wanderings until the final move is made toward Canaan by the Way of the Red
Sea, around the mountains of Edom and Moab. 8 It is, in fact, a central
point in both the geography and the history of the wanderings. Stanley 9
says, in reviewing the movements of the Israelites : " Two stages alone of
the journey are distinctly visible [after Israel has received
1 Num. 17. J Num. 20: 1. 3 Num. 20: 2-11.
4 Num. 20: 12,24. This point is more fully treated farther on. See Index,
under " Kadesh, names of."
5 Num. 20 : 13. Num. 20 : 14-21. T Judges 11 : 10, 17.
8 Num. 20 : 22; 21 : 4-20. 9 Hist, of Jewish Ch., 1 , 199.
24 KADESH-BARNEA.
its divine charter as a nation] ; from Sinai to Kadesh, and from Kadesh to
Moab."
4. THE LINKINGS OF KADESH.
Not only does the name " Kadesh " (" Holy ") seem to have been gained by
the abiding there of the tabernacle; but the cog- iiomeu " Barnea " is
thought by many to have been given, in con sequence of the sentence of
dispersion there passed upon the Is raelites. Simon 1 would derive this
word from bar " desert/ and nca " wandering ; " rendering it, " Desert of
the Wandering." 2 Fiirst 3 and others give a similar origin, but would take
bar in ite later 4 signification of "son." Jerome 5 held this latter view,
and rendered " Barnea " " Son of Change," 6 corresponding to the idea of
"Bed wy." Others, again, think that "Barnea" was an earlier name for the
locality ; 7 or, that it was the name of a
1 In the Onomast. s. v. Barnea." " Barnea, the Desert of the Wandering ;
that is of the Israelites (from 13 bar, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic,
desert, and >*J vcn, wandering. )"
2 Edersheim (Exod. find Wand. p. 172) approves this rendering, and gives as
its equivalent, "the Land of Moving to and fro," or, "the Land of being
Shaken."
3 In his Bible, Concordance (in appended Onomasticon," pp. 1272, 1290):
"Bar nea, Son of Wandering : Bed wee." " Kadesh-barnca, Holy City of the
Nomads." Again, (in his Ileb. u. Chnld. Worterb.,) Fiirst thinks that
Barnea may correspond with the Arabic XXJ fJH (marne ah), " a green or
blooming meadow." lie elaims that on sound linguistic principles " Barnea"
may come from the root " bci-ran," " to be green," or "blooming." This
would accord with the prominence of the site of Kadesh as an oasis in the
desert.
4 Hackett (Smith-Hnckett Bib. Diet., s. v. " Kadesh," note) point* out that
" "O, bar does not occur as son, in the writings of Moses." Hackett adds
that " The reading of the LXX. in Num. 34 : 4, K()//f rov Bapvij, seems to
favor the notion that it was regarded by them as a man s name." In both
these suggestions, Ilackett is followed by the Speaker s Com. in a note on
Numbers 32 : 8.
5 De Nominibus Ilebraicis; " On Deuteronomy."
6 " Filius mutationis."
7 See Keil and Delitzsch, Bib. Com. at Num. 20: 14-21 ; Kurtz s Hist, of
Old Cor., III., 221.
THE LINKINGS OF KADESH. 25
prominent place in the neighborhood of Kaclesh. 1 Whatever may have been
its signification, 2 that name became subordinate to the name which
memorialized the abiding there of God s people with the sacred tabernacle.
The exceptional importance of Kadesh-barnea, in its relation to the
Israelitish wanderings, and to the Israelitish possessions and history, has
long been recognized by students of the Bible story and of the lands of the
Bible.
Ewald, 3 thorough and discriminating in his study of the main features of
the Plebrcw story, despite the fancifulness of many of his theories, says
emphatically : " Kadesh is a place which emerges from the darkness of those
times as especially important, and where evidently the community of Israel
had their central station during a very long period." The cautious and
conservative Rit- ter 4 is even more explicit in making Kadesh the centre
of a new national life to the Israelites. " Here began a new capital, so to
speak," he says ; " the long sojourn at this spot, and their constant
conflicts with their warlike neighbors were the means of thor oughly
training in warlike discipline the new generation which was born in the
wilderness, and which had before it the task of enter ing the Promised
Land." Wellhauseu, 5 the cold-blooded German critic, who looks only at the
bald historic facts, as lie sees them in the ancient story, goes a great
deal farther than Ewald and
1 Ewald, in Hist, of Israel, II., 293.
Z llilleru3 (in the Onomast. Sac., Tiibingen, 1526, s. v. "Barnea")
explains it as from J J "liO, leer-nea, meaning "Fountain of the Exile ; "
that is, of Ishniael. Leusden (in the Onomast Sac., Leyden, 1650 ; s. r. "
Kadesh-barnea ") explains it as " holiness of the unstable son ; or "
holiness of grain," or " of comtnoved or unsta ble purity." Thomas Wilson,
in his Christian Diet. (London, 167S) and Calmet, in his Dictionary (Paris,
1720) adopted the same explanation as Leusden. Biinting (in the Itin. Sac.
Script., Magdeburg, 1591) says " Kadesh means holy : a pure moving." There
certainly is no lack, here, of suggested renderings from which to make a
choice,
Hist, of Israel, II., 193. * Geog. of Pal., I., 428 /.
6 In Art. " Israel," in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition.
2(3 KADESH-BARNEA.
Hitter (and Moses), in his estimate of the exceptional importance of Kadesh
in the Israelitish history. 1 He not only believes that the Israelites
remained there for many years, " having at the well of Kadesh their
sanctuary and judgment seat only, while with their flocks they ranged over
an extensive tract ; " but, in his opinion, Kadesh was the " locality they
had more immediately had in view in setting out" from Gosheu. It was there,
as he sees it, that Moses laid the foundations of the Hebrew commonwealth,
and prepared the way for "the nomads of the wilderness of Kadesh" to become
the occupants and transformers of Canaan. " If we eliminate from the
historical narrative the long Siuaitic section, which has but a loose
connection with it," he says, " the wilder ness of Kadesh becomes the
locality of the preceding and subse quent events. It was during the sojourn
of many years here that the organization of the nation, in any historical
sense, took place." Such a view as this of the inspired record has its
chief value in showing how prominent a place is Kadesh in the Israelitish
story, if the plain indications of the sacred text be considered with can
dor and thoroughness.
Thomson, 2 who is exceptionally familiar with the main corres pondences of
the Land and the Book, does not hesitate to speak of Kadesh as "one of the
most interesting sites in the entire history of the Hebrew wanderings."
Stanley, 3 who can certainly see the salient points in a great historical
picture, however he may give his own coloring to the minor details of that
picture in its reproduction, declares: "There can be no question that next
to Sinai, the most important resting place of the children of Israel is
Kadesh." And in this declaration, Stanley but re-phrased the opinion of the
de vout and observing Durbin : 4 " With the exception of Horcb, no place
between the passage of the Red Sea and the passage of the
1 In Art. "Israel," in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition.
2 South. Pal. (Land and Book, new ed.), p. 200.
3 Sinai and Pal., p. 93. 4 Observ. in East, I., 199.
THE LINKINGS OF KADESH. 27
Jordan concentrates so much interest as Kadesh." Milman, 1 the pioneer of
modern English historians of the Jewish race from its beginnings, declared,
as a result of his study of the wanderings, and of the entrance into Canaan
: " The key to the whole geogra phy is the site of Kadesh." And this
opinion of Milman has been reiterated and restated by many a student who
has followed him. Lowrie, 2 the competent and careful American translator
of Lange s Numbers, says, similarly : " Kadesh is the key to all the
geographi cal problems of the wanderings after the departure from Sinai."
Palmer, the distinguished explorer of the desert of the exodus, and of the
country above it, was of the same opinion, when he affirmed, 3 of the
wilderness of Kadesh : " This is perhaps the most important site in the
whole region, as it forms the key to the movements of the children of
Israel during their forty years wanderings." Graetz, 4 the latest eminent
Jewish historian of his own people, quotes this saying of Palmer as fully a
just one. And William Smith, 5 whose extensive historical studies have
involved a elose acquaintance with the geographical questions of the
Israel- itish wanderings and possessions, concludes : " To determine the
position of Kadesh itself, is the great problem of the whole route." In
short, an agreement on the site of Kadesh is an essential pre liminary to
any fair understanding of the route and the movements of the Israelites,
between Sinai and the Jordan. Yet this " essen tial preliminary " has thus
far been unattainable by Bible students generally. When the English
Palestine Exploration Fund began its good work, in 1866, one of the widely
known geographers 6 of Great Britain, in expressing his hope of the good
results of that undertaking, spoke of Kadesh, as " one of the most hotly
contested sites iu biblical investigation, and the settlement of which is
much
1 Hint, of Jeivs., Vol. I., Book IV., p. 242, note.
2 Schnff-Lanye Com.. " Num. and Deut," p. 80.
3 Des. of Exod., II., 349 /. * Gesch. d. Juden, I., 395.
6 Student s Old Test. Hist., p. ISO. 6 Trelawney Saunders.
28 KADESH-BARNEA.
to be desired." Fifteen years later, the chief representative 2 of the
Palestine Exploration Fund, in the immediate field of its re searches,
could say no more, after all those added years of investi gation, than that
" the recovery of the site of Kadesh-barnea is [still] the most interesting
question of the topography of the Sina- itic Desert ; and any indication
leading to a clearer understanding of the question will be of some value."
3
Xor is it alone as a key to the geography of the wanderings, that the site
of Kadesh has an importance in the field of biblical re search. Kadesh is
the one place spoken of as "a city" in all the Israelitish encampments. For
centuries before this it had been a landmark by which routes of travel were
noted, and by which the location of other places had their bearing ; and
for centuries afterward it was referred to as one of the chief boundary
marks of the Land of Promise. 4 To settle its whereabouts is to aid in set
tling the boundary stretch of Edom, 5 or Seir; 6 the locality of the
wilderness of Parau ; 7 of the wilderness of Zin ; 8 of the JSTegeb or
South Country; 9 and to fix more definitely one of the homes of Abraham; 10
the dwelling-place of rejected Hagar; 11 the sites of mounts Hor 12 and
Halak; 13 the site of Tamar; 11 and the route of Kedor-la omer, in the
first really great military campaign of his tory. 13
It would, indeed, be strange if the Bible text on the one hand, and the
explorations into the lands of the Bible on the other, gave no sure
indications of a site so important as is Kadesh-barnea, in both its
biblical and its geographical aspects and relations.
J From " Quarterly Statement," No. IV., as reprinted in Surv. of West.
Pal., "Special Papers," p. 71 /.
2 .Capt. C. R. Cornier. 3 " Quart. Statement," January, 1881, p. GO/.
* Compare Num. 34: 4; Josh. 15: 3; Ezek. 47: 19; 48: 28. 5 Num. 20: 16. 6
Gen. 36: 8; Dout. 1: 2,44, 7 Num. 13: 26.
8 Num. 20 : 1 ; 27 : 14 ; 33 : 3G. 9 Num. 34: 3-5 ; Josh. 15 : 1-4.
10 Gen.20:l. u Gen.l6:14. 12 Num. 20 : 21, 22; 33 : 37.
" Josh. 11 : 16, 17 ; 12 : 7. u Ezek. 47 : 19 ; 48 : 28. 15 Gen. 14 : 1-7.
II.
KADESH-BARNEA. BIBLICAL INDICATIONS OF ITS SITE.
1. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF HISTORY.
And now what are the indications in the Bible text of the site of Kadesh?
What help to its locating is given in the earlier and later references to
it in the sacred narrative?
The first mention of Kadesh is in the record of the devastating march of "
Chedorlaomer, king of Elam," in the days of the patriarch Abraham. 1 Elam 2
was a country north of the Persian Gulf and east of the Tigris. 3 It was
later known as Susiana, with Shushau 4 as its capital. From the Assyrian
monuments it has been learned, that, not long before the days of Abraham,
an Elamite king had conquered Babylon; 5 and the Bible record here
J Gen. 14: 1-16.
3 See Niebuhr s Gesch. Assur s u. Babel s, pp. 382-409 ; Lofttis s Chald.
and Sus., chaps. 2G and 28; Encyc. Brit., ninth edition, Art. "Elam," by
Sayce; Rawlinson s Origin of Nations, pp. 229-231; his Five Great Hon.,
II., 435; Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, I., 59, 82, 343,
352; Tomkins s Times of Abraham, pp. 166-203; Winer s Bibl. Realworterb.,
Art. "Elam;" Schaff-Lange Com. and Speaker s Com., at Gen. 14: 5. See,
also, Isa. 11: 11; 21: 2; Jer. 25: 25; 49: 34-39; Ezek. 32: 24; Acts 2: 9.
3 " Elam was bounded on the east by Persia and Pnrthia ; on the west by
Assyria and Babylonia; and on the south by the Persian Gulf." ( Hamburger s
Beal-Encyc., s.v. "Elam.")
* Neh. 1:1; Esther 1 : 2, etc. ; Dan. 8 : 2.
6 "Asshur-bani-pal, the last of the Assyrian conquerors, mentions in two
inscrip tions that he took Susa 1635 years after Kcdor-uakhunta, king of
Elam, had con-
31
32 KADESH-BARNEA.
shows that the Elamitc king Chedorlaomer 1 (or Kedor-la omer, or
Kudur-Lagamar) had sway not only over the whole Tigro- Euphrates basin, but
westward over Syria and Canaan, even to the borders of Egypt.
This outreachmsr of the Eastern kmty was on a scale before
O o
unknown in the history of the world. 2 The Bible story says
quered Babylonia. lie found in that city the statues of the gods taken from
Erech by Kedor-nakhunta, and replaced them in their original position. It
was in the year 660 B. C. that Asshur-bani-pal took Susa. The date,
therefore, of the conquest of Babylon by Kedor-nakhunta, and the
establishment of the Elamite dynasty in Chaldea, must have been 2295 B. C."
(Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, I., 352.) Authorities
differ slightly as to this precise date. See also, on this point, George
Smith s translation of "The Annals of Assurbanipal," in Ecc. of Past, 1.,
88, find of the "Early History of Babylonia," in Ecc. of Pant, III., 4; and
Tom- kins s Times of Abraham, p. 175/.
1 "Though the name of Chedor-laomer has not been found [in the course of
the Chaldean researches], Laomer or Lagamar appears as an Elamite god, and
several of the Elamite kings bore names compounded with Kudur a servant, as
Kudur- Nankhunte, the servant of the god Xankhunte, Kudur-Mabug, the
servant of Mabug, and the like." (George Smith s Chald. Ace. of Genesis, p.
272 /.)
Sir Henry Rawlinson suggested the identification of Kudur-Mabuk, lord of
Elarn, mentioned on the Babylonian monuments, with the Kedor-la omer of
Genesis. Afterwards he was inclined to abandon this idea. But it has been
taken lap by the Rev. Henry George Tomkins, and pressed with a strong show
of probabilities in its favor. The latter quotes George Smith (apparently
from a private letter) as saying : "From his Elamite origin and Syrian
conquests, I have always conjectured Kudur- Mabuk to be the same as the
Chedor-la omer of Genesis XIV." Smith had, however, shown that Rawlinson s
finding of the title "Apda Martu" (Conqueror, or Ravager, of the West) on
the bricks of Kudur-Mabuk, was a misreading of Adda (lord) for Apda
(conqueror). Compare Tomkins s Times of Abraham, pp. 175-181; Rawlinson s
Fire. Great Hon., I., 161-163, 176-17*; George Smith s translation of the
"Early History of Babylonia," in Rcc. of Past, III., 19. See, also, Bunsen
s Chron. of r>il/lc, p. 11 /. ; Rawlinson s Origin of Nations, pp. 37^0;
Sayce s Art. " Elam," in Enryc. Brit., ninth edition.
" Kedar-el-Ahmar, or Kedar the Red, is, in fact, a famous hero in Arabian
tradi tion, and his history bears no inconsiderable resemblance to the
Scripture narrative of Chedor-laomer." (Sir II. Rawlinson, in Eawlinson s
Herodotus, Vol. I., Essay VI., 2 5, note 1.) See also, on this, Lenormant
and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of East, II., 146.
1 "He [Kedor-la omer] is the forerunner and prototype of all those great
Oriental
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF HISTOR Y. 33
nothing of the events which led toward it, but mentions the fact of it
incidentally, in giving the record of an attempt by the Canaanites to throw
off the yoke of vassalage, and of the part performed by Abraham in aiding
his kinsman Lot 1 against the power of the oppressor, when the latter came
westward to re-forge the chains of bondage. 2
An immediate gain of Kedor-la omer s then unparalleled scheme of conquest
was the control of the one great highway of travel and
conquerors who from time to time have built up vast empires in Asia out of
hetero geneous materials, which have in a larger or a shorter space
successively crumbled to decay. At a time when the kings of Egypt had never
ventured beyond their borders, unless it were for a foray in Ethiopia, and
when in Asia no monarch had held dominion over more than a few petty
tribes, and a few hundred miles of terri tory, he conceived the magnificent
notion of binding into one the manifold nations inhabiting the vast tract
which lies between the Zagros mountain-range and the Mediterranean. Lord by
inheritance (as we may presume) of Elam and Chaldea or Babylonia, he was
not content with these ample tracts, but, coveting more, proceeded boldly
on a career of conquest up the Euphrates valley, and through Syria, into
Palestine. Successful here, he governed, for twelve years, dominions
extending near a thousand miles from east to west, and from north to south
probably not much short of five hundred." (Rawlinson s Five Great Mon,, I.,
177.)
1 Gen. 14: 12-16. "It is indeed true that affection for Lot may have been
the motive, and his deliverance from captivity the object, of Abram s
expedition. But both this and his victory had a higher meaning when viewed
objectively and ia their bearing upon history. It is not the purpose of the
narrative to exalt Abram, but to show the wonderful leadings of God towards
his elect, by which everything is brought into immediate relation to the
divine plan." (Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., I., 217.)
2 " The imperial power of Asia had already extended as far as Canaan, and
had subdued the valley of the Jordan, no doubt with the intention of
holding the Jordan valley as the high-road to Egypt. We have here a prelude
of the future assault of the worldly power upon the kingdom of God
established in Canaan ; and the impor tance of this event to sacred history
consists in the fact, that the kings of the valley of the Jordan submitted
to the worldly power, whilst Abram, on the contrary, with his home-born
servants, smote the conquerors and rescued their booty a prophetic sign
that in the conflict with the power of the world the seed of Abram would
not only not be subdued, but would be able to rescue from destruction those
who appealed to it for aid." (Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com. at Gen. 14:
1-12.)
34 KADESH-BARNEA.
commerce between the East and the West. 1 In the very nature of things,
from the formation of the earth s surface, that little belt of land between
the Mediterranean and the Jordan, hedged in by mountain and desert and sea,
was, and must continue to be, the one passable isthmus between Asia and
Africa and Europe. From the earliest dispersion of the families of men, the
Land of Canaan has been in a sense a geographical centre of the world s
interest; and rival forces have never ceased to contend for the possession*
of the great thoroughfare which the immediate region of that land
practically controls. The building of the Suez Canal, in our own day, is
but an effort to secure in another way what Kedor-la omer sought by the
subjugation of the peoples and tribes on either side of the Jordan. 2
And the keeping open of that highway continuing its control by his subjects
and tributaries was vital to the supremacy of the great Eastern conqueror.
3 "When, therefore, after twelve years,
1 The reference in Joshua 7: 21 to the "goodly Babylonish garment" "a
choice robe of Shinar" among the spoils of Jericho, is an indication of the
traffic in that day between Shinar and Canaan.
2 " The true reason [of Kedor-la omer s campaign] cannot be doubtful, when
we remember of what importance that extensive valley [of the Jordan] was at
all times, in regard to the intercourse of tribes with one another. It
always formed (comp. Strabo XVI. 4, IS/.) the road marked out by nature
itself, which, from the yElantic gulf, divides the boundless wilderness
watered by the Nile and Euphrates; the medium of intercourse between Arabia
and Damascus. ... To have dominion over the whole of this important
locality must have appeared of the greatest conse quence. . . . By this
occupation Arabia in particular, with its choice productions (comp. Ezck.
27: 19 ff.), was completely enclosed; and all commerce with the southern
coast, and the bazaars in Western and Eastern Asia, came into the hands of
one and the same power ; which was a sufficient reason for procuring these
advantages by conquest, and for maintaining them against revolt, by the
putting forth offeree." (Tuch s "Remarks on Gen. XIV.," in Jonr. of Sac.
Lit., July, 1848, p. 82.)
3 "In fact they [of the Pentapolis] commanded the great route of Arabian
com merce, and enriched themselves with the wealth which the Egyptians, the
Phoeni cians, the. Babylonians and Elamites valued so highly. Doubtless
many a rich caravan of Midianite merchantmen, with spicery and balm and
myrrh [Gtu.
KEDOR-LA OMER S ROUTE. 35
there was a general revolt against Kedor-la omer s authority by the
dwellers in the five Cities of the Plain, it became necessary for him to
make a personal campaign for their re-subjugation and punishment. It is in
this campaign that Kadesh first appears in history.
2. KEDOR-LA OMER S ROUTE.
It is probable, indeed it may be said to be certain, that the route of
Kedor-la omer toward Canaan was up along the eastern bank of the Euphrates
to Syria, and thence down by Damascus; for this was the only practicable
military road from Elam to Syria. The great Arabian desert was, and ever
has been, impassable for such an army as his. 1 From Damascus he moved down
on the east of the Jordan and of the great mountain range east of the Dead
Sea. And he and his allies, as they went along this route, "smote the
Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in the
plain of Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-Paran,
which is by the wilderness." 2
37 : 25], many a long train of Amu with their bales of rich elothing, and
cosmetics, and metals, would pass within reach of those Cana,anite lords,
who must not be allowed to levy their blackmail for their own independent
profit." (Tomkins s Times of Abraham, p. 182.)
1 A careful study of the route of Kedor-la omer was first made, in modern
times, by Prof. Tuch, of Leipzig. It was published under the title "
Bemerkungen zu Genesis XIV.," in the Zeitechrift der deutschen
morgenJdndischen GeseUschaft, and an English translation of it, by Dr.
Samuel Davidson, appeared in Kitto s Journal of Sacred Literature for July,
1848. A more recent and an admirable study of the same subject, in the
light of later discoveries, is to be found in the Rev. Henry George Tomkins
s Studies in the Times of Abraham.
2 Gen. 14: o, 6. "Drawing together the contingents of the different states
in Babylonia, Kedor-la omer would pass up the Euphrates, cross the Khabour,
perhaps at Arban (ancient Sidikan), the Belik near Kharran, the Euphrates
at Carchemish, and so [onward], . . . passing Aleppo, Ilarnath, and Emesa
(where, perhaps, already the sons of Kheth were entrenched in their lake
fortress). The further march is in dicated in the biblical narrative, if we
take for granted (which we may well do) that
36 KADESH-BARNEA.
This description covers the regions of Bashan and Moab and Edom, and the
entrance between the lower mountains of Seir and the ^Elanitic Gulf, or
Gulf of Aqabah, into the Wilderness of Paran, or the central desert of the
Sinaitic Peninsula. 1
It has been common to suppose that "El-Paran, which is by the wilderness,"
was Ailch, or "Eloth, on the shore [or, the lip ] of the Red Sea, in the
land of Edom;" 2 because just there was a gateway of the great route
between Arabia and Egypt and Syria. 3 But it would seem more probable, that
this plantation, or grove,
the army returned over the same ground, excepting where the contrary is
stated; Kedor-la omer then doubtless received the homage and tribute of the
ruler of Damascus ; but instead of pouring down the valley of the Jordan in
a direct course to the revolted cities, he first cutoff their supports, and
completely cleared his flanks by an extended campaign ; for, sweeping all
the highland plateau to the east of Jordan, and following the great ancient
course of commerce where now the Iladj road goes down into Arabia, he
chastised and disabled the old world tribes who had evidently shared in the
rebellion." (Tomkins s Studies, as above, p. 1S5.)
1 For added facts and suggestions as to this route, and as to various
proposed identifications along its course, see Davidson s translation of
Tuch, and Tomkins s Studies, as above ; Rawlinson s Five Great Man., I.,
177; Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com. at Gen. 14: 1-12; Schaff-Lange Com.,
Speaker s Com., and Murphy s Com. in loco; also Wetzstein s Reisebericht
iiber Hauran u. d. Trachonen, pp. 108-113; Por ter s Giant Cities, pp. 43,
68, 84/.; Merrill s East of Jordan, pp. 328-330; Oliphant s Land of Gilead,
pp. 94-100. 2 1 Kings 9: 26, and "margin."
3 "The more surely we must understand with the Septuagint and Peshitto TX
el (as in Gen. 35: 4 and Judges 6: 11, 19) to be a plantation of terebinth,
the more easily can we consider ourselves justified in referring that name
to an oasis situated, on any view of the subject, to the west of the
Edomite mountains. . . . On eloser examination, it cannot admit of a doubt
that El-Paran is identical with .EYaZ/i-Aileh, on the shore of the Eed Sea
(1 Kings 9: 26), manifestly at the extreme end of Wadi Arabah." (Tuch, as
above, p. 85.)
But Wilton (The Negcb p. 196) has shown that el, meaning " the strong,"
applies to the strong tree of the particular region, whether palm,
terebinth, tamarisk, or oak. TIence it is fair to consider " El-Paran " as
the grove, or oasis, which was the ex hibit and type of the strength of the
wilderness.
See Burton and Drake s Unexplored Syria (note at p. 68, Vol. I.), as to the
use of " alah (cloth and elath)" for the terebinth tree or groves. Forster
(Geog. of Arabia,
KEDOR-LA OMERS ROUTE. 37
> or oasis, of Paran, " which is upon 1 the wilderness/ was the one
oasis which is in mid-desert on the great highway across the Wilderness of
Paran; known in later times as "Qala at Nukhl," 2 or " Callah Xahhar," 3 or
" Bathu-Xakhl," 4 or, more commonly, " Cas tle Nakhl." It is there that the
great desert roads centre ; and it is at that point that a turn northward
would naturally be made ; that indeed a turn northward must be made in
following the road Canaanward.
And from the Wilderness of Paran " they returned ; " 5 that is, they went
back northward ; but clearly not by the way they had come, for their work
in Canaan was yet to be done. They " came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh,
and smote all the country [the field] of the Amalekites, and also the
Amorites that dwelt in
p. 34), with his wonted fancifulness, would find in Elana a vestige of "
Elon the nit- tite," whose daughter was a wife of Esau.
1 The Hebrew word here is al (~>y), " upon." They were not upon the
Wilder ness of Paran until they ascended westward from the Arabah.
2 See Thevenot s Reisen, Part I., Book II., Chap. 17; Burckhardt s Trav. in
Syria, p. 450; Map in Lepsius s Denkmaler, Abth. I.; Stewart s Tent and
Khan, p. 173 ff.; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 287, 327 ff., and Map; etc.
3 See Shaw s Travels, p. 477.
4 See quotation from Hajj Chalfa s Itinerary, in Hitter s Geog. of Pal.,
I., 42. Bonar (Desert of Sinai, p. 383) calls attention to this designation
of Chalfa s, as repeated by Wellsted (Travels, II., 458), and suggests that
Butm may have been intended here, instead of Batn. Butm is shown by
Robinson (Bib. Res., III., 15, first edition) to have been the terebinth.
By a comparison of the authorities here quoted, it will be seen that this
oasis of Nakhl has been variously understood as meaning the Castle of
Palms, the Valley of Palms, the Castle of the Wady, and the Terebinth-Vale
; yet without any purpose, on the part of any traveler, of identifying its
site with the Palm Grove, or Terebinth Plantation of Paran. Any looking for
traces of the ancient name in the later one is, however, quite apart from,
or the geographical probabilities in favor of the oasis of Xakhl being the
site of the oasis which was upon the Wilderness of Paran, and which was the
southwesternmost stretch of the march of Kedor-la omer.
5 Gen. 14 : 7. The Hebrew word used here indicates an abrupt turn in
another direction; not necessarily a return. The word is treated in a note
farther on. See Index, s. v. "Turn."
38 KADESH-BARNEA.
Hazezon-tamar," " which is En-gedi," l near the west shore of the Dead Sea.
All this was prior to a severe battle in the Yale of Siddim, or the Plain
of the Dead Sea, 2 with the five kings of the Cities of the Plain. 3 What
was their route from the Wilderness of Paran to the Plain of the Dead Sea ?
The settlement of this question is an important step toward the locating of
Kadesh.
The choice of routes in that country was, and is, but limited. " We must
bear in mind," says Palmer, 4 " that roads in such re gions as this are
determined by certain physical conditions." It is practically certain,
therefore, that the invading army either turned directly up the Arabah, or
swept across the desert at the south of the Azazimeh mountain tract, and,
at Xakhl, turned northward westerly of Jebel Araeef cn-Naqah. Robinson says
5 emphatically on this point : " The whole district adjacent to the Arabah,
north of Jebel Araif and el-Mukrah, . . is mountainous ; and is composed
... of steep ridges running mostly from east to west, and present ing
almost insuperable obstacles to the passage of a road parallel to the
Arabah. In consequence, no great route now leads, or ever has led, through
this district ; but the roads from Akabah, which ascend from Wady el-
Arabah and in any degree touch the high plateau of the desert south of
el-Mukrah, must necessarily curve to the west, and passing around the base
of Jebel Araif el-Nakah, continue along the western side of this
mountainous tract."
To have entered Canaan by way of any of the mountain passes at the west of
the upper Arabah, would have been next to impos sible for such an army as
Kedor-la omer s ; 6 especially if, as we
i 2 Chron. 20 : 2. 2 Gen. 14 : 3. 3 Gen. 14 : 8-12.
*Des. ofExod., II., 511. * Bib. Res., I., ISO/.
6 For the difficulties of these passes, see the testimony of Seetzen,
Schubert, Robin son, and Williams, and the added historical facts, collated
by Tuch, in Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p 93. See, also, Lord Lindsay s
Letters on Holy Land, IT., 4t> ; Olin s Travels, II., 60; Durbin s
Observ. in East, I., 200; Wilson s Lands of Ilibls, I., 340 ; Stanley s
Sinai and Pal., p. 99.
KEDOR-LA OMERS ROUTE. 39
may fairly suppose, that army came with the war chariots which, according
to Egyptian, Chaldean, and Assyrian records, played so important a part in
the early military movements of Africa and Asia. 1 Those passes were
certainly not to be compared, for ease of travel, with the great highway of
commerce at the south and west of the Azazimeh mountains.
The probability of an ancient road running diagonally across the Azazimeh
moun tains from the Arabah, was suggested by Wilton (The Negeb, p. 175
ff.); and the remains of a Roman road in that direction were discovered by
Palmer (see Des. of Exod., II., 421 ff.} ; but as this road runs into the
other at Abdeh (Eboda) near the western side of the mountain plateau, and
is thenceforward identical with it north ward, its discussion is not
essential to the settlement of this question. (For the line of this
diagonal road, see Zimmermann s Karte von Syr. u. Pal., Sect. X.)
l See Gen. 41 : 43 ; 46 : 29 ; 50 : 9 ; Exod. 14: 7 ff.; Josh. 11: 4, C, 9;
17: 1C; Judges 4:3. " And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and
horsemen," says the prophet, in foreseeing another visit of the people of
that land to the land of Palestine (Isa. 22 : C).
Egyptian inscriptions antedate those of Chaldea and Assyria; but, as is
indicated in the enterprise of Kedor-la omer, the East was clearly in
advance of Egypt in the art and equipments of warfare. The earliest
mention, on the monuments, of the horse in Egypt, is in the Inscription of
Aahmes (Ecc. of Past, IV., 5-8), which tells of the capture of "a horse and
a chariot" in Ethiopia, in the days of Thot- mes I. of the Eighteenth
Dynasty, who himself employed horses and chariots in Mesopotamia. But the
horse is here designated by its Semitic name "soos" (Ebers s Pict. Egypt,
II., 249 ; and Philip Smith s note in Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 288).
The chariot-driver is also known by the Semitic name " kazan" (Brugsch, as
above, I., 342) ; and the inference is legitimate, that the horse and
chariot were originally brought from the East. Indeed, it is generally
agreed by Egyptologists that "the horse had been introduced into Egypt by
the Hykshos " some time before its first appearance on the monuments. (See
Ebers and Brugsch, as above ; Wilkinson s Anc. Egyptians, I., 236 /., and
Birch s note ; Yilliers Stuart s 3"ile Gleanings, p. 296; Wilson s Egypt of
the Past, p. 38; also, Philip Smith s Anc. Hist, of East, pp. 84-89 ; and
Iloughton s Natural Hist, of Ancients, pp. 84-89.) Ebers even notes the
Thir teenth Dynasty as the period of the introduction of the horse,
although he proffers no direct proof of this fact (Pict. Egypt, II., 99).
Canon Cook (Speaker s Com., Append, to Exod.) says : " It is very probable
that horses were first introduced under the Twelfth Dynasty, after the
reign of Osirtasin." If, then, the Ilykshos introduced horses and chariots
into Egypt from Asia, doubtless there were horses and chariots ia use in
Asia before the Ilykshos went to Egypt; and that carries us back to as
early a
40 KADESH-BARNEA.
Moreover, if Kedor-la omer had reached the shores of the Dead Sea from the
south and east, he would have conic to the Vale of Siddim, " which is [or,
is at] the Salt Sea," l and would there have given battle to the kings of
the Pentapolis, without passing through the country or the field of the
Amalekites, and the region of the Amorites, as the sacred narrative assures
us was the case. - This "field" of the Amalekites was, probably, the
country after wards possessed by the Amalekites, 3 on the southern border
of the
date as Kedor-la omer s. The conclusion is therefore well-nigh inevitable,
that such an expedition as Kedor-la omer s into Canaan was not undertaken
without this agency of warfare. M. Pietrenient (Oriyines du Chcval
Domestique p. 455,) affirms that the horse was introduced into western
Europe, from the East, as early as 9,600 years before the Christian era.
That certainly was prior to Kedor-la omer s day.
It is worthy of note, that the Septuagint renders EO~1 rekhush, in Gen. 14:
11, 16, 21, by T>,V l-rrov, ten hippon, " the horse," or "the cavalry."
1 Gen. 14 : 3.
"Whether the Vale of Siddim and the Cities of the Plain were at the
southern end or at the northern end of the Dead Sea, is a disputed
question. The strongest argu ments in favor of the northerly site are
presented by Grove in Smith s Bible Dic tionary, under the various heads
"Siddim, the Vale of," "Sea, the Salt," and " Sodom," and by Tristram, in
his Land of Israel (pp. 361-367). In favor of the former generally accepted
site at the southern end of the Sea, the best presentation is made by
Robinson, in his Biblical Researches (II., p. 187-192), and by Wolcott, in
the Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1868 (Article, " The Site of Sodom"),
and again in the latter s notes on Grove s articles, in the American
edition of Smith s Bible Dictionary. But whichever view of this question be
accepted, the argument con cerning Kedor-la omer s route remains the same.
As Wolcott says on that point : " The northern invaders, after making the
distant circuit of the valley on the east and south, came up on the west,
and smote Engedi and secured that pass. The cities and their kings were in
the deep valley below, whether north or south or opposite is wholly
immaterial, as far as we can discover, in relation either to the previous
route of conquest, or to the subsequent topographical sequence of the
story."
2 Gen. 14 : 7, 8.
S pS^n rnfcr 1 ?^ (Msedheh ha -Amnleqee), "all thefield of the Amalekites."
It is not said here that the Amalekites were smitten, but that their field
the region which subsequently became theirs was now swept over. As Amalek
was a grand son of Esau (Gen. 36 : 10-12), and there is no mention in the
Bible of Amalekites as
KEDOR-LA OMERS ROUTE. 41
mountains of Judah; l and the Araorites of En-gedi 2 were between that and
the Dead Sea plains. The indications of the Scripture narrative, therefore,
are, that Kedor-la omer s northward route from the Wilderness of Paran
toward the Dead Sea included the great caravan route which passes up from
the mid-desert by way of Beer-sheba ; the route which is spoken of as " the
Way of Shur " or the road through Canaan to Egypt known as the Shur Road;
;! and it follows that " En-mishpat, which is Kadesh," is to be loca ted on
that road or convenient to it, at some point between the Wilderness of
Paran and the southern border of Canaan where was the field of the
Amalekites. 4
an existing people before his day, we may take this reference to them as by
anticipa tion. Tremellius and Junius, in their Genevan Bible, render this
passage : " Incolas agri, qui nunc est Hamalekitorum ; " " Inhabitants of
the field which now is of the Amalekites." This view of the passage is
taken by elarius, and Miinster, as cited in Crit. Sac. ; and by Lyra,
Malvenda, Menochius, and Fischer, as cited in Pool s Synops. Crit. in loco;
also by Bush (Notes on Gen. in loco) ; Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com. in
loco); Hengstenberg (Auth. of Pent., II., 279 ff.) ; De Sola, Lidenthal,
and Raphall s Translation, in loco; Schaff-Lange Com., and Speaker s Com.,
at Gen. 36: 12; Murphy s Com. on Gen. (at 14: 7 and 36: 12) ; Kurtz in
Hist, of Old Cor., Ill , 42 ff.; Fairbairn s Imp. Bib. Die., and Alexander
s Kitto s. v. "Amalekites; " Sayce, in The Queen s Printers Aids to Student
of Bible, p. 62 ; and others.
Arabic historians elaim that there was an Amalek in the fifth generation
from Noah, in the line of Ham ; and that his descendants were the early
people of Canaan. For references to this tradition, see Abulfeda s Hist.
Anteislam., pp. 16, 178; Re- land e Palaestina, Book I., Cap. 14; Winer s
Bibl. Realwbrterb., s.v. "Amalekiter;" Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc.
Hist, of East, II., 145, 288-291, etc. Winer, and Len- ormant and
Chevallier (as above), Bevan (Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Amale
kites,") Ewald (Hist, of Israel, I., 108 /., 248-254; II., 43/.), Von
Gerlach (Com. on Pent., at Gen. 14 : 7), and others, have followed the
Arabic tradition in counting the Amalekites named in Genesis 14 : 7 as of
an older stock than Esau. But the Arabic traditions have little or no value
for the days of the Old Testament, save as they con form to that source of
history. (See a reference to Noldeke on this point in Speaker s Com., at
Gen. 36 : 12.)
i Num. 13 : 29. J 2 Chron. 20 : 2.
3 Gen. 16 : 7 ; 46 : 5-7 ; 1 Sam. 27 : 8. See Fries s " Ueber die Lage von
Kades," in Stud. u. Krit., 1854, p. 6.
42 KADESH-BARNEA.
3. A STRATEGIC HALTING-PLACE.
Indeed, what more probable halting-place would there be in this entire
region for an invading army which came to take pos session of the great
highways of travel, than the spot where all the roads from east, west,
north, and south come together into a common trunk if such a place there be
? That there is a place answering to this description was first pointed out
by Robinson, as already referred to, and his impressions have been verified
by subsequent travelers. Coming from Sinai to Palestine by the east ern
route ("the Way of Mount Seir;" 1 or, the Mount Seir Road) Robinson was
enabled, after rounding Jebel Araeef en-Naqah, from the Wilderness of
Paran, " to perceive the reason why all the roads leading across it [the
desert] from Akabah, and from the convent [at Mount Sinai] to Hebron and
Gaza, should meet together in one main trunk in the middle of the desert."
2 The reason is, that the whole face of the region, which is the same now
as in the days of Kedor-la omer, renders this inevitable. 3 Proceeding
along this inevitable highway to a plain above Wady Aboo Retemat, called
Wady es-Seram, eastward of Jebel el-Helfd, and not far from Jebel Muwaylih,
Robinson found that here "comes in the great western road from the convent
of Sinai to Gaza," joining those already combined ; and that, therefore, at
this point " all the roads across the desert [including, of course, the
midland road from Egypt] were now combined into one main trunk." 4 A
military chieftain as enterprising as Kedor-la omer would not be likely to
overlook such a strategic point as that, when conducting a cam paign for
the purpose of road-seizing. He would naturally halt there, and guard
himself against surprises from flank or rear, and also reconnoitre in
advance before moving forward to his main
1 Deut. 1:2. 2 Bib. Res., I., 1S6.
3 See page 38, supra. * Bib. Res. I., 189-191.
A STRATEGIC HAL TING -PL ACE. 43
attack in Canaan. In this immediate vicinity, therefore, " En- mishpat,
which is Kadesh," l should be looked for, so far as we can judge from the
Bible story of Kedor-la omer.
This first mention of Kadesh refers to a period four centuries prior to the
exodus. It is probable that the name " Kadesh " is here used by the writer
of Genesis as the name by which the place was known after its occupancy by
the tabernacle. An earlier name of this place might seem, from this text,
to have been En- mishpat the Fountain of Judgment; 2 but even that name may
have attached to it after formal judgment had been there passed on
rebellious Israel, and on both Israel s leader and Israel s high- priest. 3
It is thought by some, 4 that long before the days of JMoses, this place "
was a sanctuary upon an oasis in the desert, in whose still solitude an
oracle had its seat ; " and that " as from Egypt pilgrimages were made to
the near oracle of Ammon in the desert, so from Edom and other adjacent
districts many oracle seekers, in the most ancient times . . . came to
Kadesh/ " in order to know the decisions of the gods." But of this there is
no proof. It is, at the best, only an inference from the name given it in
its first Bible mention. 5
1 Gen. 14: 7.
2 This view is taken by Grotius, and Fagius, as cited in Crit. Sac. ; by
the Speaker s Com.; Kalisch s Com.; all in loco; also by Ewald (Hist, of
Israel, II., 193); Ritter (Geog. of Pal., I., 428); Stanley (Hist, of
Jewish Ch., I., 202) ; and others.
3 So think : Jerome (Com. on Genesis) ; " Rashi" ( al ha-Torah) ;
Tremellius and Junius (Genevan Bi lie) ; Patrick (Crit. Com.); Meiiochius,
Fischer, a Lapide, and Bonfrerius, as cited in Pool s Synops. Crit. ; Bush
(Notes on Geh.); all in loco; and many others.
" Rashi " is wrongly cited by Grotius, as deeming the name En-mishpat the
earlier one; and this misquotation is perpetuated through the Critici
Sacri, the Synopsis Criticorum, and later works, after the common mistake
of failing to verify quotations by a reference to the original.
4 See Ewald, Ritter, and Stanley, as above.
5 In theTargum of Oukelos (in loco), En-mishpat is paraphrased, maishar
pelug deena NJ I JlSp "Itf .?, " Plain of Division of Judgment." This
paraphrase is
44 KADESH-BARNEA,
4. THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL.
Kadesh next appears in the Bible text as an apparently well- known landmark
eastward, or possibly northward, as over against "Bered" and "Slmr" on the
west, or south. Hagar had fled from the Hebron home of Abraham, down along
the caravan road toward Egypt. She had rested by a prominent watering-place
of that route " the fountain in the Way of Slmr." l The location of that
fountain is described as " between Kadesh and Bered." 2 Again, Abraham
moved down from Hebron through the Xegeb, desertward ; and he sojourned at
a point " between Kadesh and Slmr ; " 3 also " at Gerar," which, again, may
have been the point indicated as " between Kadesh and Slmr."
Slmr is subsequently referred to in the text as " before Egypt, as thou
goest toward Assyria ; " 4 and again as " over against Egypt ; " 5 and as "
even unto the land of Egypt." 6 " Before Egypt," here, clearly means " in
the face of" Egypt, east of Egypt. 7 " As thou goest to Assyria " means one
of two things :
understood by " Rashi " as indicating the opinion of Onkelos that here was
a scat of judgment for the surrounding peoples. Rashi s elaboration of the
simple statement by Onkelos, with which Rashi disagrees, is cited by
Grotius, and farther elaborated by the fanciful Ewald; to be adopted and
re-elaborated by Stanley and others.
1 Gen. 16: 7.
The spot by which the angel of the Lord found Hagar was not merely a foun
tain of water, as we read in our version, but a well-known spot, the spring
of water in the wilderness the spring in the way of Shur. " (Stanley s
Sinai and Pal., p. 477.)
Gen. 16:14. 3 Gen. 20:1. * Gen. 25:18. 5 1 Sam. 15 : 7. 1 Sam. 27 : 8.
7 " The points of the compass were marked by the Jews after the following
man ner: With the face turned to the rising of the sun, before is east;
behind [or " back side " (Exod. 3: 1), see Gesenius s Ileb. Lex. s. v. "
Achor "] is west; the right- hand is the south; the left-hand the north
Theinan and Jamin [Yemen],
denoting the south, means lying on the right hand." (Von Raumer s
Palastina, p. 20.)
On this subject of orientation see Michaelis s Disscrtatio de Locorum
Differentia. Egyptian and Assyrian orientation differed, however, from the
Hebrew.
THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 45
either, in the direction of Assyria ; that is, northeastward ; or, more
probably, on the highway to Assyria ; that is, by way of Damascus. The only
feasible highway from Egypt to Assyria, was and is, northward through
Syria, and thence southeasterly through Mesopotamia ; never across the
trackless Arabian desert. 1 " Shur " means " a wall ; " and from its
meaning, as well as from the various references to it in the text, it would
seem clear that Shur was a wall, or barrier, of some kind, across the great
north eastern highways out of Egypt, and this at a point on or near the
eastern boundary line of Egypt.
A favorite identification of Shur has been in a range of moun tains a
little to the eastward from the Gulf of Suez, having the appearance of a
wall, and bearing the name Jcbcl er-llahah, being in fact the northwestern
end, or extension, of Jebel et-Teeh. 2 " As
1 See page 35, supra.
There seems bardly room for doubt on this point. The physical structure of
the region, and all history, biblical and extra-biblical, tends to its
proof. Yet Mr. J. Baker Greene, in bis nondescript work, The Hebrew
Migration from Egypt (p. 168, note), says of this reference to Shur in
Genesis 25: 18: "This passage is , somewhat ambiguous. It means, as is most
probable, that a traveler from Judea to Assyria would descend the Araba [ !
! ], and thus have on his right hand, between him and Egypt, the plateau of
Et Til), known as the midbhar of Shur. If the trav eler cross the Jordan on
his way to Assyria, this reference to Shur and Egypt is iin- intclligible."
And this remarkable statement is a fair illustration of the confused
jumbling of that entire work, in its dealings with geography, history, and
philology.
2 " Some twelve or fourteen miles from the coast, and parallel to it, runs
Jebel er- Eahah, appearing in the distance as a long, flat-headed range of
white eliffs, which forms, as it were, a wall inclosing the desert on the
north. Hence probably arose the name of the "Wilderness of Shur (Exod. 15:
22); for the meaning of the name Shur is a wall. " (F. "W. Holland, in TJie
Recovery of Jerusalem, p. 527.)
This view is accepted by Porter, in Alexander s Kitto, Art. "Wandering,
Wilder ness of;" Bartlett, in his From Egypt to Palestine, p. 186; by the
Editor of the Queen s Printers Aids to the Student of the Holy Bible, p.
28; and others.
Rowlands reports the name "Jebel es-Sur" as still given by the Arabs to
this mountain range (see Williams s Holy City, p. 489, and Imp. Bib. Die.,
s. v. " Shur"). He is followed in this by Wilton ( The Negcb, p. 6) ; Tuch
(Jour, of Sac. Lit. for
46 KADESH-BARNEA.
we stand at Ayiin Miisa," says Palmer, 1 " and glance over the desert at
the Jebels er-llahah and et-Tili, which border the gleam ing plain, we at
once appreciate the fact that these long wall-like escarpments are the
chief, if not the only, prominent characteristics of this portion of the
wilderness, and we need not wonder that the Israelites should have named
this memorable spot after its most salient feature, the wilderness of Shur,
or the wall." But a prime objection to this identification is, that Jebel
er-Riihah does not stand " before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria." It
is too far south for that. A " wall," better meeting the requirements of
the text than this mountain range, is to be looked for ; nor will a search
for it be in vain. 2
Inasmuch as there was a great defensive Wall built across the eastern
frontier of Egypt, " as thou goest toward Assyria ; " a Wall that was
hardly less prominent in the history of ancient Egypt than has been the
Great Wall of China in the history of the " Middle Kingdom ;" it would seem
the most natural thing in the world, to suppose that the biblical mentions
of the Wall "that is before Egypt/ had reference to the Wall that was
before Egypt.
The earliest discovered mention of this Wall is in an ancient papyrus of
the Twelfth Dynasty (of the old 3 Egyptian empire,
July, 1S4S, p. 80) ; Stewart ( Tent and Khan, p. 54) ; Faussett (Bib. C
jc., s. v. "Shur") ; Burton (Gold Jfines of Mid., p. 101); and others. Yet
this mountain may take its name from the wilderness, instead of giving a
name to it, if in fact the name is to be found there. Laborde, indeed,
applies the name " Djebel Soar" to a mountain peak still eastward of the
Rahah range (see Map in his Voyage de V Arabic Pi-tree.)
1 Des. of Exod., I., 38 /.
2 Others, again, have counted Shur as the name of a town on the Egyptian
bor ders, toward Arabia. So, e. <j., E \val-l (Hi ft. of Israel, II.,
194, note) ; Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., III., 13) ; R. S. Pool (Smith-
Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. " Shur ") ; and others.
3 The terms Old Empire, and Middle Empire, and New Empire are employed dif
ferently by different writers. Lepsius, Bunsen, Ebers, Chabas and others
speak of all the dynasties which preceded the Ilykshos kings, as the Old
Empire. Wilkinson,
THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 47
prior to the days of the Hykshos invasion), which was obtained by Lepsius
for the Museum of Berlin. This papyru-s gives the story of Sineh, or
Saneha, an Egyptian traveler into the lands eastward from Egypt. As he
journeyed, he came to the frontier AVall " which the king had made to keep
off the Sakti," or eastern for eigners. It was a elosely guarded barrier.
There were " watchers upon the Wall in daily rotation." Eluding the
sentries in the darkness of the night, he wandered beyond in a dry and
thirsty land, like that which the Hebrews found in that same Wilderness of
the Wall several centuries after him, when their cry was, " What shall we
drink ?" l His story was :
"Thirst overtook me in my journey; My throat was parched, I said, This is
the taste of death. 1 2
Chabas 3 understands the term "Anbu," which is here rendered the Wall, and
which is of frequent recurrence in the Egyptian records, to refer to a
defensive Wall 4 built across the eastern front of Lower Egypt by the first
king of the Twelfth Dynasty Amenemhat I. And Ebers 5 coincides fully with
Chabas in this understanding.
Again in one of the Anastasi Papyri, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, preserved
in the British Museum, this Wall is mentioned in the report from a scribe
of an effort to re-capture two fugitive slaves who had fled towards the
eastern desert ; and who, before he could
Birch, Brugsch, Rawlinson, Marietta, and others, put the beginning of the
Middle Empire at an earlier period than the Ilykshos domination. Hence the
Twelfth Dynasty would by some be counted in the Old Empire ; by others, in
the Middle Empire.
i Exod. 15 : 22-24.
1 Goodwin s translation in Sec. of Past, VI., 136. See also Brugseh s Hist,
of Egypt, I., 147. The papyrus itself is given in fac-simile in Lepsius s
Denkmillcr, Abth. VI., Bl. 104.
8 Etudes sur V Antique Jfittoire, p. 99 ff. * "La muraille defensive."
t. u. d. Biich. Hose s, pp. 78-85.
48 KADESH-BARNEA.
overtake them, had already "got beyond the region of the Wall to the north
of the migdol of king Seti Mineptah."
In explanation of the terra Wall as found in this papyrus, Brngsch says
that there was at that time " at the entrance of the road leading to
Palestine, near the Lake Sirbonis, a small fortifi cation, to which, as
early as the time of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the Egyptians gave the name
Anbn, that is the wall, or fence/ a name which the Greeks translated
according to their custom, calling it Gerrhon (TO Fe/fyW), or in the plural
Gerrha (TO. Ysftfia). The Hebrews likewise rendered the meaning of the
Egyptian name by a translation, designating the military post on the Egyp
tian frontier by the name of Shur, which in their language signifies
exactly the same as the word Anbn in Egyptian, and the word Gerrhon in
Greek, namely the Wall. "
That the "Wall" of the Egyptian frontier was not limited to a single small
fortress near the Lake Serbonis, as would seem to be intimated in this
explanation by Brugsch, is apparent from his own History, while it is also
abundantly evidenced from various other sources. 3 In speaking of Aahmes,
or Amasis, the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Brugsch says that,
having driven out the eastern foreigners from Egypt, the king sufficiently
protected the eastern frontier of the Low Country against new invasions by
a line of fortresses. 4 And again, Brugsch refers to the Wall as barring
the road out of Egypt dcsertward, in the days of Amen-
1 Brunch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 138, 389. -Jbi<l. II., 375.
3 Indeed, the very term "Anbu," which Brugsch gives as the designation of
the Wall-fortress, is the plural form ; its singular being "Anb." (See
Kenouf s Egyptian Grammar, pp. 5, 11; also Bunsen s "Dictionary" in Egypt s
Place in Uuir. Hist., Vol. V., p. 345.) And Brugsch finds also the plural
form "Gerrha," in the Greek. A reference to Brugsch s Dictionnaire
Geograpltique (p. 52) shows that the ideo gram for Anb (" Wall ") is
accompanied with the determinatives of the plural ; and his translation of
it there (where it does not affect his theory of the exodus) is in the
plural, "Ics muraillcs."
4 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, !> 320-
THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 49
emhat I., of the Twelfth Dynasty. 1 One fort could not fairly bo called a
Wall ; nor could it be " a line of fortresses."
As to the period of the original building of this frontier "Wall, and as to
its precise limits, there has been much confusion among historians; far
more than as to the existence of the "Wall itself. Diodorus Siculus,
writing, nineteen centuries ago, of the wonderful exploits of Scsoosis, or
Sesostris (who seems to have been a com position-hero, made up of the facts
and legends of the greater Egyptian sovereigns from the earlier to the
later days), records that that king "walled the side of Egypt that inclines
eastward against Syria and Arabia, from Pelusium to Heliopolis, the length
being about fifteen hundred stadia;" 2 say one hundred and eighty- four
English miles. Abulfeda, 3 early in the fourteenth century, gave the Arabic
traditions of the building of the Great "Wall of Egypt. His Arabic
designations of the Pharaohs mentioned (Delukah, Darken, Ibn-Bekthus,
Todas, etc.), do not help to the identifying of the dynasties ; but his
narrative evidently has to do with the time of the expulsion of the Hykshos
kings, or the "Amalekites " as he calls them, and the domination of their
suc cessors. Of the king Delukah, "who is called El- Ajoos," or " The Old
Woman," Abulfeda says : "And he built before the land of Egypt, from one of
its regions at the edge of Aswan, to the other, a Wall contiguous to this
end," the eastern or Arabian side. It is noteworthy that the Arabic word
here used for Wall is " Sura," 4 an equivalent of the Hebrew " Shur."
From the statement of Diodorus, the Wall would seem to have run from
Pelusium to Heliopolis; and this statement has been accepted by most of the
modern historians of Egypt. Birch, in
1 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 147 ; also in his Diet. Geog., p. 52. 2
Ere/jicre <? /cat Trjv Trpof avaro^a^ vevovaav Trfevpav rf/f Ar/inrrov
rrpbg rag O.TTO rf/i; 2t p/af KOI rfj^ Apa/3/af efifio^df, a~b Rijtovaiov
fifxpio H/./oir/rdAewf, did Tijq kpfjuov,
TO UTJKOS CTTl OTaS lOV^ ^/P./OVf KOL TTElTaKOffWDf . (Bibl. IHst., I.,
57.)
3 In his Ilistoria Anteislamica, p. 102 /. )
4
50 KADESH-BARNEA.
adopting it, would identify the " Sesoosis " of Diodoms with Rameses II.,
of whom he says : " On the eastern side of Egypt he finished a great Wall,
commenced by his father Seti, from Pelu- sium to Heliopolis, as a bulwark
against the Asiatics." l
Graetz 2 and Rawlinson 3 also accept the Wall limits as given by Diodorus.
But Abnlfeda extends the line of Wall very greatly, and Wilkinson seems
inclined to a similar view, which he would sustain out of the facts of his
own observing. He says explicitly : " That such a Wall was actually made by
one of the Egyptian monarchs, we have positive proof from the vestiges
which remain in different parts of the valley. It was not confined to Lower
Egypt, or to the east of the Delta from Pelusium to Heliopolis, but
continued to the Ethiopian frontier at Syene ; and though the increase of
the alluvial deposit has almost concealed it in the low lands overflowed
during the inundation of the waters of the Xile, it is traced in many of
the higher parts, especially when founded upon the rocky eminences
bordering the river. The modern Egyptians have several idle legends
respecting this Wail, some of which ascribe it to a king, or rather to a
queen, anxious to prevent an obnoxious stranger from intruding on the
retirement of her beautiful daughter : and the name applied to it is Gisr
el Agoos, or the Old Woman s Dyke. 4 It is of crude brick : the principal
portion that remains may be seen at Gebel e Tayr, a little below Minyeh ;
and I have even traced small fragments of the same kind of building on the
western side of the valley, particularly in the Fyoom." 5
Sharpe, 6 on the other hand, referring to Procopius, tells of the remains "
of the Roman Watt" built in the days of Diocletian as
1 Egypt, p. 125. *Gesch. der Juden, I., 37S-390. 3 Hist, of Anc. Egypt,
IT., 325 /. * Gisr commonly means "bridge," or "causeway," or "threshold,"
rather than "dyke, "as is shown farther on in this work. See Index, s. v.
"Gisr." 5 Wilkinson s Anc. Egyptians, I., 71. See also his Eyypt and
Tlicbcs, p. 368. 6 Hist, of Egypt, Chap. XVII., 39.
THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 51
a protection against the inroads of troublesome neighbors from the south of
Egypt ; remains which are still to be seen at the east of the Nile, north
of the first cataract. And it is certainly not un fair to suppose that
different portions of the Egyptian border were walled at different times
against different enemies, and that the remains of any and all of these
different walls are liable to be con nected in the minds of the Arabs, and
even in the minds of intelligent discoverers, with the traditions and
history of the Great Wall which was " before Egypt, as thou goest toward
Assyria." l
Certainly if one were to judge of the natural probabilities of the case, a
AVall of this kind built for the protection of Egypt against Eastern
invaders would run from the Mediterranean (say at Pelusium, or east of it)
to what we now call the Gulf of Suez, rather than directly to a point as
far westward as Heliopolis. But the distance named by Diodorus as the
length of the Wall is great enough to admit of a wall from Pelusium to the
Gulf of Suez (across the Isthmus), and thence onward to Heliopolis ; in
other words, from Pelusium to Heliopolis, by way of the Gulf. Such a line
would doubly fortify the Egyptian frontier. Inasmuch as the Great Canal, 2
built, like the Great Wall, by the ambiguous Sesostris, 3 had its eastern
entrance into the Gulf of Suez, with a
1 Gen. 25: 18.
2 For facts as to the Great Canal, its route and its building, see "
Memoire sur le Canal des deux Mers," in the Napoleonic Description de I
Egypte, Vol. I., pp. 21- 186; Wilkinson s Anc. Egyptians, I., 47-49, 110,
with references to Strabo, Pliny, and Aristotle ; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt,
II., 310-323 ; Ebers s JEgijpt. u. die Buck. Mote s, p. 80 ; Glynu s paper
"On the Isthmus of Suez and the Canals of Egypt," with the discussion
following it, in Proceedings of List, of Civil Engineers of Great Britain,
Vol. X. (1851), pp. 369-375 ; Ritt s Hist, de I lsthm. de Suez, pp. 14-11 ;
etc.
3 The Great Canal was certainly cut as early as the days of Setee I., of
the Nine teenth Dynasty; Bunsen (Egypt s Place in Univ. Hist., Vol. II., p.
299) elaims that the canal-building was begun as early as the Twelfth
Dynasty, by the kings who contributed to the "Sesostris" composition; and
Ebers (Pict. Egypt, II., 19) says: " From the appearance of fortresses and
the Great Wall of Egypt, it is supposed that au old canal existed as early
as the Fifth Dynasty."
52 EADESH-BARNEA.
branch running northerly toward Pelusium, it would be a most unreasonable
supposition that the Great Wall was diagonally across the Great Canal,
midway of its course ; or that the Wall built for the protection of Egypt
should leave the Canal, Avith all its importance as a means of
communication and transportation, unprotected, and at the mercy of the
enemy against whom the Wall was upreared. Such a reflection on the
engineering ability and the military foresight of a people like the ancient
Egyptians, is not to be seriously thought of. The Great Wall must have
touched the head of the Heroopolitan Gulf at the eastward of the Great
Canal, in whatsoever direction it may have run after that.
As to the confusion concerning the period of the original build ing of the
Wall, a plausible explanation at once suggests itself. At least as early as
the Twelfth Dynasty prior to the Hykshos domination this Wall was erected
to guard against incursions from the East. But, during the Hykshos
supremacy it was prob ably leveled to the ground, or suffered to fall into
disuse and decay ; because it was in the direction of the friends rather
than the foes of the ruling power of Egypt. 1 On the expulsion of the
Hykshos, however, this Wall would hardly fail to be rebuilt at once, and
its defenses strengthened, in order to keep out the dreaded enemies from
the East. The rebuilding of the Wall would, as a matter of course, be
elaimed as its original building. That was the way of Egyptian kings. 2
Another element of confusion, which is also an added explana tion of the
twofold origin of the Wall, is found in the ambiguity
1 Yet Manetho, as quoted in Josephus s Against Apion, Book I., $ 14, tells
of a line of defenses erected by a Hykshos king along his eastern border
"for fear of an invasion from the Assyrians." This, however, may have been
a temporary rebuild ing of the before neglected Great Wall.
2 Thus, for example, the temple of Osiris at Abydos, built by King
Usertesen I., of the Twelfth Dynasty, was rebuilt by Setee I. and Barneses
II. of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and their names are recorded with much
boastfulness as its real builders. (See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 162
/., and II., 27-29.)
THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 53
attaching to the identity of the king mentioned by Diodorus as its builder.
Mauetho gives the name of " Sesostris," as a king in the Twelfth Dynasty ;
l yet the Sesostris referred to by Diodorus, and by Greek historians before
and after him, has been commonly understood to be Rameses II., with more or
less of the added glory of his immediate predecessors. Birch 2 and Brugsch
3 would identify Rameses II. with Sesostris. Yilliers Stuart 4 prefers an
identification with Rameses III. Lenormant 5 thinks that the story of
Sesostris was a growth rather than a history, a traditional composition
rather than an individual character ; that " a legend gradually formed in
the course of ages, attributing to one person all the exploits of the
conquerors and warlike princes of Egypt, both of Thothmes and Seti, as well
as of the various Rameses, and magnifying these exploits by extending them
to every known country, as legends always do." Wilkinson 6 is more specific
in a plausible explanation of the confusion over Sesostris. "I ....
suppose," he says, " that Sesostris was an ancient king famed for his
exploits, and the hero of early Egyptian history ; but that after Rameses
had surpassed them and become the favorite of his country, the renown and
name of the former monarch were trans ferred to the more conspicuous hero
of a later age." Btinsen 7 even attempts to show who were the former
monarchs whose exploits gave the start to the story of " Sesostris." He
would find them in
1 See " Dynasties of Manctho," quoted in Cory s Ancient Fragments, p. 117.
2 " Sesostris is Rameses II. of the Nineteenth Dynasty." (Birch in
Wilkinson s Anc. Egyptians, I., 71, note.)
3 In his History of Egypt (II., 35) Brugsch says of Rameses II. : " This is
... the Sethosis who is also called Ramesses of the Manethonian record, and
the renowned legendary conqueror Sesotris of the Greek historians."
4 " Rameses the Third was also a mighty conqueror, and as he lived nearer
the commencement of Greek history, he was better known to the Greeks, and
was in fact their Sesostris." (Nile Gleanings, p. 243.)
6 Anc. Hist, of East, I., 246. 6 Anc. Egyptians, I., 44.
T Egypt s Place in Univ. Hist., Vol. II., pp. 282-304.
54 KADESH-BARNEA.
" two great kings of the Old Empire : " Amenemhat II. and Usertesen II. ;
called by Manetho, Sesortosis II. and Sesortosis III. Of the first named of
these two kings, Bunsen says : " In Manetho s lists there is this
remarkable notice annexed to the second Sesortosis, that he is the real
Sesostris/ the great con queror ; the lists, indeed, never mention him by
any other name." But Bunsen adds, that it is the third Sesortosis whom the
monu ments represent as the great hero, and to whom succeeding genera tions
paid divine honors as next to Osiris. Moreover, Bunsen refers to a still
earlier Egyptian hero, of the Third Dynasty, called Sesostris, by
Aristotle. In view of all this confusion over the per sonality and the
period of the hero Sesostris, it cannot be deemed strange that such
undertakings as the Great Wall and the Great Canal should be credited to
Setce I. and Rameses II., who clearly had something to do with them, when
in reality the work on them had been begun by some of the far earlier
component elements of the Sesostrian character which these later kings
would fain monopolize. But apart from all seeming or real discrepancies
concerning the date of its building, or the precise direction and extent of
its line, the Great Wall itself is an indisputable, positive fact. And that
its northern terminus was at or near Pelusium seems equally clear. 1 It is
therefore fair to suppose that this frontier fortifying Wall was known to
various peoples by their own word for such a Wall (" Anbu," " Shur,"
Gerrha," " Sura "), rather than by one proper name accepted alike in all
languages. Xor is it unlikely that the northernmost flank-fortress of this
Wall was known as the Wall-fortress, by pre-eminence in that direc tion.
Thus Ptolemy 2 makes mention of " Gerrhon horion " 3
1 Ebers (^fjypt. u. die Such. Hose s, pp. 82-84) quotes from Lcpsius
(Monatsber.
der k. Akademie der Wisscnschaftcn zu Berlin, Mai, 1SGG) to show that the
latter
found unmistakable ruins of this Wall below Pelusium ; and he also shows
that
traces were found along the line of the Suez Canal, during the cutting of
that work.
2 Geog., Lib. IV., Cap. 5. 3 Tt p pov bpiov.
THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 55
the Boundary-Wall locating it at a short distance eastward of Pelusium.
Josephus seems to have the stretch of the Great Wall in mind when he
repeats the story of Saul s triumph over the Amalekites, as given in 1
Samuel 15 : 7 : " And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou
comest to Shur [the Wall] that is over against Egypt." Josephus,
paraphrasing this narration, tells of the time when " Saul had conquered
all these Amalekites [up to Shur, or the Wall] that reached from Pelusium
of Egypt to the Red Sea." l Here Josephus indicates the line of the Wall
[called Shur in the Hebrew text] just as the fullest light of the present
shows it to have been. Yet, singularly enough, many careful scholars,
missing the true meaning of " Shur," have supposed that Josephus would
identify Pelusium with Shur, and have accepted this identification
accordingly, or have argued against it. 2 There is no more reason, however,
for elaiming that Josephus identified Pelusium with Shur, than that he
identified the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Suez, with Shur. Shur, or the Wall,
ran from Pelusium to the Gulf of Suez ; and that fact seems to have been
recognized by Josephus. 3 It had not been forgotten in his day.
1 Antiq., Bk. VI., Chap. 7, g 3.
2 See Michaelis, on Abulfeda s Tabula ^Egypti, note 141 ; Gesenius s
Thesaur., s. v. " Shur ; " Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 13 ; Sharpe s
Revision, at Gen. 25: 18 ; Speaker s Com., and Schaff-Lange Com., at Gen.
16 : 7.
3 A disputed and at the best an obscure reading of the Septuagint, at a
similar reference to " Shur," in 1 Sam. 27 : 8, possibly has some light
thrown on it by this view of the Great Wall of Egypt. As we have it in our
English version, the Amalekites and others " were of old the inhabitants of
the land as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt." The critical
reading of the Septuagint (as indicated by Tischendorf and others) just
here is : a-rcb avTjudvTuv q cnrb Te^a/nipoip rereixiofdvuv; apo anekonton
he apo Gelampsour teteichismenon ; which gives no clear meaning. But the
common reading of the Septuagint is : ij a~b TeJ.ajj.aovp OTTO av^KovTw
Tereixiauevuv; he apo Gelamsour apo anekonton teteichismenon ; "the [land]
from Gelamsour, from the fortifications belonging [or, possibly, reaching]
thereto." It would look as if the LXX. had added a gloss, to indicate that
the
56 KADESH-BARNEA.
It would even seem that the very name of ancient Egypt, as given to it by
the eastern nations beyond it, may have had a refer ence to the Great Wall
which shut it in from the eastward. Ebers, and Brugsch, and Birch, and
Fiirst, have shown l that the name by which Egypt is called in the language
of the Assyrians and the Persians, as well as of the ancient Hebrews and
the modern Arabs (all of their records dating later than the building of
the Great Wall), is in various shapings of " an original form which
consisted of the three letters M-z-r ;" a form which appears in the Hebrew
as in the singular Mazor (iii o), 2 and as, in the dual, Mizraim (o^yp) 3
the Two Egypts, Upper and Lower. The idea common to the various
designations is an " enclosure," a " fortress," a " defense," a " wall," a
< limit," or a " boundary." i This desig nation " was originally applied
only to a certain definite part of Egypt in the east of the Delta;" the
very portion which was
bounds were up to the old fortified line of Egypt. Nor is it improbable
that the Gelamsour was a compound, through an error in transcribing, of
olam and Shur, of the Hebrew text.
1 See Ebers s JEgypt. u. die Buck. Hose s (with references to Spiegel,
Rawlinson, Lerch, etc.), pp. 85-90; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 18, 231,
II., 237-383; Birch s Eyypt, Introduction, p. 7 ; Fiirst s Heb. Lex., s. v.
" Mitsraim " (with references to Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Istaehri,
Bochart, and Champollion). Fiirst even sug gests that the name " Egypt," or
" ^Egyptos" [AtyiiTrrof], may have a connection with the Sanskrit "
aguptas," " fortified." This suggestion gives a new force to the state ment
of Manetho (see Josephus Against Apion, Book I.) that yEgyptus was another
name of Sethosis, or Sesostris, and that from him the name was given to the
country. Thus, Sesostris, the Fortifier, or the Waller, of JEgypt, gave the
name the Fortified Land, or the Walled Land, to the Land of Egypt ; or,
rather, the Land he had Walled gave its name to him as the Waller.
2 2 Kings 19: 24, and Isa. 37 : 25, translated in A. V. "besieged places; "
Isa. 19 : 6, translated " defense ; " in all these places probably meaning
Lower Egypt. (See Gesenius s ITcb. Lex., s. v. " Matsor.")
3 Old Testament, pasxim.
4 See Gesenius, Fiirst, Ebers, and Brugsch, as above. See also Speaker s
Com. at Gen. 10 : C. Sayce, in a note to Tomkins s Times of Abraham, p.
213, says : " Matsor, fortified place, or fortification; hence Mitsraim the
two defenses, Upper and Lower Egypt."
THE WILDERNESS OF THE WALL. 57
shut in, fortified, limited, bounded, by the Great Wall from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Heroopolitan Gulf. Nor is it strange that the
Assyrians called by the name " JIuzur" or the Walled or Fortified Land,
that region which was immediately behind the Great Wall that was " before
Egypt, as thou goest toward Assy ria." * Sayce is positive on this point.
He says : 2 " Egypt was considered to belong to Asia rather than to Africa.
From its division into Upper and Lower came the name Mizraim, the Two
Matsors, Matsor being properly the Fortification which defended the country
on the Asiatic side."
With the Great Wall standing there across the entrance of Low r er Egypt,
as a barrier and a landmark between the Delta and the Desert, it follows
almost as a matter of course that the region on either side of the Wall
should bear the name of the Wall : on the western side was the Land of
Mazor, the Land Walled in ; on the eastern side was the Wilderness of Shur,
the Wilderness Walled out. Hence, it comes to pass, that the desert country
eastward of Lower Egypt is known in the Bible as the Wilderness of Shur. 3
And this understanding of the term corresponds with the references to this
wilderness in the Chaldaic Paraphrase,* and in the Talmud, 5 as also with
the
1 Gen. 25 : 18.
2 " The Ethnology of the Bible," and " The Bible and the Monuments," in The
Queen s Printers Aids to Student of Bible, pp. 64, 66.
3 Exod. 15 : 22.
The Targum of Onkelos, at Exodus 15: 22, reads: "Wilderness of Khagra" (tO
jnV Khagra is a Chaldaic noun derived from the same root as the Hebrew verb
Khaghar PJ1"1Y " to bind firmly," " to enclose," " to gird about." Compare
the Hebrew Khaghor p unY " a girdle," and Khaghor pljtl \, " begirt."
5 " In the Talmud, the word Shur is translated by Coub [2O Koobli], and
also by Haloucah ; the Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan has also this last
name. The Coub of the Talmud is without doubt identical with the country of
the same name men tioned by Ezekiel (30 : 5) [Chub], and consequently it is
situated between Egypt and Palestine, toward the southwest [from
Palestine]. The Talmud gives to this desert nine hundred square parsa. The
modern interpreters of the Bible say, that
58 KADESH-EARNEA.
modern Arabic identification of the Desert of Shur as the Desert el-Jifar.
1
This recognizing of the Great Wall which was before Egypt as the Shur of
the Hebrew Scriptures, throws a new light on the story of the exodus.
Indeed the elue which is hereby given to the main facts of the route of
that exodus is too important to be over looked, or to be passed by with a
hasty examination ; yet it in volves quite too much to be fittingly
considered in the course of this study of the location of Kadesh. It is,
therefore, relegated to a supplemental place in this volume, in order to
its fuller and separate treatment in all its varied bearings. 2
5. A TYPICAL TRAINING PLACE.
To find that Shur was the great Boundary Wall of Egypt, desertward, and
that Kadesh was a sanctuary-stronghold on the desert-border of the Land of
Canaan, is to find a deeper and a pregnant meaning in the inspired record,
that " Abraham
to traverse the desert of Shur a journey of seven days is required.
Ilaloi^ah is prob ably the village of Elusa [or, Khalusa], in Palestina
Tertia. Ptolemy counts it as an Idumean city. We have seen that the desert
of Shur extends from Egypt to the southwest of Palestine; one can then
render Shur by Halousah in speaking of the side [of the desert] from the
town where one would reach it in going out from Hebron as did Hagar."
(Neubauer, Geog. du Talmud, p. 409 /.)
1 Kurtz ( Hist, of Old Cov., III., 13) says " that the desert of Shur was
the entire tract of desert by which Egypt was bounded on the east. . . .
Saadias renders Shur el Jifar. But by the desert of el Jifar the modern
Arabians understand the tract which lies between Egypt and the more
elevated desert of Et-Tih, and stretches from the Mediterranean to the Gulf
of Suez." On this point, see a quotation from Tuch, farther on in this
work. For reference to it see Index, s. v. " Paran." Niebuhr (Beschr. von
Arabien, p. 400) suggests that the name Toor, " the well-known haven on the
western arm of the Gulf" of Suez, is a reminiscence of " Shur." The
possibility of this would seem to be in the Egyptian name "Tar," a
"fortress," being con founded in the lapse of time with the Arabic "Toor,"
a "mountain." This would show vestiges of the Wilderness of the Wall from
Elusa to Toor.
2 It will be found from page 325 to page 431.
A TYPICAL TRAINING-PLACE. 59
dwelled [or tarried *] between Kadesh and Shur." 2 That state ment no
longer stands as a casual mention of a stopping-place in the patriarch s
journeyings between two ancient cities, as so many have understood it ; but
it is uplifted as a typical, or illustrative, lesson out of his divinely
directed experience, for the instruction and the cheer of all his
descendants by generation or by grace. 3
In the sacred story there are three great typical lands : Egypt, Arabia,
Canaan. Egypt is the Land of Bondage ; * Arabia is the Land of Training ; 5
Canaan is the Land of Rest. 6 He who would pass from Egypt to Canaan must
needs go through Arabia. Shur is the Wall that separates Egypt from Arabia
on the one side. Kadesh is the sanctuary-stronghold that marks the
boundary-line between Canaan and Arabia on the other side. To tarry "
between Kadesh and Shur," is to wait in Arabia between Egypt and Canaan ;
is to remain in the Land of Training, between the Land of Bondage and the
Land of Rest.
If, as we may well suppose, the story of Abraham was recorded by Moses
during the long years of the Israelites tarry in the wilderness, 7 there
was a peculiar fitness and force in this reference to the tarry of Abraham
in that same region, in the application of its lessons to the Israelites in
their experience and needs. They had been brought out of Egypt, the Walled
Land of Bondage, in
1 Comp. Gen. 20 : 1 ; Gen. 27: 44; Judges 6 : 18 ; 2 Sam. 15 : 29 ; 2 Kings
2 : 2, 4, 6.
2 Geu. 20 : 1. 3 Gal. 3:7-9; Rom. 11 : 1-6.
* Exod. 13 : 14 ; 20 : 2 ; Deut. 5 : 6 ; 6 : 12 ; 8 : 14 ; 13 : 5 ; Josh.
24 : 7 ; Judges 6 : 8 ; 2 Kings 18 : 21 ; Isa. 19 : 1-18 ; Ezek. 29 : 6-12
; Rev. 11:8; etc.
5 It was into Arabia that Moses was led, in his training for his work as
leader and lawgiver, after his dwelling in Egypt (Exod. 2 : 11-22 ; 3 :
1-6). Elijah the prophet had his training lessons there (1 Kings 19 :
1-18). And thither was Paul sent in preparation for his work as the Apostle
to the Gentiles (Gal. 1 : 17). See also Deut. 8 : 1-6, 15, 16 ; Gal. 4 :
22-26.
s Exod. 3 : 7, 8 ; Deut. 1 : 7, 8, 21 ; 3 : 24-28 ; 6 : 3-12 ; 8 : 7-10 ;
11 : 10-15 ; etc. AlsoIIeb. 3: 8-11,16-18; 4: 1-11; etc.
t Comp., e. g., Exod. 17 : 14 ; 24 : 4 ; 34 : 27 ; Num. 33 : 2 ; etc.
60 KADESH-BARNEA.
the hope of a speedy entrance into the Promised Land of Rest. 1 But on
reaching Kadesh-barnea, the sanctuary-stronghold of the border of their
expected inheritance, they had been turned back into the wilderness, 2 and
were now wearily passing their lives in its desolateness, and under its
privations. Their temptation was to see only the dark side of such a lot,
and to repine at the divine direction which permitted it. Then it was that
this story of Abraham brought its needed lessons for their instruction.
Abraham had been promised a possession in Canaan. He had given up
everything in order to receive it. 3 But Abraham went down into Egypt, and
there even he had wavered in his faith, and had so swerved from the truth,
in order to his own protection, as to draw forth a rebuke from Pharaoh for
his lack of fearless straightforwardness. 4 The baneful influence of the
Land of Bond age had been felt even by him who could be called the " Father
of the Faithful," 5 and the " Friend of God." 6 Abraham " went up out of
Egypt," passed through the barriers of the Great Wall, and entered again
the Promised Land. 7 But he was not yet fully fitted to possess that land.
He was turned back from its southern borders, for a period of needed
waiting and preparing in the Land of Training. 8 After actually having a
foothold in the Promised Land of Rest, he did not at once establish himself
there for a per manency. On the contrary, " Abraham journeyed from thence
toward the South Country [the Negeb], and dwelled [tarried for a time]
between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned [literally, was a stranger] in Gerar
" which lay between those typical landmarks.
How this reminder must have come home to the Israelites to whom it was
first spoken by Moses ! "What a light it threw on God s dealings with
themselves! How it swept away all thought of
1 Exod. 3 : 13-17 ; 4 : 29-31. 2 Num. 14 : 2G-34 ; Deut. 1 : 19-40.
3 Gen. 12 : 1-7. 4 Gen. 12 : 10-19. 5 Gen. 12 : 13 ; Gal. 3 : 6-9.
6 Gen. 12 : 2, 3 ; 18 : 17 ; 2 Chrou. 20 : 7; Isa. 41 : 8 ; James 2 : 23. i
Gen. 13 : 1-4, 14-18. 8 Gen. 20 : 1.
GERAR AND BERED. 61
his harshness or severity toward them ! They could not doubt God s love for
Abraham. They knew that Abraham never doubted that love. Yet Abraham, their
great progenitor, to whom, and through whom, had come all the promises
which gave them hope of a goodly inheritance, 1 even he had been compelled
to pass a period in the Land of Training before he finally had a permanent
home in the Land of Rest. Pie had been a patient tarrier " be tween Kadesh
and Shur," where they were compelled to tarry. And as they were called to
follow in the steps, and to wait in the training-place, of their great
forerunner, the call to them was to let the same mind be in them which was
also in him ; for in the darkest day of his pilgrimage, as in the
brightest, " he believed in the Lord ; and he counted it to him for
righteousness." 2
In this light of the inspired statement, it would seem that whatever
uncertainty there is concerning the geographical position of Kadesh, there
need be no doubt as to its typical, or illustrative, signification. And,
indeed, this understanding of the case makes it clear that Kadesh is
somewhere along the southern boundary of the Land of Canaan, on or near the
great highway from Canaan, TCgyptward. And this gives another hint toward
the fixing of its site.
6. GERAR AND BERED.
Although the precise location of Abraham s dwelling-place, as he moved
downward along the great caravan route toward Egypt, and tarried between
Hebron and the desert, 3 is not shown in the text, there are helps to its
indicating. At a later day, Isaac seems to have followed in his father s
tracks over this same route, 4 and to have made similar stops in his
journeying; for, as he passed between Gerar and Beersheba (two points
reached by father and son
1 Gen. 17 : 1-8 ; Exod. 3 : 15-17. * Gen. 15 : 6.
J Gen. 13: 18; 18: 1; 20: 1. 4 Gen. 26: 1,6.
62 KADESH-BARNEA.
alike, in their dealings with the king of the Philistines), 1 Isaac
reopened the wells of water which his father had digged; "and he called
their names after the names by which his father had called them." 2 These
wells were obviously not in the city of Gerar then the chief city of the
Philistines ; 3 but in the valley, or wady, of Gerar, 4 and thence along
upward, or northerly, toward Beer- sheba. 5
That the land of the Philistines in the days of Abraham corre sponded with
the limits of their possessions in the days of Samson and of David, we have
no reason to suppose. 6 The route of neither Abraham nor Isaac would seem
to have been, at any time, in the direction of Gaza ; nor would a move have
been likely to be called upward, or northward, 7 from Gerar to Beershcba,
if Gerar had been near Gaza as it has been the modern fashion to look for
it. 8 It is probable that the range of the Philistines in the
i Gen. 21 : 22-33 ; 26 : 26-33. 2 Gen. 26 : 6, 16-18. 3 Gen. 10 : 19 ; 20 :
1, 2 ; 26 : 6-8. * Gen. 26 : 17. 5 Gen. 26 : 18-23.
6 See Rittcr s Geog. of Pal., I., 30, 374, 430; Stewart s Tent and Khan, p.
207 /.
" There are no grounds whatever for believing that the country along the
Mediter ranean in the Shephelah or Lowland, which we know to have been
inhabited by the Philistines from the age of Joshua downwards, was occupied
by them in the times of the patriarchs. On the contrary, we are distinctly
informed that not only on Abra ham s first arrival at Sichem, and after his
return from Egypt, the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land
(Gen. 12: 6 ; 13 : 7), but that this continued to be the case even two
hundred years later, in the days of Jacob (Gen. 34 : 30)." (Wilton s The
Ncycb, p. 245 /.)
" It [Gerar] was of olde a distinct kingdome from the Philistim satrapies."
(Raleigh s History of the World, Part I., Book II., Chap. 10, ? 2.)
7 Gen. 26 : 23. The Hebrew word r?jT \ ya al, would seem to indicate a
northerly, certainly an upward direction. See Tristram s Bible Places, p. 1
/.
8 See Robinson s Bib. Itcs., L, 189; II., 43/.; Rowlands letter in Williams
s Holy City, p. 488 ; Van de Velde s Syrien u. Pt.tld.it ina, II., 182 ;
his Map of the Holy Lund, Sec. VII.; Conder s Reports, in " Pal. Expl.
Quart State.," July, 1875, pp. 162-165; Thomson s South. Pal. (Land and
Book), pp. 196-198; Kalisch s Com. on 0. T. ; and Alford s Genesis, at Gen.
20: 1.
There are probable references to Gerar in the Geographical Lists of the
Temple of
OERAR AND BERED. 63
days of Abraham was along the southwestern borders of Canaan, desertward ;
including the stretch westerly of the great caravan route between Egypt and
Assyria already mentioned, from Beer- sheba l on the north, to "VVady
Jeroor, 2 or the Valley of Gerar, on the south. These two latter points are
fairly identified ; as is also Rehoboth, 3 between them.
Karnak (see Sum. of West. Pal., "Special Papers," pp. 189, 193; and Brugsch
s Hist, of E jypt, I., 392 /). Gerar is also referred to in several of the
early Christian writings (see Robinson, Stewart, Wilton, Hitter, as above ;
and " List of Metropoli tan, Archiepiscopal, and Episcopal towns in the See
of Jerusalem," in Appendix to Palmer s Desert of the Exodus, II., 550 ff.).
But none of these references fix the location of Gerar, although some of
them clearly seem to put it in the desert, south of Judah. (See also Stark
s Gaza u. d. Philist. Kilste.)
Roland (Palcestina, p. 805) quotes Cyril in favor of the identification of
Gerar at Beersheba; and calls attention to the fact that the Arabic Version
(at Gen. 20 : 1; 26 : 1) gives El-Chalutz (El-Khulasah, or Elusa) for
Gerar. Hasius (Regni David, et Sal., p. 290) and Cellarius (Gcog. Antiq.,
Lib. III., Cap. 13, p. 498) locate Gerar near Beersheba.
Of all the more recent suggested identifications of the name Gerar near
Gaza, there appears to be nothing more than the natural designation of
great heaps of pot tery, as Umm el-Jerrar, the Place of Water Pots. Conder
s attempt to show that this is not the meaning in this case is met by
Professor Palmer in his editing of the " Name Lists " (p. 420) of the
Sitrv. of West. Pal. Yet " Umm Jerar " appears in Baedeker s Palestine and
Syria (p. 315) as " the ancient Gerar ; " and Porter (Giant Cities of
Bashan, etc., p. 209) even elaims to have seen " the Valley of Gerar" as he
looked out toward the south of Gaza from " Samson s Hill."
!See Roland s Palcestina, pp.61, 187, 215, 484, 620; Grove, in Smith
-Hacketts Bib. Die., s. v. " Beersheba;" Robinson s Sib. Res., I., 204 /. ;
Tristram s Land of Israel, pp. 376-380; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II.,
386-390; Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p. 402 /.; Conder s Tent Work in Pal.,
II., 92-96; Thomson s South. Pal. (Land and Book), pp. 297-299.
2 Stewart s Tent and Khan, pp. 207-212 ; Wilton s The Negeb, Appendix, pp.
237- 250; Thomson s South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 198.
3 See Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 196-198, for important facts tending to
this identifi cation, although he was hindered from accepting it by his
theories as to the location of Gerar and Zephath. For reasons and opinions
in its favor, see Williams s Holy City, p. 489 ; Stewart s Tent and Khan,
p. 200 /.; Bonar s Des. of Sinai, pp. 313- 315; Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov.,
I., 290 /.; Wilton s The Negeb, p. 242 /.; Strauss s Sinai u. Golg.,p. 122;
Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., I., 272; Palmer s D$s. of
G4 KADESH-BARNEA.
Berccl is not identified. 1 And, indeed, it may fairly be questioned
whether it was a particular centre of habitation, rather than some more
general region. It is thought by some to be another name for Shur, or for
Gcrar. 2 However this may be, its mention over against Kadesh, in the
locating of Hagar s "Well, 3 would seem to place it in the same general
direction as Shur. 4
Whatever doubts are yet unsolved concerning the precise loca tion of Shur,
and Gcrar, and Bcred, enough is made clear to show that both the \Vcll of
Hagar and the dwelling-place of Abraham at Gcrar, or on his way to it, were
on the great caravan route between Egypt and Syria, somewhere between
Becrsheba, on the north, and Wady Jeroor on the south; and that the site of
Kadesh must be sought eastward from their neighborhood, as thus indi-
Exo<1.,n., 3S2-3S4; Tristram s Bille Places, p. 13; Thomson s South.
Pal. (Land and Book), p. 198.
1 Yet " Bered " is one of the places to be found noted on well-nigh all the
popular maps of the Holy Land without an interrogation point !
2 See Fries, in Stud. u. Krit., for 1854, p. 62 ; and Grove, in
Smith-IIackett s Bib. Die., s. v. " Bered."
3 For a proposed identification of Hagar s Well Beer-lahai-roi at Moilahi,
see Rowlands s statement, in the Appendix to Williams s Holy City, p.
4S9ff. This identification is referred to approvingly by Eitter, in Geog.
of PuL, I., 432 ; Tuch, in Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 94; Keil and
Delitzsch, in Bib. Com., I., 222; Wilton, in TheNegeb,p. 178; Thomson, in
South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 199. The fact that Moihlhi, or Mmvaylih, is
a prominent watering-station on the caravan route from Egypt to Syria (as
Beer-lahai-roi is declared to have been, Gen. 16 : 7), is confirmed by
Robinson (Bib. Res., I., 190, 600).
4 Philo Judanis (Liber de Profugis, I., 577, Mangey s paging), speaking of
the place of ITa^ar s Well, in its figurative or symbolic aspects, says : "
And most suit able indeed is the place of this well, between Kadesh and
Barad ; for Barad on the one hand is interpreted among the profane [or, the
common] ; but Kadesh, holy. For he is on the boundary of the holy and
profane who is fleeing from the evil, but not yet fit to consort with the
perfectly good. This would seem to indicate the tra ditional site of Beral
as toward Egypt ; for Egypt was the type of the profane world, as over
against Palestine, or the Holy Land.
THE MOUNTAIN OF THE AMORITES. 65
cated. This corresponds elosely with the indications in the record of
Kedor-la omer s march and halting-place.
7. THE MOUNTAIN OF THE AMORITES.
Not until the days of the exodus does Kadesh again come into sight. But the
review-narrative of the journeyiugs of the Israel ites, in the opening
chapter of Deuteronomy, already referred to, 1 would seem to indicate that
Kadesh was the objective point after leaving Sinai, or Horeb, as
preparatory to the final move into Canaan. " When we departed from Horeb,"
says Moses, " we went through all that great and terrible wilderness which
ye saw [became acquainted with] by the Way of [in the Road of] the mountain
[the hill country] of the Amorites; and we came to Kadesh- barnea. And I
said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain [the hill-country] of the
Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold the Lord thy God
hath set the land before thee : go up and possess it." 2
The Amorites, or " Highlanders," of the Promised Land, were often spoken of
as its representative people. 3 They occupied the hill-country (afterwards
that of Judah and Ephraim), between the Canaanites proper or the "
Lowlanders " * of the plains of Phi- listia and Sharon and Phoenicia on the
west, and of the valley of
1 See page 1, supra. * Deut. 1 : 19-21.
3 Gen. 15: 16; comp. Num. 14: 45 and Deut. 1: 44; Josh. 10: 5; 24: 15;
Judges 6: 10; Amos 2: 0, 10. See Grove in Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v.
"Amorite;" also Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., I., 216; III., 86, 284.
4 The word "Canaan" is from a Hebrew root Kan a (J J3) meaning, "to bend
the knee," or "to be low." It would seem to be employed in this primitive
sense in the Bible almost without exception. (See Winer s Bibl.
Realworterb. and Smith- Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. " Canaan.") But there is a
secondary meaning of the word, as "merchants," or "traffickers." (See Isa.
23: 8; Hos. 12: 7.) This may have prown out of the fact that the Lowlanders
of Phoenicia became known as the fore- 5
66 KADESH-BARNEA.
the Jordan on the east. 1 This hill-country of the Amorites would loom up
prominently before the eyes of those who approached Canaan from the south.
Traces of its lower limits are even yet found in the names Dhaygat el-
Amureen (the Ravine of the Amo rites) and Ras Amir (the Highland Peak, or
Spur); the latter just above Jebel Muwaylih ; 2 and the former a few miles
to the north and cast of it.
If then, Kadesh-barnea was (as would appear from this) just at the southern
base of the Amorite hill-country, another indication of its site is
secured, in addition to the hints obtained from Gene sis. It must have been
under one of the east and west ranges running across the desert; not lower
down than Jebel Muwaylih (which is westward of Ras Amir); for at Kadesh the
Israelites
most traders and traffickers of the world ; as we now use the term " Jew,"
or " Yan kee," to indicate the trading faculty.
"The population was broadly distinguished into Canaanites, the inhabitants
of the Canaan, or lowlands, and Amorites, or Highlanders. Canaan was
originally the name of the coast on which the great trading cities of the
Phoenicians stood ; but long before the time of the Israelitish invasion,
the name had been extended to denote the dwellers in the plain, wherever
they might be. Indeed, passages like Judges 1 : 9 show that it had been
extended even farther, and had come to signify tribes which were properly
Amorites. Hence it is that the language, spoken alike by the Hebrews and
the older inhabitants of the country, is called the language of Canaan
(Isa. 19: IS). But the earlier use of the name also survived. Thus, in
Isaiah 23 : 11, it is said of Tyre that the Lord hath given a commandment
against Canaan, to destroy the strongholds thereof, where the Authorized
Version has mistranslated merchant-city instead of Canaan. . . . The same
wide extension that had been given to the name of Canaanite was given also
to that of Amorite. It is possible that the title by which the kingdom of
Damascus was known to the Assyrians, Gar- imirisv, originally meant simply
" the country of the Amorite." But the Amorites, of whom we chiefly hear
in, the Bible, lived for away in the south, at Hebron and Jerusalem (Josh.
10: 5, 6); at Hazezon-tamar (Gen. 14: 7) and Shechem (Gen. 48 : 22 ; 2 Sam.
21 : 2), and even in Bashan on the eastern side of the Jordan (Deut. 3: 8).
(Prof. A. H. Sayce in "The Sunday School Times" for June 23, 1883.)
1 Num. 13 : 29 ; Josh. 5 : 1 ; 10 : C. 2 Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 380.
PAR AN AND ZIN. 67
had not yet entered the hill-country of the Amorites ; they had only come
to it. And again it was evidently north of the Jebel Araecf range, 1 around
the Avestern end of which Kedor-la omer swept northward from the Wilderness
of Paran 2 before he came to "En-mish pat, which is Kadesh." ; But how far
west or east, on that hill boundary-line, Kadesh was located, demands
farther examination.
8. PARAN AND ZIN.
In the story of the wanderings it would appear, at one time, that Kadesh
was in the Wilderness of Paran ; 4 and again that it was in the Wilderness
of Zin; 5 that it was an eleven days jour ney [or distance] from Horeb by
the Way of Mount Seir [or by the Mount Seir Road] to Kadesh-barnea ; 6 and
that Kadesh was near the outer edge of the possessions of Edom. 7 What
help, or what difficulty, toward fixing the site of Kadesh, is to be found
in these indications?
The term " Wilderness of Parau " seems to be used, in its stricter sense,
as including the central and northern portion of the desert region between
the mountains of Sinai and the Negeb; the district now known as the "
Badiyat et-Teeh Beny Israel " or the " Desert of the Wanderings of the
Children of Israel." 8 In a larger sense
1 See Robinson s statement quoted on page 38, supra. 2 See page 22, supra.
a Gen. 14: 7. * Num. 13: 26. 5 Num. 20: 1; 27: 14; Deut. 32: 15.
6 Deut. 1:2. * Num. 20: 14-16.
8 This designation runs back in the Arabian historians as far as we have
any track of their name for this desert. Abulfeda (who wrote about the year
1300) gives it in his Tabula JEgypti (p. 1). In comment on this, Michaelis
says in his notes: "Deser- tum, in quo errarunt Israelitx, JEgypto
proximum, ita vocant Arabes. Si quis sonos Arabicos latine expresses
cupiat, hi stint: Tih Beni Israel." "The Arabs so call the desert near
Egypt, in which the Israelites wandered. If any one wishes the Arabic
sounds expressed in Latin letters, here they are: Teeh Beny Israel. "
Seetzen, journeying over this desert in 1807, wrote: " Et-Teeh, according
to
68 KADESH-BARNEA,
the term may have applied to the entire wilderness region of which this
Paran proper was the centre; including the various surrounding districts
bearing local designations, such as the Wilderness of Sinai/ the Wilderness
of Zin, the Wilderness of Beer- sheba, 2 the Wilderness of Ziph, 8 the
Wilderness of Maon/ etc.
Yakoot, the renowned geographer of Ilamiih, is the name of the desert which
is bounded by the Red Sea, Palestine, and Egypt. It is said to be forty
parasangs long and broad, and to be the place where the Israelites lived
just so many years [ . c. as forty] ; for which reason it is also commonly
called Et-Tceh Beny Israel." (Seet- zeu s Reisen durch Sy-rien, etc., III.,
47 /.) Seetzen adds that the traditional name doubtless came through Arabic
sources, as the Bed ween have no knowledge of the story of the Israelites.
Burton, through the necessity laid on him by his advocacy of another region
than the Peninsula of Sinai for the place of the Law-giving, has urged that
the reference to "wandering" in this designation is not to the wanderings
of the Israelites. At first he said, inquiringly, in his Unexplored Syrin
(I., 28, note): " May I suggest that this term, universally translated
Desert of the Wanderings, may mean with more probability the Desert of the
(general) Wandering, that is to say, where men wander and may lose their
way?" But from this starting-point of honest inquiry he seems to wander and
lose his way in that desert (see his Gold-Mines of Jliditm, p. 98, note),
until at last, in a public reference to the death of Prof. Palmer (see "The
Academy," for May 5, 1883), he could speak sneeringly of him, as one who "
insisted upon translating, with the vulgar, Tih by Wilderness of the
Wanderings, when it simply means a wilderness where men may wander." This
is noteworthy merely as an illustration of "subjective criticism" on the
part of those who would conform the facts to their own theories. There is
no evidence that the desert in question was ever called " Et-Tceh" at an
earlier date than we know it to have been called " Et-Teeh Beny Israel." If
we are to reject the latter half of the record, what right have we to
retain the former half ? Indeed, it is every way probable that the earlier
designation was the Wilderness of Paran; not the Wilderness et-Teeh either
with or without the Beny Israel.
See Rittcr s Geoy. of PuL, I., 300, 370-376 ; Burckhardt s Trav. in Syria,
p. 448^.; Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 2S4-2S!" ; Tuch in Jour, of Sac.
Lit., April, 1848, p. SO /. ; Kalisch s Com. on. O. T., at Gen. 14 : 5, C.
i Num. 10: 12. 2 Comp. Gen. 21 : 14, 21. 3 Comp. 1 Sam. 23: 14, 24; 25: 1,
2. * " It would not be inconsistent with the rules of Scripture
nomenclature, if we suppose these accessory wilds to be sometimes included
under the general name of Wilderness of Paran." (Ilayman in Smith-IIackctt
Bib. Die., s. v. Paran.") See a discussion, with the same conclusion, in
Wilson s Lands of the Bible, I., 201 /.
PARAN AND ZIN. 69
This would account for the vestige of the name in "VVady Fayran l in the
lower peninsula, if it be recognized there; and for the reference to it as
in the hill-country of Judah in the days of David. 2 In this view of the
sweep of the term " Paran," it is by no means strange to find Ivadesh
spoken of at one time as in the general Wilderness of Paran, and again as
in, or at, the smaller district of the Wilderness of Zin.
And now where was the Wilderness of Zin ? It is repeatedly referred to as
on the southern border of Canaan, and along the eastern portion of that
border. 3 It cannot have been the extensive depression between the Dead Sea
and the Gulf of Aqabah known as the Arabah, and which is a continuation of
the basin of the Jordan, known above the Dead Sea as the Ghor ; for that is
" The wilderness of Paran seems to have been a name taken, in a larger and
[in a] stricter sense. In the larger sense it seems to have denoted all the
desert and moun tainous tract lying between the wilderness of Shur westward
or toward Egypt, and Mount Seir or the land of Edom eastward ; between the
land of Canaan northwards, and the Red Sea southwards. . . . In its
stricter acceptation ... it is taken to denote more peculiarly that part of
the desert of Stony Arabia which lies between Mount Sinai and Hazeroth to
the west, and Mount Seir to the east." (Wells s Hist. Geog. of Old and New
Test., I., 272.) "Winer (Bibl. Realworterb., II., 193) adopts this view, in
substance ; also Kalisch, as above. Comp. Gen. 21 : 20, 21 ; Num. 10 : 12,
33 ; 12: 16.
1 " In Wady Feiran, . . . there is an evident reminiscence of the ancient
name Paran. The Bedawin are unable to pronounce the letter p, and the word
becoming Faran would soon degenerate with them into Feiran." (Palmer s Des.
of Exod., I., 20.) " Paran (Num. 10 : 12) is no doubt the Wadi Phiran
[Fayran] where formerly the town of Pharan stood." (Schwarz s Descript.
Georj. of Pal., p. 212). Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon, s. v. "Pharan")
seem to have this place in mind, although, by mistake, they locate it east
instead of west of Aila. See, also, Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 191 /.
*1 Sam. 25: 1, 2. Bishop Harold Browne, in The Speaker s Commentary, thinks
that Paran should here read Maon ; but Schwarz (s. v. " Paran ")
understands from Josephus ( Wars of the Jews, Book IV., Chap. IX.) that in
the latter s day "the Desert of Paran extended to the neighborhood of the
Dead Sea," which would include the region of David s retreat.
s Num. 34 : 3, 4 ; Josh. 15 : 1, 3.
70 KADESH-BARNEA.
always spoken of by its own distinctive name, which is also its
description. Robinson has made this clear. He says: 1 "The Hebrew word
Arabah, signifying in general a desert plain, steppe/ is applied with the
article (the Arabah) directly as the proper name of the great valley in
question in its whole length ; and has come down to us at the present day
in the same form in Arabic, el- Arabah. We find the Hebrew Arabah
distinctly connected with the Red Sea and Elath ; the Dead Sea itself is
called the sea of the Arabah. It extended also toward the north to the Lake
of Tiberias ; and the Arboth (plains) of Jericho and Moab were parts of it.
2 The Arabah of the Hebrews, therefore, like the Ghor of Abulfeda, was the
great valley in its whole ex tent." If, therefore, the Arabah had been
intended, where the Wilderness of Zin is mentioned, it would surely have
been spoken of as the Arabah.
Directly west of the Arabah is a wild mountain region, rising in successive
slopes or terraces from the Arabah in one direc tion, and from the Desert
ct-Teeh in another. It now bears the name of the Arabs who inhabit it, and
is commonly known as the Azazimeh mountains, or the Azazimat. 3 This is a
dis tinct and well-defined local wilderness, fully meeting the con ditions
of the various references to the Wilderness of Zin in the
1 Bib. Res., II., 186.
2 " Heb. n3~U?n ha- Arabah. in connection with the Red Sea and Elath, Deut.
1 :
TT -: T
1 ; 2 : 8. As extending to the Lake of Tiberias, Josh. 12 : 3 ; 2 Sam. 4 :
7 ; 2 Kings 25 : 4. Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, Josh. 3: 10; 12: 3;
Deut. 4: 49. Plains /r>i:njr\ of Jericho, Josh. 5, 10; 2 Kings 25: 5.
Plains of Moab, i. e., opposite Jericho, probably pastured by Moab though
not within its proper territory, Deut. 34: 1. 8; Num. 22: 1. Compare
Gesenius Lex. Heb., Art. m~\y."
See also Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., III., 277 f. ; and Keil s Handbuch
der Biblischen Archaologie, pp. 28-30.
3 See Palmer s Des. of Exod., " The Mountains of the Azazimeh," Vol. II.,
Chap. VII.; Robinson s Bib. Kes., II., 176-179; Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov.,
III., 193 /.
AN ELEVEN DAYS COURSE. 71
Bible. 1 It may fairly be identified as that wilderness, and again as a
portion of the Wilderness of Paran in its larger sense. 2 Yet its
northeastern portion was probably in Edom, and it is possible that only the
remainder was known as Zin.
This identification of the Wilderness of Zin would locate Kadesh somewhere
in the Azazirueh mountains ; and this corre sponds with all previous
indications of its site in the Bible text.
9. AN ELEVEN DAYS COURSE.
The fact that Kadesh-barnea was "eleven days " 3 from Horeb, or Sinai, does
not materially aid in its eloser locating ; for that distance might be
calculated to a point farther east or west, and similarly farther north or
south, within a considerable range, ac cording to the particular route
followed.
Distances in the East are calculated, almost universally, by time. In
illustration of this, when the Arabs saw me use a mili tary field-glass on
the desert, they asked me " how many hours ahead " I could see through the
glass. And an Arabic geographer even speaks of the river Nile as extending
" one month in the
Palmer also calls this entire mountain district " Jebel el Magrah,"
describing it as a plateau, " seventy miles in length, and from forty to
fifty miles broad, commencing at Jebel Araif, and extending northward by a
series of steps or terraces to within a short distance of Beersheba, from
which it is separated by Wady er Eakhnieh." (Des. ofExod,, II., 288 /.)
1 Num. 20 : 1 ; 33 : 36 ; 34 : 3, 4 ; Josh. 15 : 1, 3.
2 " Zin must have been a part of this wilderness [Paran], namely, the
northern part; the district stretching out from the Ghor southwesterly in
high rock masses, and gradually lowering itself near Jebel el-Helal."
(Winer s Bib. Realworterb., s. v. "Zin.")
See, also, Ilayman, in Smith- Rackett Bib. Die., s. v. " Zin ; " Tuch, in
Kitto s Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 90 /. ; Keil and Delitzsch s
Bib. Com., III., 87 ; Kalisch s Bib. Com. on 0. T., at Gen. 14 : 6 ;
Palfrey s Lect. on Jewish Script, and Antiq., I., 417, note.
s Deut. 1 : 2.
72 KADESH-BARNEA.
country of the Mussulmans ; " that is, its course is equal to a month s
journeying. They have no thought of miles as a standard of measurement ;
but rather of the time needed to pass the dis tance at ordinary rates of
travel. It is the caravan speed which is the standard. On regular routes,
there are certain conventional day s distances, fixed by convenience of
water and camp-grounds. These may be " long-days " or " short-days," but
long or short, each counts for one. If a man should post on a dromedary
over two of those intervals, or five of them, between sun and sun, he would
have made not one day s journey, but two or five days, as it would be
reckoned in the East. Thus, for example, jt is said that Muhammad Alee once
rode a dromedary from Suez to Cairo in eleven hours ; making, say, five
days journey in one day. The fair thing for a day s caravan journey, as an
Oriental looks at it, remains unchanged, whether a traveler hurries or lags
in /HS jour neying. Whether the Israelites were a week, or t\vo years, in
making the distance between Iloreb and Ivadcsh, the distance by the Mount
Seir Road was still " eleven days." That could not be changed on their
account, or by their action.
Almost every traveler in the East has had illustrations of the fixedness of
the day s-journey idea in the minds of Orientals. When I was going north
from Jerusalem I was particularly de sirous of hastening towards Nazareth
and the Sea of Galilee, for special reasons ; and my Egyptian dragoman
promised to arrange accordingly. I was willing to start early and to ride
late for a few days, and yet to pay the full price for the time thus cut
out of the usual course. But when it came to planning for the camping-
places for each night, it actually seemed impossible for dragoman and
muleteers to get it into their heads that it was practicable to stop
anywhere else than at the traditionally accepted sites. They were willing
to start at any hour I would name, but when they
1 "Abd-er-Kashid El-Bakouy," as cited in Memoirs Relative to Egypt, p.
43(J.
AN ELEVEN DAYS COURSE. 73
came to the old-time camp-ground they must camp. At last my dragoman
entreated me to abandon the effort at the impossible. In my own country I
could do as I pleased, lie said ; but in their country each day s journey
on the roads they traveled had been fixed by their fathers ; and neither
they nor I could change it. So I actually yielded the point because of its
seeming impracti cability, as they looked at it.
Had I wished to make a hurried run, day and night, with a single attendant,
they could have understood that; but for a cara van to attempt to change
the division of the road into day s jour neys that was out of the question.
And as it is now, so it has been, and so it is likely to be, in the East.
"When Moses named " eleven days " as the stretch between Horeb and
Kadesh-barnea by the route they had come, every Israelite knew exactly what
he meant, whether we understand it or not.
Inasmuch as "a day s journey" is a conventional term, with its enforced
adaptation to particular routes, it is not easy to reduce it to miles as a
help to its fixing ; although it would be a very simple thing to calculate
its measurement were it once fixed. The average of a day s journey in the
desert region is, say, seven hours travel, at the rate of perhaps two and a
third miles an hour. 1 This would practically be from fifteen to eighteen
miles a day.
It would therefore appear that Kadesh-barnea was from, say, one hundred and
fifty to two hundred miles from Mount Sinai, by the route here indicated "
the Way of Mount Seir," or " the Mount Seir Road ; " 2 although, of course,
on this particular route, the then well-known daily stretches because of
the suitable stations may have been exceptionally " short-day s "
journeyings. The
1 For estimates of the length of an average day s travel in the East, see
Rosen- miiller s Bib. Geog., p. 161 /. ; Robinson s Sib. fies., I., 593 /.
; Von Raumer s Pdldstina, p. 21 ; Lane s Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.,
p. 116, note.
2 The Hebrew word translated Way \sderekh C\^\ meaning a " road," a "
beaten track," a "trodden course."
74 KADESH-BAENEA.
correspondence of this measurement with the facts in the case can only be
tested when we have fixed the site of Kadesh, and settled the course of the
Mount Seir Road.
10. THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR.
The natural roads of a country are God s great landmarks. They were fixed
in the processes of creation; and they remain comparatively unchanged
through all the changes of the centuries. The courses of empire and the
advances of civilization are indi cated beforehand, or they can lie tracked
in history, by the natural highways along which alone it would be possible
for them to move. Hence, when we find in the earliest book of the Bible a
reference to an extended military campaign from Elam to Canaan, we can see
the route which the ambitious chieftain must have taken; and again, when we
are tracking the course of the Israelites in their exodus or their
wanderings, the specific references to the various roads which they
followed, or which they avoided, are the best possible helps to a fixing of
their route beyond a peradven- ture.
This important aid to the elucidation of many of the biblical- geographical
problems has been generally overlooked by commen tators and other scholars
who have led in the investigations of this field of knowledge. It would
seem as if our English translation of the Hebrew word for " road," or "
beaten track," or " trodden course," by the indefinite word " way," had
unconsciously swayed even those who are familiar with the Hebrew. We use
the term " way " l as meaning, variously, " direction," " progression," "
dis tance," " means," and " method," even while we do not rule out from its
meanings its original signification of " path " or " road." Hence when the
Bible speaks of the " Way of Shur," or the
1 See Webster s, Worcester s, and the Imperial Dictionaries, s. v., " Way."
THE WAT OF MOUXT SEIR. 75
" Way of Mount Seir," it suggests to most readers the idea of a general
direction given, or of a diversion from the directest route, rather than
the indication of a well-known natural highway, a landmark for all time,
under its specific proper name of the time of the Bible s writing. 1
In the Bible record of the exodus and wanderings of the Israel ites there
are at least nine roads thus indicated, as supplying a skeleton itinerary
of the Israelites course. As we may fairly translate, or paraphrase the
names of these roads, they are : The Wall Road, 2 the Philistia Road, 3 the
Red Sea Road, 4 the Mount Seir Road, 5 the Amorite Hill-country Road, 6 the
Arabah Road, 7 the Edom Royal Road, 8 the Moab Wilderness Road, 9 and the
Bashan Road. 10 Again there is the Road of the Spies, or the Road of the
Athareem u which may be the same as one of the roads already named, but
more probably is a road which was known to the Israelites only by this
designation.
In his review of the course of the Israelites, at the elose of their forty
years wandering, 12 Moses reminds them that, in their original passing from
Sinai to Kadesh, they came along two well-known roads of the mountain and
desert, which he designates by the specific, and the sufficiently
descriptive names, the " Way of Mount Seir," 13 or the " Mount Seir Road,"
and the " Way of the Mountain of the Amorites," u or the " Amorite
Hill-country Road." Ob-
1 Even Grove (in Smilh-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v., "Way"), while recognizing
the fact that derekh "in the majority of cases signifies .... an actual
road," is still in elined to see an indication of direction in its use, and
to read " the road to the Red Sea," rather than " the Red Sea Road."
* Comp. Gen. 16 : 7 and Exod. 15 : 22. This road, and the two roads
immediately following it in the above list, receive full attention in their
relations to the exodus, in the Study on the Route of the Exodus," at the
elose of this volume 8 Exod. 13 : 18. * Exod. 13 : 18 ; Deut. 1 : 40 ; 2 :
1.
5 Deut. 1:2. 6 Deut. 1 : 19. 7 Deut. 2:8. 8 Num. 20 : 17.
9 Deut. 2:8. 10 Num. 21 : 33. Num. 21 : 1.
18 See Deut. 1 : 1-19. 13 Deut. 1:2. Deut. 1 : 19.
76 KADESH-BARNEA.
viously these two roads were not parallel, but the one was supple mental to
the other in the journeying of the Israelites ; for, as the text itself
indicates, the Mount Seir Road was out from Horeb, and the Amorite
Hill-country Road was over the wilderness up to Kadesh-barnea. Mount Seir
lay northeasterly from Mount Sinai, while the Amorite Hill-country lay
northerly. The one road, therefore, would carry them in a northeasterly
direction ; and the other, when they turned toward it, would incline them
more or less northwesterly. To identify these two roads is to do much to
ward defining the route of the Israelites, and the more precise location of
Kadesh-barnea.
At the present time (as doubtless in the time of Moses), three distinct
roads, and only three, open out from Mount Sinai north ward toward
Palestine, across the wedge-shaped mountain range that forms the southern
boundary of the Desert et-Teeh. These roads are spoken of popularly as the
western road, the middle road, and the eastern road. Robinson noted them
carefully in his day, 1 as other scholars have noted them since. He said :
" From the Convent of Sinai .... three roads cross by the three great
passes of Jebel et-Tih. . . . The easternmost is the road passing by el-
Ain, and also by the well eth-Themed, west of the mountain Turf er-Rukn.
The middle road crosses the Till by the pass el- Mureikhy, and the western
one by er-Rakineh ; " and he adds to his description of them : " The above
are all the roads we heard of across the desert, from south to north." It
is obvious that only the easternmost of these three roads could have been
fairly called the " Mount Seir Road ; " for that alone went in the
direction of Mount Seir ; and it would seem hardly less certain that that
road would have been so called.
A noteworthy fact in connection with the effort at identifying the Mount
Seir Road, as taken by the Israelites, is the latest cou-
1 See Bib. fits., I., 196; also Note XXIV., p. 601 /.
THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR. 77
elusion of the most experienced competent explorer in that desert region,
as to the probable route of the Israelites northward from Sinai. The Rev.
F. "W. Holland, of England, (who has died since this work was begun, 1 )
had no peer in familiarity with the Penin sula of Sinai, as a whole. He
made five visits to that region, including the one when he went as the
skilled guide of the Sinai Survey Expedition, of which Professor Palmer s
book (" The Desert of the Exodus " 2 ) tells the story so attractively ;
and he journeyed on foot, 3 over the peninsula, some five thousand miles in
all. Being wedded to no theory of a particular route for the Israelites, he
sought, on the occasion of his fifth journey, to study carefully the
probabilities of the case in the light of all his obser vations of then and
before of " available roads and passes " in every district traversed by
him. His conclusion was, that the Israelites moved at first northward from
Jebel Moosa (Horeb, or Sinai) ; then turned toward Wady ez-Zulaqah, 4 which
heads di rectly toward Mount Seir, and which is on the easternmost of the
1 It was in consequence of the enthusiastic description of a journey in the
desert with Mr. Holland, by a companion of his with whom I crossed the
Atlantic in the winter of 1881, that I was tempted to make the journey of
which this book is a result. On my finding the wells of which Mr. Holland
had been in pursuit, I desired and hoped to communicate with him concerning
them; but I was hardly at my home again before I learned of his death, in
Switzerland, whither he had gone just before my reaching England on my way
back.
* See Palmer s Des. of Exod., I., 3/.
3 Palmer (Des. of Exod., I., 195) tells of a messenger coming from Suez to
the party at Wady Mukatteb, bringing " a letter calling Holland home." The
latter " at once proposed to obey the summons, and starting off on foot,
with no other pro vision than a little bag of flour, reached Suez, a
distance of some 110 miles, early in the afternoon of the third day [making
"six days" in "three"], having walked the last forty miles without a rest;
thus performing a pedestrian feat which has been rarely equalled, and the
memory of which still lives in that country."
4 Holland calls this, the Wady Zelleger (see Journal of Victoria Institute,
Vol. XIV., p. 10). It appears as Wady ez-Zulakah in Robinson s itinerary of
the " East Route " (Sib. Kes., I., 602).
78 KADESH-BARNEA.
three roads described by Robinson (which, in fact, might well be called,
from its direction, the " Mount Seir lload"). After pass ing El- Ayn, 1
they turned northward again, as Holland thinks, into Wady el- Ateeyeh, and
along that wady to the Desert et- Teeh.
This road is not the one commonly marked out for the Israelites, as running
by Ayn el-Hudhera to the Gulf of Aqabah. That is not in the line of any one
of the roads from Sinai to Canaan, but is eastward of them all, and has no
trend toward Canaan. It has, in fact, been tracked out for the purpose of
taking in certain sup posed identifications of stations named in the route
of the Israel ites, rather than because of its correspondence with any
feasible course likely to have been taken by them Canaanward. Holland
raises a new barrier against its acceptance when he says : 2 " The wadies
along that route are confined and winding, aud impassable for wagons, six
of which, we are told, had been presented by the princes of Mount Sinai,
for the service of the tabernacle." 3 In deed, he " finally came to the
conclusion that the only available route for the Children of Israel to have
taken was that by Wadies Zeleiger [Zulaqah] and el-Atiyeh ; " for " these
valleys afford the most direct, the best watered, and by far the most easy
course from Jebcl Miisa northward ; and by this [route] one ascends to the
plateau of the Desert of Et-Tih without any difficult pass." 4 " Having
once mounted to the level of the Till desert, a gradual descent across a
succession of large open plains, with abundance of pasturage, would lie
before them, and they would reach Jebel Mugrah [Muqrah, at the southern or
southeastern border of the Azazimeh mountain tract the " Wilderness of Zin
"] without
1 There is a Wady el- Ayn at the western side of the desert, quite distinct
from this one at the eastern side.
2 Jour, of Viet. Inst., Vol. XIV., p. 10. 3 Num. 7 : 3-8.
* See Holland s report of his latest journey, in Report of the British
Association, for 1X78, p. (522 jf.
THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR. 79
any trouble." 1 Somewhere within that mountain tract, Hol land would look
for Kadesh-barnea ; although he was not biased in favor of any site yet
suggested, and he had not himself explored the region in which he would
expect to find signs of it.
This independent conclusion of so competent an explorer as Holland, as to
the route of the Israelites northward from Mount Sinai, is in full accord
with all that the Bible narrative has yet indicated to us in our search for
the site of Kadesh-barnea ; and it goes to show that the Mount Seir Road,
by which the Israelites moved out from the Mount Sinai group, was the
easternmost of the three roads which went from that group Canaanward ; a
road which headed directly toward the Mount Seir range, 2 and which might
indeed have been followed to that range by a caravan with out wagons, and
which was not bound for Canaan. In the days of Moses, as now, it was not
always necessary to follow a road to its terminus ; nor was it customary to
keep on in a road beyond a point where one must turn from it in order to
reach the place for which he had set out. If a man should say, at Hebron,
that he had come from Cairo and Suez by the Mekkeh Road (or even if he
omitted mention of Suez), it would not be supposed that he had followed the
Hajj route across the Sinaitic desert ; nor that he had been to Mekkeh. And
w r hen Moses referred to the coming to Kadesh-barnea from Sinai by the
Mount Seir Road, he clearly did not mean that the Israelites took in Mount
Seir on their. way; for that range was not on any route between Sinai and
the southern border of Canaan ; but it was a region that they were
particularly forbidden to enter. 3
1 Jour., of Viet. Inst., Vol. XIV., p. 11.
1 "There are now three routes from Sinai to Hebron or Gaza : that by the
Rakineh Pass ; [that] by the Mareikhy Pass ; [and that] by the Zaraneh or
Zulakeh Pass and El- Ain. Of these three the Hebrews took the most easterly
by El- Ain, which was called the Way of Mount Seir, to distinguish it from
the others." (Rowlands, in Imp. Bib. Pic., s. v., " Eithmah.")
8 " Meddle not with them," said the Lord to Israel, concerning the dwellers
in
80 KADESIT-BARNEA.
If Holland is correct, as there seems no good reason for doubt ing, and the
route he has indicated is " the only available route for the children of
Israel to have taken," with their tabernacle wagons, tlion we can see
clearly just how far they followed the Mount Seir Road, and at what portion
of its course they turned northerly or northwesterly into " that great and
terrible wilder ness" with which they became acquainted as they moved
across it, to take the Amorite Hill-country Road up to the very borders of
Canaan.
11. THE AMORITE HILL-COUXTRY ROAD.
To identify the Amorite Hill-country Road 1 is not so easy as to identify
the Mount Seir Road ; yet it must be one of two roads across the desert
toward Canaan : and whichever of these it may prove to be, its bearing on
the location of Kadesh-barnea is prac tically the same.
Coming out on to the desert Et-Teeh from the Mount Seir Road, as described
by Holland, the Israelites moving Canaanward would still be limited in
their choice of routes by the natural characteristics of the country before
them. 2 They were on a roll ing plateau some fifteen hundred feet above the
level of the Ara- bah. 3 The same conditions which decided the course of
Kedor-
Mount Seir ; "for I will not give you of their land, no not so much as a
foot breadth; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession."
(Deut. 2: 5.)
1 " We went through all that great and terrible wilderness which ye saw by
the
Way [the Iload] of the Mountain [the Hill-country] of the Amorites and we
came to Kadesh-barnea." (Deut. 1 : 19.)
2 Although the movements of the Israelites were guided by the pillar of
fire and eloud, they had the skilled guide Ilobab to be as " eyes " to them
in picking out the best desert trails (com)). Num. 9: 15-23, and Num. 10:
29-31.) Thus the wise men from the East guided by the star toward
Bethlehem, had the choice before them between any two roads which ran in
the direction of their pursuit.
3 Sec llobiusou s Bib. lies., I., 17C, with references to Russeger, etc.,
in a note.
THE AMORITE HILL- CO UXTR Y R OAD. 8 1
la omer s march into southern Canaan l would combine to influence their
movements. The main road across the Wilderness of Parun (a " great and
terrible wilderness/ 2 as they considered it) up to the " Hill-country of
the Amorites " (which began at the centre of the southern boundary of
Canaan ^ swept from the Red Sea Road 4 (the modern Hajj route from Aqabah
to Siiez), along around the southern base of the Azuzimeh mountain tract
until it joined the Wall Road (the " Way of Shur " 5 ) near Jebel Muwaylih,
6 or until it diverged northeasterly, near that point, and passed into the
Aznzimeh tract to the strategic stronghold of Kadesh-barnea, at the very
base of "the Mountain of the Amorites." 7
Until recently it seemed as if there were no alternative to this route
Canaanward, for a caravan that was moving across the Desert et-Teeh from
the eastward, or from southeastward. Robin son emphasized this fact after
his first journey over the desert northward. He saw, from the structure of
the entire region, that roads from the east or southeast which " in any
degree touch the high plateau of the desert south of El-Mukrah, must
necessarily curve to the west, and passing around the base of Jebel Araif
el- Nakah, continue along the western side of this mountainous tract." 8 He
saw, also, that this would have seemed to be the natural course for the
Israelites, were it not that he had fixed, in his own mind, on a site for
Kadesh-barnea which was not to be reached by this great natural highway
over the desert from Sinai to Canaan. " In respect to the route of the
Israelites in approach ing Palestine," he said, 9 concerning this otherwise
inevitable high way, " we here obtained only the conviction that they could
not have passed to the westward of Jebel Araif [as other travelers " must
necessarily " do] ; since such a course would have brought
1 See page 38, supra. 2 Deut. 1 : 10. 3 See page 75/., supra ; also Judges
1 : 36. Num. 14 : 25 ; Deut. 1 : 40 ; 2 : 1. 5 Geu. 16:7. 6 See page 42,
supra.
1 See page 65 ff., supra; also Deut. 1 : 20. 8 Bib. Res., I., 186 /.
ll>id., p. 187.
82 KADESH-BARNEA.
them directly to Beersheba, and not to Kadesh, which latter city lay near
to the border of Edoni." *
On the face of it, therefore, the Amoritc Hill-country Road would seem to
have been that one road which presents itself for a desert-crossing to a
northward-bound traveler coining out of the Mount Sinai group by the
easternmost or Mount Seir Road. Tliat is the road which leads to the
Amorite Hill-country. It is the road, also, which Robinson followed, and
which Kedor-la omer had taken before him. It is obviously the road which
the Israel ites would have taken unless, indeed, they were compelled to go
elsewhere for reasons not yet indicated. And as we have seen no reason for
doubting that this road would be as likely to lead the Israelites to
Kadesh-barnea as it was to lead Kedor-la omer there, we must accept all
these indications of its identity unless we find some specific reason for
supposing that the borders of Edom, as well as Kadesh-barnea, did not lie
within the Azazimeh mountain tract.
Of late, a possibility of an alternative road through the Azaz imeh
mountain tract, running diagonally northwestward from the southeastern
corner of that tract, has been su^trcsted : and
f OO /
this ought not to pass unnoticed here. Mention has already been made 2 of a
road in this general direction running out of the Arabah, as suggested by
AVilton, and as tracked in a portion of its course by Palmer. But it was
reserved for the experienced Holland to note the possibility of such a road
out from the Desert et-Teeh. It was on his last visit to the Peninsula that
he first
1 This is a marked illustration of unconSeirms reasoning in a circle.
Robinson first decides that Kadesh-barnea is at a certain point in the
Arabah because that point lies in the road \vhich was taken by the
Israelites. Afterwards he decides that the Israelites did not take the road
which would have seemed to be their inevitable route because, forsooth,
that road would not lead them to his fore-determined site of Kadesh-barnea!
(Comp. Bib. Res., I., 187 ; II., 17-1 /., 192-195.) 2 See page 39, note,
supra.
THE BORDER OF EDO M. 83
ascertained that Jebel Muqruh was separated from Jebel Jerufeh, at the
southeastern corner of that mass of mountains, instead of the two mountains
being in a connected and unbroken range, as was before supposed. 1 Between
these two mountains there is a road way, which Holland thinks finds its
course up to the borders of Canaan to the Amorite Hill-country. He would
recognize in this the " Way of the Spies ; " but whether he be correct or
not, it will be seen that there is a possibility of the Amorite
Hill-country Road being yet identified in this route. But, as was said at
the start, whichever of the two alternative routes be fixed upon, its
bearing on the probable site of Kadesh-barnea is practically the same.
Kadesh-barnea being somewhere within the Azazimeh mountain block, lying at
the base of the southern boundary of the Amorite Hill -country, it would be
practicable to reach it from the southeast by such a road as that now
suggested by Holland, or from the west by the route which we understand
Kedor-la omer to have taken, and which has hitherto seemed the more
natural, and indeed the only, route to its secluded fastnesses.
12. THE BORDER OF EDOM.
When " Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom," asking
permission for the Israelites to pass through his territory on their final
move toward Canaan, he said of their loca tion, " Behold, we are in Kadesh,
a city in the uttermost of thy border ; " 2 and this raises the question,
Where was the western border of Edom ?
It ought to be noted just here, that the Hebrew word translated "city" 3
does not of necessity involve the idea of a walled town, or even of a town
of any sort. Its " signification is of wide ex-
1 See Holland s reports of his journey, in Jour, of Viet. List., Vol. XIV.,
pp. 2-11, and Report of Brit. Assoc., for 1878, p. 622 ff.
* Num. 20 : 16. eer Vjn.
84 KADESH-BARNEA.
tent, embracing . . . the idea of an encampment," 1 as well as of a watched
and guarded stronghold ; " a surrounded place," " a forti fied camp." 2
It is not within the range of probability that the vast host of Israel
should have been in a single city, least of all in any city which could
have existed in that day on the desert border of Canaan. It is a mistake
which scholars have made all the way along in their searching for the route
of the Israelites from Egypt to the banks of the Jordan, to look for an
identification of any station in the record of the exodus and wanderings in
the site of an ancient city. 3 In connection with the visits of the
Israelites to Kadesh, there is no indication of any capture of a hostile
city there, or of any intercourse with the people of a friendly city. But
from the prominence given to Kadesh in the military move ments of both
Kedor-la omer and the Israelites, it would appear that that place Avas a
natural stronghold, a strategic watching- place on the southern border of
Canaan ; and it would, therefore, be a most natural way of stating the
case, for the Israelites to say to the king of Edom, " We are in Kadesh, a
fortified encampment [a hill-surrounded fastness] in the uttermost of thy
border." The language recorded is quite consistent with that
interpretation.
It is not difficult to locate Edom as a whole, nor is it difficult to say
where was its centre, its kernel, its core. The difficulty lies in fixing
the western stretch and boundary, at a given time, of a land which clearly
had different boundaries at different periods, and which is nowhere
described in its precise limitations, either in the Bible, or prior to the
Christian era in outside history. Yet the difficulty which docs exist is
not so great as it has been made to appear.
" Edom " and " Seir " are terms which are often used inter changeably as
the designation of a region occupied by Esau and
1 Gesenius, in Heb. Lex., s. v. 2 Fiirst, Ilcb and Chald. Lex. s. v.
8 This point is treated more fully in the Route of the Exodus, infra.
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 35
his descendants. 1 " Mount Seir/ the range of mountains running southward
from the Dead Sea, on the east of the Arabah, was a main feature of "
Edom"; 2 but " Seir/ 3 and " the land of Seir," 4 and " the country [or
field] of Edom," 5 are terms which are clearly not limited to, nor indeed
are commonly, if ever, identical with, " Mount Seir" in the Bible text. The
practical question for solution is, therefore, What portion of the country
at the westward of the Arabah was included in " Seir," and in " the country
of Edom," in the days of the Israelites wanderings ?
Not only is there no suggestion in the Bible that " Seir " and " the
country of Edom " were limited to the " Mount Seir " on the east of the
Arabah, but the idea of such a limitation, at any period of the history of
Edom, does not seem to have entered a human mind until more than thirty
centuries after the days of Moses, when it was given shape in an incidental
mention by the great geographer Roland, 6 while he was pointing a caution
against counting the boundaries of Edom as alike at all periods of history.
At the same time, however, Roland recognized the fact that in some way "
the region occupied by Edom and his posterity [which is], called in Holy
Scripture the field of Edom and the land of Seir/ . . . was situated
between Egypt and Canaan ; so that the southern boundaries of the land [of
Canaan], in which was the portion of the tribe of Judah, touched the
terminus of the region of Edom." The incidental suggestion of Roland as to
the early limits of Edom would probably have had little influence in the
field of Bible geography, if it had not been renewed, in another form, by
Robinson, a century and more later, as an argument in support of a site
which he had fixed upon as that of Kadesh- barnea which latter place was at
the uttermost border of Edom.
1 See Gen. 32 : 3 ; 3G: 1, 8, 9, 19,21,43; Xum. 24 : 18; Dent. 2: 4, 5, 8,
29; Josh. 24 : 4.
2 Gen. 14 : 6 ; 36 : 8, 9 ; Deut. 2:8; Josh. 24 : 4. 3 Gen. 33 : 14 ; Deut.
1 : 44.
4 Gen. 32: 3. * Gen. 32 : 3. 6 Palxstina, p. 66.
86 KADESH-BARNEA.
Indeed, Robinson himself had held another view than Roland s prior to his
fixing of the site of Kadesh-barnca ; and in an elaborate series of
articles on Idumea, or Edom, 1 not long before his first visit to the Holy
Land, he said of the Mount Seir ranging- field of " the children of Esau :
" " It is only proper to add here, that it is not necessary to regard the
Edomites as wholly confined to this region. It is not improbable that they
also had possession, at least occasional, of the mountains and part of the
desert west of the Ghor [the Arabah] ; as we know that at a later period
they subdued the southern part of Palestine, as far as Hebron ; and also
made excursions through or around the land of Moab, and became masters of
Bozrah." 2 But when Robinson had decided in his own mind that Kadesh-barnea
was in the Arabah, it became necessary to push back the western boundary of
the Edomites to a line within which, he had before seen and said, it was
"not necessary" to regard them as " wholly confined ; " for, " otherwise,"
he said, " the Israelites, in journeying three times between Kadesh and
Ezion-geber, must have passed twice through Edom ; which we know was not
permitted." 3
Here again, as in the case of the desert roads, so capable an explorer as
Robinson seems unconsciously to be reasoning in a circle with reference to
the location of Kadesh. 4 Having settled it in his own mind that the
Israelites passed up the Arabah toward Canaan, he fixes on a site in the
line of that road as the most prob able one for Kadesh. 5 When he sees,
however, that their more natural course would have been in another
direction, he decides that they could not have taken that, because it would
not have led them by his Kadesh which he had selected because it was on the
way that, in his opinion, they did take. 6 His Kadesh was the
1 In Bib. Repos. for April, July, and October, 1833. 2 Ibid., April, p.
250.
3 Robinson s " Notes on Biblical Geography," in Bib. Sac. for May, 184!),
p. 3SO.
4 See page 82, note, supra. 5 Comp. Bib. Res., II., 173-175 ; 192-195.
6 See Bib. Res., L, 187.
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 87
Kadesh because it was on their road toward Canaan. Their road must have
been this road ; because otherwise it would not have passed his Kadesh,
which was the Kadesh (Q. E. D.). So about the boundary of Edom. Before he
had fixed his Kadesh in the Arabah, it was " not necessary " to confine the
Edomites to the eastward of the Arabah ; but when he had fixed his Kadesh
in the Arabah it was necessary to confine the Edomites by that boundary ;
for Kadesh was at the extremest westward stretch of Edom. Edom must have
been limited to the east of the Arabah, because Edom was eastward of
Kadesh, and his Kadesh, which was the Kadesh, was in the Arabah. His Kadesh
must have been the Kadesh, because the Kadesh was at the western border of
Edom where his Kadesh was located (Q. E. D., once more). At last Robinson
actually reasoned himself to the conviction that the view which he once
held himself, and which had never been generally abandoned by scholars, was
no longer a factor in the problem ; and he declared, as if without a
thought that his declaration would be questioned by anybody : "Now at that
time [in the days of the exodus], as all agree, the territory of Edom was
limited to the mountains on the east of the Arabah." 2
Because Robinson could safely be followed in so many of his important
discoveries and identifications, he has not unnaturally been followed in
solne of his unconscious errors of identification and reasoning. 3 But in a
search for the identification of an unde-
1 Comp. Bib. Rep., April, 1833, p. 250, and Bib. Sac., May, 1849, p. 379 f.
* Bib. Sac. for May, 1849, p. 380.
3 It is not to be wondered at that Robinson (whose really great service in
the cause of biblical geography has fairly entitled him to be called "the
Roland of the Xine- teenth Century ) should have made more or less errors
in his wide and varied identifications ; but it is a matter of surprise
that some of those errors should still be blindly adhered to, after they
have been shown as errors by proofs that Robinson would, if now living,
recognize as indisputable. Take, for example, his locating of Eboda at El-
Aujeh (Bib. Res., I., 191). His guides knew that place "only by the name of
Aujeh," but an Arab who was with him said it " was also called "Abdeh."
88 KADESH-BARNEA.
termined site, we should, of course, put aside, for the time being, mere
naked opinions, and look to the Bible text as it stands in its integrity,
and to any outside helps to the elucidation of that text. So, now, in the
matter of the ancient borders of Edom.
The earliest known mention of " Mount Seir " is in the Bible record of
Kedor-la omer s campaign, in the days of Abraham. 1 This was long before
the birth of Esau ; and it is said that the Horites, or cave-dwellers, were
then its inhabitants. 2 These Horites are said to have been the descendants
of Seir; 3 but it is
Afterwards that Arab admitted " that he knew this name only from M, Linnnt,
who had visited the place a few years before " (Bib. Res., I., 600). That
was shaky proof on which to fix an identification; yet it was the best that
Robinson could obtain, ex cept that it was supplemented some weeks later by
the assurance of " a very intelli gent owner of camels," whom Robinson met
at Hebron. On the strength of this information, with the seeming
correspondence of the ruins with such a place as the ancient Eboda must
have been, Robinson declared, " We had no doubt at the time, nor have I
now, that these were the ruins of the ancient Eboda, or Oboda " (Bib. Res.,
I., 194); and he even brushed away the suggestion of Seetzen and M. Callier
that the real ruins of Abdeh were elsewhere, on the ground that " both
these latter trav elers were [probably] misinformed by their Arab guides"
(Bib. Res., I., 600) instead of taking the word of " a very intelligent
owner of camels at three days distance from the ruins. After all this,
Stewart (Tent and Khan, p. 198 /.) and Bonar (Des. of Sinai, p. 302 /.)
gained information of the existence of an Abdeh as distinct from El- Aujeh
; and finally Palmer visited both places, obtained sketches of them, proved
their separateness, established the identification of Abdeh as Eboda (Des.
of Exod., II., 343, 386, 407-423) ; so that to-day there is hardly more
reason for a question as to the identification of Eboda than of Hebron. Yet
notwithstanding all these later discoveries, Murray s Handbook for Syria
and Palestine (p. 100, and Map) continues to give El Aujeh as both Abdeh
and Eboda, without so much as an intimation that the Robinson location has
ever been brought into question. And this is but a single illustration of
the, difficulty of correcting at popular sources an error in the statements
of "the Roland of the Nineteenth Century."
1 Gen. 14: <3 ; Deut. 2: 12.
2 "The Horites, as the name signifies (Heb. "in from ~nn a hole, cave),
were dwellers in caves ; a description of people who were afterwards called
by the Greeks Troglodytes, Tpwy/loJiira/,, a word of the same signification
as Ilorites, derived from Tf>>y~Ar], a cave." (Robinson, in Bib.
Repos., April, 1833, p. 250, note.)
3 Gen. 36: 20, 21.
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 89
uot an uncommon thing for a man to have taken his name from the land in
which he lived. 1 The earliest known mention of the land of Edom is in the
Egyptian records, at about the same period as Abraham s. In the story of
Saneha, in the Twelfth Dynasty, as already referred to, 2 there are several
mentions of " Atuma," or " Aduma," in such a connection as to point to the
identification of this land with ancient Edom ; and the subsequent
references to " Atuma" and its people in the Egyptian records, all go to
justify this identification. 3 This also was long prior to Esau s birth ;
but it in no degree conflicts with the Bible records of Esau s relations to
the names of the lands in which at one time and another he was a dweller.
" Seir " means " rough," " shaggy," " hairy." 4 " Esau " means the same. 5
" Edom " means " red." 6 Esau bore the name "Edom." 7 The mountains of Seir
were rough and shaggy. The eliffs of Edom were red. 8 It is in perfect
accord with Oriental methods of thought and speech to multiply meanings in
a name, and to multiply also the applications of a name in its meaning.
Esau was the hairy man ; 9 the land of his possession was of a rough and
shaggy front. 10 Esau was called Edom, the Red Man ; he was the man of red
hair, 11 the man of the red land, and the
1 See page 56, note, supra. 2 g ee pa{ , e 46> ^ supra.
3 See Rcc. of Past, VI., 135-150 ; also Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc.
Hist, of East, II., 148, 290 ; and Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 146 ff. 4
iSa eer(T.yty), " hairy," " shaggy," " rough." (Gesenius and Fiirst, s. v.)
5 Esaw (1^>;}, " hirsute," " hairy." (Hid.) *Edhom. (0~iN), "red."
(Ibid.) ^ Gen. 36 : 1, 8, 19.
8 The very name " Red Sea is supposed by many to have been taken from the
bordering red eliffs of Edom.
9 " Esau my brother is a hairy man." (Gen. 27 : 11.)
10 "The name may either have been derived from Seir the Ilorite or, what is
perhaps more probable, from the rough aspect of the whole country."
(Porter, in Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Seir.") See also any
description of Mount Seir.
" Red, all over like an hairy garment ; and they called his name Esau."
(Gen. 2.5 : 25.)
90 KADESH-BAENEA.
man of a red choice : l " Therefore was his name called Edom " three times
over. And wherever Esau-Edom lived at any time, that land would naturally
be called " the land of Seir," and " the field of Edom." And so it was,
according to the Bible story.
"When Esau had foolishly surrendered his birthright interest in Canaan, 2
and had lost the blessing which by Oriental custom belonged to the
first-born, 3 another possession was promised to him by his aged father, 4
and God confirmed that inheritance to Esau in Mount Seir of Edom. 5 But
Esau did not remove to his new possession until after the death of his
father/ Meantime Jacob was away from that region, 7 and Esau remained near
his father, occupy ing the parental domain, which could not as yet pass
into the hands of the son who had purchased the first-born s share in its
entail.
Esau married and had children long before he permanently left his old home
near Beersheba. 8 In the more than twenty years of Jacob s absence, Esau s
families and flocks and herds were in creased to him; and in the enfeebled
and helpless state of the father, the resident son must have come into
larger prominence, according to Oriental usage, 9 so that it is not to be
wondered at that the region
1 " Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage ;
for I am faint ; therefore was his name called Edom." (Gen. 25 : 30.)
2 Gen. 25: 27-34; Heb. 12 : 16,17. 3 Gen. 27 : 1-33. * Gen. 27 : 34-40.
5 Deut. 2:5; Josh. 24 : 4. Comp, Gen. 35 : 27-29, and Gen. 36 : 1-8.
7 Gen. 27 : 41-45 ; 28 : 5 ; 32 : 3, 4. 8 Gen. 26 : 34, 35 ; 28 : 6-9.
9 An Oriental father gains reflected honor in the prominence and successes
of his sons. lie even changes his own name in such a way as to include his
eldest son s name, in order to swell the glory of the family of which he is
the head. Even where a man is childless he sometimes receives, by courtesy,
in the East, the name of father of a hypothetical son ; or in some way the
fatherhood idea is attached to his name. (See e. g. Jessup s Syrian Home
Life, p. 99, f., and Thomson s Land and Book, I., 475.) An illustration of
this is given in the case of Abraham. While he was yet childless he was
called " Ab-ram," " Father of Exaltation." He was uplifted in the minds of
his fellows as one worthy to be a father. But God gave him a promise of
real chil dren ; and as he did so he added (Gen. 17 : 5) : " Neither shall
thy name any more be called Ab-ram, but thy name shall be Ab-raham, "
Father of a Multitude," [" Aboo-ruhain," as the Arabs might write] ; for a
father of many nations have I
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 91
over which Esau extended his patriarchal stretch came to be known as " the
land of Seir " [or Esau], and " the country [or field] of Edom." l
There was where Esau was living when Jacob came back from Padan-aram ; for
Isaac was not yet dead, and it was not until after his death that Esau
removed to Mount Seir. 2 And the record shows, that as Jacob was returning
toward Hebron, he " sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, unto
the land of Seir, the field of Edom." If indeed Esau had been off in Mount
Seir at that time, Jacob would hardly have anticipated a meeting with him
on his way to Hebron. And when the brothers had met, Jacob spoke of himself
as journeying by easy stages toward the home of Esau, in Seir Esau s
present " Seir," not Esau s prospective " Mount Seir." " I will lead on
softly," he said, " according as the cattle that goeth before me and the
children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir." 4 This
was obviously no deceitful subterfuge on Jacob s part. He did not be gin
his new life as " Israel," after his night of eventful wrestling, 5 with a
lie to his brother Esau. He meant what he said. He would move slowly toward
Esau s home the land of Seir, as it was now called. It was Esau s land by
possession ; it was Jacob s land by purchased birthright ; it was as yet
their father Isaac s land in reality. Jacob might safely call it Isaac s by
courtesy, as everybody now called it, in accordance with Oriental custom.
" So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir," 6 not unto Mount Seir,
but unto his land of Seir ; and Jacob followed
made thee." And that new name made all the difference in the world in
Abraham s position before the world in the East. Thus, according to Eastern
customs, Isaac might well have called himself Aboo-Esau, " Father of Esau ;
" hence it is not strange that the name of Esau was uplifted in the region
where he dwelt with his father.
1 Gen. 32 : 3. The word here translated " country " is sadheh ("H^Y It
means " field," rather than " province " or " kingdom."-
* See Gen. 35 : 27-29 ; 36 : 1-8. 3 Gen. 32 : 3.
* Gen. 33 : 14. Gen. 32 : 24-32. 6 Gen. 33 : 16.
92 KADESH-BARNEA.
by easy stages to Shechem, 1 and Bethel, 2 and southward until the brothers
were once more near each other, at Hebron 3 and below, in the neighborhood
of their childhood s home and of the outstretching domain of Esau s, there
to remain in filial and fraternal accord until after their father s death
and burial. 4
That the removal of Esau to his divinely assured possessions in Mount Seir
was not during the absence of Jacob in Padau-aram, is apparent on the face
of the text, and it is evidenced by a number of confirmatory proofs. The
mention of Esau s removal follows immediately on the mention of Isaac s
death and burial. 5 Not until then was there any reason for Esau s leaving
his bartered birthright inheritance. Moreover, it is distinctly said, that
Esau " went into the country [of Mount Seir, when he did go there] from the
face of Ids brother Jacob." 6 If Jacob were then living in Padau-aram, his
face would hardly have crowded Esau out of lower Canaan. And a reason for
Esau s going " from the face of his brother Jacob" just then was, that
"their riches were more than that they might dwell together ; and the land
wherein they were strangers [sojourncrs] could not bear them because of
their cattle." 7 But if there was not even one of Jacob s brown sheep, or
ring-streaked or spotted goats, 8 within two hundred miles of Hebron and
Beersheba, how could they fill up the possessions of Isaac so that Esau
must look elsewhere for pasturage ? Yet then it was and even until the very
day of Jacob s return that Esau was a dweller in " the land of Seir, the
country of Edom;" 9 iiot the Mount Seir, or the Edom which was the
equivalent of Mount Seir. This designation, of the land of Esau s occupancy
in Southern Canaan, by the name of " Seir," which existed at the time of
Jacob s return from Padan-aram, was never lost to it. It was
1 Gen. 33: 17-20. 2 Gen. 35 : 1-8. 3 Gen. 35 : 27.
* Gen. 35: 28, 29. 5 See Gen. 35 : 27-29; 36 : 1-8. Gen. 36:6.
i Gen. 36 : 7. 8 Gen. 30 : 25-43. 9 Gen. 32 : 1-3.
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 93
found there when the Israelites made their unauthorized raid northward from
Kadesh-barnea. " And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain," said
Moses, " came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed
you in Seir." l Josephus says that this dwelling-place of Esau at the time
of Jacob s return was a region "which he had called Roughness, from his own
hairiness." 2 And, as will be fully shown, the traces of that name " Seir "
are to be found there to-day. This Seir, it is to be noted, was within the
boundaries of Canaan proper. But south of Canaan, outside its boundary, the
name of " Edom " seems to have extended along some distance westward of the
Arabah from a very early period, certainly before the days of Israel s
occupancy of Canaan. It must have included the northeastern portion of the
Azazimeh mountain tract, where was the Wilderness of Zin as we have identi
fied it; hence it is not to be wondered at that Kadesh-barnea, within that
tract, is said to be an encircled stronghold on the western border of Edom.
To the present time there remain traces of the old name of "Seir" in the
region southeastward from Beershcba, and yet northward of the natural
southern boundary line of the Land of Canaan. The extensive plain " Es-Seer
" is there, 3 corresponding with the name and location of the " Seir " 4 at
which, or unto which, 5 the Israelites were chased by the Amoritcs when
they went up in foolhardiness from their Kadesh-barnea stronghold. 6 An
1 Deut. 1 : 44. 2 Antiquities, Book I., Chap. 20, ? 3.
3 See Rowlands, in Williams s Holy City, p. 488 /. ; Palmer s DCS. of
Exod., II., 404.
* Deut. 1 : 44.
5 The Septuagint, Peshitto Syriac, and Vulgate (at Deut. 1 : 44) read "from
Seir," instead of " to Seir; " but this does not affect the location of the
place itself; it only touches the question whether the Israelites went
beyond that boundary, or only up to that line.
6 This identification of Es-Seer, as the place referred to in Deut. 1 : 44,
is approved by Ritter (Geoy. of Pal., I., 431) ; Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov.,
III., 209, 294) ; Keil and
94 KADESII-BARNEA.
old ruin iu the vicinity bears the name of Qasr cs-Seer, 1 and again there
are seeming traces of the name " Seer," through Sa eed, in the "NVady Sa
eedat not far from there, and in the name of the Arab tribe, Sa eediych,
inhabiting the old land of Seir. 2
That this " Es-Seer " is the " Seir " of the days of Moses and Joshua, and
hence also the Seir, as distinct from Mount Seir, of the days of Esau, is
shown again by its agreement in location with the Seir of a notable
boundary-line landmark in the description of Joshua s conquests in the Land
of Promise. 3 " So Joshua took all that land," it is said ; " even from the
Mount Halak * [the Smooth, or Bald Mountain] that goeth up to Seir " 5 in
the south of Canaan, " even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon, under
Mount Hcrmon," in the north. Here, plainly, Seir is within the limits of
Canaan, northward of the southern landmark known as the Smooth Mountain ;
and this agrees most accurately with the region as disclosed by modern
research.
The plain Es-Seer, already referred to, is bounded on the south by "Wady
Feqreh, 6 a wady which ascends southwesterly from the
Delitzsch (Bib. Com. on 0. T., III., 250 /., 281 /.) ; Kalisch (Com. on 0.
T., at Gen. 14: 6); Alford (Genesis, etc., at 14: 6); Wordsworth (Bible
with Notes, at Num. 34: 3} ; Schaff-Lange Com. (at Num. 34: 3 and Dent. 1 :
44) ; Speaker s Com. (at Num.14: 45); Wilton (The Netjcb, pp. 73 note, 198)
; etc.
1 See Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 345 /. Robinson visited this site, but
he seems to have run the two names together, and called it " el-kuseir " -"
the little castle." (See Bib. Res., II., 198.) Wilson was an accurate
Oriental scholar.
2 See Wilton s The Negeb, p. 198 /. 3 Josh. 11 : 15-17; 12 : 7, 8.
4 The Hebrew is KJialaq (p/nY "smooth," "bald," "bare," as opposed to
"hairj*," "rough." (See Gesenius and Fiirst, s. v.) Thus Jacob was a khalaq
man, and Esau was a sa ecr man (Gen. 27: 11). Our King James Version s
margin, and most modern English translations, recognise this " Mount Halak
" as the Smooth, or Bald, Mountain.
5 The Smooth Mountain goes up to the Rough Plain ; the Bald Slope to the
Hairy Crown ; Khalaq to Sa ecr ; Jacob s boundary-wall to Esau s early
domain.
6 See Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 178-182; Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 340;
Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 415 ; etc.
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 95
Arabah, from a point not far south of the Dead Sea, and which separates
Palestine proper from the Azazimeh mountain tract, or Jebel Muqrah group. 1
The northern wall of this wady is a bare and bald rampart of rock, forming
a natural boundary as it " goeth up to Seir ; " a landmark both impressive
and unique, and which corresponds with all the Bible mentions of the Mount
Halak.
Canon Williams, accompanying his friend Rowlands, was first among modern
travelers to visit and describe this peculiar range. He came toward it from
Hebron along "the grand plain called Es-Seer." Of its appearance, as it
first met his sight, he says : 2 " Having ascended a ridge, a scene of
awful grandeur burst sud denly upon us with such startling effect as to
strike us dumb for some moments. A^ 7 e found ourselves standing on a
gigantic nat ural rampart of lofty mountains, which we could trace
distinctly for many miles east and west of the spot on which we stood ;
whose precipitous promontories of naked rock, forming as it were bastions
of cyclopean architecture, jutted forth in irregular masses from the
mountain barrier into a frightfully terrific wilderness, [the Wilderness of
Zin,] stretching far before us towards the south, whose horrors language
must fail to describe. It was a confused chaos of chalk, and had the
appearance of an immense furnace glowing with white heat, illuminated as it
now was by the fierce rays of the sun. There did not appear to be the least
particle of vegetation in all the dreary waste : all was drought and
barrenness and desolation. [The Bald Mountain.] Immediately below was a
wide and well-defined valley, called Wady Murrch." This pic ture of the
bare and desolate mountain that goeth up to Seir is the more marked in view
of the fact that neither Canon Williams nor
1 Luther s Version of the Bible renders the references to Mount TTalak in
Josh. 11: 17 and 12 : 7 as "the mountain which divides the land up to
Seir." This in volves, however, a slightly different Hebrew text.
3 Holy City, p. 487 f.
96 KADESH-BAENEA.
his friend Rowlands identified it with the Mount ITaluk (they proposing
another location for that 1 ) ; yet the former wrote : " We felt no doubt
that we were standing on the mountain-barrier of the Promised Land."
Professor Palmer 2 says of this same region ; and this again without a
suggestion that it was " the Bald Mountain " he was describing : " The view
from the top is very impressive ; as well as the precipitous eliffs which
everywhere meet the eye, huge jorfo* mountains in themselves, rise up on
either side of the wady [Murrah] bed. The rocks being of limestone, and not
relieved by any verdure, produce a glare that is most distressing to the
eyes."
The very name "Mount Halak" 4 the Smooth, or Bald, Moun tain seems to be
preserved, or re- indicated, in an Arabic synonym " Es-Sufah," 5 as the
name of a principal pass into Palestine, going up this natural barrier from
Wady Feqreh to the plain Es-Serr, or Seir, northward. 6 Freytag 7 defines "
Es-Sufah " as meaning " the hard, dense rock which bears no vegetation" 8
smooth and bald.
* o
There is a remarkable unity in the reports of travelers as to the
correspondence of this mountain-side pass with the Scriptural boundary mark
of " the Mount Halak ; " a unity all the more remarkable in that not one of
them has seemed to have in mind this seemingly self-evident identification.
Robinson 9 speaks of this "ascent to Seir " as "a formidable
1 See Holy City, p. 491. 2 DCS. of Exod., II., 406.
3 " A jorf, that is a steep bank formed by the torrent cutting through the
soil of the wady-bed" (Ibid., p. 338). See Freytag s Lexicon
Arabico-Lalinum, s. v. * Ileb. p^nn inn ; kahar he-khalaq.
I T T V T T
B HljUflJt The Speaker s Commentary (at Num. 34 : 3-5) renders this " Xakb
es-Safuh," as the "Pass of the Bare Hock."
6 And the pass next to the east of it is "Es-Sufey," the diminutive of"
Es-Sufah."
7 In Arab. Lat. Lex., s. v. 8 Pctra dura, crassa, plantas non produccns.
9 Bib. lies., II., 178-181.
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 97
barrier, a naked limestone ridge not less than a thousand feet in height
and very steep ; " the path over Es-Sufuh being " upon the naked surface of
the rock," ascending along " this bare rock," which is "in many places
smooth and dangerous for animals," the camels making " their way with
difficulty, being at every moment liable to slip." Von Schubert describes
it as " a high, bald hill." 1 Lord Lindsay 2 calls it "a precipitous sheet
of bare rock, alternately smooth and slippery, and covered with loose
stones." Miss Mar- tineau 3 speaks of "the steep slope being bare shelvy
limestone." Wilson 4 says : " Not a particle of vegetation was visible on
its chalky eliffs, which appeared like a natural rampart to the land." Olin
5 refers to the slope as " tolerably smooth," but " so steep that it is
barely possible for loaded camels to ascend." Durbin 6 is sure that this
mountain formed " the southern boundary of Judea." " This mountain wall,"
is what " El-Mukattem " 7 calls it ; and the Pass Sufah he designates as "
a steep, smooth rocky surface." " A slip pery ascent it proved," says
Formby. 8 And Caroline Paiue s testimony 9 is : " The rocks were too smooth
to present a very secure foothold for even the cautious camels, and nearly
all of those [riders] who generally remained mounted when elimbing the
rocky passes, preferred trusting to their own feet here."
Is it not clear that this bald and bare northern wall of Wady Feqreh, this
natural rampart of Canaan, with its smooth rock passes, Es-Sufah and
Es-Sufey, going up to the plain Es-Seer, is " the Smooth Mountain that
goeth up to Seir " the western land of Seir, in southern Canaan ? 10
1 Reise in das Morgenland, II., 443. * Letters, II., 46.
3 Eastern Life, p. 369. 4 Lands of Bible, I., 342. 5 Travels, II., 62.
6 Observ. in Eastfl., 197. 1 Lands of Moslem, p. 234.
8 Vixit to East, p. 321. 9 Tent and Harem, p. 294.
10 Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com. on 0. T., VIII., 123), and Kurtz (Hist, of
Old ( or., III.. 205), incline to this identification ; although neither of
them has seemed to recognize the significance of the remaining name "
Es-Sufah." 7
98 KADESH-BARNEA.
There is a reason which should not be lost sight of for the con tinuance of
the old name of Seir in the south of Canaan after Esau had removed, with
all his family, to his divinely assured possession in Mount Seir. Two of
the wives of Esau were Ca- naanites; 1 another wife was of the daughters of
Ishmael. 2 The descendants of these wives would naturally have affiliation
with the people of their maternal ancestry. Even though Esau took with him
all his family and all his substance when he went from Southern Canaan to
the region of Mount Seir, 3 it is every way probable that more or less of
his descendants of the Canaanitish stock would wander back before long to
the fields of their fathers the fields which they themselves, in some
cases, had occupied west of the Dead Sea and the Arabah ; and again that
some of those who were of Ishmaclitish, hence of Egyptian, 4 stock, would
spread themselves along the upper desert, in the Wilderness of Paran, where
Ishmael had roamed Egyptward. 5 Indeed, that something like this was the
case with the Amalekite posterity of Edom (if, as seems probable, the
Amalekites were descended from both Esau and Seir 6 ) is evident from the
Bible text. They were already down in the mountains of Sinai, 7 and up in
the hills of southern Canaan 8 in the days of the exodus.
Two centuries and a half, it must be remembered, had passed, between the
occupancy of Mount Seir by Esau and the appearance of the Israelites on the
verge of Canaan. This gave time for great changes in the border lines of
nomadic tribes. An Egyptian papyrus of the Nineteenth Dynasty the supposed
dynasty of the
1 Compare Gen. 26 : 34 ; 27 : 46 ; 36 : 2.
Concerning the seeming confusion in the several mentions of these wives,
see Smith- Hackctt Bib. Die., s. vv. " Adah," " Aholibamah," " Bashemath."
2 Gen. 28: 9; 36: 3. 3 Gen. 36 : 6. 4 Gen. 1C : 3, 15. 5 Gen. 21 : 21. 6
Gen. 36 : 12, 20, 22. See p. 40,/,, note, supra.
i Exod. 17 : 8. 8 Num. 14 : 45.
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 99
exodus refers to "the Shasoo of the country of Aduma" (the Bed ween of Edom
or Seir) as already at the doors of Lower Egypt, and even as permitted to
enter that land as settlers there. 1 And all the indications of the
Egyptian records would show that the Edomite Bed ween roamed freely, at
this time, from the Arabah to the Delta.
As already stated, the region assured to Esau and his descen dants by the
divine promise was Mount Seir, the mountain range on the east of the
Arabah, a region wholly outside of the limits of Canaan the birthright
inheritance bartered to Jacob. The names "Seir," and "field of Edom," 2
applied, for the reasons noted, to the old ranging-field of Esau in
southern Canaan, are not to be confounded with Esau s Mount Seir and the
old region of Edom proper as it existed before the days of Esau. But Edom
proper seems always to have included, in its westward stretch, the Arabah
and more or less of the mountain region west of the Arabah and southward of
the natural boundary line between these mountains and Canaan ; southward of
Wady Feqreh, with its Azazimeh, or Muqrah, mountain-wall standing over
against the wall of Mount Halak. This is fairly to be inferred from the
Egyptian references to ancient Edom ; it is consistent with our earliest
knowledge of the bounds of Edom ; it is an inevitable deduction from the
early Bible mentions of Edom s westward reach.
1 See a translation from this papyrus in Brugsch s Diet. Geog., p. 642 ;
also Hist, of Egypt, I., 247 /.
1 Wilton (The Negeb, p. 73, note) points out the fact that the word sadheh
(7T\iy\ translated " field " or " country " (of Edom), refers rather to a
cultivated plain than to a rugged mountain, hence it is inapplicable to "
Mount Seir ; " also that it is the word applied proleptically to the domain
of the Amalekites in the record of Kedor- la omer s march (Gen. 14 : 7)
over this very region. In this light, the " field " of the Amalekite
descendants of Edom in the earlier record is the same as the " field " of
the ancestor of the Amalekites in the later story.
100 KADESH-BARNEA.
Various references to the boundary limits of Canaan, in the Bible text, go
to show that the southern line of the Land of Promise ran along the western
portion of Edom proper. In de scribing that line, as it passes
southeasterly from the Dead Sea starting-point into the Wilderness of Zin,
or the Azazimeh moun tain tract (running along the Wacly Feqreh, which
marks the natural boundary of Palestine 1 ), the record is, that it shall
be "from the Wilderness of Zin, along by the coast of Edom ; " 2 or " from
the Wilderness of Zin, which resteth upon the side of Edom." 3 Again it is
said that " the uttermost [or lower border] cities of the children of Judah
toward the coast of Edom south ward [or Negebward]," 4 stretched along as
far westward as Beer- shcba the old home of Esau-Edom. All this is utterly
incom patible with the limitations of Edom to the region east of the
Arabah, but quite consistent with every other indication of the westward
reach of Edom into the Azazimeh, or Muqrah, mountain tract on the west of
the Arabah, from the very earliest mention of that country until its final
annihilation as a distinct power among the peoples of the world.
That the name Edom, in its Greek form " Idumea," extended over the upper
desert south of Palestine in the later centuries
1 Observe the opinions of Williams, Rowlands, Palmer, and others on this
point, at pages 95-97, supra.
2 See Num.34: 1; Josh. 15: 1.
3 Speaker s Commentary rendering. Fries (in Stud. u. Krit. for 1854, p. 77)
has shown that al-yedhee pT~7J^ in Num. 34 : 3, rendered in the King James
Version " along by the coast of," does not, like al-yadh (T~^ V as in Exod.
2:5; Josh. 15: 46; 2 Sam. 15: 2; Dan. 10: 14, signify contact at a single
point, or along a short distance ; but means " along the land of," " on a
long, yea, the whole stretch," as for instance in Judges 11 : 26. This fact
in itself would seem sufficient to show that peath (J"iHpY " quarter of,"
in Num.34: 3, cannot in this instance (as some have elaimed) mean " corner
of," if indeed it ever could have that meaning in a land boundary.
* Josh. 15 : 21-28.
THE BORDER OF EDOM. 101
before the Christian era, and subsequently, is abundantly shown by
references to it in the Apocrypha, the Talmud, and the writings of Pliny,
Josephus, Ptolemy, Jerome, and others. 1 Diodorus Siculus, indeed, speaks
of the Dead Sea as in the centre of the satrapy of Idumea. 2 And, as has
been already noted, all the geographers down to the days of Roland were at
one on this point. So far there is no dispute. The only question raised by
any scholar is, whether the westward stretch of Edom beyond the Arabah was
prior to the period of Judah s captivity. 3 Yet not a particle of evidence
is to be found in favor of the westward limitation of ancient Edom by the
bounds of the Arabah, at any period whatsoever ; while both the Bible text
and the Egyptian records give proof that there was no such limitation in
the days of the conquest of Canaan.
As yet, the precise limits of ancient Edom, westward, cannot be designated
with confidence. It is probable, judging from what we know of ancient
boundaries generally, that these limits were con formed to some marked
natural features of the country. When the Azazimeh, or Muqrah, mountain
tract shall have been care fully explored, such natural features may be
there shown for the marking of the western border of Edom, as have already
been pointed out for the southern border of Canaan. Holland had this in his
mind on the occasion of his latest visit to the desert ; but the same
causes which prevented his following up the search for
1 See Kelaml s Pal., pp. 66-73; Robinson s "Sketches of Idumea," Bib.
Repos. for April, 1833, p. 252 f. ; Conder s Art., " Idumea," in Encyc.
Brit., ninth ed. ; Porter s Art., Edom," in Smith- Ilackett Bib. Die.
2 " Kelrni yap Kara /j.a?}v rf/v crarparre/av TJjg Idovuaia^." (Bk. 19,
chap. 96.)
3 Dean Stanley says (Sinai and Pal., p. 04, note) : "To represent Edom as
extend ing west of the Arabah in the time of Moses, is an anachronism,
borrowed from the times after the Captivity, when the Edomites, driven from
their ancient seats, occupied the South of Judea as far as Hebron; 1 Mace.
5: 65." Rut this charge of anachronism will hardly rest against Moses
himself, and the scribes of Meneptah.
102 KADESH-BARNEA.
the site of Kadesh-barnea stood in the way of his exploring the region in
question for the settlement of Edom s boundary line. Yet he made a
suggestion which may yet prove a valuable one. Findino- the natural break
in the southwestern corner of that great
O O
mountain tract, as already mentioned/ he was led to believe that the
wady-roadway passing up northerly through the mountains toward the southern
border of Palestine " formed the western boundary of Edom." 2 However this
may prove to be in the light of future explorations, it is evident that the
uttermost border of Edom in that direction lay somewhere within that
mountain tract ; and that, therefore, Kadesh-barnea was abo there. 3 And
this is in further confirmation of all that we have before learned of the
probable site of Kadesh.
13. A SWEEP TO GAZA.
An incidental mention of Ivadesh-barnea as a landmark in Joshua s progress
in the conquest of Canaan, will be seen to con form very well with the
other indications of its location. Joshua had captured Lachish and Eglou in
southwestern Canaan. 4 Then, pushing eastward, " Joshua went up from Eglon,
and all Israel with him, unto Hebron ; and they fought against it : and
they took it." 5 And so the old home of their ancestors, with the craves of
o
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, was fairly in the possession of the
Israelites. There is certainly no doubt about the location of Hebron. That
site is fixed beyond a peradveuture.
And from Hebron " Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir ; and
fought against it ; and he took it, and the king thereof, and all the
cities thereof [all the enclosures, or strono--
1 See page 82 /, supra.
* See Holland s report of his journey, in Report of Brit. Assoc. for 1878,
p. 622 ff. 3 Num. 20 : 16. * Josh. 10 : 31-35.
5 Josh. 10: 36, 37.
A SWEEP TO GAZA. 103
holds, 1 thereof] ; ... as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir." As
Joshua had been moving eastward to Hebron, his return from Hebron could not
have been by moving farther east ward or southeastward, it must have been
by a westerly or a south westerly course ; hence Debir (or, Debeer) is to
be sought in that direction from Hebron. And there Debir has been fairly
identified.
Debir is a noteworthy place on many accounts. Its more ancient name is said
to have been Kirjath-sepher, 2 or Book-town, or City of Books; 3 and again
Kirjath-sanuah, 4 or City of Instruc tion; 5 indicating its prominence as a
literary and religious centre. Its later name, Debir, 6 is a term sometimes
applied to the inner sanctuary of a temple, or the seat of a sacred oracle.
And the reference to its outlying strongholds [" cities "], and to its
excep tionally secure fastnesses, would seem to show it as a military
position of importance. After Joshua s first capture of it, it seems to
have been retaken by the sons of Anak, or other formidable
1 The Hebrew word is eer (TT), an " enclosed place," as already shown (see
page 83, supra). It is not to be supposed that there were separate " cities
" connected with Debir ; but it is probable that there were outlying "
enclosures."
2 Josh. 10 : 38, 39 ; 15 : 15 ; Judges 1 : 11.
3 As to this meaning there is no question. See Gesenius and Furst, s. w. "
Qir- jath," "Sepher."
4 Josh. 15 :49.
8 Grove (Smith -Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Debir") and Thomson (South. Pal.,
Land and Book), and some others, render this " City of the Palm ; " but
Schroder (Die Phunizische Sprache, p. 8, note) shows its most probable
meaning as "City of the Law ; " as the Arabic sinnah, " the Law," would
indicate. The Septuagint translates both names, Qirjath-sepher as well as
Qirjath-sannah, by " City of Letters." Nor is Schroder alone in this
rendering.
6 It is a word from a root of varied significations. See Gesenius and
Furst, s. v. "Debeer." Its root meanings include "behind," "inner," "to
speak," etc.; hence it is applied to the inner sanctuary of a temple (see 1
Kings 6 : 5, 19, 22 ; 8 : 6-8 ; 2 Chron. 3 : 16 ; 4 : 7-9) ; or again to
the oracle speaking from the sanc tuary.
104 KADESH-BARNEA.
inhabitants of Canaan; 1 for it was then that Caleb deemed it a prize
worthy of the best efforts of the most heroic, and said : " lie that
smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my
daughter to wife." 2 And Otlmiel, who took the city and won its reward, was
afterwards a judge of Israel, 3 while his city became a city of the
priests. 4
Various sites have been suggested for ancient Dcbir ; nearly all of them,
however, within a few miles range, and all of them westerly or
southwesterly of Hebron. 5 Of late the identification at Dha- hareeyeh, a
somewhat remarkable village on the road from Hebron to Beersheba has gained
confidence, and now has general accept ance. Knobel 5 was perhaps the first
to point to this identification, and Conder, 7 Tristram, 8 and Thomson, 9
strengthened its elaims to approval. Robinson, 10 Wilson, 11 Bitter, 12 and
Palmer, 13 had, before this, emphasized the importance of the site of the
ruins of Dhaha- reeyeh. It is at the junction of the two great roads ; that
from Hebron to Gaza, and that from Hebron to the desert and to Egypt the
"Way of Shur." "A castle or fortress apparently once stood here," says
Robinson ; " the remains of a square tower are still to be seen, now used
as a dwelling;: and the
" O /
.doorways of many hovels are of hewn stone with arches. It would seem to
have been one of the line of small fortresses, which apparently once
existed all along the southern border of Palestine."
It is a remarkable fact that to the present day Dhahareeyeh is counted the
border town of Palestine. The Tecyahah Arabs who
1 Comp. Josh. 10: 38, 39, and Josh. 15: 13-15. 2 Josh. 15 : 16, 17. 3
Judges 3 : 9-11. * Josh. 21 : 9-15.
5 Smith- Uackctt Bib. Dic.,s.v., "Debir"; Schaff-Lange Com. at Josh. 10:
38. 6 As cited in Lange, as above. 7 Tent Work in Pal., II., 93.
8 Bible Placet, p. Gl. 9 South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 299 /.
1 Bib. Res., I., 209-11. n Lands of Bible, I., .349-354.
Georj. oj Pal., III., 193, 288 /. 13 DCS of Exod., II., 391-396.
A SWEEP TO GAZA. 105
convoy the traveler from Castle Naklil toward Hebron are unable to carry
him by Dhahareeyeh ; unless, indeed, a new agreement is made at that point,
by the payment for Dhahareeyeh horses to Hebron, at an added cost beyond
the hire of the Teeyahah camels. As Ritter states it 1 : " The first place
of any importance in Pales tine is the village ed-Dhoheriyeh, five or six
hours southwest of Hebron [Robinson called it four hours. I found it about
four and a half]. It derives its interest from the fact that here converge
the west road leading through Wadi es-Seba and Beersheba, the great highway
to Gaza and Egypt, and the great eastern road from Petra and Sinai." Palmer
2 calls attention to the fact that " Mur ray s Handbook" 3 says of this
important site: "There is nothing here either to interest or detain the
traveler ; " and he adds : " But ... we found it, on the contrary, a very
interesting place. The dwellings consist for the most part of caves cut in
the natural rock, some of them having rude arches carved over the doorways,
and all of them being of great antiquity. . . They are exactly like what
the old Horite dwellings must have been, and have doubtless been inhabited
by generation after generation, since the days of that now forgotten race."
Conder and Thomson would find a resemblance in the meanings of Dhahareeyeh
and Debeer. The latter says : " The Arabic name, edh-Dhoheriyeh, may be
translated ridge or i promontory/ and hence this signification corresponds
with its position, and also with the meaning of the word." 4 Yet Robinson
(or Eli Smith 5 ) ren ders the word as " noon." In fact the Arabic root of
this word is as varied in its significations as its Hebrew correspondent,
Debeer. It means "back," "behind," "backbone," "ridge," " road through the
desert," " summer-noon," " to conquer," " to disclose," etc. 6
1 Geog. of Pal., III., 193. Des. of Exod., II., 39 /. 3 Syria and Pal., p.
99.
* South. Pal. (Land and Book), p. 300. 5 Bib. Res., III., 208, first ed.
6 See Freytag s Lex. Arab. Lrrt., s. v. a fa.
106 KADESH-BARNEA.
Hence, while the correspondence of name is not such as to be in itself
conclusive, there is enough else to render it more than probable that the
important site of Dhahareeyeh is also the site of the im portant ancient
Debir ; and a similarity in the names can easily be found. Yet Dhahareeyeh
as it is to-day, with its mud walls, and its wretched people, its multitude
of dogs, and its many myriads of fleas, has little to suggest the military
stronghold, the literary centre, the sacred metropolis, which once existed
there. But herein is an illustrative contrast between the Land of Promise
as it was, and as it is.
And from Hebron to Debir and beyond, Joshua swept on in his conquering
march. " So Joshua smote all of the hills [the hill- country of Judah], and
of the south [the Xegeb], and of the vale [the Shcphelah], and of the
springs [ the upper springs and the .nether springs, which were added to
Achsah s dowry (Josh. 15 : 17-19), near Debir]. . . . And Joshua smote them
from Kadesh- barnca even unto Gaza." l The only consistent explanation of
this statement is, that Joshua moved along southwesterly from Hebron to
Debir and Kadesh-baruca ; from Hebron to the southernmost point of the
southern boundary-line of Canaan, 2 and thence onward toward Gaza and the
sea-coast. And this explanation coincides with all that has before been
shown as to the location of Kadesh- barnea.
14. THE PROMISED LAND'S SOUTHERN BOUNDARY.
And now for the various mentions of Kadesh-barnea as a boun dary-line
landmark in the Bible story. Both in the incidental refer ences to, and in
the detailed descriptions of, the southern boundary of the Promised Land as
a whole, and again of the possessions of the tribe of Judah (before the
portion of Simeon was taken from them), the location of Kadesh-barnea
conforms to the indica-
i Josh. 10 : 40, 41. a Num. 34 : 4.
THE PROMISED LAND S SO UTHERN BO UNDAR Y. 107
tions already noted, at the same time that it is fixed yet more definitely.
In Numbers 34 : 3-5, Moses declares, from Jehovah, to the Israelites : "
Your south quarter [or, side] shall be [or, extend] from the Wilderness of
Ziii along by the coast [or, boundary] of Edom [or, which resteth upon the
side of Edom]." This general statement of the southern boundary line is
followed by a eloser description of its salient points. " And your south
border shall be [or, shall start from] the outmost coast [or, the
extremity] of the Salt Sea [the Dead Sea] eastward [or, on the east] ; and
your border shall turn from [or, on] the south to [or, of] the Ascent of
Akrabbim, and [shall] pass on to Zin [or, Zinward] ; and the going forth
thereof shall be from the south [or, the extent of its reach on the south
shall be] to Kadesh-barnea [or, south of Kadesh-barnea], and shall go on
[or, shall reach forth thence] to Hazar-addar [or, the village, or
settlement, of Addar], and shall pass on to Azmon [or, Azmonward] ; and the
border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto [or, from Azmon the border
shall turn to] the river of Egypt [or, Wady-of-Egypt-ward], and the goings
out of it shall be at [or, its reach shall be to] the [Mediterranean] Sea
[or, seaward]."
In Joshua 15 : 1-4, this southern boundary line 1 is re-described with more
particularity : " To the border [or, boundary] of Edom, the wilderness of
Zin southward was [or, as] the uttermost part of the south coast." Or, as
some would read this : " On the south, to the border of Edom [their
boundary was], the wilderness of Zin, from the extremity of Teman." 2 This
general descrip tion is followed, as in Numbers, by a detailed one : " And
their
1 The southern boundary of Judah was also the southern boundary of the Land
of Promise as a whole.
1 So, the Arabic translator and Houbigant, as quoted and followed by
Geddes, in his Revision, in loco ; also the Latin Revision of Sebastian
Schmidt. This point will be fully considered farther on.
108 KADESH-BAENEA.
south border [or southern boundary] was from the shore [or, end] of the
Salt Sea, from the bay [or, tongue] that looketh [or, turn- eth, or,
bcndeth] southward [or, Negebward] ; and it went out to the south side to
Maaleh-acrabbim [or, to the southern boundary of the Ascent of Acrabbim],
and passed along to Zin [or, Zimvard], and aseended up on the south side
unto [or, along the south of] Kadesh-barnea, and passed along [or, over] to
Ilczron, and went up to Adar, and fetched a compass [or, turned itself] to
Karkaa; from thence it passed toward Azmou [or, Azmonward], and went out
unto the river [or wady] of Egypt ; and the goings out of that coast [or,
the terminations of the boundary] were at the Sea [or, were seaward]." 1
Now let us follow out this boundary line description in the light of
present knowledge of the region in question. It is to be borne in mind that
this is the southern boundary, not the eastern one ; hence it must be
understood as running, or inclining, wes terly from its very start. The
eastern boundary of the Promised Land ends at the southern extremity of the
Dead Sea ; 2 and there the southern boundary begins its westerly course.
The southern end of the Dead Sea is not a fixed point; for the ex tension
of water in that direction varies greatly at different times ; 3
1 From the very nature of the Hebrew language, the original description of
this boundary line is somewhat vague in its phrasing; but not so as
seriously to becloud its meaning. The alternative readings given above are
all justified by competent scholars; most of them, indeed, are quite
generally agreed on; as maybe seen by re ferring to the Sepluagint, Critici
Sacri, Pool s S /nop. of Grit., Speaker s Com., Schnff-Lange Com., Keil and
Delitzsch s Bib. Com. Knobel s Exerjet. Handb., Horsley s Bib. Crit.,
Geddes , Sharpe s.Wellbeloved s and Leescr s Revisions, Bush s Notes on
Num., Crosby s Notes on Josh., etc. 2 Num. 34 : 10-12 ; Josh. 15 : 5.
3 Lieut. Lynch (Expedition to Jordan and Dead Sea, p. 309) says : The
southern end of the sea ... is ever varying, extending south from the
increased flow of the Jordan, and the efflux of the torrents in winter, and
receding with the rapid evapor ation, consequent upon the heat of summer."
See also Irby and Mangles s Travels, p. 353 /. ; Van de Velde s Syrien u.
Pal., II., 136 /.; Tristram s Land of Israel, pp. 300, 331, 337.
THE PROMISED LAND S SOUTHERN BOUND AR Y. 109
but it is sufficiently definite for a starting point of an exten sive
boundary line. 1 Leaving the southern end of the Dead Sea, the boundary
line moves westerly. The first landmark noted in that direction is a hill
range designated as the Ascent of Akrabbim ; or the Ascent, or the Pass, of
Scorpions, as it is com monly understood. Looking westerly from the
southern end of the Dead Sea, what range would seem to meet the requirement
of this designation? South of the Dead Sea, at a distance of eight miles,
more or less, is a " line of eliffs crossing the whole Ghor, and
constituting merely the ascent to the higher plane of the Arabah;" 2 or,
possibly forming a natural barrier to the encroaching waters of the Dead
Sea, at their greatest height. 3 " In the absence of any better
suggestion," Robinson was " inclined to regard " this eliff- range as the
Ascent of Akrabbim ; and in this suggested identifi cation, as in many
another, Robinson has been generally followed by subsequent writers. But
this low line of eliffs, this mere basin-wall, 4 is directly south of the
southern end of the Dead Sea, if, indeed, it is not itself the boundary of
the tongue of that sea ; and it does not seem to be in the line of a
southern
1 De Saulcy (Dead Sea, I., 250 /.) would identify the peninsula on the east
shore of the Dead Sea, which is known as El-Lisan (the Tongue), with "the
tongue that turn- eth southward " in this description. But although the
name itself would seem to give weight to this suggestion, Grove has pointed
out (in Smith-Hackctt Bib. Die., Art. "Salt Sea") the fact that the Hebrew
word lashon (f 1 ^) here rendered " tongue," is in two other instances
(Josh. 15 : 5 ; 18 : 19) applied to the upper end of the Dead Sea, and
clearly means a tongue of water, not of land ; also that the term " Lisan "
is probably given to only the southern portion of the peninsula which
verges on the tongue of the sea southward. In Isaiah 11 : 15, lashon is
applied to the " tongue " or arm of " the Egyptian sea." Thus we see that
in the three places where the meaning of this word in the Bible text is
obvious, it is applied to a tongue of water; and it is certainly fair to
give it that meaning in the fourth instance.
2 Bib. Res-, II., 120. 3 See Irby and Mangles s Travels, p. 353.
* Indeed if the Dead Sea were at its greatest height, these "cliffs" would
be at the water s edge; and then what would the "scorpions" do for a
elimbing place ?
110 KADESH-BARNEA.
boundary. It would certainly be well to look for a " better sug gestion." 1
It has already been shown 2 that the apparent natural boundary of Canaan,
or Palestine, on the south, is the mountain-range which forms the northern
wall of Wady Fcqrch ; " the Bald Mountain that goetli up to Seir." 3 It is
certainly reasonable to suppose that this natural boundary is designated in
this instance, as in the other, 4 in the description of the southern coast
of the Land of Promise ; especially when the description here accurately
conforms to this prominent landmark.
To one looking from the southern end of the Dead Sea, 5 the open mouth of
this Wady Feqrch shows itself prominently, in a southwesterly direction,
between the southern end of Khashni Usdum (the Hill of Sodom, sometimes
called the Salt Mountain,) on the right hand, and the northern or
northwestern end of the low basin-wall to which Robinson has called
attention, on the left hand. A southern boundary-line, which is to run
westerly, and which is to pass south of, 6 rather than over, the designated
Ascent of Akrabbim, would therefore properly be supposed to enter this
great dividing wady, which runs south of the already recognized
1 A crowning illustration of Robinson s controlling influence over modern
scholar ship in his field, is given in his ability to induce so many to
accept his suggestion that a southern boundary runs north and south. The
English-speaking world has been almost a unit on this point since he made
the suggestion as his only way of adapting the Bible record to his site of
Kadesh-barnea ; although he did not even proffer an argument in its
support.
2 See pages 95-97, supra. 3 Josh. 11 : 17 ; 12 : 7.
4 The references to this mountain-wall, in Joshua, would seem to indicate
it as the southern limit of " all that land, the hills, and all the South
Country.
5 See the Map of Dead Sea, in Tristram s Land of Israel.
6 Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com., IV. 151) render Joshua 15 : 3, " To the
southern boundary of the ascent of Akrabbim. 1 See, also Schaff-Lange Bib.
Com., in loco. Horsley (Bib. Grit.) renders Num. 34: 4, " And your southern
border shall go round by the Hills of Scorpions." Geddes (Revision) renders
it, Winding about the south side of Akrabbim."
THE rE OMISED LAND S SO UTIIERN B UNDAR Y. l\\
southern coast-wall of the land to be bounded. In this case, the Ascent of
Akrabbim might be looked for along the northern wall of "Wady Feqreh the
Bald Mountain wall. The Pass es-Sufah, already named as a principal pass of
that wall-rampart, has been suggested, 1 with some show of probability, as
the Ascent of Akrabbim; 2 yet the more westerly Pass el- Yemen, up the same
hillside, has, perhaps, superior elaims to this identification, both in its
position and in its name as will be seen in its farther exami nation. It is
possible that in the days of the exodus the range as a whole was known as
the Mount Halak, and its westerly pass as the Ascent of Akrabbim.
Even the word " Akrabbim " may have had reference to the characteristics of
the Ascent, or Pass, or Maaleh ; characteristics which are evident to-day
as always. The word is commonly translated "Scorpions," and the suggestion
is that scorpions abounded there. But while the Hebrew root is not entirely
clear, it seems to have the idea of " wounding the heel," 3 which is the
work of both the scorpion and the serpent ; 4 and from that point the
Hebrew root and its Arabic correspondents run out into various meanings,
including " scorpion," " scourge," " striking," " cutting off," " centre,"
" defile," " mountain pass." It was long ago suggested that the Ascent of
Akrabbim was rather a descrip tive designation than a proper name ; that it
indicated a serpentine or sinuous ascent ; a way that winds and twists
scorpion-like. 5 It
1 See Rowlands, in Imp. Bib. Die., s. v., " Moserah " ; Knobel s Exegct.
Handb., at Josh. 15 : 3 : and Speaker s Com., at Num. 34 : 4.
2 The reference to " Akrabattine," in Idumea, in 1 Mace. 5 : 3, would seem
to cor respond with this view.
3 Gesenius, (Ileb. Lex., s. v. "Agrab") thinks that it is "compounded from
aqar ppT) to wound, and aqeb pp.?) heel. "
4 "Thou shalt bruise his [man s] heel," is God s prophecy to the serpent in
Eden (Gen. 3: 15.)
5 See citations in Pool s Synops. Crit., from Vatablus, Emanuel Si, and
Mariana, of say three centuries ago. Fiirst (Reb. and Chald. Lex., s. v. "
Aqrab ") finds the idea of a sinuous course in the word itself.
112 KADESII-BARNEA.
is a noteworthy fact that Robinson says 1 of a similar difficult ascent at
another point : " The ascent is called simply en-Nukb, or el- Arkiib, both
signifying the pass up a mountain; and our guides knew no other name. The
road rises by zig-zags along the projecting point of a steep ridge, between
two deep ravines." The word Arkub, or Arqoob, here used, is apparently from
the same root as aqrab. Its meaning is given 2 not only as " a tortuous
wady course," and "a mountain defile," 3 but as the proper name of an
Amalekite "celebrated for breaking and eluding his promises" slipping and
twisting from the straight way of veracity. 4
This Pass el-Yemen is the more commonly used pass, up the Bald Mountain
border of Palestine. It was described first, in modern times, by Seetzcn, 5
in 1807. Robinson 6 says of it, in comparison with the two passes eastward
of it: " Of the three passes, that of Es-Sufuh is the most direct ; but
that of El- Yemen, though the way is longer, is more used on account of the
water at the top ; " good water being there found in unfailing supply : and
of course a water supply would always give the pre-eminence to a pass on
the desert border. The location of the Pass el-Yemen is, northward, over
against the supposed westerly stretch of the land of Edom," or the Dukedom
of Toman, 8 and its Arabic name, El-
l Bi!>. Res., I., 175. 2 Frcytag s Lex. Arab. Lat., s.v.
3 There is apparently a root connection with this word Arqoob, in the name
Aqaba, meaning "a descent or steep declivity," which is applied to "the
long and difficult descent of the Haj route from the western mountain"
toward the gulf which has received the name Aqabah from this reason. (See
Robinson s Jlib. lies., I., 171 ; Stanley s Sinai and Pal., pp. 10, 84;
Winer s Bib. Rwlivortcrb., s. v. " Elath.")
4 Pococke (Descrip. of East, II., 1, 123) refers to the "Acrabane or
Serpentine River, which goes out of the Barrady in the field of Damascus."
And this mention is noted by Koehler in his annotations to Ibn ol Wardi s
"Do Terra Syria?/ (in Abnlfeda s Tab. Syr., p. 175.) The river referred to
is Nahr el-Aqrabani (See Bae leker s Pal. and Syr., p. 48.)
tReiAc.n III., 7-14; also in Zach s monatl. Corr. XVII., pp. 133-13S, as
cited by Robinson. *Jtib. Res. II., 182.
7 See pages, 100-1 02 ; supra. 8 See page 107, supra ; also Gen. 36 : 9-15.
THE PR OMISED LAND S SO UTHERN B UNDAR Y. 113
Yemen (" the right hand,") has a meaning correspondent with the Hebrew name
Teman (" at the right hand.") Moreover, it is just southward of that Pass
el- Yemen that a turn would naturally be made in a boundary line that had
followed the border of Edom and was to hinge for a yet more southerly
stretch in its onward sweep ; for standing out all by itself in the wady
which is being followed as the boundary line, or rather at the confluence
of two other wadies with that one, there is a notable mountain, Jebel
Madurah, around the northwestern side of which the boundary line would turn
to move on to its southernmost point, conformably to the directions already
quoted from the Bible text. As it is the boundary line of Canaan which is
being described, the turning point is naturally noted on the Canaan line
rather than on the mountain below it ; but the one conforms to the other.
In addition to all this, there seems to be a trace of the old name Akrabbim
still attached to the Pass el-Yemen. Wilson, 1 who went up the Pass el-
Yemen understood from the Arabs that its name was " "Wadi er-Rakib,"
although he afterwards thought that they might have said "Arkub." But
Robinson 2 had before this been told of a Pass er-Rakib in that direction,
although he did not find it, or learn more about it. In either form of the
word 3 there is an apparent trace of the name Akrabbim.
This Pass el- Yemen, or er-Rakib, or Arqoob, is described 4 as " a deep
rent " in the western end of the lofty Bald Mountain, 5 a
1 Lands of Bible, L, 341. 2 Bib. Res. I., 208.
3 The transposition of consonants is very common in Semitic languages ; so
that often an anagram fairly gives a trace of a word which can be formed of
its conso nants. On this point, see Rodiger-Davidson s Gesenius s Heb.
Gram., chap. II., $ 19 (5.) Nor is the substitution of a Kaf (as in Rakib)
for a Qaf (as in Arqoob) at all uncommon.
* Robinson s Bib. Res. II., 178-182.
5 "Here [at this chasm, El-Yemen] the higher portion of the ridge [of the
barrier wall of Palestine] may be said to terminate; for although it
continues to run on far to the southwest, yet it is there lower and less
steep." (Robinson s Bib. Res,, II., 178.)
114 KADESII-BARNEA.
"chasm" which "cleaves the mountain to its base." The "as cent " enters "
the gorge of "SVady el-Yemen ; and following it up for a time, then elimbs
the wall of rock by a steep and difficult path. Seetzen 1 describes this
wady as a frightfully wild, deep, and desert valley, strewed with large
rocks so thickly, that it is often difficult to find a way between them."
And if that is not a description of a smitten, riven, tortuous,
treacherous, heel-wound ing Maaleh Akrabbim, it would be difficult to frame
one.
At the Ascent of Akrabbim, as has been already noted the boundary line is
said to "turn," or hinge, 2 and pass on Zin- ward. 3 In other words, the
line still running westerly, takes a more southerly 4 bearing from the part
of this Ascent of Akrabbim, and passes onward into the Azazimeh mountain 5
tract until it reaches Kadesh-barnea, which is the extent of its southern
reach "the southernmost point of the southern boundary." 6 At the southern
most point there must be, of course, another turn north of west erly if the
line be continued ; and we are told that from Kadesh-
1 In Zach s Monatl. Corr. XVII., p. 134 /. ; also Bertou, in Bull, de la
Soc. Geog., June 1839, p. 323 ; both cited by Robinson as above.
2 The IIebrew word subhalh (330") in Numbers 34: 4, translated "turn,"
means to turn as on a hinge (See Gesenius s Jlcb. Lex. s. v.).
3 See page 107 /, supra.
The alternative rendering "from the extremity of Tcman," as the starting
point of the Zimvard turn, referred to at page 107 /, supra, is more
appropriately considered in connection with the restatement of the southern
boundary in Ezekiel, as treated far ther on in this work.
4 Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com., III., 251 /,) argue that a point farther
south than Wady Feqreh was the exit from the Arabah of this boundary line,
on the ground that the "turn," or hinge, at the Ascent of Akrabbim must
have been from a south erly direction to a more westerly one. But they,
like so many others following Rob inson in this, have made the mistake of
supposing that the southern boundary line of the Land of Promise began by
running southward instead of westerly. The line, we may take it for
granted, started westerly, and at the Ascent of Akrabbim made a turn
southerly. A hinge is as truly a hinge when it turns from right to left as
when it turns from left to right.
5 See page 70, /, supra. 6 Speaker s Com., at Num. 34: 4.
THE PROMISED LAND S SOUTHERN BOUNDARY. 115
barnea it reaches forth, or passes along, to Hazar-addar, and thence to
Azmon, and on to the river (or torrent) of Egypt which it follows to its
termination at the Mediterranean Sea ; the coast of that sea bounding the
Land of Promise on the west.
The " River of Egypt," or the "Torrent of Egypt," here men tioned is not
the Nile, but the extended water course now known as Wady el- Areesh, 1
which runs northward through the Desert of the Wanderings, dividing it into
eastern and western halves, 2 or which, more properly, may be said to
separate the Desert et-Teeh from the Desert el-Jefar 3 the Desert of the
Wanderings on the east, from the Desert of Shur 4 on the west. Its outlet
into the Mediterranean is at a point a short distance south of a line drawn
due west from the southern end of the Dead Sea. The Nile was rather the
centre of Egypt than its boundary; and Egypt was never a part of the Land
of Promise. But the Wady el- Areesh is now and always has been a recognized
northeasterly boundary line of Egypt, at the point of that wady s outgoing,
into the Great Sea. The very name Areesh means "boundary," or "extremity."
5
."The Torrent of Egypt [D ^VO 7T1J Nakhal Mitsraim]; by which name is
designated a certain brook, dried up in summer, which falls into the sea
not far from [ancient] Rhinocorura, now \(J"~?. /-* / El Areesh, on the
confines of Egypt and Palestine. [This stream is] not to be confounded with
/"D^YO "1HJ I } Nehar Mitsraim, the River of Egypt; that is the Nile."
(Rosenmiiller s Bib. Alterth., III., C5-77.)
2 " The desert is divided into two halves, an eastern and a western, by the
Wady el- Arish (called in the Old Testament brook of Egypt, by the Greeks,
Rhinokolura ) which runs completely from north to south." (Kurtz s Hist, of
Old Cov., III., 193.)
3 " The Arabians . . . strictly distinguish the desert Jefar ( \Lfl.^.)
from the desert of the Children of Israel ((J^-Ji /-* 15-*-? ^J/.The former
still belongs to Egypt, and its boundaries run from Rafah (^ )\ the P0a of
Ptolemy, V. 16. 6), along the bank of the Mediterranean Sea to the sea
Tennis ((J**^- 5 ) from thence to the fruitful meadows of the Nile valley
along to Kolzum, and by the Desert et-Teeh, back to the Mediterranean
(Tuch, in Jour, of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 88.)
* See page, 57 f, supra.
5 In Coptic, APH.X (Thebaic), or AYPHX (Memphitic), means extremity, end,
tip, etc. The first of these forms may be translated Araj ; the second
Auraj ; either of which might be Arabicized into Areesh.
116 KADESH-BARNEA.
The Septuagint translators, at their work in Egypt twenty centu ries ago,
recognized in this wady the torrent which separated Egypt from the Land of
Promise ; l and the latest secular writers on Egypt recognize this same
boundary between the Egypt and the Palestine of to-day. 2 The Samaritans,
as well as the Jews, held that Wady el- Areesh was the old-time boundary of
the Land of Promise Egyptward; 3 and an ancient tradition eyen located the
original division of the countries of the world by lot, among the sons of
Noah at the site of El- Arecsh. 4 That the "Torrent of
Egypt," 5 named as the western portion of the southern boundary
1 In the Septuagint Nakhal Mitsraim is rendered : "Winter torrent of Egypt
" (Xa/zdppow Aiyinrrov), in Num. 3-1: 5; "Ravine of Egypt" (4>dpa}f
Alyv-rov), in Josh. 15: 4; "River of Egypt 1 (Uora/iog A.r/i-Tov j, in 1
Kings 8: 65; and " Rhinocoroura" ( Pivonnpo vpa), in Isa. 27 : 12.
Diodorus (Bib. Hist., Bk. I., Chap. 60), in describing the origin of
Rhinocoroura (Dock-nose-town) by its settlement with criminals whose noses
had been cut off, says distinctly : " That [town] is situated on the common
boundary line of Egypt and Syria. 1 And Diodorus lived more than half-way
back from our day to Joshua s.
2 McCoan, in his Egypt As It Is (p. 2), says : " Egypt proper is bounded
definitely enough on the . . . east by a line drawn from El-Arish to Akabah
; " and again (p. 65), in describing the former place : " In size merely a
fort and a village, El- Arish owes its rank as a mohafza [having a distinct
city government] to its position as the frontier town between Syria and
Palestine. The little river of the same name [He calls it a river, as our
translators called it], which here forms the actual boun dary, is dry
during the greater part of the year, but after the rains it empties into
the Mediterranean a tolerably rapid, though narrow stream." And the
Archduke Lud- wig Salvator (in his Caravan Route between Eyypt and Syria,
p. 30) says: El- Harish is the town of the desert which forms the most
advanced post of the Khedive in the direction of Turkish territory."
3 Wilson (Lands of Bible, II., 52) reports the Samaritan high priest as
saying to him about Solomon : " Why, do you not know that his kingdom
extended from El- Arish to Damascus; and from the Great Sea to the
Euphrates?"
4 Sir Walter Raleigh says (Hist, of World, Pt. I., Bk. II., Chap. 10, ? 2)
that " Epiphanius reports it as a tradition, that at this place
[Rhinocorura, now El-Arish] the world was divided by lot betweene the three
sonnes of Xoah."
5 Fiirst, in his Illustrated Bible, in a note on Ezekiel 47 : 19, calls
attention to the fact that Epiphanius, the ecclesiastical apologist, speaks
of the Wady el- Areesh as " Xakhal " simply : and this would seem a
confirmation of the view of so many
THE PROMISED LAND S SO UTHERN B UNDAR Y. 117
of the Land of Promise is Wady el- Areesh, would indeed seem to be put
beyond fair questioning.
The boundary-line landmarks named between Kadesh-barnea and the Torrent of
Egypt have not yet been so identified as to find general acceptance ; but
this is of minor importance except in con firmation of the other
identifications. The eastern, central, and western points of the southern
boundary line being fixed, the intermediary points can easily be located. I
think I shall be able to make them clear by a report, farther on, of my
researches in that region; but that is not essential just here. "Azmon" is
apparently identified in the Jewish Targums 1 with the modern Qasaymeh, a
group of springs, or pools, a little to the northeast of Jebel Muwuylih,
near the great caravan route the Way of Shur between Egypt and Syria,
already several times referred to. And enough is shown in the
identifications which are conclusive, to prove that Kadesh-barnea is in the
heart of the Azazimeh moun tain tract, at some point south of a line drawn
from the southern end of the Dead Sea to the mouth of Wady el- Areesh ; and
this agrees with all that has before appeared concerning its probable
location.
A point which ought to receive attention in the boundary-line description
in Joshua, is the reference to Teman as the portion of Edom lying next to
the Wilderness of Zin. As has already been mentioned, 2 the phrase
translated (Joshua 15 : 1), " The Wilder ness of Zin southward was the
uttermost part of the south coast,"
scholars, that the simple word "Na.kh.al, in this passage of Ezekiel, means
the Torrent [of Egypt]. Professor Palmer (as above) inclines to the opinion
that the name " is still perpetuated in the fort of Nakhl," in mid-desert;
although that fort has been commonly understood to be the Fortress of the
Palms, from the Arabic (Nakhl, (J.-icvj "palm-trees"), rather than from the
Hebrew (Nakhal, ;HJ "torrent").
1 Both the Jerusalem and the Pseudo-Jonathan Targums render " Azmon," at
Num. 34 : 5, as Qesam (DD p).
* See page 107, supra.
118 KADESH-BARNEA.
might more properly be rendered, " The Wilderness of Zin south ward, from
the extremity of Tcmau." 1 This is the view taken by the Arabic translator,
by Houbigant, Geddcs, Masius, 2 Sebastian Schmidt, and others. Indeed a
restatement of the boundary line in Ezekiel makes this quite clear, in the
light of the Septuagint explanatory addition just there. As Crosby 3 says
concerning the phrase in Joshua : " Teman means south, it is true, but as
the writer has just used negeb for south/ and uses it immediately again in
verse 2, it is almost certain that he here means Teman for the country of
Teman."
" Teman " 4 is a Hebrew term meaning literally " what is on the right
hand," 5 or "the right hand place;" hence "the southern quarter." As a
proper name, it is applied to a region or district of Edom, 6 and also to
the progenitor of the people of that region. 7 As in the case of the word "
Xegeb," which designated the arid land southward of Canaan, receiving its
meaning of southward from its position Canaanward ; so in the case of
Teman, it was probably the portion of Edom which lay directly south, or
Teman- ward, of Canaan. 8 This being so, it is to be understood that the
1 The Hebrew word Taimau (p rtt, or Teman, like the word Negeb, although a
proper name, is frequently used in the Old Testament as an indication of a
point of the compass southward.
2 Cited in Pool s Synops. Crit. 3 Notes on Joshua, in loco.
4 Taiman (j^V 5 See Geseuius, Heb. Lex., s. v.
6 See Gen. 36 : 34 ; Jer. 49 : 7, 20 ; Ezek. 25 : 13 ; Amos 1:12; Obad. 9 ;
Hab. 3 : 3.
7 Gen. 36: 11, 15; 1 Chron. 1: 53.
8 Every passage in which a reference to Teman occurs, in the Bible, is
consistent with this understanding of its location. In Ezek. 25: 13, it
seems to be named as if it were the western side of Edom, as over against
Dedan on the east; in Amos 1 : 12, it is put, as if in the southwest, over
against Bozrah in the northeast ; in Obadiah 9, it is set over against
Mount Seir ; and in Habakkuk it is used as a parallelism with Mount Paran.
Moreover, there even seems to be a trace of the old name in the Pass
el-Yemen (the Pass of the Right, or the Pass of the South, or the Pass
which is over against Teman), which goes out from Wady Feqreh northward, up
the Bald Moun tain, over against aucieut Teman as we find Teman referred to
in this boundary line
THE PR OMISED LAND 1 S SO UTHERN B UNDAR Y. 1 1 9
southern boundary line of the Land of Promise ran along the border of Edom,
or Teman, until it reached the western extremity of that border, whence it
ran Zinward toward Kadesh.- barnea, " southwards from the extremity of
Teman."
Once more is the southern boundary of the Promised Land accurately
described, in Ezekiel s prophecy of its re-establishment, and that in such
a way as to throw added light on the place of Kadesh-barnea, between the
eastern and western limits of that boundary. Beginning at the north, the
prophet describes the boundary lines, by way of the east around the whole
compass. 1 Ending the eastern boundary at the Dead Sea, 2 he outlines the
southern boundary with a few salient landmarks, instead of giving all the
details supplied in Numbers and Joshua.
"And the south side southward [or, on the south Teman ward]; from Tamar
[or, Thamar], even to [or, as far as] the waters of strife in Kadesh [or,
the waters of Meribah-Kadesh], 3 the river [or, torrent ward] to the Great
Sea [or, the inheritance (reaches) to the Great Sea]. And this is the south
side southward 4 [or, the south side, Temauward]." 3
of southern Canaan. As to the Pass el-Yemen, see Robinson s Bib. Res., II.,
178, 179, 182; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 291,416. As to Teman, see
Wilton s The Negeb, pp. 123-126. See also page 107, supra. 1 Ezekiel 47 :
13-21. 2 Ezekiel 47 : 18. 3 Num. 20 : 13 ; 27 : 14 ; Deut. 32 : 51.
4 The use of the word Temanward has already been considered (see page 118,
supra) in connection with the boundary line as recorded in Joshua. In the
Septu- agint, the phrase pros Noton kal Liba (frpof Ndroi/ /cat A//3a),
corresponding here with the Hebrew Neghebh Taimanah /rUTFj 3JJY rendered in
our version * south side southward," is supplemented by apo Thaiman (O.TTO
Qaifiav}, "from [or, along] Teman," the Teman (Taiman) of the Hebrew text
being reduplicated in the Greek, thus indicating the opinion of the Seventy
that in this instance, at least, the proper name Teman was intended as a
boundary-line landmark. The Genevan Bible reads, "And the south side shalbe
toward Teman." Van Dyck s Arabic Bible renders : " And this is the side of
Temin southward.
5 See, also, Ezek. 48 : 28.
For various readings here suggested, and for their discussion, see
Schaff-Lange
120 KADESH-BARNEA.
Apparently, three principal points arc here designated on the line of the
southern boundary ; one at the eastern end, one in the centre, one at the
western end, between the extreme bounds of the Dead Sea and the
Mediterranean ; Tharaar at the east, Kadesh- barnea in the centre, the
Torrent of Egypt at the west. This is what would scein to accord with the
method of Ezekiel in his running anew of the entire boundary line of the
Holy Land from the north by way of the east, around again to his starting
point.
Thamar was probably a town at or near the southern end of the Dead Sea,
which had come into existence, or into prominence, between the days of
Joshua and Ezekiel, and therefore had men tion by the latter and not by the
former. Ptolemy, 1 in an enu meration of the towns of Judea west of the
Jordan, names as the most southerly town in his list, " Thamaro," which he
locates by his somewhat indefinite latitude and longitude 2 corresponding
very nearly with the lower end of the Dead Sea. Eusebius 3 refers to "a
certain Thamara, a village distant a day s journey from Mapsis, 4 as you go
from Hebron to Ailam, where [at Thamara] is now a
Com. ; Speaker s Cum. ; Ilengstenberg s Com. on Ezck. ; Hitzig s Der
Prophet Ezekiel; Etc.
1 Gcofj. Bk. V., chap. 16, 8.
2 This is Ptolemy s note of it:
"Qauapu . . . , . f ^ 7.5,
Thamaro G6i 31
or G6 20 31 Roland, in his Palxstina in quoting this gives the latitude at
30ij.
3 In his Onomast. s. v. "Asason Thamar."
4 Jerome hero substitutes "Mempsis." Robinson (Bib. Res., II., 201 /.),
thinks that the place meant was the "Malatha" of Josephus (Antiq. Bk. IS,
chap. 6, ? 2) the "Moladah" of the Old Testament (Josh. 15: 20; 19: 2; 1
Chron. 4: 28: Neh. 11: 26.) The site of this place he would identify in the
modern el-Milh or Tell Milh; and Wilton (The Negeb pp. 109-114,) sustains
him in this identification. Wilson (Lands of Bible, I., 347) and Tristram
(Bible Places, p. 19) also accept it.
THE PR OMISED LAND S SO UTHERN B UNDAR Y. 121
garrison of [Roman] soldiers." 1 Roland, 2 in mentioning " Tha- maro " of
Ptolemy, says, " Possibly it is the same as Thamara " [of Eusebius] ; and
lie adds that it is given as " Thamaro," at this place, in the Peutinger
Tables. 3 Roland makes the mistake in which ho has boon followed by many of
supposing that Eusebius locates Thamara at a " day s journey from Hebron as
you go to Aila;" whereas the latter says it is a day s journey from Mapsis
[or Malatha ; or, Moladah] ; " and Eusebius elsewhere shows that Malatha
[Mapsis ?] is sixteen miles, or a short day s journey, from Hebron. 4
Thamara is a day s distance from this place. Menke, 5 in his map carefully
plotted from the Onomasticon, locates " Mal atha " on the road from Hebron
to Aila, and " Thamara " on the Dead Sea near its lower end, about a day s
journey eastward. In his maps, from Ptolemy and the Peutinger Tables and
later sources, he identifies " Thamaro " with " Thamara ; " and " Maps "
and "Mapsis" with " Malatha." There would seem little reason
i The text of the Onomasticon is: Aaairw Qauap, evda KO.TUKOVV ol
Auoppaloi, XoJopAo} d / uop, napaKSiTai rfj CPV//CJ KdJtf^f. teytrai 61
n<; Qapapa nup] i^ikpaq odov, airiovruv OTTO X/?pwv eif Al2.au, rjri.^
viiv <ppovpt6v ian ~uv crpanuruv.
Jerome renders this: Asason Thamar, in hac habitabant quondam Amorrhxi,
quos interfecit Chodorlagomor ; inxta eremum Cades, est et aliud castellum
Ttiamara; unites diet itinere a Mampsis oppido separatum, pergentibus
Ailiam de Chelron, ubi nunc Romanum prxsidlum positum est.
*Palxstina, p. 1031.
s The Tabula Peutingcriana is a chart of the military roads of the Roman
empire, with the distances noted between the towns. Its date is of the
third or fourth centu ries of our era.
* Apafid, Tronic Afioppaiuv irapaKtipivT] ry ip7jfj.wKa7MVfj.ivri
Kd<W)?f KOI kcnv f( f in vvv Kuur] arto Te-dprov cr/fitiov Ma/laai?/,
rffq de X/?pa>v d~b eitioai, 0v/l^f lot Ja. (Onomast. s. v. "Arama.")
"Arama (Arad) : A city of the Amorites, lying near to the desert called
Kaddes, and there is there even now a village at the fourth milestone from
Malatha, but the twentieth from Hebron, in the tribe of Judah."
5 In his Bibdatlas.
122 KADESH-BARNEA.
for doubting that the Thamar of Ezckicl is the Thamaro of Ptolemy and the
Tliaraara of Euscbius, a town located near the southern end of the Dead
Sea, on its western shore ; l and that this was the newly named starting
point of the southern boundary line of the Holy Land.
Robinson 2 has proposed to identify the ruins of Kurnub, on the hills above
Es-Sufah, with the Thamar of Ezekiel ; but his ar^u-
/ O
meuts on that point have been more than met by later inves tigators. 3 De
Saulcy 4 would find the remains of Thamar on the shore of the Dead Sea, at
the mouth of AVady Mubugheek, (which he calls Ouad el-Maist Embarrheg,) and
in this he is followed by Wilton ; but Tristram, 5 with more reason, would
see these remains at the mouth of Wady Zuwayrah, nearer the lower end of
the sea, where Bcrtou 6 and De Saulcy thought they found traces of ancient
Zoar. In the line of Tristram s identification, is the mediaeval mention 7
of a place known as "Palmar," "Palmer," or "Paurn- ier " (nearly the
equivalent of " Thamar " the Palm) in this im mediate region ; and, in
Meuke s map of the Holy Land in the time of the Crusades, " Palmer " is
laid down as at the lower end of the Dead Sea.
But, whichever of these elosely adjacent sites be accepted as the place of
ancient Thamar, there can hardly be a question that Eze kiel takes that
place near the Dead Sea, as the eastern 8 starting
1 See Hengstenberg s Com. on Ezek.; Schaff-Lanye Com.; Speaker s Com. in
loco; also Imp. Bib. Die., s. v. "Kadesh."
*Bib. Res., II., 197-202.
3 See Keil s Com. on Ezck., Schaff-Lange Com. and Speaker s Com., all in
loco; also Van de Velde s Syrien u. Pal., II., 146, and Wilton s The Neyeb,
pp. 94-97.
* Dead Sea, I., 210-212. 5 Land of Israel, p. 322.
6 Referred to by Robinson, in Bib. Res., appendix to Vol. II., first
edition, p. 661 /.
Von Raumer s Pal., p. 189.
8 Robinson having a theory to sustain, as to the site of Kadesh-barnca, and
having fixed upon Kurnub as the site of Thamar, speaks (Bib. Res., IT.,
202) of "the Tha mar of the prophet Ezekiel, from which the southern border
of the land was to be
THE PROMISED LANDS SOUTHERN BOUNDARY. 123
point of the southern boundary line of the restored Holy Land ; Kadesh as
the central and southernmost point of that line ; and the Torrent of Egypt,
with its outlet into the Mediterranean, as its western point. This would
seem to fix Kadesh- barnea as midway between the lower end of the Dead Sea
and the mouth of Wady el- Areesh ; but at a place in the Azazimeh mountain
tract further south than a line drawn directly between the two termini.
This again corresponds with all that we have before learned of its probable
site, and gives added data for its fixing.
The wedge shape of this southern boundary line, as here de scribed with
Kadesh-barnea as its lower point conforms to all the southern boundary
lines of the Peninsula of Sinai. 1 The peninsula itself is wedge shaped. "
The desert of Et Tih is a limestone plateau of irregular surface, the
southern portion of which projects wedge-wise into the Sinaitic Peninsula."
2 Again the southern line of the Azazimeh mountain plateau "projects
[wedge-wise] into the Tih, much in the same way as the Tih pro jects into
Sinai." 3 Finding these three natural boundary lines one above another, we
are prepared, in looking for a fourth line, above
measured, on one side to Kadesh, and on the other to the western sea." But
this suggestion of a start in the middle, and a working in both directions,
Wilton ( The Negeb, p. 97) characterizes as a "most unnatural gloss."
Ilengstenberg (Com. on Ezek., p. 479) says that it leads to an "unnatural
assumption, . . . against which all analogy speaks."
1 " Rashi " ( al ha-Turah, at Num. 34: 3) speaks of Egypt and Edom as
pressing on the southern boundary of Palestine ; as the wedge shape of that
boundary would indicate.
2 Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 284.
Major II. E. Palmer, in his Sinai (p. 4 /.), after defining the area of the
triangular peninsula " of Sinai, goes on to say : " The lufty desert
table-land of the Tih, which occupies the whole space between the Red Sea
and the Mediterranean, projects boldly southward into this area in such a
manner as to form, roughly speaking, a second triangle, interior to the
first, and resting on the same base, with its apex at or near the centre of
the large one."
3 Palmer s DCS. of Exod., II., 289.
124 KADESH-BARNEA.
these three, to recognize it in a natural outline parallel to them all, as
made by Wady Feqreh on the east and Wady el- Areesh on the west, with
Kadesh-barnea as its southernmost angle ; and as described so fully in
Numbers, Joshua, and Ezekiel. A natural boundary line of this description
is certainly more in accordance with all the boundary lines of Bible lands,
than would be an abrupt horizontal line striking across mountain and wady,
from sea to sea ; for " the natural boundaries of the geographer are rarely
described by right lines."
15. SELA PETRA THE ROCK.
There is one more Bible reference to Kadesh-barnea as a boun dary-line
landmark which may prove a help to its locating; and that is in Judges
1:36, where it appears under the name of The Rock a name which recalls one
of its distinctive natural features, and also one of the most momentous
incidents in its varied history as a locality. 1 " And the coast [or,
border] of the Amorites," says the Hebrew historian, in telling of the
struggle for that enemy s subjugation, " was from the going up to Akrabbim
[or, from Maaleh- Akrabbim 2 ], from The Rock, and upward [or, north
ward]."
The Hebrew word here translated Rock, is SeVa; z the same word as that
which appears in the Bible for the first time, and there five times over,
in the narrative of the murmuring for water, and of the miracle for its
supply, at Kadesh-barnea. It is a dif ferent word from that translated
"rock," in Exodus 17 : G, in the story of the miraculous supply of water at
Horeb. TJiere the He brew word is tsoor.* Tsoor gives the idea of strength
and sharp-
1 Num. 20 : 7-11. 2 See pages 107-114, supra.
3 Or, with the article, J 2^D (hassel a, or, as Anglicized, ha-SeVa).
SEL A PETRA THE ROCK. 125
ness, and is applied to rocks in general; while ScFa suggests height, and
is applied to a eliff or crag." 1
At a later period iu Jewish history, another Sel a 2 than the Rock of
Kadesh-barnca comes into prominence, as a stronghold of the Edomites
possibly the place subsequently known as Petra, or the Rock-City; and this
identity of name has been a cause of strange and manifold confusion in both
ancient and modern mentions of Kadesh and Petra. 3 Sela was first used in
the sacred narrative as a designation of the Rock at Kadesh-barnea. The
most natural use of the same term, in a record of events happen ing within
less than a century after the Israelites departure from the vicinity of
that Rock, is its application to the same landmark ; especially as Sela
does not appear as an obvious designation of the Edomite stronghold until
nearly six centuries later. 4 Moreover, as Kadesh-barnca was already the
well-known boundary landmark next west, or southwest, of Maaleh- Akrabbim,
5 its new mention here under the name of the Rock in conjunction with
Maalch- Akrabbim, on a southern boundary line, would seem hardly open to
question.
An added reason for designating Kadesh-barnea as Sela, in referring to it
as a boundary limit of the Amorite domain, is pos sibly to be found in the
fact that there was another Kadesh (probably Kadesh-Naphtali) already known
as " Kadesh of the Amorites," 6 to which there are repeated references in
the Egyptian
1 Gesenius s Heb. and Chald. Lex., s.vv. ; also Stanley s Sinai and Pal.,
Appendix, M 28, 29.
* 2 Kings 14 : 7.
3 This will be shown more clearly farther on in this work.
* 2 Kings 14 : 7 ; and 2 Chron. 25 : 11, 12.
5 Num. 34 : 4 ; Josh. 15 : 3. See, also, page 114, supra.
6 It has been common to confound Kadesh of the Hittites with Kadesh of the
Amorites, but the distinction between the two places will be considered
farther on in this work. This, however, does not affect the point above
made, that there was a Kadesh of the Amorites which was not Kadesh-barnea.
126 KADESH-BARNEA.
records. It is as if the chronicler had said : The boundary limit of the
Amoritcs is Kadesh the Rock, not Kadesh of the Amorites. If, indeed, the
Rock in this case were to be understood as mean ing Petra, the described
boundary line of the Amorites would either be meaningless, or be an
absurdity. Petra is east of the Arabah. The Ascent of Akrabbim is but a
short distance to the west of the Arabah; 1 unless indeed it be reckoned as
in the Arabah, according to the elaim of Robinson and those who accept his
tentative location of it. 2 In the one case, a southern boundary line from
the Ascent of Akrabbim to Petra would start the Amorites "upward 77 into
the Dead Sea; in the other case the line would run from north to south, and
return on itself. 3 But, recce:-
/ O
nizing Kadesh-barnea in the Rock, the reasonableness of the Amor- ite
boundary line is evident. The Amorites, or Highlanders, 4 occupied the
central hill-country of the Land of Promise, north and south, between the
Shephelah, or maritime plain, on the west, and the Arabah, or Ghor, or the
Jordan valley, on the east. The southern base line of this Hill-country of
the Amorites would stretch from the Ascent of Akrabbim or the Pass el-
Yemen on the northeast, to Kadesh-barnea or the Rock as already indi cated
in the southern boundary of Judah, on the southwest. Or, as the text
describes it: "The border of the Amorites was from Maaleh- Akrabbim, from
the Rock, and northward."
1 See pacres 100-114, supra. - See page 109, supra.
3 So evident is this difficulty, that the attempt has been made to show
that the Hebrew word ma elah (717^*73), in Judges 1: 3(5, should be
translated "onward," instead of " upward," and so the landmarks named be
taken as starting but not com pleting the boundary line description. But
this elaim has been shown to be entirely untenable. See Schaff-Lanyc Coin.,
in loco.
4 See page G5, supra.
5 For the discussion of various points involved in this rendering, see,
Kurtz s Hist. of Old rot ., III., 208; Keil and Delitzsch s PH>. Coin.,
in loco; Frics s " Ucber die Lage von Kades," in Stud. u. Krit., 1854, pp.
60-62; Schaff-Lange Com., Speaker s Com., and Barrett s Synops. of Crit.,
all in loco.
ANOTHER LANDMARK. 327
16. THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR.
The only remaining references to Kadesh-barnea in the Bible text, which
might be supposed to throw any light on its location, are its several
mentions in connection with other stopping places in the narrative of the
wanderings, and again in the formal list of the stations of encampment.
In Numbers 20 : 22, it is said : "And the children of Israel, even the
whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, and came unto Mount Hor." And
again, in Numbers 33 : 37 : "And they removed from Kadesh, and pitched in
Mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom." This at once raises the
questions : Where is Mount Hor? at what point on the boundary line of the
land of Edom? and, Is Kadesh to be understood as only a day s distance from
Mount Hor? For if Mount Hor be identified, and Kadesh is to be looked for
within a day s distance of that mountain, another important elue is
obtained to the location of Kadesh.
"Mount Hor" is a descriptive title, indicating a mountain which is peculiar
and distinctive. Its Hebrew form is Hor ha- Har, 1 literally "Mountain, the
Mountain." The name does not necessarily imply a greater height than other
mountains ; nor yet a place among other mountains ; but it does indicate a
mountain that for some reason stands out as a mountain the mountain. Thus
Mount Tabor, which rises prominently from a plain, is called by the Arabs,
Jcbel et-Toor 2 the equivalent of Hor ha- Har. There was a northern Mount
Hor, 3 (commonly supposed to be Mount Hermon 4 ) also named as a boundary
landmark of the
2 Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 351. Surv. of West. Pal. I. p. 388. 8 Num. 34
: 7, 8.
*See Schaff-Lange Com.; Speaker s Com.; Von Gerlach s Com. on Pent. ; Pool
s Synops. Crit. ; and Barrett s Synops. of Crit. ; all at Num. 34 : 7-9.
Comp. also, Josh. 12 : 1.
128 KADESH-BARNEA .
Land of Promise ; hence it is evident that the name in itself is not a
sufficient identification of the site.
The commonly accepted site of the southern Mount Hor is at the east of the
Arabah, near the ruins of ancient Petra. 1 But there is absolutely nothing
to justify the elaim of that site except tradition ; while there are
difficulties in reconciling that site to the requirements of the Bible
text, which seem insurmountable.
Mount Hor clearly could not have been within the limits of Edom, certainly
not within the limits of Mount Seir; for the Lord said emphatically to the
children of Israel, when they were to pass that territory of the children
of Esau : " Meddle not with them ; for I will not give you of their land,
no, not so much as a foot-breadth ; because I have given Mount Seir unto
Esau for a possession." : Now as Aaron was buried in Mount Hor, 3 Mount Hor
must have been somewhere else than in Mount Seir; for Aaron's grave could
not have been less than a foot s breadth of land. This is one point about
which there seems no room for question.
Yet the traditional Mount Hor is clearly within the bounds not only of Edom
but of Mount Seir. As the Speaker s Commentary 4 says of it, in an argument
in its defense, against the admitted difficulties of reconciling it witli
the Bible text : " Ilor [this Hor] unquestionably lay within the territory
of Edom;" and it might fairly have added, that this fact " unquestionably "
puts this Hor out of the question as a elaimant to the site of the Hor
where Aaron died and was buried ; for as Robinson 5 has tersely declared,
1 For descriptions of this mountain, see "Bnrckhardt s Trav. in Syria, pp.
429-432 ; Irby and Manujles s Travels, pp. 432-433 ; Lcgh s "Excursion from
Jerusalem to Wady Musa," in Bih. Repos., Oct. 18S3 ; Labonle s Voyage de I
Arabic Pttrce,-p. 60 /. ; Robinson s Bib. Acs., II., 1.02; Miss Martineau s
Eastern Life, pp. 364-366; Wilson s Lands of BUdc, I., 291-299; Stanley s
Sinai and Pal., pp. 84-S7.
*Dcut. 2: r>. Com. Num. 20: 22-29; 33: 37-39; Dout. 10: 6.
4 At Num. 20: 22. 5 In Bib. Sac. for May, 1849, p. 380.
THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR. 129
concerning any such journeying of the Israelites into the domain of Edom,
that is something " which we know was not permitted."
Just look at the irreconcilableness of the traditional site with the
requirements of the Bible narrative. From Kadesh-barnea the Israelites sent
messengers to the king of Edom, asking per mission to pass through his
territory. 1 That permission was re fused, and the king of Edom even came
out against Israel " with much people and with a strong hand ; . . .
wherefore Israel turned away from him." It was at this time that the death
and burial of Aaron took place. The order of the Bible narrative gives a
choice of two readings as to the order of events. The movement of the
Israelites toward Mount Hor was made, either during the absence of the
messengers, or directly after their return. In the one case, it would
appear that while the Israelites would not attempt a peaceful passage along
Edom's royal highway without the king of Edom s explicit consent, they felt
at liberty to move into Edom's territory and start a cemetery on one of the
most commanding summits of the nation s stronghold, without so much of
ceremony as " by your leave." That would have been a very different course
from the Oriental usages, as illustrated in the purchase of the double-cave
from the sons of Heth by the patri arch Abraham, 2 when " he stood up from
before his dead," saying, " I am a stranger and a sojourner with you : give
me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of
my sight ; " adding, concerning the field which he desired, " I will give
the money for the field ; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there."
The Israelites made a specific promise to pay Edom for all the water they
or their cattle might use in passing through that land ; s but, according
to the popular tradition, they were ready to seize real estate in Edom with
a purpose of its occupancy for all time, without a proffer of payment, or
the courtesy of a re-
1 Num. 20: 14-21. * Gen. 23 : 3-20. s Num. 20 : 19.
130 KADESH-BARNEA.
quest. If that was really their way of doing business, there was a good
reason for Edom s coming out against them with much people and with a
strong hand.
With the alternative reading of the Bible narrative (a reading which
corresponds better with the surface order of record, but which has less
probability than the other, in view of the Bible method of following out
one incident to its completion, and then going back to take up and follow
out another), if it was not until the messengers came back to Kadesh from
the king of Edom, bringing his refusal, that the Israelites moved forward
to Mount Hor, the unreasonableness of the traditional site is even greater
than in the other case. According to this view, when the Israelites had
been told that they could not pass through Edom, and while an Edomitish
army was actually coming down against them, they deliberately moved out in
full force from their encircled-strong- hold, and, in defiance of the
Edomitish demonstration, pressed for ward to the very citadel, as it were,
of the land which had been forbidden them, and, encamping before it,
remained there threaten ingly, while Aaron, with Moses and Eleazer, went
within the limits of the forbidden domain to take more than a foot of the
soil which the Lord said they were not to possess. The mere statement of
this case is its complctcst refutation.
The truth is, that revelation and reason are at one against the
identification of the veritable Mount Hor in the traditional Mount Hor. All
that can be said in favor of this site 1 is, that some fif teen centuries
after the, death of Aaron, Joseplms, 2 and then Euse- bius, 3 and Jerome, 4
understood that the traditional tomb of Aaron was not far from the ancient
Petra. Not a particle of evidence in favor of this identification is
suggested by either of these writers ; and the cause of their error in the
location is sufficiently accounted for by the confusion, which existed even
in their day and earlier, as also long afterwards, between the Rock-Kadesh
and the Rock- Petra. Mount Hor may indeed have been near the Rock-Kadesh ;
it could not have been at the Rock-Petra, nor have held the relation to
that Rock-City held by the mountain which is known to the Arabs as Jebel
Neby Haroon, the Mountain of the Prophet Aaron. An Arab tradition of a tomb
is the poorest possible basis for a geographical identification. Eusebius
and Jerome could be so in error as to insist that the mountains Ebal and
Gerizim were near Jericho, 1 and even when Josephus agrees with them as to
an ancient tradition, there is small weight to be attached to the com
bination, in the face of the manifold requirements of the Bible narrative
to the contrary, especially when the cause of the tradi tional mistake is
already ascertained.
1 For the arguments in its favor see "Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 291-299
; Speaker s Com., at Num. 20 : 22 ; Drew s Scripture Lands, p. 84, note.
2 Antiq., Bk. IV., Chap. 4, I 7. 3 Onomast., s. v., " Or " fflp).
* De Loc. Heb., s. \., Or."
THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOE. 131
The plain geographical indications of the Bible text are hardly less strong
against the identification of Mount Hor in its tradi tional site at Jebel
Neby Haroon, than are the rational indications. As has already been shown,
there is commonly a distinction be tween " Mount Seir " and " the land of
Edom," in the various Pentateuch references to the Edomitish territory east
and west of the Arabah. While there are occasional uses of the term, " the
land of Edom," as covering the possessions of Edom on both sides of the
Arabah, 2 the ordinary distinction is kept, of Mount Seir as the region
directly east of the Arabah, 3 and the land of Edom, or the region of
Teman, w r est of the Arabah. 4 And Mount Hor is
1 Onomast., s. v., " Golgol."
2 So, e, g., at Gen. 36 : 21 ; 1 Kings 9: 26. So, similarly, the term
"Israel " is ap plied at times to " Judah," even after the distinction was
made between the king doms of "Israel" and" Judah." (See 2 Chron. 12: 1 ;
15: 17 ; 19 : 8 ; 21 : 2 ; Isa. 8 : 14 ; etc.)
3 So, e. g., at Gen. 14 : 6 ; 36 : 8, 21 ; Deut. 1 : 2 ; 2 : 1,5; Josh. 24
: 4; etc. So. at Gen. 32 : 3 ; Num. 21 : 4 ; 34 : 3 ; Josh. 15 : 1, 21 ;
Judges 11 : 18.
132 KADESII-BARNEA.
said to be "by the coast [or, on the line] of the land of Edom"; 1 and
again, " in the edge [or, at the extremity] of the land of Edom " ; 2 not,
on the line, or in the extremity, of Mount Seir. Yet when the region of
which Jebel Neby Haroon is a part had to be compassed, it is mentioned as
Mount Seir, 3 as we should have reason to expect.
Moreover, the Bible record shows that when the Israelites moved from
Kadesh-barnea to Mount Hor they alarmed the king of Arad, in the land of
Canaan, as if they were advancing threat eningly northward ; and in
consequence he came out against them in force. 4 It has been a puzzle of
puzzles to the commentators to explain why that king should have supposed
that the Israelites were coming toward him when they were really going from
him, as they must have been doing if Jebel Neby Haroon was their
destination. And this is only one trouble among many, growing out of the
attempt to reconcile the geographical indications of the text with the
elaims of the traditional site of Mount Hor. And in addition to all the
other reasons for rejecting these elaims, it- should be considered that
since the stretch of Edom was on both sides of the Arabah, the Arabah
itself, northward of the lower extremity of Mount Seir, was within the
territory of Edom : hence it could not have been entered by the Israelites.
Yet, all this while, there is a mountain which fully meets the requirements
of the Bible text, and the rational demands of the narrative, as to the
Mount Hor where Aaron died and was buried. That mountain is Jebel Madurah,
5 near the western extremity of "Wady Feqreh, a little to the southwest of
the passes Es-Sufuh and El-Yemen. Its formation, its location, its name, go
to identify it with the place of Aaron s burial, and there is even a smack
of tradition in its favor, for the encouragement of those who value
tradition more than revelation and reason.
1 Num. 20 : 23. 2 Num. 33 : 37. 3 Deut. 2 : 1-5.
* Num. 21 : 1 ; 33 : 40.
5 This identification -was suggested by Wilton (The Xcgcb, p. 127 jf.), but
its proofs can be carried quite beyond his attempt. See also Rowlands in
Imp. Bib. Die. s. v. " Moserah."
THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR. 133
Jebel Madurah is peculiarly the "Mountain, the Mountain;" a mountain rising
by itself alone from a plain, like Mount Tabor or Jebel et-Toor. "This
Madurah," says Crosby, 1 "is detached from all other mountains, and rises
from the plain as we may imagine the tower of Babel on the plain of
Shiuar." Seetzen 2 describes it as a "steep-sided" hill, "quite naked," and
"surrounded with a most unfruitful plain." Schubert 3 mentions it as " a
high, bald mountain." Lord Lindsay 4 calls it "a large, singular-looking,
isolated chalk hill." Robinson 5 refers to it as " remarkable in its
appearance, . . . rising alone like a lofty citadel." Wilson desig nates it
as " an isolated hill ; " 6 and Palmer 7 as " a round isolated hill."
Xothing certainly is lacking in these descriptions to show it as Hor
ha-IIar, a mountain that is a mountain, instead of being a mountain among
mountains.
In its location, Jebel Madurah stands at a triangular site, where the
boundaries of Edom, of Canaan, and of the Wilderness of Zin, or in a larger
sense of the Wilderness of Paran, approach each other so as to pass along
this mountain without touching it. It is at the cxtremest northwestern
boundary of the land of Edom, yet it is not within that boundary line. It
is on the very verge of the Land of Promise, yet it is not w r ithiu the
outer limits of that land. The border wadies Feqreh, Madurah, Hurrah, and
Ilan- joorat which separated Canaan from Edom, and both Canaan and Edom
from the unclaimed wilderness, so run as to form the surrounding plain,
above which is upreared this remarkable moun tain-tower, this lofty,
solitary mountain-citadel.
1 " El-Mukattem " (Dr. Howard Crosby) in Lands of Moslem, p. 235.
2 Reisen, III., p. 14. * Reise, II., 443. 4 Letters, II., 46.
*J1ib. Res., II., 179. & Lands of Bible, I., 340. 7 DCS. of Exod., II.,
416.
134 KADESH-BARNEA.
And Jebel Madurah lies in a northeasterly direction from the region of
Kadesh-barnea, as all indications thus far have combined to locate that
region. It is in the line from Kadesh-barnca of the route which the
Israelites seem to have had in mind, when they proposed to pass along Edom
s royal road from the east of the Arabah, and eastward of the Dead Sea ;
possibly through the broad Wady el-Ghuwayr 1 which offers an easy passage.
2 The Israelites would not unnaturally move thitherward as they planned for
that route 3 ; and such a move on their part w T ould not unnaturally be
looked upon by the kings of Edom and Arad as a threatening move, to be met
and resisted vigorously. Then it was, on the occasion of that refusal, and
the hostile demonstration that accom panied it, that Israel " turned away "
from Edom, 4 turned sharply from the northeast to the southwest, and
"journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the lied Sea ; 5 went out into the
" great and terrible wilderness " once more, 6 to strike the Red Sea Road,
or the Hajj Route as it is called to-day ; and this in order " to compass
the land of Edom," 7 the western possessions of Edom, included in the
Azazimeh and Jebel Muqrfdi tract. Nor is there cause for wonder that in
such a move as this, u the soul of the people was much discouraged because
of the road ; " as would not have been
1 See Burckhardt s Travels in Syria, p. 421 ; Robinson s Bib. Res., II.,
154 /.; etc.
2 " El-Ghuwayr" is the diminutive of El-Ghor." This \vady is, therefore,
"The Little Arabah.
3 Palmer (Des. of Exod., II., 416) in describing the wady course in which
Jebel Madurah stands, says: "The whole of the wady between the Nagb
Ghariband Jebel Madcrah, being the route by which the hostile tribes from
the cast invade the Aza zimeh [mountain tract, in which Kadesh-barnea is
supposed to be located], is marked by stone heaps, each of which
commemorates some incident of Arab warfare." And if that is the natural
route of invasion from the East, why should it not be recog nized as the
natural route of exit toward the East the natural route of the Israelites
out of Kadesh-barnea toward the plains of Moab ?
4 Num. 20: 21. 5 Num. 21: 4.
6 Dcut. 1: 19. Num. 21 : 4.
THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOB. 135
the case had they merely moved down the Arabah from near Petra to the Gulf
of Aqabah.
In the very name of Madurah there is a seeming trace of the name of the
place of Aaron s death and burial, while it is not elaimed that there is
any such trace at the traditional site near Petra. As has already been
shown, the designation Hor ha-Har is a descriptive title rather than a
proper name. The name of the mountain, and of the plain about the mountain
(for in the East it is a common thing to find a wady, and a jebel rising
from or ad joining that wady, bearing the same name), seems to have been "
Mosera," or " Moseroth " ; for in one place it is said that Aaron died at
Mount Hor, 1 and in another place it is said that he died at Mosera, 2 and
yet again this place appears to be named in the list of stations (on the
occasion of another visit) as Moseroth. 3 Xow Madurah is well iiigh an
equivalent of Mosera, the consonants "d" and "s" having a constant tendency
to interchange in Eastern speech. 4 If the Israelites were assembled in the
Wady Madurah, or Moserah, when Moses and Aaron and Eleazer went up into
Jebel Madurah, or Hor ha-Har, the solemn scene of dis robing the high
priest on the mountain top would be literally " in the sight of all the
congregation ; " 5 and the event might properly be said, at one time, to
have taken place at Mount Hor, and at another time to have occurred at
Moserah.
And now for the touch of tradition. Although small weight is to be attached
to Arab traditions as an independent source of know ledge, this testimony
has its incidental value when it is corrobo ratory of evidence that should
have weight. In the case of Jebel Madurah, it is the uniform report of the
more intelligent
1 Num. 20 : 22-28; Deut. 32 : 50. * Deut. 10 : 6.
3 Num. 33 : 30, 31. Comp. Deut. 10 : 6.
4 See Wilton s The Negeb, p. 127 /, with quotation from D Anville.
5 Num. 20 : 26, 27.
136 KADESII-BARNEA.
travelers that this mouutaiu is held in peculiar awe by the Arabs
generally, as the reputed scene of an ancient manifestation of God s
special judgment. The conflicting details of the reported tradi tions are
not to be wondered at by those who know how confusedly the Arabs
intermingle traditions* of Abraham, Moses, Aaron, Muhammad, and Sal eh.
Sodom from the north, and Kadesh from the south, have been brought to the
central site of Madurah, to furnish material for the traditions which
linger about this mouu-
O
tain of judgment. But the fact that an exceptional prominence attaches to
this mountain in the traditions of the Arabs has long been a point
established by the clearest evidence.
It was Scetzcu 1 who first, in 1807, heard, at Hebron, of the remarkable
traditions of Jebel Madurah, so that he was induced to make a journey to
that mountain for the sake of investigating them. He was told that " the
figure of a petrified man " 2 was to be seen there ; as if the remains of
Aaron were still preserved at the place where he died in the sight of all
the congregation of Israel. It need hardly be added that he did not find
the promised remains. Thirty years after this, Von Schubert 3 was there. He
does not clearly indicate what he heard from the Arabs, as distinct from
what he fancied j but he reports that region as the Kadesh where the
Israelites were judged after their murnuirings at the report of the spies.
Then came Lord Lindsay, 4 who was told by the Arabs that God crushed a
village for its vices under that mountain. This was the Sodom story adapted
to the region ; the petrified man having perhaps suggested the feminine
pillar of salt. Count Bertou, 5 again, found traditional traces of Kadesh
there ; being even told by his Arabs that its name was " Kadessa." The
story
1 Reisen, III., pp. 7-14. 2 "die Figur von einem versteincrten Jfenschen."
3 Reise, II., 443 /. * Letters, II., 46.
& Bulletin Soc. Geog., 1830, p. 321 ff., cited by Robinson (Bib. Res., II.,
179), and Wilson (Lands of Bible, I., 340).
THE LOCATION OF MOUNT HOR. 137
of the punishment of Korah and his company, at Kadesh, may linger in the
Arab legends of that region. Robinson was given the tradition by Shaykh
Hussau, much in the form that Lord Lindsay heard it. Wilson 1 , again,
refers to this tradition ; and finally Palmer 2 repeats it, and while
noting the fact that "the legend is evidently a transplanted reminiscence
of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah," suggests a reason for this transfer in
a similar name of the region near Sodom (Moasada), as given by Strabo. 3
Yet while this similarity of names may be one reason (if any reason is
needed for confusion in an Arab tradition) for the details of the legend,
it is evident that Jebel Madurah itself is a site where traditions of God s
judgment have been elustered in various forms ; and, surely, the sending up
of the high priest of Israel to die in very sight of the Promised Land he
was forbidden to enter, was an evident judgment which could hardly fail to
make an impression that should be transmitted from generation to gen
eration among the people of the East.
In fact it would appear that there was actually nothing lacking to identify
Jebel Madurah as the southern Mount Hor of the Bible narrative, unless,
indeed, it were a Xabathean tomb where pilgrims could offer sacrifices, and
for the exhibition of which the Bed ween could secure bakhsheesh. In every
other particular, Jebel Madurah has an eminent advantage over Jebel Xeby
Haroon.
Dean Stanley, with his wonted and charming enthusiasm over a poetic
identification of a sacred site, says 4 of Jebel Xeby Haroon as the
probable Mount Hor : " It is one of the very few spots con nected with the
wanderings of the Israelites, which admit of no reasonable doubt." Yet it
is by no means a fact that this site has been undisputed by intelligent
travelers and critical scholars who
1 Lands of Bible, I., 340. Des. of Exod., II., 416.
3 Geog., XVI., 2, 44. * Sinai and Pal., p. 86.
138 KADESH-BARNEA.
have recognized its incompatibleness with the Bible narrative. Niebuhr, was
disposed to find Mount Hor in the peninsula of Sinai, a long way from the
Arabah. 1 In Poeokc s opinion, " It is probable that Jebel To [Jebcl
et-Teeh] is Mount Hor." An English scholar of nearly a quarter of a century
ago was very positive in his identification of Mount Hor in Jebel
Araeef-cn-Naqah, at the southwestern angle of the Az&zimeli mountain tract.
3 And that mountain is certainly a very notable feature of the upper
wilderness. Robinson 4 says of it : " At a distance it seems wholly
isolated ; . . . a striking object ... in the middle of the mighty waste."
But this mountain is clearly not on the border of Edom, nor does its
position correspond with the requirements of the Bible text in other
particulars. Wilton 5 has, with a good show of probability, elaimed its
identification with Hor-hagidad, " the very conspicuous mountain," which
appears in the list of stations 6 at two removes from Moseroth, or Mount
Hor. Kuobel/ again, was positive that " Hor cannot be the Jebel Haroon of
"VVady Moosa." Ewald declared that this elaimed identification " though
sedulously propagated and widely spread in later times," is yet "a mere
conjecture, and perfectly untenable." 3 Lange 9 also saw that " the text is
plainly opposed to this " locating of Mount Hor ; and that Moserah is to be
looked for " scarcely in the Edomitic Arabah, but upon its western side and
in the desert." Wilton, 10 moreover, not only denied the possible identifi
cation of Mount Hor in Jebcl Neby Haroon, but, as has been stated he even
pointed out Jebel Madurah as the true Mount
i JRciseb. nach Arab., p. 238. 2 Descrip. of East, I., 157.
s " H. C.," in " A Critical Enquiry into the Route of the Exodus," in Jour.
Sac. Lit., April, 1860, p. 57 /.
* Bib. Res., I., 185. 5 The Negeb, p. 132.
6 Num. 33 : 31, 32. 7 Exeget. Handb., at Num. 20 : 20-22.
8 Hist, of Isr., II., 201, note. 9 Schaff-Lange Com., at Num. 20 : 22-29 B.
10 The Negeb, pp. 126-130.
THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS. 139
Hor ; and we have seen that he had reason for his conviction on this point.
So it seems that not all scholars have hitherto blindly followed tradition
in the recognition of the site of Mount Hor at a point where the Bible text
shows it could not have been. Yet if they had done so, that would be no
reason for a denial of the truth when an examination of the Bible text
makes that truth clear. " God forbid : yea, let God be found true, but
every man a liar." l
17. THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS.
Quite distinct from the question of the site of Mount Hor, is the question
of the relative nearness to each other of the various stations named in the
narrative of the movements of the Israelites, from Egypt to the plains of
Moab. It has been common, very common, to count those stations as generally
a day s distance apart; hence to suppose that the juxtaposition of Kadesh
and Mount Hor in the list of stations, indicates that Kadesh and Mount Hor
were but a day s journey from each other. But, in fact, this supposition
has neither foundation nor countenance in the Bible text, however much
support it gains in the commen taries. Revelation and reason are at one
against it.
So far from it being true, that the stations always indicate day s marches,
it may fairly be questioned whether any two on the list, after leaving
Sinai, are only a day apart; while in some cases it is evident that the
distance between them is greater than this.
On the way from Rameses to Sinai, there was, seemingly, no formal
organization of the Israelitish host; certainly there was no tabernacle to
be set up at each station. There was no such delay necessary for the
breaking and pitching of a well ordered camp, and for the due formation of
column and line at every new move,
i Rom. 3 : 4.
140 KADESH-BARNEA.
as was afterward inevitable. Yet even then, between quite a num ber of the
consecutive stations, there must have boon more than a day s distance
intervening. 1 It is distinctly shown that between the lied Sea crossing
place and Marah was a "three days jour ney ; " 2 and it is only in a few
instances that a fair inference would limit the time between stations to a
single day. The narrative in Exodus (16: 1) would appear to indicate no
stop between Elim and the Wilderness of Sin; and again, (17: 1) none
between the Wilderness of Sin and Rephidim ; but the list of stations in
Xum- bers (33: 10-14) names the Red Sea between the first two of these, and
Dophkah and Alush between the last two. And even with this expansion of the
list, the time between stations is only inferential. 3
But, however it may have been between Rameses and Sinai, from Sinai onward
a very different order of things prevailed. The host was organized. 4 The
elaborate details of a formal camp, tribe by tribe in due position with the
tabernacle in the centre, were prescribed. Time was necessary for the
divinely enjoined forms, in the removing and loading, and in the unloading
and replacing of the vessels and furniture and curtains and hangings and
cover ings and boards and pillars and sockets of the tabernacle; for the
breaking and pitching of a camp for a mighty host ; for the bring-
1 On this point, see " Route of the Exodus," infra.
2 Exod. 15 : 22, 23.
3 It has been elaimed by some (e. g. Lepsius, in Discoveries in Egypt, p.
364, and Appendix, p. 435 /.; Von Gerlach, in Com. on Pent., at Exod. 19:
1, and Holland, in Recovery of Jerusalem, Appendix, p. 535), that Exodus,
19 : 1, 2, would indicate that Ilephidim was only a day s distance from the
wilderness of Sinai; but an exam ination of the text will show, that the
phrase " the same day," as there applied to the time of the arrival at
Sinai, has no immediate reference to the days of departure from Ilephidim.
" According to Jewish tradition, this means on the first day of the third
month ; but grammatically it may be taken more indefinitely at this time. "
(Schaff-Lange Com., in loco.)
* Exod. 40 : 34-38 ; Num. 1 : 1-54 ; 2 : 1-34.
THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS. 141
ing of all the able bodied men into tribal column of march, and into camp
again ; to say nothing of the delays occasioned by the women and children
and other hindrances to a rapid movement.
"And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down;
and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. . .
. And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own
camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts." 1 These
were the divine orders before leaving Sinai. "And the children of Israel
did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses: so they pitched by
their standards, and so they set forward, every one after their families,
according to the house of their fathers." 2 To one who is at all familiar
with extensive army movements, and with desert life and ways in the East,
the idea of taking down that tabernacle, and breaking up that camp, and
getting such a mighty host as that into marching order, and making a
reasonable journey, and getting that host into formal camp again, and
setting up that tabernacle as before, all in one day, is hardly less than a
bald absurdity. If it was done, day by day, in the journey ings, it was
certainly quite as marked a miracle as the regular supply of manna;
although it is not commonly included in the list of miracles.
But the Bible story makes it plain that all this was not done. The first
move from Sinai is reported in lumbers 10: 33-36. "And they departed from
the mount of the Lord three days jour ney: and the ark of the covenant of
the Lord went before them in the three days journey, to search out a
resting place for them." There is not much room for doubt, that it was a
"three days jour ney" from Mount Sinai to their first resting place; not
that they marched day and night without stopping to rest; but that the
first two nights they bivouacked, and on the third day they formally
encamped. This is what we should gather from the text itself;
1 Num. 1 : 51, 52. 2 Num. 2 : 34.
142 KADESH-BABNEA.
and all outside examination as to the probabilities tends to confirm this
view of the facts.
The first station after Sinai in the list of stations is Ki broth -
hattaavah. It is evident from the narrative that the tabernacle was set up
at Kibroth-hattaavah/ and that the people remained there a month or more. 2
There were dug " the graves of lust " for those who died as a penalty of
their gluttonous and faithless lusting ; and Taberah 3 (the Place of
Burning) was the name given to the rear of that vast camping field. 4
Palmer 5 thinks that he has discovered the site of that encampment, at a
place called by the Arabs " Envois el-Ebeirig," some thirty miles, more or
less, northeasterly of the Plain er-Rahah the supposed Sinai starting-
point of the Israelites. This identification has been accepted by some
others ; 6 yet it cannot be called a settled point. " Erweis el- Ebeirig "
is a little eastward of the route which Holland thinks
o
must have been taken by the Israelites from Sinai ; 7 although it is
V O
not so far from it that it cannot be admitted as a possible diverg ence,
for particular reasons. If, indeed, this be accepted as the site of
Kibroth-hattaavah, it is quite too flu- from the Sinai start ing-point to
be within the range of a day s journey, and not too near to be recognized
as a probable three days journey. If, on the other hand, another site for
Kibroth-hattaavah must be looked for, that also will have to be recognized
as a three days journey from Sinai; for so, as has been shown, the Bible
narrative clearly indicates. 8 It should be borne in mind that a " three
days journey " from
1 Xum. 33: 16. 2 Num. 11 : 18-23.
3 Xum. 11: 1-3; Dcut, 9 : 22. Taberah does not appear in the list of
stations ; nor is there any mention of a move from it to Kibroth-hattaavah.
4 On this point, see Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., III., 64 /. ;
Schaff-Lange Com. : and Speaker s Com., at Num. 11 : 1-3.
5 Des. of Exod., I., 257-260. 6 So, e. y., Bartlett, in Egypt to Pal., pp.
285-299. 7 See page 77 ff., supra; also Report of British Assoc. for 1878,
p. 622^".
8 Num. 10 : 33.
THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS. 143
the original starting point of a caravan, in the East, is by no means so
great a distance as a three days journey at a later period in the course of
a prolonged pilgrimage; for, as a rule, the first day s journey is hardly
more than a preliminary movement for a start. Anyone familiar with Eastern
travel will bear witness to this fact. For example, when I was to start
from Suez for Mount Sinai, although everything was in readiness on the
evening of my reach ing Suez, and I was desirous of pushing forward
speedily, I was detained until well into the afternoon of the next day,
because, as I was told, the first night s rest must be at Ayoon Moosa, in
sight of Suez, across the Red Sea ; nor was my case an exception just here.
In describing the annual pilgrimage from Cairo to Mekkeh, Ebers says: "
After resting outside the walls for two or three days, the caravan sets
out, and makes its first day s journey, of scarcely more than four hours,
as far as the first station at Birkett el-Hajj, or the Pilgrim s Lake. " A
century ago, Niebuhr 2 re ported the same point as the reach of his first
day s journey from Cairo ; and yet a century earlier, Thevenot 3 named it
as his first stopping place on a similar journey. Four centuries ago,
Breyden- bach 4 and Fabri, 5 making a pilgrimage from Gaza to Sinai, noted
their first night s stopping place as just outside of the town of Gaza. And
so it has been with the first day s journey, in all the centuries in the
unchanging East.
Hackett 6 has elustered facts in illustration of this point. He says of a "
first day s " journey : " On that day it is not customary to go more than
six or eight miles, and the tents are pitched for the first night s
encampment almost within sight of the place from which the journey
commences." Referring to his own experience in this line, he says : " The
only reason that I heard assigned for
1 Pict. Egypt, II., 130. 2 Reiseb, pp. 212-217. 3 Reisen, I., 220.
4 Itiner. 6 Evagator. II., 406. Illus. of Scrip., pp 15-20.
144 KADEXH-BARNEA.
starting thus late and stopping so early was, that it furnished an
opportunity, if anything should prove to be forgotten, to return to the
city and supply the deficiency." And he adds : " J find from books of
travels, that we merely did in this respect what is cus tomary for
travelers in setting forth on a journey ; and, further, that they give the
same explanation of this peculiarity of the first day." Then he quotes to
this eifect from Manndrell, Richardson, Burckhardt, Miss Martineau, and
others ; and he shows the bear ing of this on the narrative of the return
of the parents of the Child Jesus to search for him in Jerusalem, when at
the elose of "a day s journey " he was not found in "the company." 1 And in
this connection he notes the fact that the improbability of such a thing as
this natural occurrence is one of the objections of Strauss to the accuracy
of the Gospel narrative. Another illustration of imperfect knowledge as the
basis of much of the modern " destructive criticism ! "
In the light of this explanation, it will be seen that the first "three
days journey" from Sinai northward cannot fairly have been much more, if
any, than an ordinary two days journey; and that thirty miles is quite as
long a distance for it as could be counted on. Hence a place not farther
away from the Plain er- Rahah than Erways el-Ebayrig, must be taken as the
first encamp ing station of the Israelites, at the elose of that "three
days jour- ncy."
And so the encamping and the journeying went on. "At the commandment of the
Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord
they pitched: as long as the eloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in
their tents. . . . And so it was, when the eloud abode from even unto the
morning, and that the eloud was taken up in the morning, then they
journeyed : whether it was by day or by night that the eloud was taken
1 Luke 2 : 42-45.
THE TIME BETWEEN STATIONS. 145
up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year,
that the eloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children
of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up
they journeyed." 1 There is cer tainly not much ground in that record for
elaiming that the space between encampments was uniformly a day s distance.
The list of stations in Numbers 33 : 1-49 would seem therefore, to be, not
a list of all the halting places of the Israelites, but, a list of the
places at which there was a formal encampment. Indeed the Hebrew word 2
translated variously in this list, " took their journey," "journeyed," "
departed," " went," and " removed," implies, in its very form, a " breaking
up," or a " pulling up stakes," as on the change of an encampment. Nor is
there any place twice mentioned in this list, although we have reason to
suppose that during the forty years the host, or at least its tabernacle
and its headquarters, encamped more than once at the same place. 3 For
example, in this list of stations, it is recorded that "they departed from
Hashmonah and encamped at Moseroth. And they departed from Moseroth, and
pitched in Bene-jaakan ; " and so on to Hor-hagi- dad, and Jotbathah. But
in Deuteronomy 10 : 6, 7, it is said, that they "took their journey from
Beeroth of the children of Jaakan [the wells of Bene-jaakan] to Mosera "
and so on to Gud- godah and Jotbath. The order of the stations in these two
records is reversed, as if the places were visited in one order in going in
one direction, and in reverse order in going the other way ; 4 but in the
complete list of stations no one place has received a second mention,
unless indeed under another name, and that for
1 Num. 9 : 18, 21,22.
2 M?tH (Vayyis oo "and they broke up.") See Keil and Dclitzsch s Bib. Com.,
III., 242.
s For a full discussion of this point, see Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III.,
gg 30, 41 ; also see Keil and Delitzsch s Bib, Com., as above.
*See Eobinson, in Bib. Repos. Oct., 1832, p. 788. 10
146 KADESH-BARNEA.
an exceptional reason, as in the case of Kadesh as will be shown.
There is one point which ought not to be overlooked, while inquiring if the
order of stations throws light on the proximity of any two stations named
consecutively. The same record that says : " They removed from Kadesh and
pitched in Mount Hor," says also : " They removed from Eziou-gaber and
pitched in the Wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh." ] Now Ezion-gaber is
known to have been at or near the head of the eastern arm of the Eed Sea
the Gulf of Aqabah. 2 The Israelites when making their journey for the
compassing of Mount Seir, went " through the Way of the Arabah, [or by way
of the Arabah Road,] from Elath and from Ezion-gaber ; " 3 (and the
Israelites seem never to have been in the Way of the Arabah, except at its
southernmost end where it compassed Mount Seir.) Later, it is declared that
king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-gcber, which is beside Eloth, on
the shore of the Red Sea, "in the land of-Edom." 4 Now, if the stations
named consecutively are to be reckoned as only a day s distance apart, it
is clear that Kadesh, being only one remove from Ezion-gaber, and only one
remove from Mount Hor, is at some point which is only a day s distance from
either of those two places. This in itself would put Jebel Neby Haroon out
of the
1 Num. 33 : 36, 37.
2 Winer (Bibl.Rcalwortcrb. s. v. " Eziongeber ") discusses this site, with
comprehen siveness. He would find it at Aszyun or Assiun, a place referred
to by Makrizi, the Eyptian historian, as quoted by Burckhardt (Travels in
Syria, p. 511.) Of this place Robinson (Bib. lies. I., 169 /.) thinks no
traces are to be found; and he would find its site at Wady " el-Ghudyan,
opening into el- Arabah from the western moun tain, some distance north of
Akabah." " However different the names el-Ghudyan and Ezion may be in
appearance, yet the letters in Arabic and Hebrew all corres pond." Although
this site is now ten miles or so north of the end of the gulf, Rob inson
thinks that formerly the waters extended thus far. " This probably is the
best site for it." (Smith- Hackett Bib. Die. s. v. "Ezion-gaber,")
s Deut. 2 : 1-8. * 2 Chron. 8 : 17.
KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 147
question as a site of Mount Hor ; for even a straight line (and it would be
difficult to shorten that] between the Gulf of Aqabah and Jebel Neby Haroon
would be not less than three days jour ney ; if indeed it were less than
four or five. 1 Nor have any sites for Kadesh and Mount Hor been named,
which would bring Kadesh within a day s reach of Mount Hor on the one hand,
and of Ezion-gaber on the other.
In short, everything combines to show that the mention of two stations in
juxtaposition, in the record of the Israelites journeyings, gives no
indication of the nearness of those stations to each other ; gives no
reason for supposing that they are only a day s distance apart. Moreover it
is evident that in some cases such nearness is an impossibility.
18. KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS.
In the review list of stations in the thirty-third chapter of Numbers, the
name of Kadesh does not appear until near the elose of the forty years
wanderings; 2 when it is given in conjunction with Ezion-gaber and Mount
Hor, as already noted. Yet it is evident that Kadesh was first reached
within a short time after leaving Sinai ; 3 moreover, that when the
sentence of dispersion, or wandering, which was there passed upon the
Israelites, was near- ing its elose, there was a re-assembling of the whole
congregation at that sanctuary-stronghold, for a new move Canaanward/ The
absence of any early mention of Kadesh in the list of stations has been a
cause of much inquiry, and of much difference of opinion, among scholars.
1 Robinson (Bib. Repos., Oct. 1832, p. 786), says: "From Ezion-gaber to
Kadesh . . . could not be much less than the whole length of the great
valley of the Gh6r, a distance not less than one hundred miles [say four to
six days journey] whatever might be the exact situation of Kadesh."
* Num. 33 : 36, 37. s Num. 13 : 26. See pages 19-24, supra. * Num. 20 : 1.
148 KADESH-BARNEA.
It has been elaimed by some/ that the mention of Kadesh in this list is in
reference to it in its proper place, on the occasion of the first, if not
indeed of the only, visit to that station ; . . . and that all of the
twenty stations preceding it, after leaving Sinai, were visited before
Kadesh was ever reached. But this view of the case seems to be as
inconsistent with the Bible narrative, as it is improbable on its face. 2
An examination of the text will hardly fail to make clear the truth in the
matter.
The narrative records, that after the great plague at Kibroth- hattaavah, "
the people journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah ; and abode at Hazeroth." 3
Hazeroth was therefore the second encamp ment from Sinai. 4 There, again,
was a delay. There " Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses," and Miriam was
smitten with leprosy. " And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days :
and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. And
afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the Wilderness
of Paran." 5 The third encampment, therefore, was " in the Wilderness of
Paran." In what part of that wilderness? Light is thrown on this question
also, by the narrative itself. It was clearly at the encampment in the
Wilderness of Paran that the spies were sent into Canaan. The record is
explicit on that point. " And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent
them from the Wilderness of Paran." 6 But Moses, after this, declares, as
to
1 So Ewald (Hist, of Israel., II., 202, note) ; Laborde ( Com. Geog. sur I
Exod., p. 113); Von Gerlach (Com. on Pent., in loco) ; Patter (as cited in
Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 218) ; Lowrie (in Schaff-Lange Com., at
Num. 14: 25) ; Palmer (Dcs. of Exod., II., 513 /.) : and others.
2 Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., III., 218 jf.), while showing the untenableness
of this view, deems it " inexplicable " that a careful commentator should
be " able to adhere to so unfortunate a supposition, which is expressly
contradicted on all hands by the biblical narrative, and even in itself is
inconceivable."
* Num. 11: 33-35.
* Num. 33 : 16, 17. 5 Num. 12 : 1-16.
6 Num. 13 : 3.
KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 149
the place of sending : " I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land." 1
This would look as if the Wilderness of Paran and Kadesh-barnea were used
interchangably in this record ; and as if to put this point beyond all
question, it is recorded of the return of the spies : " And they went and
came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of
Israel, unto the Wilder ness of Paran, to Kadesh." 2 That would seem to fix
it as plainly as words can fix it, that the encampment in the Wilderness of
Paran was the first encampment at Kadesh : and this being so, Kadesh-
barnea was the third regular encampment after leaving Sinai.
There is an incidental confirmation of this, in two general, or inclusive,
statements of the first journey across the desert. In Numbers 10 : 11, 12,
it is said, as preliminary to a detailed account of the journeyings : " And
it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second
year, that the eloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony.
And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the Wilderness of
Sinai ; and the eloud rested in the Wilderness of Paran." That this
statement covers a series of moves, instead of being confined to a single
stage, is evident from the context ; for it is after this that the
narrative begins in detail : " And they first took their journey ; " 3 and
again : " And they departed from the mount of the Lord three days journey ;
" 4 and so on, stage by stage. Moreover the text itself, in the Hebrew,
shows that it is a series of moves which is referred to, and not the first
move of a series, merely : " And the sons of Israel pulled up stakes
according to their breaking camps; 5 out of the Wilderness of Sinai [as
their starting point] ; and the eloud rested [at their destination] in the
Wilderness of Paran." 6
1 Num. 32: 8. * Num. 13: 26. s Num. 10: 13. 4 Num. 10: 33.
4 Dri J7pD7 7X"Vi^- J3 typ V (Vayyis oobenai Yisrael lemse aihem.
6 See Kurtz s Hist, of Old Cov., III., 192, with quotations from Ranke and
Ileng- stenberg; also Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., III.,56/. ;
Schaff-Lange Com., Exo dus and Leviticus," General Introduction, p. 21.
150 KADESII-BARNEA.
Or, as the similar general statement in Deuteronomy 1:19 gives it : " And
when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible
wilderness, which ye saw by the Way of the Mountain of the Amorites, as the
Lord our God commanded us ; and we came to Kadesh-barnea."
In other words the first great move of the Israelites as an organized
people was from Sinai, the sanctuary where they had received their formal
charter of nationality, to Kadesh-baruca, the sanctuary on the borders of
Canaan, whence they were to enter into the land of their national
inheritance. In passing over the " eleven days " distance, which separated
these sanctuaries by the course they journeyed, they encamped at only two
intervening stations. The other stops were but for bivouac.
Yet in the formal list of stations, in Numbers 33: 16-37, the third station
from Sinai is given as neither Kadesh-barnea nor the Wilderness of Paran ;
although we have seen that in the narrative of the journeyings those two
names are used interchangeably for the encampment next after Ilazeroth. "
Rithmah " here appears as the third station in the list; and this suggests
the question whether Rithmah was an earlier name for Kadesh.
As we have already had occasion to consider, 1 " Kadesh " was probably not
the original name of the encircled stronghold in the mountains, which
became a sanctuary, and therefore was known as " Holy " (" Qadhesh,") w r
hen the tabernacle found a resting- place there. What its original name
was, is now the question. " Rithmah " 2 means, literally, Place of Rothem,
or Place of Broom. 3 The " rothem," or " broom," is the desert-shrub, or
bush, which the Vulgate and our King James Version wrongly translate
"juniper." 4 Its Arabic name is retem, 5 or rethem. 6 It
1 See page 43, supra. 2 The Hebrew is i"T3rn (Rithmah.)
3 See Gesenius, and Fiirst, s. v. * Job 30 : 4 ; 1 Kings 19 : 4, 5 ; Psa.
120 : 4.
5 Freytag s Lex., s. v. iV^v 6 ?*"*) Burckhardt s Trav. in Syria, p. 483.
KADESU IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 151
is the bush which is more commonly used for burning, and its roots for the
making of charcoal. 1 It certainly supplies a not unnatural name for a
station on the desert s verge.
The recognition of the site of Kadesh in the station Rithmah, is not a
modern thought merely. It has been approved by many scholars during the
course of many centuries. Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, or " Rashi," 2 the
famous rabbinical writer of the eleventh century, held to it. 3 Since his
day it has been repeatedly brought out by critical commentators and other
Bible students ; for example : Adrichomius, 4 Raleigh, 5 Fiirer, 6
Quaresmius, 7 Ains- worth, 8 Drusius, 9 Pool, 10 Patrick, 11 Calmet, 12
Cellarius, 13 Brown, 14 Robinson, 15 Schwarz, 16 Kitto, 17 Fries, 18 Kurtz,
19 Keil and Delitzsch, 20 Wilton, 21 Forster, 22 Rowlands, 23 Wordsworth,
24 Tristram, 25 Fausset, 26 Riehm, 27 Edersheim, 28 Espin and Thrupp; 29
and again it has
1 Burckhardt s Trav. in Syr., p. 483 ; Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 84, 189 ;
II., 203, 205.
2 This rabbi, called " Rashi " from the Hebrew initials of his name, was a
famous Talmudic scholar of French birth, who lived from A. D. 1040 to A. D.
1105. His comments on Scripture are regarded by orthodox Jews as of very
high authority.
s al ha-Torah, at Num. 33 : 18. * Theatrum Terrse Sanctx, p. 215 a.
s Hist. of World, Bk. II., chap. 5, ? 4. 6 Reis-Beschreib., p. 354.
7 Hist. Theol. et Moral. Terrx Sanctx, p. 25.
8 Cited in Pool s Synops. Crit. at Num. 33 : 18. 9 Ibid. 10 Annotations. 11
Crit. Com. at Num. 20 : 1 . 12 Diet, of Holy Bible, s. v. " Rithmah." 13
Geog. Antiq., Vol. II., maps at p. 390. " Diet, of Bible, s. v. " Rithmah."
15 "On the Exodus" in Bib. Repos., for Oct. 1832, p. 791. He speaks of
"Rith mah, probably a station in the desert near to Kadesh ; " and of "
Rithmah, or the desert of Kadesh."
18 Geog. of Pal., p. 212. " Scrip. Lands, " General Index," p. 56.
Stud. u. Krit., 1854, p. 57. 19 Hist, of Old Cov., III., 244.
20 Bib. Com., III., 243 /. 21 The Negeb, p. 80.
22 Israel in Wild., pp. 122-128. M Imp. Bib. Die., s. v. " Rithmah."
24 Bible with Notes at Num. 33 : 18. 25 Bible Places, p. 6.
Bib. Cyc., s.v. "Rithmah."
17 Handwdrtcrb. s. v. " Lagerstatten : " " Rithmah is ordinarily held to be
the station from which the spies were sent out." 28 Exod. and Wand., p.
172.
29 Speaker s Com., note on Num. 13 : 26, and at 33 : 18.
152 KADESH-BAENEA.
appeared in the margin of various editions of the Bible, from Leo Juda s, 1
and the Genevan, 2 to the Bagsters. 3 Yet notwithstand ing this array of
authorities, the identification has been often lost sight of, and has again
been wrought out anew from the text by some student who was unaware of the
similar work done by so many before him. Indeed there could hardly be a
better illustra tion than is here furnished of the liability of students to
overlook the successful researches of predecessors in their own field of
inquiry. In my own case, when I had tracked out the identity of Rithmah
with Kadesh, by the above described process of proof, I thought it an
original discovery. But on looking up the authori ties, I was surprised not
only at the evidence of its prominence for centuries back, but also at the
repeated recurrence of the very error into which I had fallen, of counting
an old truth a new discovery. Thus the scholarly Wilton 4 refers to this
identification as if it were first proposed by Kurtz, and adds : " I had
been fully persuaded of this identification many years before I saw it
advocated by Professor Kurtz." Kurtz, 5 again, gives the credit of the
discovery to Fries, 6 who, in turn, probably had no thought of elaiming it
as an original suggestion. And even after Wilton, Forster 7 came out with
it as his own, expressing surprise that no suspicion of it had been
awakened in modern times. But all this is only added proof that the
evidence of the truth lies in the Bible text itself; and that a careful
student of that text is likely to find it for himself, even if he has no
hint of it from any one of his many predecessors. It must be said, however,
that eminent scholars, as for instance,
1 Published at Zurich, A. D., 1550. 2 London, A. D. 1581.
3 Comprehensive Bible, A. D. 1846. There may also be named, as approving
this identification, a Dutch Bible published by Jacobszoon and Bonwenszoon,
at Ley- den, A. D. 159G, and Van der Palm s (Leyden, A. D. ISIS.)
4 The Nerjeb, (published in 1863) p. 80, note.
5 Hist, of Old C ov., III., 215. 6 In Stud. u. Krit., 1854.
7 i srac i j n Wild., chap. III., (published in 1865.)
KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 153
Hengstenberg, Baumgarten, Lengerke, 1 and Lange, 2 would find in the
station " Beue-jaakan," 3 the first stop at Kadesh ; while Yon Raumer*
coolly counts up the stations for the " eleven days" 5 be tween Sinai and
Kadesh, and by this sum in simple arithmetic finds Kadesh at Tahath. 6 But
it is sufficient to refer the compar ative elaims of Bene-jaakan and
Rithmah, for this identification, to the Bible text, as above cited. Von
Raumer s count is of no account.
A suggested objection 7 to " the view that takes Rithmah to be another name
for Kadesh " is that this " imputes to the catalogue " of stations in
Numbers " an arbitrariness in the use of names that would make it worthless
for that purpose for which it was evi dently recorded." But this objection
appears to be fully met in the facts of the case. If, as is probable,
Kadesh was not the original name of the station which subsequently bore
that name, but Rithmah was, then it would be both natural and proper to
give to that place its name Rithmah, in the mention of a visit to it when
Rithmah was its only name ; and again to give to it the name Kadesh, in the
mention of a subsequent visit to it when it had acquired the name of
Kadesh. From the various Bible refer ences to the place in question, it
would seem that its original name was Rithmah ; that, when it became the
resting place of the taber nacle, it was called Kadesh ; that, when it had
become the place where sentence of judgment was passed on the Israelites,
it was called En-mishpat ; 8 that, when it was a place of murmuring and
strife to a new generation, it was called Meribah. In this view of
1 See Winer s Bill. Realwortcrb, s. v., "Wiiste, arabishe."
1 Schaff-Lange Com., at Num. 33: 32-35, 41-43.
s Num. 33 : 31, 32. < Der Zug der Israeliten, p. 41.
5 Deut. 1:2. e Num. 33 : 26, 27.
7 Lowrie, in Schaff-Lange Com., at Num. 14 : 1-45.
8 Gen. 14 : 7. Supposing the Book of Genesis to have been written during
the period of the wanderings, it seems natural for Moses to mention this
place, in the
154 KADESH-BARNEA.
the case, it would be eminently fitting to designate the place as Rithmath
on its first visit, and as Kadesh on its second ; especially as the
explanation of the correspondence and of the difference is made clear in
the context.
This finding the probable identity of Kadesh with Rithmah, gives another
elue to the locating of Kadesh. The name Rithmah still stands in the
desert, in its Arabic form Aboo Retemat. 1 Rithmah, as has been shown,
means Place of Retem. Aboo Retemat means the same. And the wady which bears
this name 2 is in the immediate vicinity of the very point already
designated as the probable halting place of Kedor-la omer, because of its
being the common junction of all the roads into Canaan on that side of the
desert. 3 It is quite in accordance with the tendency of things in the
East, to have the original name thus survive all later changes. 4 Moreover
the fact that this name Rithmah just here is an ancient one, 5 is further
shown by its Arabic form Retemat being applied to a tribe of Arabs 6 who
elaim the region as their home.
record of Kedor-la omer s march, as En-mishpat, by which it was now known
to the Israelites ; and to add the explanation that it was the place which
they had before known as their Kadesh. 1 CjU->s jf
2 Ilobinson s Sib. Res., I., 189 ; Bonar s Des. of Sinai, p. 292.
3 See page 42, supra.
* For example: Accho (Judges 1 : 13) became Ptolemais, but it is now Akka,
or Acre ; Bethshan (1 Sam. 31 : 10, 12 ; 2 Sam. 21 : 12), or Bethshean
(Josh. 17 : 11, 16 ; Judges 1: 27 ; 1 Kings 4: 12; 1 Chron. 7: 29), became
Scythopolis, but is now Besan ; Lydda (Acts 9 : 32, 35, 38) became
Diospolis, but is now Ludd ; and so on.
5 The Speaker s Commentary (at Note on Num. 13 : 26) affirms that the broom
(retem) " probably gave a name to many localities," and mentions one place
else where (in quite another region) which bore another form of this name.
But as the form which corresponds with "Rithmah" is found only at this one
point in all the region where Kadesh may be, or has been, looked for, it
certainly is an important element in the locating of Kadesh. It is true
that it might have been in half a dozen places ; but in fact it is in only
one in the upper desert.
6 The Beny Retaymat (i^>LJO\). See Burckhardt s Beduinen und Wahaby, pp.
312, 602.
KADESH IN THE LIST OF STATIONS. 155
It appears, therefore, that an examination of the formal list of stations
tends to identify Kadesh with Rithmah of that list ; and that there is a
reasonable trace of Rithmah in "Wady Aboo Retemat, over against the very
portion of the Azazimeh moun tain tract within which all our studies up to
this time have com bined for the locating of Kadesh.
And this completes an examination of all the references to Kadesh-barnea in
the entire Bible text, which can fairly be looked to as giving any
indication of its locality. The very earliest men tion of this place is in
a connection which would seem to put it in the heart of the Azazimeh
mountain tract, at some point eastward of Jebel Muwaylih and of Wady Aboo
Retemat near which all the great highways of the desert come together in a
common trunk ; and every subsequent mention of the place either points
directly to the same locality, or is conformable to it. Unless, therefore,
some weighty reasons against this site should be ascertained outside of the
Bible text, it would seem to be fixed within the limits named, beyond fair
questioning.
in.
KADESH-BAKKEA.
ANCIENT REFERENCES TO IT OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLE TEXT.
KADESH-BARNEA.
1. IN THE EGYPTIAN RECORDS.
Having examined the various Bible references to Kadesh- barnea, in order to
its locating, it is important- to search the ancient records outside of the
Bible, to ascertain if any light is thrown on this site by references to it
in them.
First in order come the Egyptian records. Indeed it is only there, that
there is a possibility of any evidence contemporaneous with the Mosaic
narrative. Modern investigations have disclosed much geographical
information concerning the lands of the Bible story, in the monuments and
papyri of ancient Egypt ; and it would not be unreasonable to hope to find
incidental references in those records, to such a point of strategic
importance in military movements as Kadesh-barnea would seem to have been
from the days of Kedor-la omer onward.
The name Kadesh, or Qodesh, the Sanctuary, appears very frequently in the
Egyptian records, as designating a stronghold of the Kheta, or Ilittites,
in the north of Syria ; supposed to be on the Lake of Hums ; and there are
good reasons for thinking that the same name is applied at times, in those
records, to one site, or more, in the region of Syria, or Upper Canaan (the
land of the Rutennu, or the Lutennu, of the monuments), apart from the
Hittite sacred stronghold.
159
1 GO KADESH-B ARNEA .
Kadesh on the Orontes, or Kadesh of the Hittites, is a centre of interest
in important campaigns of the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
dynasties; 1 notably Thotmes III., Setce I., and Rameses II. Its capture by
one Pharaoh after another is cele brated in song and story in the papyri
and on the monuments, and is pictured in glowing colors on the temple walls
of Egypt. The poem of Pentaur, 2 reciting the valor of Rameses the Great in
the overthrow of Kadesh of the Hittites, as repeated again and again in
manuscript and in stone, is given a living freshness to the readers of
to-day by the graphic pen of Ebers in his historical romance Uarda. This
Kadesh, however, is obviously not the Kadesh-barnea of the Negeb.
But in the list of conquered towns of Canaan and Syria, in the Hall of
Pillars at Karnak, 3 there is clearly a second Kadesh, or Qodesh, or Kedes,
4 apparently (from its order in the list) farther south than Kadesh of the
Hittites ; and again there are frequent references on the monuments to a
Kadesh of the Amorites, or "Kadesh in the territory of the Amorites."
Brugsch, 5 and Lenor- mant and Chevallier, 6 are confident that Kadesh of
the Hittites and Kadesh of the Amorites are one ; but they do not ignore
the fact that a second Kadesh farther south in Canaan is named on the
Egyptian monuments. Chabas, on the other hand, would distin-
1 See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 388-401 ; II., 15-18 ; 46-65 ; Eec. of
Past, Vols. II., IV., VI., VIII., passim ; Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., I., 257
; Miss Edwards s Up the Nile, pp. 204, 206, 436-443 ; Villiers Stuart s
Nile Gleanings, pp. 172-177 ; Tom- kins s "The Campaign of Barneses II. in
his Fiftli Year against Kadesh on the Orontcs," in Trans, of Soc. of Bib.
Arch., Vol. VII., Part, 3.
2 De Rouge s Le Poeme de Pen-Ta-Our ; also in Rec. of Past, II., pp. 65-78
; and in Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 56-65.
3 See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt,!., 389-394; Conder s Palestine before
Joshua," in Surv. of West. Pal., " Special Papers," pp. 177-194.
* Comp. No. 1 and No. 48 in that list.
5 Geog. des Alt. jE jypt, I., 59-61, 67 ; also Hist, of Egypt, I., 394;
II., 16. e Anc. Hist, of East, II., 150.
IN THE EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 161
guish between Kadesh of the Hittites and Kadesh of the Amorites, and he
would identify the latter with Kadesh -barnea. 1
This is a elaim worthy of our notice. In incidental proof of the
non-identity of Kadesh of the Hittites, and Kadesh of the Amorites, the
southernmost Kadesh, Chabas insists that the Egyptian records show that the
country of the Amorites was at some distance southward, from the region of
the Orontes; and this the Bible record also shows. Moreover, in the
pictured, or sculptured, representation of the campaign against Kadesh of
the Amorites, the latter place is "represented as standing on a hill side,
with a stream on one side, and surrounded by trees;" 2 and thus it is "most
plainly distinguished from the Kodesh of the Kheta (Hittites) on the
Orontes, which is in a flat country on a recess of a lake, girdled by a
double moat with bridges." 3
Again there are references on the temple walls and in the papyri to a
Qodesh, or Kadesh, and a Dapur, or Dapour, or Tapura, in apparent
proximity, in the land of Canaan, or the land of the Rutennu. 4 And in an
inscription above a representation of the second of these fortresses, in
the record of the conquests of Ram- eseS II., in his temple at Thebes, it
is called "Dapur in the land of the Amorites ; " 5 as Qodesh is elsewhere
called " Kadesh in the territory of the Amorites." 6 Among the proposed
identifications of these two sites, Chabas, 7 followed by Tomkins, 8
advocates Debir 9 below Hebron, and Kadesh-barnea farther southward.
1 Etudes sur I Ant. Hist., p. 266 /. 2 See Rosellini s Monumenti, LIII.
3 Tomkins s Times of Abraham, p. 84 ; also his paper, as above, in Trans,
of Soc. of Bib. Arch., Vol. VII., Pt. 3 ; Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., I., 259
; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 48-52.
4 See " Travels of an Egyptian," in Rec. of Past, Vol. II., p. Ill ;
Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 107-114; Surv. of West. Pal., "Special
Papers," pp. 163-176.
5 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 67 ; Birch s Egypt, p. 122. 6 Brugsch s
Hist, of Egypt, II., 16. 7 Etudes sur I Ant. Hist., p. 264^.
8 Times of Abraham, p. 84. 9 Josh. 10 : 36-39. See also page 103,
ff.,supra. 11
162 KADESH-BARNEA.
Such an identification, on such authority, ought not to be passed without
examination, in a search for traces of Kadesh-barnea.
There are weighty objections to both these identifications, and equally
weighty reasons in favor of other identifications. The order of the
narrative in the Anastasi Papyrus, 1 in the course of which Qodesh and
Dapur are mentioned together, would indi cate the upper portion of Samaria
and the lower portion of Galilee, rather than southern Judah, as the region
referred to;" and the same may be said of the place of the fortresses in
the inscriptions on the walls at Thebes. 3 Moreover, the pictured
delineations of the two fortresses in question furnish evidence that they
are not Debir and Kadesh-barnea, but that they are Tabor 4 and
Kedesh-Xaphtali ; 5 as can easily be shown.
Whether the name "Tabor" is or is not connected with the ancient name
"Dapur" or "Tapura," of the Egyptian records, the name of Dcbooreyeh, 6 at
the western base of Mount Tabor, is clearly a record of the ancient
Daberath or Dabareh, of the days of Joshua, 7 and so of the days of the
Egyptian records in question ; as also of the Dabira of Eusebius and
Jerome. 8 And the fortress
1 See Rec. of Past, Vol. II., pp. 109-116.
2 See Conder s "First Traveler in Palestine," in Surv. of West. Pal.,
"Special Pa pers," 1GS/.
3 Birch (Egypt, p. 122), and Brugsch (Hist, of Egypt, II., 67, 110), favor
this iden tification, although they do not attempt any proof of it. Condcr
(as above, p. 169) thinks that Dapour is "probably the Diblath of Ezek. 6:
14;" but he misses the connection with Debooreyeh at Mount Tabor. * Brugsch
s Hist, of Egypt, II., 67-
5 Brugsch (Hist, of Egypt, II., 110) identifies the Kadesh here linked with
Dapur as Kedes (the present name of Kedesh-Naphtali.) Conder (as above)
elaims the identification as his own.
6 See Von Schubert s Reise, III., 174; Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 350 /. ;
Wilson s Lands of Bible, II., 90; Van de Veldc s Reise, II. 324, 331 ;
Iliickert s Reise, p. 327; Hitter s Geog. of Pal., II., 314; Surv. of West.
Pal., " Name Lists," p. 125; Tris tram s Bible Places, p. 235.
7 Josh. 19: 12; 21: 28.
8 Onomast. s. v. "Dabira." This place is apparently the one called "Buria"
by William of Tyre (Gesta Dei, p. 1026.)
IN THE EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 163
which crowned the mountain would naturally bear the name of the city which
it covered and protected. Now Mount Tabor is unique among mountains, rising
as it does all by itself from a level plain. And the Egyptian
representation of the fortress of Dapur shows just such a mountain as that,
separate and distinct from other mountains, and with a citadel crowning its
entire surface. 1 This agrees most admirably with the Tabor identification
; but it is quite inconsistent with the identification at Debir below
Hebron, the site of which is found in Dhahareeyeh, 2 where is a ridge or
hill side, but no such separate mountain summit.
And the evidence for the identification of the lower Kadesh, of the
Amorites, with Kedesh-Naphtali, in the Egyptian delineation of its
fortress, is as distinct and positive as is that in the case of Dapur. As
has been already mentioned, 3 the fortress of Kadesh of the Hittites is
well known as on a plain, and as surrounded with a bridged moat ; while the
lower Kadesh is on a hill-side, with a stream below it. Now the site of
Kedesh-Naphtali, which was a royal city when the Israelites entered Canaan,
4 and which was made a city of refuge after their occupation, 5 is
described by trav elers in a manner to conform it peculiarly to the
Egyptian pictur ing. It still bears the name Kcdes, 6 and is a short
distance northwest of Huleh Lake, or the Waters of Merom. Tristram says of
it : " Situated on an eastern slope, behind it rise the bare but
herbage-clad hills, where flocks and herds camped for the greater part of
the year. The town stood on a knoll, where it could not easily be
surprised. Just below it gushed forth a copious spring, caught in various
ancient reservoirs, for the use of man and
!See Wilkinson s Anc. Eyi/pt., I., 243; Rawlinson s Hist, of Anc. Egypt,
I,, 482; also Tomkins s Times of Abraham, p. 86. J See page 103 ff., supra.
3 See page 161, supra. * Josh. 12 : 22 ; 19: 32-37.
5 Josh. 20 : 7-9 ; Judges 7 : 6-12 ; 2 Kings 15 : 29 ; 1 Chron. 6 : 76.
6 See Robinson s Bib. Res., III., 3G4ff.; Surv. of West. Pal., " Memoirs,"
Vol. I., pp. 226-230.
164 KADESH-BABNEA.
beast. Then, down a gentle slope, there were several hundred acres of olive
groves ; and beyond these a rich alluvial plain." This certainly is very
like the Egyptian picture, which shows Qodesh of the Amoritcs " as standing
on a hill side, with a stream on one side, and surrounded by trees." 1
It is a noteworthy fact, that, the Talmud refers to Kadesh- Naphtali as
Kadesh of the mountains, 2 which is practically the same as Kadesh of the
Amoritcs. And it certainly accords better with many of the Egyptian
references 3 to the Kadesh of the Amorites as in reasonable proximity to
the plain of Megiddo, to suppose that this Kadesh, or Kateshu, was
Kadesh-Naphtali rather than Kadesh on the Orontes.
At all events a careful examination of the facts seems to show
unmistakably, that the second Kadesh, or Qodesh, of the Canaan- itish lists
in Egypt, is not Kadesh-barnea, as Chabas and Tomkins have suggested. Xor,
in fact, have we any reason for supposing that Kadesh-barnea bore the name
Kadesh by which to be noted on the Egyptian records before the presence
there of the sacred tabernacle of the Hebrews. Moreover, as has been shown/
it is
1 " The site is beautiful the summit and sides of a little ridge projecting
from wooded heights on the west into a green plain." (Porter s Giant
Cities, p. 271.)
" Unlike the many towns we had visited on rocky hill-tops, Kedesh-Naphtali
occu pies a gently-sloping descent to a pretty vale." (Dulles s Ride
Through Pal., p. 360.)
2 " Kedescli, dans la montagne de Nephthali," quoted from the Babylonian
Talmud, Makkoth, 9 b., in Neubauer s La Geographic du Talmud, p. 55.
And Porter (Giant Cities, p. 262) says : " The Naphtalites were the
Highlanders of Palestine." Naturally, therefore, those who preceded them in
that region were "the Highlanders" the Amorites of Canaan; and their Kedesh
was the "Kedesh of the Amorites."
3 See Annals of Thothmes III. Account of the Battle of Megiddo," in Rec. of
Past, II., 37-58. The " Kateshu " first named in these " Annals " (pp. 38,
43) would seem to be the lower Kadesh ; while that named in the king s
later progress (p. 51 /.) would seem to be the upper one.
See also Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 368-386; Lenormant and Chevallier s
Anc. Hist, of East, I., 23 If.
* See page 83 f., supra.
IN THE APOCRYPHA. 165
not to be supposed that there was any fortress at Kadesh-barnea to be
captured by Hebrews or Egyptians.
2. IN THE APOCRYPHA.
Next in order to the Egyptian records, comes the Apocrypha. This contains
but a single locating of the southernmost Kadesh ; l and that is in a list
of places, in Judith 1 :7-10, to which a message was sent by " the king of
the Assyrians : " " To all that were in Samaria and the cities thereof, and
beyond Jordan unto Jerusalem, and Betane, and Chellus, and Kades, and the
river of Egypt, and Taphnes, and Ramcsse, and all the land of Gesem."
Here it is evident that the geographical order of the places named is from
" beyond the Jordan," 2 or, from near the Jordan, southerly and westerly,
by way of Jerusalem toward Egypt. After Jerusalem comes " Betane." This is
probably the Beth- auoth 3 of Joshua 15 : 59, fairly identified by Wolcott
4 in theBayt Ainooii of to-day, a short distance north of Hebron ; this
latter identification being approved by Robinson 5 and Winer 6 and Palmer 7
and Tristram, 8 and being in keeping with the view of Roland 9 and Grove.
10 Of the important ruins of this site, with their ancient watering-place
cisterns, Tristram says : " Near them was the great highway to Egypt, and
traces of the ancient paved
1 "Cades, which is in Galilee," or Kedesh-Xaphtali, is twice mentioned, in
I Maccabees 11 : 63, 73. One reading of Judith 5 : 4, mentions
Kadesh-barnea.
2 " Here this phrase means, not as commonly the country east of the Jordan,
but that lying west of the river." (Schaff-Bissell Apocrypha, in loco.)
3 So says " Movers, followed by Fritzsche, Bunsen s Bibelwerk, and other
authori ties" (Schaff-Bissell Apoc., p. 169.) The suggestion of Rawlinson
(Herod., II., 460) that Batansea, or Bashan, is intended, is quite
inconsistent with the geographical order of the text.
*Bib. Sac., February, 1843, p. 57 f. 6 Bib. Res., III., 281.
6 Bib. Realwbrterb., s. v. " Betane."
7 Survey of West. Pal., " Name Lists," p. 397. 8 Bible Places, p. 68 /.
Palaxtinu,, p. 625. 10 Smith-Hockett Bib. Die., s. v. " Betane."
166 KADESH-BARNEA.
road remain, and marks of wheel-ruts, where no wheeled carriage has passed
for centuries." This indicates a reason for naming this station on the way
Egyptward.
Next to " Bctane " is " Chcllus," or, Chclus. 1 This is naturally thought
by Roland 2 and Grove 3 to be the Khulasah, 4 or Chalutza, or Elusa, which
was a centre of pagan worship, 5 and lay south westerly from Bcersheba.
Winer 6 would find in Chellus the ancient Halhul ; 7 but as this name still
stands " Halhul," 8 it seems hardly probable that it would have been known,
at any time between the early and later period, as " Chellus." In a list of
episcopal and arch-episcopal towns in the see of the Patriarchate of
Jerusalem, made up early in the sixth century, 9 two stations at the east
of the arch-episcopate of Gaza are named, as " Chalasa " and " Cholus," 10
or, as " Elusa " and " Elas." n The second of these two stations would
correspond yet more elosely with Chelus; and this is not improbably the
place referred to as " el-Khulus," in the Arabic version of the Polyglot
Bible, as standing for Gerar, in Genesis 20 : 1, 2 ; 26 : 1, as mentioned
by Roland, 12 Robinson, 13 and Stewart, 14 rather than " Elusa " as they
supposed. But which ever of the three sites be accepted for Chellus, the
direction is still southerly and westerly, from above Hebron toward the
borders of Egypt.
After " Chellus," between that and " the river of Egypt," or Wady el-
Areesh, comes " Kades." And just here is where we should expect to find "
Kades," or Kadesh-barnea, in view of all
1 Schaff-Bissdl Apocrypha, in loco. 2 Palsestina, p. 717.
3 Smith-Hackett Bib. Die., s. v. "Chellus."
*Bib. Res., I., 201 /.; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 385 /., 423, Bartlett
s Egypt to Pal., p. 401 /.
5 Jerome s Vita Hilarionis. *Bib. fiealworterb., s.v." Chellus." Josh.
15:58. 8 Robinson s Bib. Res. III., 2S1 /. ; Jerome s De Locis Ilebnticis,
s. v. " Elul."
9 Quoted in the Appendix to Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 550 ff.
10 Ibid., p. 552. n Roland s Palxstina, pp. 217, 218. ^ Ibid., p. 805.
is Bib. Res., I., 202, note. " Tent and Khan, p. 208.
IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 167
the biblical indications of its site. It is at the southern extremity of
Palestine, at the turning point westward of the boundary line toward Wady
el- Areesh. And so the Apocrypha agrees with the Old Testament text in the
location of Kadesh-barnea.
3. IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS.
And now for the help of the rabbinical writings, in our search for light on
Kadesh-barnea and its locating. And at first it seems a darkening of
counsel that comes to us, in words without know ledge ; but those words
will bear studying.
In the Targums, and in the Talmud instead of Kadesh, and of Kadesh-barnea,
we find another term substituted ; namely, " Reqam," or " Reqem-Giah," in
several diverse but not materially different forms. 1 The reason and
significance of this Substitutionary terra has been a matter of much
discussion and of no little confusion among earlier and later commentators.
An added element of confusion is the fact that the same term, " Reqem," is,
in one instance at least, applied in the Talmud to Petra, 2 or the Rock
City, at the east, or the southeast, of the Holy Land.
Josephus," followed by Eusebius* and Jerome 5 and many
1 In the Targums :
The Pseudo-Jonathan, at Num. 34 : 4, and elsewhere : K#U Dpi, reqam yce d.
The Jerusalem : N^ JT Dpi, reqam degai d. Onkelos : Dpi, reqam.
IT :
In the Babylonian Talmud : In Yalkoot, Ekeb, iTKJ Dpi, reqem gaih. In
Siphre", Ekeb, and in treatise, Tosiftha, Schebiith, chap. 3, HX J Dpi,
reqem geeah.
In the Jerusalem Talmud: In Schebiith, 6: 1, Hi UT Dpi, reqem dego ah. 1 In
Gittin, 1 : 1, Dpi, reqem. 3 Antiq., Bk. IV., Chap. 7, ? 1.
4 Onomast., s.vv., " Arcem," "Petra," " Recem."
5 De Loc. Heb., s.vv., "Arcem. " Petra," " Recem."
168 KADESH-BARNEA.
others, suggested that this name Reqam which he applies exclu sively to
Petra was given in honor of Rekem, a Midianitish king slain by the Hebrews
under Phiuehas on the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan. 1 But as this
name is applied by the rabbis to Kadesh, the sanctuary of the Hebrews, we
may be sure that it had some other signification than this. To suppose that
they would call that sacred site by the name of an accursed chieftain slain
by the sword of the Lord, is as unreasonable as it \vould be to sup pose
that the early Christians of Damascus had named a church " Ananias " in
honor of the husband of Sapphira. 2
That the term Reqam in the rabbinical writings is commonly applied to
Kadesh-barnea, and that the location of Kadesh-barnea as thus designated
corresponds with the biblical indications of its site not far eastward of
the great caravan route between Egypt and Syria would seem clear on an
examination of those writings. In several name-lists of places given in the
Talmud, 3 as marking the boundaries of the Holy Land, the starting point is
Askelon. Running northward along the western boundary, and thence east ward
and southward, the line indicated by these lists returns along the southern
side, westerly to its starting point Askelon. On this route, " Reqem-Giah "
occurs on the southern line, in proximity to Askelon and " the great road
which leadeth to the desert." But it is also evident, as before noted, that
there is a second Reqam not a second Kadesh referred to in those writings
as on the eastern border of the Holy Land, or just beyond it. This Reqam is
probably the " Petra " mentioned by Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome ; which
mention has been the occasion of so much doubt and confusion.
A careful talmudic scholar 4 of two centuries ago touches this
1 Num. 31 : 1-8. 2 Corap. Acts 5 : 1-11 ; 9 : 10.
3 See a table of these lists, facing page 11, in Neubauer s Geog. du
Talmud. 4 Johannis Othonis Lex. Rabbin. Philolog. (Geneva, A. D. 1675), s.
v., Cadesh- Barnea."
IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 169
point when he says : " Kadesh-barnea, and Kadesh simply, are
translated Rekam by all the Oriental interpreters Rekam
was the boundary of the land of Israel, yet so that it was to be esteemed
as outside the land. . . . There were two noteworthy places named Rekarn on
the limits of the land ; one was Kadesh on the southern side ; but the
other, Kadesh [Rekam] on the eastern side concerning which Rabbi Nissim
speaks in Gittiu I., when he says, Rekam [Petra] itself is considered as
the east of the world as Gentile territory, not as Israelitish territory."
The passage in Gittiu here referred to, shows that there is an eastern "
Rekam " (as Josephus and others say Petra is called) ; but it does not show
that there is an eastern Kadesh. 1
The learned Lightfoot, 2 tracking this matter " by the light of the Talmud/
notes that " the Eastern interpreters " render Kadesh by " Rekam, or in a
sound very near it ; " and that there are two places mentioned as Rekam, by
those interpreters, " in the very bounds of the Land, to wit, the southern
and eastern : that is a double Kadesh." Then he goes on to say, that " of
Kadesh, or Rekam, in the south part, there is no doubt ; " while in his
opinion there was not a second Kadesh. His conclusion is : " That that
Kadesh, to which they [the Israelites] came in the fortieth year (which is
called Meribah, Xumbers 20 : 13), is the same with Kadesh-barnea is clear
enough from hence, that Meribah in Kadesh is assigned for the southern
border of the Land (Ezekiel 47 : 19) ; which border of old was
Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 34: 4; Joshua 15: 3)."
If, indeed, it could be found that the term Reqam has a signifi cation
applicable alike to Kadesh-barnea and to Petra, it would at once make clear
the cause of all this confusion in the references to these two places by
Jewish and Christian writers for now twenty
1 See Mischna, with Maimonides notes (Amsterdam edition), p. 415. iHorx
Heb. et Tal., Vol. I., pp. 19-21.
170 KADESII-BARNEA.
centuries, more or less. Is such a solution of the problem practi cable? We
have seen 1 that Sel a was first applied to Kadesh- barnea, and afterwards
to Petra ; and that confusion was possible from the use of that term
interchangeably as the designation of the two places. Is there anything
like this in the two-fold use of the term Reqam ?
It is somewhat strange that no student of this subject has noted the fact
that rikhdm, 2 or rukhdm, a elose equivalent of " Reqam/ is to-day an
Arabic term for " rock," and therefore might be applicable, as is the
Hebrew Sela, to both Kadesh-barnea and Petra. The primitive meaning of the
Arabic word rukhdm is of that which is split or stratified, parted or piled
in layers ; and the word is often applied to marble, 3 or lime stone, or
alabaster: 4 but it is also used in designation of rock of all kinds. For
example, in a modern Arabic work on the geography of Egypt, 5 a reference
is made to the " red rukham," 6 or the syenite granite, of Aswan ; and
again the various rocks of an entire district are treated under the general
head of " Rukbam." 7
The word " Ruqeem " 8 almost identical with the Hebrew "Reqam " occurs once
in the Quran. 9 Its meaning there has been another puzzle. As Sale 10 says
of it : " What is meant by this word the commentators cannot agree." But
among other proposed explanations, " some will have it to be the name of
the mountain "
1 Sec page 124 /, supra.
2 jLi-\. gee Lane, Freytag, and the Jesuits French Arabic Lexicons, s. v. 3
Abulfeda s Tab. JE jypt., p. 14. Surv. of West. Pal., "Name Lists," p. 405.
"Rukhika, white marble." Also, Freytag s Lex. Arab. Lat., s. v. "rukhiim."
* Catafago s Arabic Die., s. v. " rukham." s Fikry s Gcog. of Eijypt,
Cairo, A. H. 1296. ^11 id., Part II., page 74.
Ubid., "f^V
9 Sura 18. v. 8. In the Arabic Version of Walton s Polyglot Eible, at Gen.
14: 7 the word "Kuqeem," given for " Kadesh" is identical with that, as
above, from the Quran.
10 In Koran with Notes, p. 238, note.
IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 171
in which was a cave, referred to in the context; while others apply it to a
legend of three men shut in a cave by "the falling down of a vast stone
which stopped the cave s mouth," who " were miraculously delivered by the
rock s rending in sunder to give them passage." Either explanation consists
with the idea of " Ruqeem " meaning a rock-mountain with its cave sides,
like Petra ; or again meaning a smitten Rock, like that of Kadesh-barnea.
It is evident from this showing of the case, that the Arabic term Rikham
might not unnaturally be applied interchangeably to the Rock of Kadesh, and
to Petra the Rock City. And now, apart from the fact of the admitted
resemblance of the Arabic and the ancient Hebrew, it is worth our while to
consider the traces of words, similar in form and meaning to the one in
question, in the cognate Syriac and Hebrew. 1
Jerome distinctly states that Petra in Edom is called Rekem by the Syrians
; 2 although Eusebius says that it is the Assyrians who so name it. 3 In
the Peshitto Syriac Version, 4 at Numbers 34 : 4, "Kadesh-barnea" is
supplied by Reqam degaia, 5 and in the accompanying Latin Version this is
rendered Recem Superbam Reqam the Lofty, or perhaps here, the Pre-eminent.
A literal rendering of the Syriac would make it simply Reqam of the Plain.
We have already seen that the word Reqam, here ascribed to the Syriac, is
in use in the talmudic Hebrew ; and this brings us to the question of the
meaning of the word in these languages.
In both the Hebrew and the Syriac 6 the word ragam r means stoning, or to
stone. For example, this is the word used of the proposed stoning of Moses
and Aaron by the rebellious Israelites at Kadesh-barnea, 8 when the people
were dismayed at the report.
1 In the tracking of these philological proofs, I am particularly indebted
to the scholarly assistance of Mr. John T. Napier, whose services at many
other points in my work I have elsewhere acknowledged.
1 De Loc. Heb., s. v. " Petra." 3 Onomast., s. v. " Petra." * Walton s
Polyylotta.
5 Tjl * VttO $ 6 See Castellus s Syriac Lexicon. T DJ"X 8 Num. 14: 10.
172 KADESH-BA RNEA.
of the spies ; and again of the stoning of the sabbath-breaker, 1 in the
days following. Fiirst suggests that the root of this word was a noun
rcgan, 2 " a stone-heap ;" and he directly suggests its connection with
"Reqem" 3 the name of a town in the tribe of Benjamin ; 4 where he thinks
it may have referred to existing stone heaps as it similarly might apply to
stone structures at Petra. 5
Another accomplished Oriental scholar 6 says of the root meaning of rcqam:
" Comparing the Arabic ( f^) ; the Syriac (VOJQ 5); and the Hebrew (OPT) ;
I should take the radical meaning to be strike, thrust, whence dot,
excavate. So in Arabic the verb means to write ( cut letters, or print ),
and to embroider. The latter is also the sense in Syriac and Hebrew to
embroider, from striking, or piercing ; whence the meaning of the Hebrew
(Dp~0 seems to be pierced, that is perhaps, excavated/ an appro priate name
for Petra, and for the city mentioned by Abu l Feda." It will be seen,
farther on, that the root meanings here proposed have like appropriateness
with the one suggested by Fiirst in application both to Petra and to the "
struck " or " pierced " Rock of Ivadesh the " Fountain of Miriam."
Thus it certainly may be, that the Arabic rikhdm, rukhdm, and ruqecm ; the
Syriac rcqam and ragam ; the Chaldee rcqam ; and the Hebrew ragam, reqam,
and rcqcm, are vestiges in variety of a common Semitic root, 7 having
reference to " stone " or " rock."
1 Num. 15 : 35, 36. 2 Q}\ Fiirst s Heb. u. CJwild. Worterb., s. v.,
"ragam." 3 rjrn.
4 Josh. 18: 27. Grove, in Smith- Hackett Bib. Die., s. v., "Rekem,"
suggests a trace of this name in the present " Ain Karim," west of
Jerusalem ; the reputed home of Zacharias and Elizabeth. This suggestion is
adopted by Fausset (Bib. Cyc., s. v.), and Young (Analytical Concordance}.
5 Yet Fiirst does not seem to have thought of the connection of Reqem with
Petra and Kadesh, as bearing on this suggestion of his.
6 Professor C. H. Toy (of The Harvard University Divinity School), in a
private letter to the author.
7 For the elose relationship of the various Semitic languages, see Fischer
s
IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 173
That variations similar to these through changes of the gutturals and
palatals, and of the vowels are frequent in the languages re ferred to, is
a fact familiar to every scholar. 1
If this conclusion be accepted, the mystery of " Reqem," as applied alike
to the Rock at Kadesh, and the Rock-City Petra, is solved ; and the
confusion growing out of the interchange of names is accounted for. And the
designation of Kadesh as Reqam de-Geeah, 2 or Reqam of the Plain, 3 is a
natural one, as over against Reqam of the Mountains in Edom, or Moab.
That, indeed, the term " Reqam " has reference to a place of rock, or of
rocks, whenever we know the place referred to, is clear ; and the inference
is legitimate that it ahvays means this. As applied to " Petra," this is
obvious ; and this covers the various mentions of it in Josephus, Eusebius,
and Jerome.
Ibn Hauqal, 4 an Arabian traveler and geographer, writing in the tenth
century, tells of " Reqem," 5 a town situated near the Belqa, where "all
the walls and houses are of stone, in such a manner that one would imagine
they were all of one piece." Three centuries later, Abulfeda (Aboo l Feda),
a hereditary Emeer of Syria, who wrote works on geography, both as an eye
witness and as a student, made mention 6 of this same place, " Er-Ruqeem, a
small town situated near El-Belqa; 7 the houses of which are all
" Anleitung zum Studium des Midrasch und Talmud," pp. 13-34, in Winer s
Chal- ddische Grammatik.
1 Concerning the interchanging, in Hebrew, and in the other Semitic
dialects, of P O>( ( l) 5 -I ^>(g) 5 f\ ^t (kh) 5 see the articles on
these letters, in Eli Smith s "Essay on the Pronunciation of the Arabic,"
in Appendix to Robinson s Bib. Res., III. (first edition) ; also Robinson s
Gesenius, and Adolf Wahrmund s Handbuch der ncu-Arribi$chen Sprache, I., p.
11, $ 36.
2 See page 167 /, supra.
3 Compare the Hebrew N J, gayt, X J, gai ; the Arabic ^y^jjewa, xxs>.,
jeeah : which all have the meaning of " a plain," or of " a low-lying
place."
4 Ouseley s Oriental Gcog. of Ebn Haukal, p. 40. 5 *J>
8 Tabula Syr ix, p. 11. T " El-Belqa is one of the districts of Esh-ShariU,
[and is] a fertile land having
1 74 AM DESH-BAENEA.
cut out of the live rock, as though they were one rock." 1 The Arabic word
"Utiqecm" 2 as given here is identical with that found in the Quran and in
the Arabic Version, as already quoted. Elsewhere, Abulfeda 3 refers to this
Er-llnqecm as north of Kerak, and not far from it. Although no attempts to
identify this place seem to have been made in modern times, it would appear
worthy of notice that Seetzen 4 found a "Bet el Kerm," in the region re
ferred to by Abulfeda ; between Kerek and the Belqa. Burck- hardt s visited
this place, which lie speaks of as " the ruins of an ancient city called
Bcit-Kerm/ 6 belonging to which, on the side of the road, arc the remains
of a temple of remote antiquity." Again it was visited by Irby and Mangles,
7 who think that the temple was Roman, resembling that which they " took to
have been a palace at Petra." More recently it was seen by Do Saulcy, 8 who
speaks of the temple as " magnificent," a " marvelous struc ture." Tristram
9 also saw the ruins in passing. Xot only is there a suggestion of the name
" Ruqcem" in the name " Kerm" the consonants in the two words being
identical, and the change in their order not an unusual one; 10 but the
very name " Rakim " is
Heshbon as its metropolis. This [Ilcshbon] is a little town situated in the
valley, planted with trees and grain, and having gardens and tilled fields.
That valley, in deed, stretches even to the. Glior, or plain of Zoghar.
El-Belqa is distant from Jericho one day s journey to the east." (Abulfeda,
as above.)
1 For other Arabic references to this place, see Gildemeister s "
Paliistinakunde aus Arabischeii Quellcn," in Zeitschrift des Deutsch Pal.
Ver., Band VI., p. 9.
2 |**i* -Ji, cr-Ruqcem.
3 Annul es Moslem., quoted at third hand in Robinson s Bib. Res., II., 522.
4 Reisen, I., 411. 5 Travels in Syria, p. 376.
6 j* j 0^-0 7 Travels, p. 458.
8 The Dead Sea, I., 293-206. 9 Land of Moab, p. 125 /.
10 Concerning the common transposition of consonants, in Semitic languages,
see Ilodiger-Davidson s Gesenius s Ilcb. Gram., Chap. II., $ 19 (5).
As already stated Grove and others think that the name " Karin" ( Ayn
Karim), west of Jerusalem, may be a vestige of Eeqem," by such a
transposition of the con sonants. According to the " Name Lists" of the
Survey of Western Palestine (page 280), this Karim ( + \Q ) differs in one
consonant from the " Qerm " ( * Ji }, as re-
7,V THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 175
reported by Canon Tristram as still existing iii that region ; be tween
Kerak and the Belqa.
It has been thought by many that there was a Petra in Moab, as well as a
Petra in Edom. Leake, the editor of Burckhardt s Travels/ has given reasons
for believing that the Petra of Moab which he would identify in Kerek was
referred to by Diodorus Siculus, in his story of the defence of Petra
against Demetrius. Von Raumer 2 has argued strongly in the same direction.
Relaad 3 and Robinson, 4 while not accepting this conclusion, admit that
there are references by Eusebius, Jerome, and Athanasius, which, taken
without explanation, would seem to show two Petras ; one in " Palestine,"
and one in " Arabia." Cellarius 5 is positive that there were two. Now if
there was a Petra in Moab, it is more than probable that that was the Petra
which Josephus 6 tells of as called Arekeme, after the name of its founder
; for the king Rekern, to whom Josephus refers, fell on or near the plains
of Moab, 7 and does not seem to have had any connection with Edom. If
Arekeme was a compound of Ar and Rekem, as certainly is
ported by Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, page 376), in the land of Moab; the
latter being identical with the Hebrew " Reqera " ; but this difference may
be only a seem ing one. (See Preface to " Name Lists.") It is noteworthy,
however, that Thomson (Central Palestine and Phtenicia, Land and Book, p.
58) translates the " Karim " of Judea as " vineyards," while Tristram (Land
of Moab, p. 133) gives the same meaning" vineyards" to the " Kurm " near
Kerak. And again, Palmer (Des. of Exod., II., pp. 352, 367, 373) has shown
that the ancient vineyards of those regions were often composed of " small
stone-heaps, formed by sweeping together in regular swathes, the flints
which strew the ground " ; and that " along these the grapes were trained,
and they still retain the name of tdcilat el- anab, or grape mounds."
Moreover, he finds these mounds called also " rujiim el-kurum, or vineyard
heaps." (Ibid., II., 411.) According to this, whether the anagram be rukim
or kurim, it might fairly mean stone-heaps." But this is merely incidental.
If nothing more, it is certainly curious as a coincidence.
1 Preface, viii.-xi. 2 Palastina, pp. 451-465; also, p. 276.
Palcestina, pp. 926-934. * Bib. Res., II., 522 ff.
6 Geog. Antiq., Lib. III., Cap. 14., \ 29, p. 580. e Antiq., Bk. IV., chap.
7, \ 1. 7 Num. 31 : 1-12.
176 KADESH-BARNEA.
possible, the prefix may have stood for the word meaning " a city;" l or
for tlie uame of a chief city of Moab, sometimes used for Moab itself; 2 or
again for a simple article. 3 In the first case the com pound word would
mean Rock-City ; in the second case Moab- Rock ; in the third case merely
The Rock.
If again there was a Pctra in Moab, it may well be supposed that the
Er-Ruqecm of Abulfcda was that Petra; 4 and that traces of its name arc
still found in " Beit Kerm " and " Rakim," near Kcrek. But, however this
may be, it is clear that wherever we can fix the name Ruqecm, we find that
it refers to a place of stones or of rock ; and this W T C may fairly take
to be its meaning in all cases.
But just here it maybe objected that the Rock of Kadesh was a eliff, rather
than a small and detached rock ; and that while the term rcqam would
possibly apply to the smitten rock (feoor) of Horcb, it would be
inappropriate to the more imposing Rock (ScFct) of Kadesh. 5 In answer to
this it is sufficient to say that the rabbins did not always distinguish
between the two rocks of Horeb and Kadesh ; or rather, that they held that
the rock smitten at Horeb was miraculously carried forward to Kadesh, and
thence along all the route of the Israelites, and at last found its place
in the Sea of Galilee, where its marvelous power continued to mani fest
itself. 6
The Jewish tradition was that this rock was a " block of stone, round like
a beehive," and pierced with twelve holes, from which flowed the streams
for the twelve tribes. 7 Accompanying the
1 Vjp, eer. 2 Num. 21 : 15, 28; Dent. 2: 9, 18, 29.
3 7tf al ; actually a weak demonstrative pronoun, which passed into an
article.
4 Schultens (as quoted in Kohler s Notes to Abulfeda s Tabula Syrice, p.
11), and Von Raumer (Palastina, p. 276), would find Petra in this
Er-Ruqeem.
5 See page 124 f.^sttpra.
6 See Baring-Gould s Legends of Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 204 /.;
Buxtorfs Syn. Juil, Chap. XI. ; Lightfoot s Horse Heb., Vol. III., p. 295;
also Franz Delitzsch s Notes on " The Rock that Followed Them," in " The
Independent," for Dec. 7, 1882.
7 According to the Monkish traditions, this Rock was miraculously carried
back
IN THE RABBINICAL WRITINGS. 177
Israelites in their marches, this rock furnished their water supply in all
the desert wastes. When the eloud rested, and the tabernacle was formally
put up, the rock was accustomed to take its place in the tabernacle court.
Then the princes of the people would come and direct with their staves the
courses of the streams for the several tribes ; and the water would flow so
as to give drink to all, " to each man in the door of his tent."
This rock was called the Fountain of Miriam, and the rabbins held that it
was because of Miriam s death at Kadesh-barnea that once more "there was no
water for the congregation," 1 and that the Lord directed Moses to speak to
the rock that it might again give forth its water as in the days of Miriam
s life. As finally sunken in the Sea of Galilee, this rock, according to
tradition, "can still be seen from certain points of view, as before
Jeshimon, or as one is ascending to the peak of Carmel, or from the middle
door of the old synagogue of Serugnin." And thence the Foun tain of Miriam
discharges itself at " the end of the Sabbath " and " mingles itself with
all fountains." And wherever those waters flow they carry healing; for "if
it should happen that at that moment of time any Jewess should draw some of
that water, it would certainly be most efficient to the working of all
cure;" for " whoever drinks from such a fountain as that is healed, even
though his whole body were covered with the most loathsome disease." 2 It
would even seem as if the multitude of sick, blind, halt, withered who
waited for the troubling of the waters at Beth-
to Rephidim when it had accomplished its purpose for the Israelites ; and a
rock -which is elaimed to be this one is shown near Mount Sinai to-day,
having traces of twelve fis sures from which the~water flowed. It is
frequently pictured in the reports of travelers, as, for example, in
Moncony s Reisen (A. D. 169(5) ; in Shaw s Travels (A. D. 1738) ; in
Pococke s Description of the East (A. D. 1743) ; in Laborde s Voyage (A. D.
1830) ; in Newnham s Illustrations of the Exodus (A.. D. 1830) ; and in
many other works. Moreover it is often referred to by Christian travelers
as a veritable sacred relic.
1 Num. 20: 1, 2. 2 Buxtorf s Syn. Jud., as above.
12
178 KADESH-BARNEA.
esda 1 were watching for the inflow from the Fountain of Miriam. It is
thought that Paul had this well-known rabbinical tradition in mind, when he
said of the Israelites in their journcyings: "They drank of a spiritual
Rock which followed them: and the
t/
Rock was Christ." 2 The tradition according to the rabbins was, that a
natural rock followed them to supply their bodily thirst. The truth
according to Paul was, that a spiritual Rock followed them, to supply their
soul thirst.
In view of the rabbinical legends attached to the Rock which supplied the
Israelites at Kadesh, it would certainly not be strange to find that Rock
and by metonomy the Place of that Rock referred to in the rabbinical
writings by a term which, in its use elsewhere, seems to mean " smitten
rock," " layer rock," " pierced rock," "stone heaps," and "stone
dwellings." Xor again would it be strange if that term thus applied should
cause more or less con fusion in its possible application to other places
of rock, or of rock- dwellings.
4. IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN NAME LISTS.
In turning from the Jewish to the early Christian writings, for help in the
locating of Kadesh-barnea, we are practically limited to Eusebius and
Jerome. The first named of these writers pre pared, early in the fourth
century, his " Onomasticon," a Name List of SaCred Places. This being
issued in Greek, it was trans lated into Latin, by Jerome, under the title
of "De Locis He- braicis," who also made some additions to it, before the
elose of the same century.
While examining this source of information, it is important to bear in mind
the real value and the evident limitations of both
1 John 5: 2-7. It will be borne in mind that the Revised Text leaves out
the ref erence to an angel s troubling of the water.
2 1 Cor. 10: 4.
IN THE EARL Y CHRISTIAN NAME LISTS. 179
these writers in the fields covered by them. Concerning places of which
they had personal knowledge, the facts they give are of great value; and
the same may be said of other places concerning which the identification
was not in doubt in their day. But beyond the range of their personal
knowledge, they had few helps to an understanding of geography; and their
work shows their liability to be misled or confused by a similarity of
names in different sites, and by vague impressions or hasty conclusions. As
Von Raumer 1 says of their combined geographical writing: " Their work is
of double worth, since both authors lived in Pales tine; but of course they
arc of slighter authority when they speak of ancient places which neither
of the two saw." And as Condor 2 adds : " It seems plain that they were far
more hasty than modern scholars would be iu fixing upon a site of similar
name without reference to other requisites;" hence "the instances of
incorrect identification are very numerous."
In the day of Eusebius and Jerome, Kadesh-barnea had long passed out of
prominence as a place of habitation, although its name was so elosely
linked with the history of Palestine; and its site as indicated in our
researches thus far would hardly have been in the line of travel to or from
the Holy Land. Petra, on the contrary the Petra of Edom was still a centre
of political and commercial importance; and its site must have been well
known. We have no reason, however, for supposing that either Eusebius or
Jerome had been at either Kadesh-barnea or Petra. Indeed Robinson 3 says,
that in view of their citing Josephus as authority for the interchanged
names of " Petra," " Recem," and "Arcem : " " it would seem that they in no
case speak from their own knowledge," of these places. It is, therefore,
quite reason -
1 Palastina, p. 4.
*" Early Christian Topography," in Surv. of West. Pal., "Special Papers,"
p. 249 /
3 Bib. Res., II., 521.
180 KADESH-BARNEA.
able to suppose, that both Euscbius and Jerome had vague ideas of the
precise location of Kadesh-barnca ; and that the similarity of its
rabbinical name " Ileqam " with the alternative names of Petra, would
confuse their ideas of the relations of these two places ; and of other
sites linked with them, as already shown in the case of Mount II or.
As a matter of fact, both Euscbius and Jerome seem to have taken Kadesh and
Kadesh-barnca to be alternative names of the Wilderness of Kadesh ; and
that wilderness to be an extensive stretch of desert south of Palestine :
all the wav alone* from the
J O
Wilderness of Shur on the borders of Egypt, to the easternmost limit of the
Wilderness of Pa ran where lay Pctra or Rcqam, " the cast of the world." !
Indeed, in one place, they specifically declare this to be their view of
the case ; and, again, several of their mentions of Kadesh arc conformed to
it. Speaking of Gerar, 2 they say : " Scripture mentions that it was
between Kadesh and Shur ; that is, between two wildernesses, of which one
is joined to Egypt into which [Shur] the people came after crossing the Red
Sea ; but the other, Kadesh, extends even to the desert of the Saracens" of
Arabia Felix. 3 Eusebius describes Kadesh- barnea as "the desert stretching
to Pctra, a city of Palestine;" 4 while Jerome adds that Kadesh-barnea is "
in the desert which is joined to [or which actually stretches on until it
touches] the city of Petra." 5 Again, in a mention of " Arad," 6 Eusebius
says it is "situated near the desert called Kadesh;" and Jerome 7 says, "
near the desert of Kadesh." Moreover, both Eusebius and Jerome locate the
Well of Judgment 8 [Eu-mishpat] in Gerar, in the western part of the
desert.
1 See page 168 f., sujym. 2 Onomnsticon., s. v.
3 The desert east of the Arabah. See Forster s Gcog. of Arabia, II., 7-32.
* Onomasticon, s. v., " Kaddes." 5 DC Loc. Heb., s. v., " Cades."
6 Onomnsticon, s. v., " Arama." 7 DC Loc. Ileb., s. v., " Arad."
8 lbid. } s. v., " Puteus fudicii." Onomasticon, s. v., $piap Kpiaeui;.
IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN NAME LISTS. 181
In another work, 1 Jerome speaks of the monk Hilarion as " going to the
desert Kadesh " by way of Elusa a route which would be taken to day by a
traveler from Palestine toward the Azazimeh mountain tract, or toward the
desert south of those mountains. In no case, however, is Kadesh identified
with Petra, either by statement or by implication, in the writings of
Eusebius and Jerome ; any more than in the writings of Josephus and the
rabbins.
From all these facts it would seem, that while there are no con elusive
indications of the precise location of Kadesh-barnea in the Egyptian
records, in the Apocrypha, in the rabbinical writings, or in the early
Christian name-lists, there is nothing in those extra- biblical sources of
information which conflicts \\ ith the indications already found in the
Bible text ; while there is more or less in confirmation of those
indications.
1 Vita Hilarionis.
IV. K ADE S H-B AE^E A.
KADESH-BAKNEA.
1. WHY IT DROPPED FROM NOTICE.
Notwithstanding the importance and early prominence of Kadesh-barnea as a
boundary line landmark, and as a point of strategic value on the border of
the Holy Land, it seems to have dropped out from the records of travel and
of study during a period of six to eight centuries after the days of
Eusebius and Jerome ; and the reasons for this fact it is not difficult to
surmise.
Because Kadesh-barnea was a secluded stronghold, off from the main routes
of travel while yet it was near to them, it would natu rally be passed by
without notice, when there was no special occasion for turning aside to it.
It was not a station on any of the great Roman roads across the desert, or
into and through Palestine, to find a place on all the prominent
route-maps, such as the Antonine Itinerary and the Peutinger Tables. It was
not in the ordinary routes of pilgrimage to or from Jerusalem or Mount
Sinai, to have mention in the devout itineraries, from Bishop Arculf s to
that of Sir John Mauudeville. 1
Nor was it in the line of the customary approaches to Palestine from the
"West, during the varying conflicts for the possession of that land, as
recorded in the crusading chronicles of the middle ages. No Christian army
followed in the track of Kedor-la omer
1 See Eeissbuch des Ileiligen Lands; also, Wright s Early Travels in
Palestine.
185
186 KADESH-BARNEA.
or of Moses, in an attempted entry into the Holy Land from the southward ;
and, therefore, none needed to seek a stopping-place at the border
stronghold which those chieftains recognized as an objective point in such
a movement.
Meantime, there were no geographical studies of that region, in either
Jewish or Christian circles, which gave fresh light to any out-of-the-way
location, however important it might be in its rela tions to the Bible
narrative. Hence it is not to be wondered at, that Kadesh-barnea seemed
forgotten.
2. A GLEAM DURING THE CRUSADES.
In a single instance there is a mention of Kadesh-barnea, in the crusading
chronicles of William of Tyre; 1 and naturally this mention is in
connection with a movement Egyptward.
It was between the second and third crusades, 2 under the reign of Amalric
I. (or Amaury I.), the brother and successor of Bald win III., as kino; of
Jerusalem. A. D. 1167. A state of thin 0-3
/ o o
which at that time, was, in a sense, advantageous to the Christians, grew
out of the discords and conflicts among the Muhammadans of Egypt, Syria,
and Asiatic Turkey. The rival khaleefehs of Cairo and Baghdad were in
bitter hostility to each other; and both the sultan of Damascus and the
king of Jerusalem endeav ored from time to time to avail themselves of this
hostility for personal ends. 3
After the Christian and the Syrian armies had successively invaded Egypt
and then withdrawn from it, the sultan of Damas-
1 See his "Historia," m Gesta Dei per Francos, at p. 962 /.
2 As in all such matters, there is a difference in the dividing line
recognized by different authorities. Mill (Hist, of Crusades, chap. X.),
counts this period between the second and third crusades; so does Cox
(Encyc. Brit., ninth ed., Art. "Cru sades"); but Michaud (Hist, of
Crusades, Bk. VII.), includes it in the third crusade.
3 Various authorities (as above) go to show these facts.
A GLEAM DURING THE CRUSADES. 187
cus made a league with the khaleefeh of Baghdad for the subju gation of
Egypt; iu order that the sultan might govern it politi cally, and that the
eastern khaleefeh might secure undisputed religious sway in the Muhammadan
world. To this end a vast army was raised, and began its move Egyptward.
Then it was that Egypt invoked the aid of the Christians, promising to pay
a heavy tribute in return for the protection asked for.
The king of Jerusalem agreed to render the desired assistance. At his
summons, there was an assembly at Nablus of all the dig nitaries of church
and state in the kingdom of Jerusalem; and arrangements were speeded for
the raising of men and money without stint, for the new campaign. Meantime
the report came to king Amalric that the Syrian leader with his allied army
" had taken his way through the desert by which the people of Israel came
to the Land of Promise ; " ] that, in fact, he had crossed the Desert
et-Teeh from its eastern to its western borders, entering it, doubtless, by
the way which Kedor-la omer had taken into the Wilderness of Paran. Then
king Amalric, gathering all the sol diers at his disposal, hastened down to
intercept him, going " even to Kadesh-barnea which is in the desert;" but
"not finding him he quickly returned," says the chronicler. 2
From further reports of the movements of Amalric, in connec tion with this
invasion of Egypt from the East, 3 it is evident that his own course was
Egyptward, and that he went by way of Gaza, from the centre of his kingdom.
This mention of Kadesh-barnea would seem, therefore, to show that during
the crusading period, as in the days of Jerome and Eusebius, that region
was counted the desert, or a portion of the desert, that stretched along
the southern boundary of the Holy Land from near its western limits.
Another remarkable illustration of the typical character of
1 Gesta Dei, p. 963. 2 Ibid.
8 See Mill s Hist, of Crusades, chap. X., p. 131 /.; Michaud s Hist, of
Crusades, Vol. III., p. 388 /.
188 KADESII-BARNEA.
Egypt, with its temptations and its bondage, in contrast with Palestine,
with its conflicts and its possibilities of rest by faith, is furnished in
the story of this Egyptward movement of the new king of Jerusalem. When
Amalric had seen the abounding ma terial treasures of Egypt, he coveted
them as more attractive than his straitened and desolate domain in
Palestine, and he determined to possess that land. And his purpose and
endeavors in this di rection became the beginning of the end of Christian
supremacy in Palestine. It was in connection with this diversion of the
strength
O
of the crusaders power, that ground was lost on their northern borders, and
that Saladin (Salah-cd-Deen), the new leader of the Saracens, was brought
into preeminence before his own people, and became a power for the crushing
out, for the time at least, of the Christian sway in the Holy Land. 1 It
would have been bet ter for Amalric to have sojourned, like Abraham,
between Kadesh and Shur, rather than to have passed hurriedly through
Arabia, in the hope of finding a more attractive home in the Land of Bond
age than was available to him in the ancient Land of Promise.
3. NATURAL MISTAKES OF MEDIAEVAL WRITERS.
In the lack of any fresh discoveries concerning the site of Kadesh-barnea,
it is not to be wondered at that the ambiguous and uncertain references to
it in the name-lists of the early Christian writers, together with the
duplicating of its synonym Reqam in the early rabbinical writings,
continued for centuries to cause con fusion in both Christian and Jewish
attempts at its locating. Nor can it be doubted that every attempt to
reconcile these conflicting indications with the clearer disclosures of the
Bible text, would inevitably increase the confusion.
Those who followed the Onomasticon, would be inclined to look
J See Michaud s Hist, of Crusades; Vol. III., pp. 392-406.
NATURAL MISTAKES OF MEDIAEVAL WRITERS. 189
for Kadesh-barnea as a wilderness-region south of Palestine, stretching
across the desert even to Petra on the east of the Ara- bah. Those who
turned to the Bible for guidance would be sure that Kadesh-barnea lay far
to the westward of the Arabah, and on the southern border of the Holy Land
proper. Those who would reconcile the Bible and the Onomasticon, or who had
been misled by the talmudic references to the two Reqams, must seek for two
Kadeshes, or one Kadesh and one Kadesh-barnea ; the one at the east of the
southern desert; the other westward. And just this variety of opinions is
to be found in the writings of commen tators, geographers, and travelers,
for a series of centuries.
The first explicit mention of a Kadesh as distinct from Kadesh- barnea, so
far as I know, is by " Rashi," l in the latter part of the eleventh
century. He simply says : " There were two towns ; the one was called
Kadesh, and the other Kadesh-barnea." 5 He gives no reason for this opinion
; nor docs he seem to have any special familiarity with the geography of
the Holy Land from personal knowledge. He was apparently misled by the
double Reqam in the Talmud the Rock-Kadesh and the Rock-Petra ; and again
his error at this point would be sure to mislead Jewish writers after him,
as Eusebius and Jerome were the means of misleading Christian scholars.
It is said that Maimonides, who elosely followed Rashi in time,
"constructed a map of the frontiers of Palestine." 3 Such a map I do not
find reproduced or referred to in any edition of his works which I have
examined; but there is a rabbinical map, or rude plot, of the Holy Land
boundaries, to be found in many old works, 4 and possibly this dates from
his time. It simply notes the place of Kadesh-barnea, as west of the lower
end of the Salt
1 See page 151, supra. 2 Rashi, al ha-Torah, at Num. 32 : 8.
8 See Zunz on " Geographical Literature of the Jews," in Asher s Benjamin
of Tudeln, p. 254.
4 See, e. g. Van Hamelsveld s Bib. Geog. Vol. I., p. 138.
190 KADESH-BARNEA.
Sea; but in such a way as to throw no light on its precise location.
The earliest mention of Kadesh-barnea which I find in any Christian writer
after Jerome, is in the Latin work of the Domini can Brocardus, entitled "
Locorum Terrac Sanctse Descriptio," which was probably written near the
elose of the thirteenth century. 1
Brocardus had been in the Holy Land ; but apparently not in the desert. His
references to Kadesh-barnea are vaprue and inex-
o
act ; and are evidently controlled by the idea of Eusebius and Jerome, that
it was a wilderness-region stretching westward along the desert border of
Palestine, from the vicinity of Petra ; or from Kcrek, at the east of the
Dead Sea, which was then supposed to be the site of ancient Petra. His
statements throw no new light on the subject ; they rather go to show the
general lack of knowl edge on this point in his day.
Perhaps the earliest map of the Holy Land with any attempt at accurate
locations, was that of Marino Sanuto, an Italian geogra pher 2 and a
historian of the crusades, 3 who had visited Palestine. His map was drawn
early in the fourteenth century ; and it was long made the basis of the
maps of that region. As it extended only to the southern tongue of the Dead
Sea, it did not include the region of Kadesh-barnea ; but a note which
appears at the lower margin of the map, as reproduced in an edition of "
Gesta Dei per Francos," under date of 1611, refers to the "land of Amalek"
as southward of the lower line of the map, and as "ex-
1 "All editors refer this tract to the thirteenth century; some to the
early part, and some t<~> the elose ; but the weight of authority
seems to lean towards the latter part, or about A. D. 12SO" (Robinson s
Bib. Res. II., 539).
2 He also prepared "a map of the world representing the Mediterranean and
Atlantic coasts as far as Flanders, probably drawn between 1312 and 1321 "
(Encyc. Brit., Ninth ed., Art. "Map").
3 His " Secreta Fidelium " is in Gcsta Dei.
BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 191
tending to the tongue of the Dead Sea and Kadesh-barnea." This note, which
is in substance taken from Sanuto s " Secrcta Fide- Hum/ would seem to
indicate that he counted Kadesh-barnea as a westward landmark, over against
the Dead Sea as an eastern one.
4. BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH.
There was no lack of pilgrimages to the Holy Land during all the Middle
Ages ; nor was Mount Sinai then overlooked as a place of Christian
pilgrimage. But the pilgrims generally were intent rather on showing their
veneration for sites which were tradition ally identified, than on
discovering anew any sacred place which had long been lost sight of. It was
not until near the elose of the fifteenth century that a spirit of fresh
investigation seemed to be awakened in travelers there as elsewhere ; then,
however, the in vention of printing promoted the quickening of that spirit
to a degree quite unexampled before.
First among Christian travelers to suggest that they had visited the site
of Kadesh-barnea, were Breydenbach and Fabri ; and their suggestion has
chief value in the fact that it was a suggestion in this direction, however
little it had to rest on.
It was in 1483-84 that Dean Breydenbach of Mayence, and Friar Fabri of Ulm,
two Roman ecclesiastics, journeyed together from Jerusalem to Mount Sinai
by way of Gaza and Beersheba. Among their companions were the Count of
Solms and Freiherr Hans Werli von Zimber. Breydenbach and Fabri wrote each
his own report of the journey ; l and each wrote the story over again for
the benefit of a titled companion. 2 These four reports show many
discrepancies in the order and distances of places visited ; 3
1 Breydenbach s Itin. Ilierofolym. ; Fabri s Evagatorium.
2 Fabcr s Beschreibung, for Hans Werli ; Breydenbach s Beschreibung, for
the Count of Solms. * For example, Breydenbach says, that on leaving Gaza
they stopped just outside
192 KADESII-BARNEA.
such discrepancies, however, as are not to be wondered at in itine raries
of that period, and of that region. Of the two ecclesiastics, Fabri is
commonly the more accurate ; yet Breydenbach has had the larger popularity,
perhaps from his freer plagiarism from Brocar- dus s work already
mentioned. Both writers have more promi nence through their place at the
dawning of a better day on the field of their research, than any work
performed by them would merit on its own account.
At some distance below Gaza these travelers came to a place which they
thought might be identified with Kadesh-barnca. Fabri says of it: 1 "We
came into a land undulating and unequal with hills, but barren. The place
also is called in Arabic, Cha- watha. 2 And in it we found many signs and
marks that there were once human habitations ; for, above us, we found
twelve great walled ancient cisterns, round about which were lying many
broken pieces of pottery, and ashes . . . According to the position of that
place, I think that it is the region of Kadesh barnea." Breydcubach goes a
little farther, in his inclination to identify this
the city for the first night ; and the second night they stopped at Lebhem,
" one mile from Gaza." Fabri says, that the day following their night at
Gazmaha, just outside of Gaza, they journeyed "eight hours" in the
direction of Beershcba, and then stopped at Lebhem. He mentions that on
this route, at one German mile (nearly five English miles) from Gazmaha,
their Arab shaykh left them, on his return to Jerusalem. The place of this
incident may have misled Breydenbach in the writing up of his notes. Fabri
iu another place says that they reached Beersheba some hours before
reaching Lebhem. Such discrepancies as these would seem to indicate that
while these travelers refer to veritable places visited by them, they are
confused as to the distances and order of places, one from another, as
might easily be the case in writing up a record from note-jottings. (Comp.
Evagatorium, II., 409, 410, and Reissbuch, p. 292).
Robinson (fiih. Res., II., 541) says: "On coinparing the two accounts, I
find that of Fabri to be more full and accurate ; and wherever there is a
discrepancy (as at Hebron) the latter is to be preferred."
1 Evagatorium. II. 411 /.
2 It is more probable that the Arabic name was Hawwadeh ( &sC\j*. ) an
irregular plural of hawd ( (J^- ), meaning " Cisterns " or Place of
Cisterns.
BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 193
as the site of Kadesh-barnea. He says of it : l " We came into a place
which in the Arabic tongue is called, Cawatha ; but in the Latin, Cades."
Just where this place was is not clear from the several narra tives. From
one record, it would seein to be near Gaza; from another, to be at two or
three days distance southeasterly ; and from yet another, to be below
Boersheba. 2 It is thought by some that Tucher, a traveler from Bethlehem
to Gaza, in 1479, had re ferred to this region under the name " Mackati ; "
3 although this is by no means sure. On the strength of these notes,
Zimmermann, in his large map of Syria and Palestine, 4 which accompanied
Ritter s great work, laid down " Chawata," with several alternative names,
at a point a little southeast of Gaza ; and the new map of the Palestine
Exploration Fund 5 gives " Khan el-Hawadi " 6 at about the same point. The
whole thing is, however, of little importance except as showing the fact,
that in this earliest mention of the possible site of Kadesh-barnea in the
record of modern tra vel, the idea of Eusebius and Jerome, that the region
of Kadesh- barnea extended westward to near the Mediterranean border of
Palestine, prevailed in the minds of the more intelligent Christian
pilgrims, as it had before prevailed in the minds of the crusaders.
With the discovery of printing, there came also a new applica tion of
copper engraving, and wood-cutting, for the multiplication of illustrations
in printed works; and this facilitated an increase of maps to accompany
geographies and Bibles. In the second half of the sixteenth century a rude
map illustrating the exodus and wanderings of the Israelites was
reproduced, with variations, in popular editions of the Bible in Latin,
French, and Eng-
1 Itinerarium, (Spires edition ; pages not numbered.) See note at page \9l,
supra. 3 Tucher s " Beschreibung" (in Reissbuch, p. 678).
4 Karte von Syrien u. Palastina. 5 3fap of West. Pal., Sheet xix.
6 " The word means hind legs," says " Name Lists " (Surv. of WeM. Pal.}, p.
361. Possibly Hawwadeh was mistaken for this word by the explorers. See
note at p. 192. 13
194 KADESH-BARNEA.
lish. 1 In tli is map, Kadesh-barnea was represented as on the southern
border of Canaan, at a point a little more than half way across from the
Dead Sea to the Mediterranean; just where a study of the Bible referenees
to it, unconfused by the guesses of Eusebius and Jerome, would prompt to
its locating. 2
But Bible-maps, like Bible-commentaries, were not all con formed to one
pattern then, any more than they are now. In at least one Latin Bible, as
early as 1483, 3 the maps, which were exceptionally well wrought, gave two
sites for Kadesh; one, as " Cades-barne," southerly from Hebron; another as
"Cades En- mishpat," farther eastward. Of course the Bible maps reflected
the views of geographers for the time being.
With the rise of printing and engraving, there was a revival of interest in
old-time maps and geographies, as well as a multiplica tion of new ones.
Various editions of Ptolemy s Geography were re-issued, with accompanying
maps. 4 Xo maps drawn by Ptolemy had been preserved. 5 The earliest known
maps plotted from his data are supposed to have been made in the fifth
century of our era. The new maps issued with the successive printed
editions of his work, while conformed to his data, naturally had more or
less additions to them in accordance with the later advances in geo
graphical discovery. For example, in his geography he makes no mention of
Kadesh-barnea; but in an edition of it printed at Rome, in 1508, one of the
maps has a similar note to that on
1 See, e. g. : Francis Stepliens s French Bible, A. D., 15G7 ; Rovillius s
French Bi- l>le, A. D., 15(19; Santander s Latin Bible, A. D., 1574;
Selfisch and Bechtold s Latin Bible, A. D., 1501; Barker s English Bible,
A. D., 1599.
2 1 am inclined to think that Miinster was the author of this map ; as will
be seen farther on. A biblical and geographical conclusion of his, is
worthy of respect.
3 Christopher Plantin s Latin Bible, Antwerp. 4 See Ruge s article " Map,"
in Encyc. Brit., ninth edition.
5 Huge (as above) says : " No maps appear to have been drawn by Ptolemy him
self." But Ptolemy ( Ccoy., Bk. I., chaps. 21-24,) speaks of his methods of
preparing his maps, in a manner to justify the belief that he did prepare
them.
BEGIXNIlfGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 195
Marino Sanuto s, concerning the stretch of the region of the Arnale- kites
from the tongue of the Dead Sea to Kadesh-barnea, or " Cades- Be rsabee "
as it is here called. The maps in other editions of Ptole my which I have
examined 1 contain no mention of Kadesh-barnea.
The two centuries following the invention of printing were marked by a
revival of geographical study. Some of the maps of that period are of a
style and finish to bear comparison with good work of the present day. And
the basis of much of our geographi cal knowledge was then laid by such
masters in their line as Mer- cator and Miiuster and Ortelius, and others
less known but not less worthy of praise. The Holy Land came in for its
full share of study by the foremost geographers of the time ; but, of
course, they had no new data for the settlement of disputed sites, and they
naturally gave large weight to the opinions of Bible students of their day
and earlier, in such a matter. Their locations of Kadesh- barnea arc,
therefore, valuable only as showing the current opinions of their time
concerning it.
Jacob Ziegler, a Bavarian scholar, published a work on the geography of
Palestine, with accompanying maps, in 1532. 2 These maps show a elose study
of the Bible text, and they locate " Akrabbim" at the westward of the lower
tongue of the Dead Sea, and " Chades Barneah " southwesterly of that
tongue, mid way toward the Mediterranean shore ; just where the latest con
elusions of scholars would find it. Gerard Mercator s first geo graphical
work was a map of the Holy Land, published in 1537. This, by itself, I have
not seen ; but Mercator s later maps of Palestine, so far as I have seen, 3
do not note Kadesh-barnea.
1 Including Strasburg, A. D. 1525 ; Basle, A. D. 1545 ; and later ones.
2 Published, like many a book of that day. without a title. There is
nothing in this line beyond: " Jacob i Zieglcri, Argentorati, apud Petrum
Opilionem., M.D. XXXII."
3 Including his Atlas Minor, Amsterdam, A. D. 1614, and his larger Atlas,
Amster dam, A. D. 1633.
196 KADESU-BARNEA.
Minister s Cosmography of 1550 1 gives a map of Palestine and of the region
below it, on -which is laid down the line of Israel s exodus and wanderings
much in the form which soon after ap peared in popular editions of the
Bible, as already noted, 2 and which indeed may have been the foundation of
that. The name of Kadesh-barnea docs not appear on this edition of the map,
but this seems to be an accidental omission ; for the turning-point of the
Israelites from the southern border of Canaan is made, without a note, just
at the place where Kadesh-barnea is noted in the Bible-maps, midway between
the Dead Sea and the Mediter ranean; and in a subsequent edition of his
Cosmography, 3 Miiuster locates Kadesh-barnea, Kadesh, and Zin, together at
that point, southerly from Hebron. This would seem to show his under
standing of Kadesh-barnea as a " city " in the Wilderness of Kadesh, and
both in the Wilderness of Zin, according to the Bible text.
Ortelins, of Antwerp, in 1570, took np again the two-fold idea of Kadesh ;
and, in the maps accompanying his " Theatrum Orbis Terrarum," he located
Kadesh-barnea in its proper place, south of Hebron, as if in conformity to
the Bible text ; while, as if to con form to his understanding of Eusebius
and Jerome, he noted " Zin or Kadesh " at the southeast of the Dead Sea,
not far from the Petra of that day, which was Kerek.
And now came a new landmark in the realm of popular bibli cal geography, in
a treatise that had much to do with perpetuating the error of more than one
Kadesh. Christian Adrichomius, a Romish ecclesiastic of Holland, availing
himself of the earlier
f O
geographical works, together with the records of study and travel in the
field of the Holy Land, 4 brought much gathered material
1 Cosmoy. Geoy., Basle. 2 See page 193 /., supra. 3 Bus!-, A. D. 1574.
4 Adrichomius gives a long list of authorities consulted by him, including
the an cient geographers, and later writers, such as William of Tyre,
Brocardus, Mercator, Vitriacus, and Breydenbach.
BEGWNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 197
into elassified order, under the title of " Theatruni Terrsc Sanctee." His
work resembled the Onomasticon in its systematic form, rather than the
unsystematic treatise of Brocardus. Its first edition was published at
Cologne, in 1590, five years after the author s death. At once it had
popular favor ; and at least five subsequent editions were published within
a century.
While the accompanying maps of the Holy Land were more in detail and fuller
than those published before his day, they were less accurate concerning the
region of the Hebrew wanderings ; for they actually gave no hint of two
arms to the Red Sea, and of the peninsula formed by them. His method of
solving difficulties concerning the location of Kadesh was eminently
simple. It was merely by multiplying the sites. He gave Kadesh,
Kadesh-barnea, the Desert of Kadesh, and Kadesh-palm l (a name which came
from a misreading in the Apocrypha 2 ), as four distinct places. The Desert
of Kadesh, or of " Zin, which is Kadesh," he located at the south of the
Dead Sea, sweeping down toward the Red Sea; and in that desert he located
Kadesh, or Meribah-Kadesh ; also Kadesh-palm. Kadesh-barnea, with Rithmah,
he located at its proper place, on the south of Palestine, half-way across
to the Mediterranean. With this variety to choose from, it was easy for any
one to quote Adrichomius in justification of a favorite site of Kadesh; and
Adrichomius became, and long remained, a popular authority in his field.
Almost simultaneously with the work of Adrichomius, there came a more
modestly pretentious work by Bunting, of Magde burg, under the title of
"Itiuerarium Sacrse Scripturoe." First printed in German, in 1591, it was
translated, with some re-shap-
1 Edition of 1600, p. 118, a, 21 ; b, 22, 23, 24.
2 Ecclesiasticus 24 : 14. " I shot upward like a palm tree on the
sea-shores," or "in Engaddi (h ab/ialotr ; 248, Co., ev Ta6M, i.e., kv
Eyyatii ; h Eyyddoif, 296, 308 ; kv TdJoif, 253 ; Old Lat., in Cades). All
are clearly corrections for the first." (Schaff-Bissell Com. on Apoc., in
loco.)
198 KADESH-BARNEA.
ing, into English, as "The Travels of the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets/
etc. ; and it easily held a place for more than a century. This work
actually assumed to give the precise latitude and longi tude of every
scriptural site, together with its distance in miles from Jerusalem ; and
at every before debatable point, including every station of the wanderings,
it was as prompt and positive with an unambiguous answer, as is an Arab
guide in locating sites in expectation of bakhshccsh. Consistency was
evidently of less importance than explicituess in this author s various
locations.
In this work, 1 " Kadcs-Barnea " is called " a city of the Idume- ans ; "
it is said to be " forty miles from Jerusalem towards the south;" its
longitude is given at 65 22 (corresponding with the modern 35 22 ), and its
latitude at 31 29 (the same as at present.) Of " Zin-Kades " it is said : "
This was a great wilder ness lying between Ezion-Gaber and Kades-Barnca,
being 184 miles in length, abounding with thorns and high mountains. Upon
the north side thereof lay Mount Seir and Kades-Barnea, and towards the
south the Red Sea. It was called Parau and Zin, of the abundance of thorns
that grew there ; for Zin of Zanan, signifies a sharp thorn; Zinnim, full
of thorns; and Kadesh, sanctity or holiness. Here Moses and Aaron having
struck the Rock twice, at length it brought forth water ; but for their mur
muring and incredulity God would not suffer them to go into the Land of
Canaan. This lay 120 miles from Jerusalem toward the south." Of Rithmah it
is affirmed : " It is distant from Jerusalem 112 miles toward the
southeast." If only these several statements could have been first
reconciled, and then believed, the site of Kadesh-barnea would have been
settled conclusively two centuries ago.
Following Adrichomius and Bunting, in the attempt to reconcile the
statements of Eusebius and the indications of the Bible-text by
i See the English edition, pp. 117, 119, 121.
BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 199
making a distinction between Kadesh-barnea and Kadesh in the Wilderness of
Zin, there came Raleigh, 1 of England ; Quaresmius, 2 of Italy ; Blaeu, 3
and Dapper, 4 of Holland ; Heidmann, 5 and Ho- rnaun, 6 of Germany ;
Sausou," of France ; Spauheim, 8 of the Neth erlands, and others. All of
these geographers agreed in locating Kadesh-barnca, southerly from Hebron,
where the Bible text locates it. They differed, however, in the location of
the " Ziu which is Kadesh ; " some of them placing this not far eastward of
Kadesh-barnea, and others placing it even eastward of the Dead Sea. From
travels, meantime, there was little light shed ; although an occasional
gleam showed itself through such an opening of the desert elosures. Roger,
a French missionary, on a map accompa nying his description of the Holy
Land 9 located Kadesh below the Dead Sea, as if in accordance with its
noting by Eusebius as reaching toward Petra. It does not appear, however,
that he had himself visited that region. At about the same date, Antonio of
Castile furnished a map with his record of travels, 10 on which he noted
Petra as south of the Dead Sea, and Kadesh as southward from Petra. He,
indeed, had a Spanish precedent, in Moutano, 11 for the locating of
Kadesh-barnea well to the southward, even in the region of Mount Sinai ;
although the latter placed the site mid- way between the eastern and
western bounds of the peninsula, while Antonio s map gave no hint of a
peninsula.
1 Ifist. of World, " Zin-cadcs ioyneth to Arabia ye Desert, aud
Cades-barnea to Idumea " (note to Map, Vol. I., p. 218.)
2 Hist. Theolog. et Moral. Terrx Sanctx, p. 25 /. 3 Map in Theat. Orb.
Terr. 4 Map in Naukeuriye Beschr. van Pal., p. 1. 5 " Tabula II." in
Palxstina.
6 Map "Judaea" in Atlas Novus.
7 Nicholas Sanson, and afterward his sons William and Adrian published a
num ber of atlases. In the earliest map by Nicholas which I have seen (Map
6C, of the editions of 1064) only one site is elaimed for Kadesh, and that
in its proper place as Kadesh-barnea; but subsequent maps by the Sansons
note two sites.
8 Map " Pala3stina " in Geoy. Sac. et Eccles. 9 La Terrc Sainte. w El
devoto Pereyrino.
11 Cited as authority for the maps in Plantin s Bible, A. D. 1583.
200 KADESH-BARNEA.
On the other hand, Christopher Fiirer, of Germany, went over the desert
between Egypt and Palestine in 15G5-67 ; and after wards wrote an account
of his journeyings in both Latin and German. A later edition of this work,
1 prepared by his brother Jacob, was published in 16-iG, with
carefully-designed maps, and an appended geographical chapter. On these
maps, Kadesh and Kadesh-barnea are together on the southern border of the
Holy Land, in the proper central position. Again, the map accompany ing the
itinerary of Salomon Schweigger, 2 of Nuremberg, locates Kadesh at the same
point, without duplicating it elsewhere.
It was in the latter half of the seventeenth century, 3 that Light- foot
published his still famous " Horse Hebraica?," which threw such a flood of
new light on many a dark passage in the Bible and in the Talmud. As has
already been mentioned, he took up this puzzling question of a double Reqam
and a double Kadesh, and although he did not seem to surmise the reason for
the appa rent duplicating (in the name of the Rock-Kadesh and the Rock-
Petra), he was pronounced in his conviction that Kadesh and Kadesh-barnea
were one, or were coincident. Indeed, on this point his argument from the
Bible-text was and is unanswerable ; and it would seem to be overwhelmingly
conclusive. 1 A school boy can understand it. In substance it is this : The
gathering place of Israel after its thirty-eight years of wandering was
"Kadesh;" 5 not called " Kadesh-barnea," but simply Kadesh. That was the "
city " Kadesh, on the uttermost borders of Edora, from which the messengers
were sent to Edom s king. That Kadesh was the place of murmuring for water
; and in conse quence it came to be called " Meribah," or " Strife," or "
Meribah- Kadesh." G Afterwards, Meribah-Kadesh is named as a central or
1 Reis-Bcschreib. 2 Rcus-Bcschreib. z From 1658 to 1674.
* JTorcc ITcb., Vol. I., p. 21. 5 Exod. 20 : 1.
6 Comp. Exod. 20 : 13, 24 ; 27 : 14 ; Deut. 32 : 51 ; 33 : 8.
BEGINNINGS OF FULLER RESEARCH. 201
pivotal point of the southern boundary of the Holy Land. 1 But again it is
declared that the pivotal or central point of the southern boundary of the
Holy Land is " Kadesh-barnea ; " 2 not Kadesh simply, but Kadesh-barnea. It
is therefore clear that both " Kadesh " and " Kadesh-barnea " are identical
with " Meribah- Kadesh ;" and if proving them equal to the same thing does
not prove them equal to each other, one of the familiar axioms of
mathematics will have to be amended. The force of that argu ment has never
been shaken, indeed it may be said never to have been directly assailed.
In this matter, however, as in many another, it has been shown that it is
easier to mislead popular opinion by an erroneous state ment, than to
correct popular opinion by a demonstration of that error. Eusebius and
Adrichomius were still looked upon as original sources of information
concerning the Holy Land and its surroundings ; and many a scholar who
turned to them for light was influenced by their misconceptions, even after
Lightfoot had made the truth clear to those who followed his processes of
reason ing. Moreover, the old error of two Kadeshes was given a new start,
and with fresh life, in the early part of the eighteenth century by the
important geographical works of Cellarius 3 and Roland, 4 of Germany, and
Wells, 5 of England. Each of these works repeated the old arguments for a
double Kadesh, and not one of them met or mentioned the Bible evidence, as
presented by Lightfoot, in proof of the identity of Kadesh and
Kadesh-barnea. When such leaders as these were newly at fault, it is not to
be wondered at that the public generally inclined to the old error.
Yet, all this time there were independent investigators who recognized the
plain indications of the Bible text despite the vague and misleading
suggestions of Eusebius. Prominent among
1 Ezek. 47 : 19 (margin) ; 48 : 28. * Num. 34 : 4 ; Josh. 15 : 3.
3 Not. Orb. Antiq. * Palacstina. *Hist. Geoy. of O. T. and N. T.
202 KADESH-BABNEA.
these was Hasius, a German mathematician and theologian, whose careful work
011 the geography of the Holy Land 1 has not had the prominence which its
real merit would justify. 2 He recognized Kadesh-barnea as identical with
Kadesh in the Wilderness of Ziu, and he located it according to the
biblical indications, on the southern boundary-line of Judah. Again,
Bachieuc, a Dutch geographer, approved the identification, by Breydeubach
and Fabri, of Kades just below Gaza; 3 and Ernst F. K. Rosenmiiller, a
German geographer, adopted the same view, 4 although he sub sequently 5
wavered in his opinion.
It is unnecessary to track these lines of varying opinion through all the
realm of biblical geography and biblical comment, down to the period of
fresh investigation, on a broader basis of knowl edge, into the facts of
the Bible story. It is sufficient to say, that almost without exception all
were agreed in locating " Kadesh- barnea" on the southern border of the
Holy Land, southerly from Hebron, while some would find another "Kadesh"
nearer to the Dead Sea. The Bible clearly demanded the westerly location of
Kadesh-barnea ; even Eusebius and Jerome, by a liberal construc tion,
justified it ; and scholars were practically a unit in so recog nizing the
truth, down to the days of Roland, and subsequently.
The arguments in favor of a second Kadesh were, its necessary proximity to
the uncertain borders of Edom, together with the in ference from the
rabbins, and from Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome, that it was in some way
near to Reqam or the Rock, which was supposed to be Petra. To find that the
borders of Edom extended westward of the Arabah, that the Rock was another
name for Kadesh-barnea as well as a name for a strong-
o
1 He<jni Davidici ct Salbmoncei Descriptio, etc. Nuremberg, A. r>.
1739. 2 Singularly enough this valuable work finds no mention in the
bibliographical list of Robinson or in that of Von Raumer.
;) l alaestina,Vo\. V., p. 384, note. 4 Scholia in V. T. (Leipzig, A.D.
1795), in loco. 5 See his Bibl. Alterth. (A. D. 1828) III., 86.
FRESH HINTS AND SURMISES FR OM DESER T TEA VEL. 203
hold of Mount Seir, and that the Bible made Kadesh-barnea iden tical with
Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, would at any time have proved sufficient
to fix the location of Kadesh-barnea, and of course of Kadesh also,
southerly from Hebron, where well-nigh all had been ready to admit was one
of the two sites, if two were a necessity.
5. FRESH HINTS AND SURMISES FROM DESERT TRAVEL.
Until and during the eighteenth century, the ordinary route of tra vel
between Mount Sinai and Jerusalem, for those who visited those sacred
sites, was along the western borders of the peninsula, enter ing the Holy
Land at Gaza. More commonly the route was from Suez to Mount Sinai, and
back over the same course ; occasionally the route from Mount Sinai was
northward to Castle Nakhl, thence northeasterly to Gaza ; and on rare
occasions a Christian crossed the desert to Mekkeh. 1 A direct journey from
Mount Sinai to Hebron was almost or quite unknown ; hence there was little
op portunity of exploring the region where all the Bible indications would
locate Kadesh-barnea. Yet travelers were tempted then, as now, to find more
of the Bible sites, in the line of their own journeying, than a elose
adherence to the Bible descriptions would fully warrant ; and this
increased the number of suggested loca tions of Kadesh.
In 1722, Dr. Shaw, an English elergyman, traveled in Egypt, Arabia, and
Palestine. He was inclined to locate Kadesh-barnea near Castle Nakhl (which
he would identify with En-mishpat), and he argued in favor of this site 2
with more of reason than the advocates of many another site since his day.
He recognized this as a prominent oasis in the evident direction of
Jvadesh-barnea
1 Sec, for example, Thevenot s Reisen, Frankfort-on-the-Maiii, A. D. 1693,
and Muller s Fremdling zu Jerusalem, Vienna and Nuremberg, A. D. 1735. 2
See his Travels, p. 318 ff.
204 KADESH-BARNEA.
from Mount Sinai : and according to his calculation of the dis tance, this
oasis was sufficiently far northward. He was on the right track, but he
stopped to locate before his full journey north ward was completed. His
identification was approved by Van Ilamelsveld, 1 a Dutch geographer of the
same century.
A little later than Shaw, Bishop Pococke published his exten sive "
Description of the East," in report of his own travels and studies. In
this, he expressed the opinion that Kadesh and the AVildcrness of Ziu were
perhaps to be found " about sixten miles from the convent [at Mount Sinai]
to the northwest." 2 His sole reason for this opinion was, that the
Prefetto of Egypt had seen there " exactly such another stone as the rock
of Massa and Meribah in Rephidim, with the same sort of openings all down,
and the signs where the water ran." This stone " was likewise called the
stone of Moses," by the Arabs ; and it was said that " this must be the
rock of Meribah, in the wilderness of Zin or Kadesh, which Moses smote
twice, and the water came out abundantly ; [this] being after they returned
into those parts from Eziongeber." And this is the extent of the
disclosures concerning the site of Kadesh-barnea down to the beginning of
the present century.
The first traveler of this century who crossed the desert below Palestine
by a route which carried him in the vicinitv of the region
*i O
where the Bible indications, and the well-nigh universal opinion of Bible
geographers up to his time, would locate Kadesh-barnea, was Scetzeu, a
German explorer of more than ordinary powers as an observer. His death in
Arabia prevented his giving any com pleted form to the results of his
researches ; but his published letters and journals comprise much
information of value. In March and April, 1807, 3 he journeyed southward
from Hebron. On the 30th ofi March, in the vicinity of Wady el- Ayn, or
more accurately, Wady Ayn el-Qadayrat, 4 near the common trunk of
i Bib. Geog. III., 394. 2 Vol. I., p. 147. 3 Relsen, III., 47 /.
* See Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 189.
FRESH HIXTS AND SURMISES FR OM DESER T TRA VEL. 205
the desert-roads, which has been referred to as the probable halt ing-place
of Kedor-la omcr on his northward march/ Scetzen en countered Azazimeh
Arabs, or the " Adsasme " as he calls them. And then, on that edge of the
Azazimeh mountain tract, he came on a " flat dry wady," which was called "
Wadi el-Kdeis." Al though Seetzen did not attempt any identification of
this name with that of Kadesh, the correspondence of the two names (the
Hebrew Qadhcsh, and the Arabic Qadees 2 which seems to be that which is
noted by Seetzen) is obvious.
And this is the first hint of the ancient name in the Arabic nomenclature
of the region reported by a modern traveler. Yet an old time Arabic
geographer 3 had reported a " Qadoos " at one day s journey south of "
Mesjid Ibraheem " (which Wetzstein understands to be Hebron, but which may
be Beer-sheba, as Abra ham s " place of worship "). These are new gleams of
light on a possible identification of the site of Kadesh-barnea.
After Seetzen came Burckhardt, a Swiss traveler, who was fitted by nature
and by careful training for eminent service in his varied fields of
Oriental research. He was in the East during most of the time from 1809
until his death at Cairo in 1817. In 1812, he dis covered the ruins of
ancient Petra, the Rock-City which was doubtless one of the Reqams of the
Jewish rabbis and the early Christian writers ; and at the same time he
opened up to the modern world the extensive Arabah, or the Ghor of the
Arabic geographers. In doing this latter service, he suggested that the
Arabah was Kadesh-barnea; 4 and thereby he not only gave fresh life to the
old notion that " Kadesh " was in that vicinity, but he gave a start to a
new error, that " Kadesh-barnea" was there in the land of Edom, instead of
on the southern border of Judah, west-
1 See page 42, supra. 2 See page 16, supra, note.
5 Maqdisi, as quoted from a manuscript in the Berlin Museum by Wetzstein iu
" Excursus III.," in Delitzsch s Com. on Genesis.
4 Travels in Syria, p. 443.
206 KADESII-BARNEA.
ward. " The existence of the valley El-Araba," he said, " the
Kadesh-barnea, perhaps, of the Scriptures, appears to have been unknown
both to ancient and modern geographers, although it forms a prominent
feature in the topography of Syria and Arabia Petrrea." Burckhardt did not
at any time visit the western por tion of the upper desert, to become
acquainted with the Axazimch mountain tract which Sectzcn had skirted,
thereby to be able to compare that region with the Arabah; nor did he
attempt any argument in proof of his proposed identification of
Kadesh-barnea. lie simply made the suggestion of the identity of the two
places ; but that was enough, from such a man as himself, to give the idea
not only currency but popular acceptance.
Following Burckhardt, came Iliippcll, 1 a German naturalist, who, from 1822
to 1831, made important additions to the sum of knowledge concerning the
desert region ; but he proffered no sug gestion as to the site of Kadesh.
In 1828, M. Leon dc Labordc, a French artist and biblical scholar, with his
companion M. Linant, visited the peninsula of Sinai, and supplemented the
dis coveries of Burckhardt in the site of ancient Petra by a series of
admirable drawings. 2 Labordc accepted the suggestion of Burck hardt that
the Arabah was Kadesh-barnea, 3 and he even located the "city" of Kadesh at
" Embasch," 4 at the mouth of Wady Jcrafeh, " the great drain of all the
long basin between the Arabah and the ridges west of Turf er-Rukn,
extending from Jcbel et-Tih on the south to the ridge between Jebel Araif
and el-Mukrah on the north." 5
Another location of the "city," or of the "fountain," of Kadesh, in
Burckhardt s Arabah-Kadesh, was made by Karl von Raumer, a German scientist
and theologian, who studied and wrote upon the wanderings of the Israelites
before he had visited the East, and
1 Relsen. 2 Voyage, dc I Arab. Pit. 3 Sec his Maps, in his Voyage.
* Comment., at Num. 33 : 30. 6 Robinson s Bib. Res. I., ISO.
FRESH HINTS AND SURMISES FROM DESERT TEA VEL. 207
who again discussed the subject in connection with a record of his travels
there. It was in 1836 that he proposed an identification of Kadesli in the
upper Arabah. His description of his location was somewhat confused, 1 as
he apparently supposed Jebel Madurah to be nearer the Arabah than it is ;
but subsequently he settled on Ayn Hasb 2 as the site for his championship.
But all that can be said for or against that site is, that if the
Israelites were ever up there in the meshes of that Edomitish net, Ayn Hasb
would have answered as well as any one of a half dozen spots for
Kadesh-barnea. From the days of Burckhardt and Laborde, the records of des
ert travel have been numerous and intelligent, quite beyond any thing known
before that time. Yet, after all, comparatively few travelers have passed
up the Arabah into the Holy Land, and fewer still have gone directly
northward to Hebron from the lower or central desert. Hence the references,
from this source, to any supposed site of Kadesh-barnea, are by no means
numerous. In 1836, Stephens, an American traveler, went up the Arabah, and
was naturally inclined to think that Kadesh-barnea must have been somewhere
along his route to Hebron. 3 The next year Lord Lindsay, an Englishman,
went over the same ground, and had a similar opinion. 4 Von Schubert, who,
like Von Raumer and Riippell, was a German naturalist, was in that region
the same year as Lord Lindsay. He thought Kadesh-barnea must have been near
Jebel Madurah; 5 and Count Bertou, 6 a Frenchman, who shortly followed him,
reported the name "Kadessa" as still lingering there. Other travelers,
meantime, may have given their surmises on this point ; but I do not find
them recorded, although I have looked for this purpose through the writings
of Volney, 7 AH Bey, 8 Irby and Mangles, 9 Legh, 10 Henniker, 11 and
Russegger, 12
1 Der Zug dcr Israel., pp. 34-37. 2 Paldstina, pp. 480-488.
s Incidents of Travel, II., 112. * Letters, II., 22, 50. 5 Reise, II., 444.
6 Quoted by Robinson, (Bib. Res., first ed. II., 659-CC9). Travels. 8
Travels. 9 Trawls. 10 " Excursion." u Notes. 12 Reisen.
208 KADESH-BARNEA.
among those whose routes would have been most likely to suggest an
identification of Kadesh-barnea in view of the surmises of their
predecessors.
6. ROBINSON S PROPOSED IDENTIFICATION.
And now we come to a new era in biblical geography, as marked by the
travels of Dr. Edward Robinson, an American explorer whose observations in
Palestine and the Peninsula of Sinai have practically given the base line
and trigonometrical stations for all the following surveys of those lands
of the Bible. The subsequent work of scholars and explorers in that region
has been, in a sense, little more than the testing of his preliminary
surveys. " Robin- sou s Biblical Researches in Palestine and in the
Adjacent Re gions " have been hardly less important and influential in
their field in our day, than were the works in various former times of
Eusebius, and Jerome, and Brocardus, and Adrichomius, and Roland, in a
similar field. The many unmistakable new-identifi cations of biblical sites
made by Robinson have been cither accepted without question, or abundantly
sustained by farther examination ; and even his occasional errors of
identification have naturally gained a hold oil the Bible-studying public
hardly less firm and ineradicable than the truths brought out by him.
Robinson was impressed with the striking features of the mountain range on
the east of the Arabah, where Burckhardt had dis covered the ruins of
ancient Petra, and he yielded to the tradi tional identification of Mount
Hor at Jebel Xebv Huroon ; T although it was obviously within the limits of
the Mount Seir which the Israelites were not permitted to enter. From this
divergence lie was farther led to believe that the Israelites, instead of
going across the " great and terrible wilderness " of the Desert
1 Bib. Res., II., 131-173.
R OB IN SOWS PROPOSED IDENTIFICATION. 209
et-Teeh by any direct route from Mount Sinai to Canaan, actually descended
into the Arabah, and proceeded northward into a region which he had before
recognized as within the probable reach of Edom s occupancy. 1 And there,
in that Edomitish territory, on the open highway, exposed to hostile attack
in every direction, and in no sense covered or secluded, was his suggested
site for Kadesh- barnea, an objective point of an invading army ; whence to
send spies into the enemy s country beyond it.
The precise spot selected by Robinson for the site of Kadesh- barnea was
Ayn el-Waybch, a desert spring near the western slope of the Arabah, and
just above the western bank of the Wady el- Jayb, the peculiar "wady within
a wady" 2 which is "the vast drain of all the Arabah/ 3 and which in the
rainy season receives also the water-flow of the Wady Jcrafeh which in turn
drains the western desert of Et-Teeh. Ayn el-\Vaybeh is in a northwesterly
direction from Jebel Ncby Haroon, and on the opposite side of the Arabah.
Referring to Wady el-Jayb, as one crosses it from east to west, Robinson
says: 4 "Just on its westward side, where the land slopes up very gradually
into a tract of low limestone hills, lies Ain el- Weibeh, one of the most
important watering places in all the great valley. There are here indeed
three fountains, issuing from the chalky rock of which the slope is
composed. . . . The three foun tains are some rods apart, running out in
small streams from the foot of a low rise of ground, at the edge of the
hills. The water is not abundant; and in the two northernmost sources has a
sickly hue, like most desert fountains, with a taste of sulphuretted hydro
gen. . . . But the southernmost source consists of three small rills of
limpid and good water, flowing out at the bottom of a small excavation in
the rock. The soft chalky stone has crumbled away forming a semicircular
ledge about six feet high around the
1 See page 86, supra. * Bib. Res., II., 120. 3 Ibid., II., 118. * Ibid.,
II., 174. 14
210 KADESH-BARNEA.
spring, and now a few feet distant from it. The intermediate space is at
present occupied by earth ; but the rock apparently once extended out, so
that the water actually issued from its base." Yet all this "rock" is down
in Wady Arabah; and the name of the fountain " El-Weibch " is according to
Robinson s own rendcrintr,
o o/
a "Hole with Water." 1
It is evident that there is no trace of the former importance or sacredncss
of "Kadesh-barnca," in the name, or in the appearance, of " Ain el-Wcibeh"
at the present day. Indeed on this point Robinson says : " We could find
here no trace of the remains of former dwellings." And again : " The
surrounding desert has long since resumed its rights : and all traces of
the city and of its very name have disappeared." It would, in fact, have
been very strange if, at any time, a "city," or a settlement of any kind,
had been attempted there " upon the plain, or rather the rolling desert of
the Arabah ; " the surface of which, in that very region, is "everywhere
furrowed and torn with the beds of torrents." 2 And as to the " rock " from
the " base" of which the water is supposed to have formerly issued,
Robinson evidently employs the word in a geological rather than a popular
sense ; for there is no Rock, no " Sel a," no imposing eliff, down there in
the Arabah bed. The " soft chalky stone " which may have once been the
basin wall of the " Hole with Water," is a sorry representative of the Sel
a " before " which Moses and Aaron " gathered the congregation together,"
when the people had murmured for lack of its accus tomed water-flow. 3
In support of his identification of Ayn el-Waybeh as Kadesh- barnea,
Robinson proffered no proofs beyond other suggested iden tifications in the
neighborhood ; all of which identifications must
1 See Eli Smith s "Arabic Index," s. v. " el-Weibeh," Bib. Res., III.,
first edition ; also Robinson s Index to Bib. Res., II., 591.
es., II., 121. s Num. 20.
ROWLANDS S DISCOVERY. 211
stand or fall with this one. 1 Thus, for example, he now deemed the Arabah
as the " uttermost border " of ancient Edom westward, although he had
before expressed the opinion that this was not so ; and he gave no reason
for a change of his opinion, unless it were that the fixing of
Kadesh-barnea at Ayn el-Waybeh made a change of the supposed boundaries of
Edom a necessary sequence.
But whether Robinson had good arguments or none at all in support of one of
his identifications, his soundness and accuracy at so many points were
sufficient to carry the multitude with him, and to incline even other good
scholars in his direction, in every case where his expression of conviction
was positive. Hence it came to pass, that Ayn el-Waybeh took its place as a
proper site for Kadesh-barnea.
7. ROWLANDS S DISCOVERY.
It was just after the first publication of Robinson s " Biblical
Researches," that another new element was introduced into the dis cussion
of the Kadesh-barnea question, by a remarkable discovery made by the Rev.
John Rowlands, an English elergyman, who was a friend and companion of
Canon Williams, then chaplain to Bishop Alexander of Jerusalem.
Rowlands had already passed some time in the East, including a winter in
Egypt, a summer in Mount Lebanon, and nine months in Jerusalem. 2 He had
been twice through the Sinaitic desert, taking both the eastern and western
routes, and becoming familiar
1 He even looks at the Smooth Mountain, eight hours distant from Ayn
el-Waybeh, as the mountain which the Israelites ascended from Kadesh (Num.
14 : 40) ; and he says that the name Es-Siifah "is in form identical with
the Hebrew Zephath" (Bib. Res. II., 181) ; although it is not easy to see
how n3V and *1 a *f\\ can be called " identical" in either form or meaning.
2 The facts given herewith are obtained from my personal correspondence
with Mr. Rowlands, in supplement of the information published in his report
of his dis coveries, as herein referred to.
212 KADESH-BARNEA.
with the Arabah, as well as with the western route into Palestine.
Beginning the study of Arabic under a Syrian priest at Con stantinople, he
acquired sufficient familiarity with the language, not only to write it,
but to speak it with tolerable proficiency. His Bible studies had satisfied
him of the general location of Kadesh- barnea, on the southern border of
Canaan, and he became interested in a search for its site. His first
movement in this direction was with his friend Williams, in a trip from
Hebron, southward, in October, 1842, under the guidance of " Sheikh Salini
of the Teahars" 1 (Teeyahah?) Their discovery of the southern border line
of the Promised Land, in the natural barrier of the Smooth Mountain (Mount
Halak), as they stood on that wall-rampart, at the westward of Jebel
Madurah, has already been cited. 2 It was while they stood there, that
Shaykh Selim informed them that at some distance westerly (or
southwesterly), there was a place known as " Kadese," which they instantly
recognized as a term corres pondent with Kadesh, or Kadesh-bnrnea, on that
same southern boundary line. But they were at that time unable to pursue
their investigations farther ; and they returned to Jerusalem with only
this gleam of horizon-light on the site of Kadesh.
It was subsequent to this, that Rowlands made a new and suc cessful attempt
to find the ancient site. On his leaving Jerusalem for his home, he took
the route by Hebron and Gaza in order that he might pursue his search on
the strength of the hint from Shaykh Selim. His companion on this trip was
Mr. Johns, architect of the English church at Jerusalem, and for a time the
British vice- consul there. At Gaza, Rowlands sent for two shaykhs of the
Terubcen Arabs, a tribe which roams from Gaza to Suez, and east ward
toward, and even into, the Azazimeh mountain tract. "When they came," he
says, 3 " I explained to them where we
1 Sec Williams s Holy City, Appendix, p. 487. 2 See page P5/., supra.
3 This, also, is from a letter written to me by Mr. Rowlands, under date of
Sept. 20, 1882.
wished to go, and what we wanted to find, and asked them if they knew any
place in their territory or neighborhood called Kadesh, or Kades, or Kades,
and they said at once, La, Hawajah, mafish ; No, sir, there is not/ or
there is nothing of the sort. Perhaps I do not pronounce it properly, or as
you do/ I said ; and I tried 1 Kodes/ Koodes/ and Kudes ; but they still
persisted in say ing No ( La, mafish/ or -fecsh No, there is nothing of the
sort. Having tried again various sounds, I happened to say 1 Kadeis/ or
Kadase/ laying the accent, or emphasis, on the last syllable, and they
cried out at once, Fi, fi, fi/ There is, there is, there is / Ain Kadeis/
or Qadeis/ sounding the K/ or Q/ somewhat like G/ that is, hard G. I asked
them all about it, and what sort of place it was, and whether they would
take us by it ; ... and they agreed to do so."
This new journey of Rowlands proved eventful in its discoveries. It was
then that he identified " Sebatah " as the site of ancient Zephath ; * that
he pointed out " the grand plain called Es-Serr " as " the Seir alluded to
in Deuteronomy 1 : 44," where the Amorites chased the defeated Israelites
toward Kadesh-barnea ; and that he called attention to Moilahi, or
Moilahhi, as the possible site of Hagar s Well, or Beer-lahai-roi. 2 His
only formal report of this journey was in a familiar letter to his friend
Williams, which found a place in the Appendix to the latter s volume, " The
Holy City," published several years later. 3 That portion of this letter
which describes the visit to " Kaddese," or Qadees, is here given in full :
"Now, my dear friend, for Kadesh, my much-talked-of and loug-sought-for
Kadesh. You may conceive with what pleasure I tell you, that I have at
length found this important and in teresting locality to my entire
satisfaction. Our excitement (I can speak at least for mine while we stood
before the Rock smitten by
1 Judges 1 : 17. Gen. 16 : 14. In 1845.
214 KADESH-BA RNEA .
Moses, and gazed upon the lovely stream which still issues forth under the
base of this Rock) would be quite indescribable. I cannot say that we stood
still our excitement was so great that we could not stand still. We paced
backwards and forwards ; ex amining the rock and the source of the stream ;
looking at the pretty little cascades which it forms as it descends into
the channel of a rain torrent beneath ; sometimes chipping off some pieces
of the rock, and at other times picking up some specimens and some flowers
along a green slope beneath it.
The Rock is a large single mass, or a small hill, of solid rock, a spur of
the mountain to the north of it rising immediately above it. It is the only
visible naked rock in the whole district. The stream, when it reaches the
channel, turns westward, and, after running about three or four hundred
yards, loses itself in the sand. I have not seen such a lovely sight
anywhere else in the whole desert such a copious and lovely stream. I took
two vials full of it away with me. Shall I send you one ? I think I must do
it, if you will not go and see Kadesh yourself. But I must give you some
particulars about the locality of Kades, or Kudes, as it is called. I shall
therefore first of all describe the position, and then adduce my proofs for
its identity with ancient Kadesh-barnca. The waters of Kades, called Ain
Kades, lie to the east of the highest part of Jebel Halal, towards its
northern extremity, about twelve miles (or four and a-half hours by camel)
to the E.S.E. of Moilahhi. I think it must be something like due south from
Khalasa.
But to the proofs, which is the most important point. 1. Its name Kades, or
Kudos (pronounced in English Kaddase or Knd- dase), is exactly the Arabic
form of the Hebrew name Kadesh ; the jfiT, as you will find in both the
Hebrew and the Arabic, not being the common Kaf, but Kof ; and giving the a
sound, somewhat resembling the short u. 2. The locality corresponds with,
or falls in the line of, the southern boundary of the
ROWLANDS S DISCOVERY. 215
Promised Land (Josh. 15 : 1, 8), from the southern extremity of the Dead
Sea, by Safaa [Sufah] or Maaleh-Akrabbim, the Wady el-Murra, and the Wady
el-Arish, or the river of Egypt. 3. It corresponds also with the order in
which the places of the border are mentioned. Adar and Azmou, two places in
the border, which we have discovered in the names Adeirat and Aseimeh,
sometimes called Kadeirat and Kaseimeh, now, and perhaps always, merely
fountains or springs, lie to the west of Kades, and Wady el-Arish, or [the]
river of Egypt, succeeds in the same line. 4. It lies east of Jebel
el-Halal, or Mount Halak, mentioned somewhere by Jeremiah [Joshua] as the
uttermost extremity of the Promised Land to the south. 5. It lies at the
foot of the mountain of the Amorites (Deut. 1 : 19). 6. It is situated near
the grand pass or entrance into the Promised Land by the Beer Lahai-roi,
which is the only easy entrance from the desert to the east of Halal, and
most probably the entrance to which the Hebrews were conducted from Sinai
towards the Land of Promise. 7. A good road leads to this place all the way
from Sinai, and the distance is about five days of dromedary-riding, or
about ten or eleven days of common camel-riding, as the Bedouins stated
(Dent. 1 : 2). 8. A grand road, still finer, I was told, by broad wadies,
goes from Kades to Mount Hor [Jebel Xeby Ha- roou] (Xum. 20 : 22). 9. The
nature of the locality itself answers in every respect to the description
given of it in Scripture, or rather inferred from it the mountains to the
east of Kades, and some very grand ones to the south, called Jebel Kades,
the Wilderness of Kadesh/ the Rock, the water, and the grand space for
encampment which lies to the southwest of it, a large rectangular plain
about nine by five, or ten by six miles, and this opening to the west into
the still more extensive plain of Paran.
But enough of Kadesh. I must hasten on to Suez, without making many notes
or comments on our journey."
216 KADESH-BARNEA,
8. THE CONFUSION OF SITES.
There was quite another state of things in the Kadesh-barnea discussion,
when the opinion of Robinson and the discovery of Rowlands were fairly
before the public. The advantage to begin with, in this new state of
things, was largely on the side of Robin son. He was widely known, and was
fittingly recognized as pre eminent in his sphere. His opinion was
published, and, as a mat ter of course, was generally accepted, before the
report of Row lands was given to the world. Rowlands, on the other hand,
had no such commanding position ; and his story of his discovery, when it
followed Robinson s elaim, was practically hidden in an appendix to a work
which was itself made prominent in opposition to Robinson on quite another
matter than the site of Kadesh-barnea. 1 Had the case rested with the
English-speaking world alone, it seems probable that the discovery of
Rowlands would have been permanently left in an eddy caused by the
resistless sweep of Rob inson s great reputation. But the case was not
rested there.
However the English and American public might be carried along by the
opinion of one leading mind, the critical, thorough, and impartial scholars
of Germany were sure to weigh carefully all the evidence in the case before
they accepted the conclusions of even such an explorer as Robinson on a
point like the identifica tion of Kadesh-barnea. The first uplifting of the
discovery of Rowlands into anything like its due prominence, was by
Professor Tuch, of Leipzig, an eminent biblical student and Oriental
scholar. In 1847, in a careful study of the campaign of Kedor-la omer,
published in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, 2 Tuch showed
conclusively that Kadesh must have been located in the
1 Williams \vas the champion of the traditional site of the Holy Sepulchre,
as over against Robinson on the other side.
2 Zeitschrift des deutschcn morijcnldndischen Gesdlschaft, Vol. I., pp. 1GO
_/", 169 ff.
THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 217
very region where Rowlands had found Ayn Qadees; and he was confident that
the ancient site had been there discovered. Almost at the same time,
Professor Winer, of Leipzig, a foremost biblical cyc- lopedist, accepted
the identification, and gave it a place in a new edition of his Biblical
Cyclopedia. 1 Tuch s article was translated by Professor Samuel Davidson, a
well-known English biblical scholar, and published in Kitto s Journal of
Sacred Literature. 2 Just then, also, Dr. John Wilson, an Oriental scholar
and traveler, de elared against Robinson s identification, and spoke
favorably of that of Rowlands, in his admirable work " The Lands of the
Bible. 3 " And now, the site Ayn Qadees had such backing as commanded res
pect even in opposition to a site approved by the eminent Robinson. It was
in response to these German critics that Robinson came out anew in defense
of his own identification, and in opposition to that proposed by Rowlands ;
and it was at that time that Robinson s statements, and his misstatements,
concerning both Rowlands and his discovery, introduced an element of
confusion into the discus sion of the Kadesh-barnea question which has
continued as a cause of perplexity down to the present day, and which it is
one object of this book to eliminate. It is, in fact, hardly to be wondered
at, that the judicial faculty of a mind like Robinson s should have been
disturbed by the unexpected evidence of his error in so im portant an
identification as that of a pivotal point in the lower boundary line of
Palestine, and in the history of the Israelitish wanderings, coupled with
the elaim that a comparatively unknown traveler had penetrated the mountain
tract which Robinson had not been able to explore, 4 and had actually
discovered there the an cient site of Kadesh with its still existing name.
How could such a state of facts fail of prejudicing the chiefly-interested
party against a rival identification ?
1 Bib. Realwdrterb., a. v. " Kadesch." 2 For July, 1S48.
3 Vol. I., p. 338. See Bib. Res. I., 186 ; II., 193, note.
218 KADESH-BARNEA.
Robinson s new defense of Ayn el-Waybch, or rather his criti cisms upon Ayn
Qadees and its discoverer (for it was in that form that his comments were
made), appeared first in an article in the "Bibliothcca Sacra" for May,
1849, and again in foot-notes to the later editions of his "Biblical
Researches." 1 Referring to the report of Rowlands, Robinson said, in his
magazine article : " Until recently it has seemed to me, that the very
fanciful and amusingly credulous character of the whole narrative would put
every one upon his guard ; and furnish in itself the best exposition of the
fallacy of the whole matter. But the idea has since been taken up by Prof.
Tuch of Leipzig, as falling in with a theory of his own on another topic ;
8 and his article has been translated by Prof. Davidson, and published in
England. Winer, also, in the new edition of his Rcalwortcrbuch (art. Kadesh
) adopts the same view, relying on the supposed identity of the name. Hence
it has become worth while to bring the matter to the test of exam ination."
And first " the test of examination " is to be applied to the dis coverer,
rather than to the discovery. " Mr. Rowlands appears in his writings, and
is described by those who know him," says Robin son, " as a very amiable
man ; but fanciful, visionary, and full of credulity." Then, an anonymous
letter received by Robinson is quoted, a saying of Rowlands and his report
: " His letter in Williams Appendix, is a tissue of moonshine." After the
discov erer, the discovery is examined. An item from the report of Rowlands
is quoted, as follows : " The water of Kudes, called Ain Kades, lies about
twelve miles (or four and a half hours by camel) to the E. S. E. of
Moilahhi." On this Robinson com-
1 " Notes on Biblical Geography," pp. 377-381. 2 Vol. I., p. 189 ; II.,
194.
3 This other topic on which Tuch had a theory, was the location of Kadesh
in the days of Kedor-la omer. Tuch having shown that Kadesh was in a
certain region at that period, was prepared to believe that it might have
remained there, even until Rowlands re-discovered its site.
THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 219
ments : <{ Where then is this Kudos ? The reader, perhaps, will be
surprised to learn that the spot here pointed out is men tioned both by
Seetzen and in the text of the Biblical Researches, and is inserted on our
map. If he will turn to the map he will find marked, in that direction, and
about that distance from el- Muweilch, a fountain called Ain el-Kudeirdt ;
it is a little east of our route, and is described by us according to the
accounts of the Arabs. 1 The Kudeirdt are a tribe or elan of Arabs in this
region, who water their flocks at this fountain, and sometimes as far north
as Beersheba. 2 Seetzen lodged at one of their encampments. 3 The
conclusion is inevitable, that the name Kudes as here presented by Mr.
Rowlands is a mere blunder of a tyro in Arabic for el-Ku
A conclusion drawn by Robinson on this " test of examination " is : "As
therefore the whole hypothesis of a Kadesh in this place rests upon the
supposed identity of name ; and the said name is thus shown to be a mere
blunder ; it might perhaps be sufficient to let the matter rest here." Yet
to make the conclusion surer, as he looks at it, Robinson presses several
added points against the site of " Ain el-Kudeirat " (which he has decided
is Rowlands s sup posed " Kudes,") prominent among which points is the
following : " According to the scriptural account, both the spies and the
Israel ites on entering the Promised Land from Kadesh, had immediately to
ascend a mountain. 4 If Kadesh was at Ein El-Weibeh or in the vicinity, all
this is a natural and exact representation ; since the ascent from the
great valley begins immediately back of that fountain. But if Kadesh be
sought at Ain el-Kudeirat or any where in that region, the language of
Scripture is wholly inappli cable. The tract between the latter spot and
Beersheba is an open rolling country ; there are swells, but no mountain,
to be crossed ;
1 Bib. Res., I., 280. 2 Bib. Res., II., 619. 3 Hitter, Erdk. XIV., p. 837
/.
* Num. 13 : 17 ; 14 : 44, 45 ; Deut. 1 : 24, 41.
220 KADESH-BARNEA.
and none to be ascended until we reach the mountains of Palestine proper on
the north of Beersheba towards Hebron ; a distance from Ain el-Kudeirat of
about sixty miles, or four days march for troops."
Now, apart from the personal criticisms of Mr. Rowlands by Dr. Robinson,
there are several remarkable statements in the exceptions here taken to the
report of the former s discovery. So far from having confounded " Kudeirat"
with " Kudes," Rowlands distinctly affirms that " Kadeirat and Kaseinieh,
now, and perhaps always, merely fountains or springs, lie to the west of
Kades" 1 It is but fair to presume that Robinson examined his own " map "
rather than the report of Rowlands while bringing the latter to "the test
of examination." And, inasmuch as Seetzen had, long before, heard the name
" Kdeis " in this region, and as Rowlands had been prompted to this very
search by hearing that a similar name was to be found here, it would hardly
be fair to suppose that the name itself was wholly based on another so
dissimilar as Kudeirat, even if the positive proof to the contrary were not
in the very report which Robinson was criticising. Moreover, as Row lands
gave eight distinct reasons for the identification, in addition to the
correspondence of name, and noted them separately with Arabic numerals, it
is somewhat surprising to learn that "the whole hypothesis of a Kadesh in
this place rests upon the supposed identity of name." As to Robinson s
supplemental series of argu ments against the site of " Kades," as they
chiefly rest on his mis take of supposing that Rowlands had " Ain
el-Kudeirat" in mind, they are practically irrelevant to the case. 2
Robinson admits that he never saw Ayn el-Qadayrat, but merely heard about
it from the Arabs. Whether or not, therefore, there was a mountain just
north of it was fairly an open question ; and again it would have
1 See the text of Rowlands s report, at page 215, supra.
2 Those which would, otherwise, have any weight, have been forestalled in
the earlier geographical studies of this volume.
THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 221
no proper bearing on this discussion, in any event, as it was not Ayn
el-Qadayrat that was proposed as the site of Kadesh-barnea.
This being the substance of Robinson s magazine article, against Rowlands
as a discoverer and against the site discovered by Row lands, its
misstatements were condensed for a reappearance in the notes to " Biblical
Researches." Referring to " Ain el-Kudcirat," Robinson says : 1 " This is
the spot called by Mr. Rowlands, Kudes and visited by him as Kadesh-barnea.
He obviously made out the name Kudcs by misunderstanding the name of the
tribe who water at this fountain. There is no other foundation for
supposing a Kadesh here." And again : 2 " Mr. Rowlands supposes that he
found Kadesh at the fountain el- Ain in the high western desert. . . . That
fountain is called also Ain el-Kudcirat, from a tribe of Arabs who water
there. 3 Out of this name Mr. Rowlands, or his Greek dragoman, seems to
have made Kudos, and on the strength of this blunder, assumed there the
site of Kadesh." Yet when we bring these notes of Robinson " to the test of
examination," by comparison with Mr. Rowlands s original report, and his
supple mental statement, we find that : 1. It was not his dragoman who led
him into the blunder of confounding " Kudcirat" with " Kudcs." 2. His
dragoman was not a Greek. 3. He had no dragoman. 4. He. made no blunder, on
the point in question ; and the proof that he made none was in his original
report, which was overlooked by Robinson while he was examining his own
map. For any further "test of examination" in this matter, the substantial
facts are now before any reader who would decide the point for himself.
Robinson s influence was sufficient to carry along with him a large portion
of the English-speaking people, by the mere fact of his opinion rather than
by the strength of his argument. If he
1 Bib. Res. I., 189, note. 2 Ibid. II., 194, note.
s It is more probable that the tribe of Arabs takes its name from the
fountain. That is the common order in the East.
222 KADESH-BARNEA.
could say that he still believed in Ayn el-Waybeh, why should an average
man have any doubt on the subject ? But German scholars were not to be led
in that way. They asked for proofs rather than asseverations on a point
once fairly in debate. And as a result of their inquiry and investigation,
the current of scholarly testimony in favor of Rowlands s identification
gained steadily and largely in Germany ; nor did that identification lack
acceptance and support from reputable and independent scholars in England
and America.
Even before the discovery of Rowlands was made public, other scholars,
including Ewald, and Hitter, and Rabbi Sch \varz, 1 had declared, in the
light of all modern research, in favor of a location of Kadesh at a more
westerly site than the Arabah ; the last named of these scholars having
proposed an identification of Kadesh-barnea at a " Wady Gaian," or " Wady
Abiat," 2 [ Wady Abyad] connected with Wady Bcerayn, a little to the
northward of Wady el- Ayn ; although he was disposed also to understand
that the talmudic refer ence to a double Rcqarn involved the acceptance of
a second Kadesh. 3
So far as I can see, the first thorough and convincing argument in favor of
Rowlands s site was made by Fries, a German scholar, in an article "On the
Position of Kadesh," as published in the German critical magazine "Studien
und Kritiken," in 1854. His
o /
work went farther than that of Tuch, in showing the western stretch of
Edom, and in a careful treatment of the Negeb ; more over he showed the
insuperable objections to a location of Kadesh in the Arabah. Fries was
followed by Kurtz in another masterly exhibit of the facts and arguments in
this discussion. Indeed Kurtz had issued the first edition of his work, the
" History of the Old Covenant," before Fries s article appeared; but in
subsequent editions he quoted freely from Fries, and gave him unstinted
credit. 4
1 See Kurtz s Hist of Old Cor. III., 201.
2 Descript. Gcog. of Pal. (American ed.) pp. 23, 39.
8 Ibid., p. 214 /. * See Hist, of Old Cov., English ed. III., 194-210.
THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 223
It would even seem as if these presentations of the case would alone have
been sufficient, in the absence of farther argument, to have convinced any
impartial student who should examine them. But they were not to be left
alone.
Rittcr, in his new edition of his great geographical work, spoke
approvingly of Rowlands s proposed identification ; l as also did Ewald
with some qualification. 2 Keil and Delitzsch, 3 Kalisch, 4 Knobel, 5
Lange, 6 Menke, 7 Yolter, 8 Strauss, 9 Hamburger, 10 Arnold, 11 Volck and
Muhlau, 12 and others among the Germans, accepted it unqualifiedly, or
referred to it as thus accepted. Bunscn, also, is cited as of this opinion.
13 Graetz, 14 while evidently misled by some of Robinson s misstatements
concerning Rowlands and his dis covery, admitted that the site of Kadesh at
Ayn Qadees, was veri fied by subsequent research and argument. Meanwhile
among English scholars, Wilton, 15 Wordsworth, 16 Alford, 17 Palmer, 18
Tris tram, 19 Edersheim, 20 Geikic. 21 and others, came to a similar conclu
sion with the best German scholars, by an independent process of reasoning,
or adopted the conclusions of those investigators. The best work in the
same line by American scholars was done by
1 Geog. of Pal., Am. ed., I., 429-433. 2 Hist, of Israel, Eng. ed., II.,
193, note.
3 Bib. Com. at Gen. 14 : 7, and at Num. 13 : 11-16 ; 20 : 14-21 ; also Keil
s Com. on Ezek. at 47 : 19.
*Hist. and Crit. Com. on 0. T. at Gen. 14: 5-7.
5 Exeget. Handb. at Num. 33 : 36, 37, and at Josh. 15 : 3, 4.
6 Schaff-Lange Com. at Num. 20 : 1. 7 Bibelatlas, Map No. III.
8 Das Heiliffe Land, p. 319. 9 Sinai u. Golgotha, p. 123.
10 Real-Encyc. fur Bibel u. Talm., s. v. " Kades."
11 In Herzog s Rcal-Encyc. Art. " Kadesch."
12 See their Gesenius s Heb. Germ. Lex., eighth ed., s. v. " Kadesh. "
Kadesh is usually located at the spring Ain Kudes ; Robinson, on the
contrary, misplaced it at the Arabah."
13 See elark s Bible Atlas, p. 26. u Gesch. d. Judm. I., 396.
15 See The Negeb passim ; also Fairbairn s Imp. Bib. Die., s. v. " Kadesh."
16 Bible with Notes, at Gen. 14 : 5-7. 17 Genesis, etc., at 14 : 5-7. 18
Des. of Exod. II., 350-358 ; 509-520. 19 Bible Places, pp. 3-6.
20 Exod. and Wand. p. 165 /. J1 Hours with Bible, II., 327 /.
224 KADESH-BARNEA.
President Bartlett/ of Dartmouth College, and Professor Lowrie, 2 of
Allegheny.
Had it not been, indeed, that the followers of Robinson on this point, in
England and America, were men who controlled the avenues to popular
biblical knowledge, the question in dispute would have long ago been
settled beyond the possibility of a re opening. Kor would even this
advantage have availed them, if it had not been for their constant
repetition of Robinson s undis puted misstatcmcnt concerning Rowlands s
confusion of Ayn el- Qadayrat with Ayn Qadees ; a misstatement which a
single refer ence by any one of them to the original report of Rowlands
would have promptly ruled out of the controversy.
Even so valuable a work as the "Speaker s Commentary" has aided in
promoting popular error on this subject. Its comments on the Book of
Numbers were primarily prepared by the Rev. J. F. Thrupp, who held to the
westerly site of Kadesh ; but, as he died before his work was completed,
his notes were revised by the Rev. T. E. Espin, who followed Robinson in
his opinions and in his errors, and changed the direction of the comments
accordingly. 3 Espin s arguments against the identification at Ayn Qadees
in elude tho utterly baseless idea that Ayn Qadees is located at Ayn
el-Qadayrut ; and it even makes the topographical blunder of elaiming that
" [Wady] el-Am is on high ground," and that " from it the spies must have
gone down rather than up towards Hebron." 4 The baselessness of the
suggestion that Qadees and Qadayrat were confounded in Rowlands s
identification, would be evident to any one who turned for himself to the
report of Rowlands ; and the absurdity of the elaim that one must go doicn
rather than up in passing from either Qadees or Qadayrat towards Hebron,
would be seen on the first glance at a sectional view of the country, such
as
1 Egypt to Pul., pp. 356-378. 2 Schaff-Lange Com. at Num. 13 : 26.
3 See Speaker s Com., " Introduction to the Book of Numbers," p. 654.
4 Hid., " Xote on Chap. 13 : 26.
THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 225
is given in Stanley s " Sinai and Palestine," or in elark s " Bible Atlas;"
but, on the other hand, he who depended on the " Speaker s Commentary " for
information on these points, would inevitably be led astray, and so be
prepared to accept the supple mental commentator s opinion, that Kadesh is
to be identified with Ayn el-Way beh.
The same errors that deface the " Speaker s Commentary " stand out quite as
prominently in the widely-known " Bible Atlas " of the Rev. Samuel elark,
above referred to. This geographical work actually declares 1 that the
fountain discovered by Rowlands, and proposed by him as the site of Kadesh,
is " called Ain el- Kudeirat," and on the strength of this baseless
assumption it argues against the identification, reiterating the absurd
topographical blunder, " that the road from the Ain el-Kudeirat into the
Holy Land is down hill." Of course it is not to be supposed that Mr. elark
had either referred to the report of Rowlands on which he was commenting,
or that he had compared his own statement of the down-grade towards Hebron
with the sectional view of the desert approach of the Holy Land which was
presented in his own Atlas; 2 but this reason for his being in error would
not guard from the same error those who looked to him for direction in geo
graphical studies.
Dr. William Smith s "Ancient Atlas," also a popular standard in its sphere,
approves Robinson s identification, 3 and takes excep tion to that of
Rowlands, although in his maps the geographer notes, as possible sites,
both Robinson s and Rowlands s, and adds a third one, Ayn esh-Shehabeh,
between those two ; and in his " Old Testament History," 4 he seems to
favor each one of these three sites in turn. In " Smith s Bible
Dictionary," however, there is evidence that the report of Rowlands has
been referred to
i Bible Atlas, pp. 24-26. Bible Atlas, Plate II., Map No. 4.
In notes on Map 39, at page 25. * Chap. XIII., Note " B."
15
226 KADESII-BARNEA.
by the writer on " Kadesh." 1 Yet tlie preference is gi\ T en by that
writer to Ayn el-Waybeh, as the nearest approximation to a pro bable site
of Kadesh among the many already suggested. An opinion like this, however
poorly supported, in such an avenue of knowledge, would inevitably have
more influence with the public generally, than a dozen elaborate essays in
sources of critical study.
Keith Johnston s " Royal Atlas," also, is conformed to Robinson s opinion.
And what has proved yet more misleading than the " Bible Atlas " and the "
Ancient Atlas " and the " Royal Atlas " combined, is the fact that
Kadesh-barnca is located at Ayn el- Waybeh in the maps of the Teachers
Bibles, of the Oxford Uni versity Press, of the Bagsters, and of the Queen
s Printers. By this means, millions of young Bible-students have been
started wrong in their Bible geography ; for there are those who would as
soon doubt the inspiration of the chronology of the Bible margins, as the
geography of the Bible maps.
Porter, who has the popular ear through his editing of Murray s "Hand-book
for Syria and Palestine," and as the writer of the article "Kadesh" in
Kitto s " Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature," follows Robinson in the elaim
that Rowlands "was evidently mis led . . by a fancied resemblance in
names," in his discovery of Ayn Qadees, but he is original in his
suggestion that the site of that fountain is "in the midst of the desert of
Tih." 2 His opinion is of course made known to multitudes who are
unfamiliar with the results of modern critical and geographical research in
the lands of the Bible. Fausset, in the " Englishman s Critical and
Expository Bible Cyclopedia " 3 adopts Robinson s identification of Ayn
el-Waybeh, and also his misstatement that Ayn Qadees is at Wady el- Ayn.
Drew, in his " Scripture Lands," 4 and Payne
1 The Rev. Henry Hayman. 2 Alexander s Kitto, Art. " Kadesh."
3 Art. " Kadesh." * pp. 75-78.
THE CONFUSION OF SITES. 227
Smith in " The Bible Educator," also favor Robinson s site, 2 while Kitto s
" Scripture Lands " 3 accommodatingly approves the identifications of both
Robinson and Rowlands ; going back to the old-time idea of a double Kadesh,
which was so thoroughly exploded by Lightfoot, two centuries ago. Yet Kitto
had earlier argued sensibly against the idea of a two-fold site. 4
A mong the Germans, Von Gerlach 5 would locate Kadesh in the Arabah, as
would Hitzig, 6 who hesitated between Ayn el-Way beh, and Ayn Hasb
(somewhat farther north) as advocated by Von Raumer. Indeed it ought to be
said that a number of Germans have, earlier or later, favored the location
of Kadesh at some point in the Arabah, even though they did not coincide
with Robinson, in fixing it at Ayn el-Waybeh. Thus Unruh 7 favored Ayn Hasb
; Reuss, 8 and Berghaus, 9 would find a site at some point near Ezion-
geber, where Buddeus, 10 a century ago, suggested it ; and Biissler u named
Wady Ghuwayr for the location.
El-Khaloos, or Elusa, was advocated as the site of Kadesh by an over
positive English writer. 12 Holland inclined to some site at the
southeastern point of Jebel Muqrah ; ia and there indeed is Ayn
esh-Shehabeh, or Shehabeeyeh, a living spring which has been often named as
a possible site for Kadesh/ 4 but which no one seems to have visited. 15
Conder 16 sweeps all along the upper
1 Vol. I., p. 231.
2 Payne Smith does not name Ayn el-Waybeh, but his description corresponds
with its site. 3 See p. 81 ; also " General Index," p. 5( .
4 See citations from Kitto s Pictorial Bible, and his earlier editions of
Bible Cyclv- pedin, in Bush s Notes on Numbers, at 20 : 1.
5 Com. on Pent, at Xum. 13 : 26 ; 20 : 13. 6 De.r Prophet Ezekiel, p. 371.
~ Der Zu<] der Israel., p. 66. 8 UHi&toire Sainte, III., 264, note.
9 Special- Karte von Syrien. lo ffi.it. Ecdes., A. D. 1744.
11 Das Heilige Land, p. 131. 12 H. C., in Jour, of Sac. Lit. for April,
1860, p. 57.
13 Report of Brit. Assoc. for 1878, p. 622 ff. 14 See elark s Bib. Atlas,
p. 25; Smith s Anc. Atlas, Map 39, etc.
15 See Robinson s Bib. Res., 1., 179. In Quart. Stat. of Pal. Explor. Fund
for Jan., 1881, p. 60 /.
228 KADESH-BARNEA.
Arabah in his preferences ; " say from Petra to Tell el-Milh, at the foot
of Nukb es-Sufa." He strangely suggests a correspond ence between " Maderah
" and " Adar."
Of Americans, there are comparatively few who have made special and
independent studies in this direction. Bartlett and Lowrie have been
already named as approving Rowlands s site. On the other hand, Bush, 1
Coleman, 2 Durbin, 3 Barrows, 4 and others, followed Robinson. Olin 5
suggested Wady Feqreh. McClintock and Strong 6 adopted Von Raumer s
location at Ayn Hasb, and Abbott and Conant 7 did the same. Crosby, 8
expressed his belief that Kadesh was to be found at some point near Jebel
Muqrah ; and this is practically the view of Holland. Naturally, however,
the opinion of Robinson carried great weight with his countrymen,
especially in the absence of any personal knowledge on their part.
It is hardly necessary to follow out farther or more elosely than this, the
various suggested identifications of Kadesh ; or to multi ply farther the
names of those who have had a part in discussing the subject, or in
influencing public opinion by a recorded vote in favor of one site or
another. Yet the list would not be even fairly complete, without a mention
of the noteworthy and remarkable proposal of Dean Stanley, to find the site
of Kadesh in the Rock- City, Petra itself. 9 It is quite needless to detail
his nominal argu ment in favor of his suggestion ; for it was rather the
poetry of the idea than any cold reasoning on the subject that led him to
carry the host of Israel directly into the stronghold of Edom and the
sacred fortress of Mount Seir. In view of all that he has to say of the
matter, the only wonder is that he will concede that the
1 Notes on Numbers, at 20 : 14. 2 Hist. Geog. of Bible, p. 109.
s Observ. in East, I., 197. 4 Sacred Geog. and Antiq., p. 253.
& Travels, II., 60. 6 Cyclo. of Sib., T/icoL, Ecdes. Lit., s. v. " Kadesh."
* Diet, of Relig. Knowl., s. v. " Kadesh." 8 Notes on Joshua, p. 14G.
9 Sinai and Pal. pp. 92-98.
FAILURES TO RE-FIND ROWLANDS^ SITE. 229
" present ruins are modern," instead of boldly elaiming that the great
theatre itself was built expressly for the funeral services on the occasion
of the death of Aaron.
9. FAILURES TO RE-FIND ROWLANDS S SITE.
In addition to the confusion of sites by this suggestion of more than a
dozen distinct identifications of Kadesh-barnea, and by the statements and
misstatements, in direct conflict, of " authorities " without number, a new
element of confusion and of doubt was introduced by the repeated failures
of explorers to find the locality visited and described by Rowlands, even
with the help of all the landmarks noted by him. It was not so much to be
wondered at that Ayn Qadees had been passed by without discovery in all the
years before attention was called to it specifically ; but it did come to
be a cause for wonder that, after its location was fairly de scribed, it
was not to be found or heard from again.
As has been already mentioned, the direct route northward from Castle Xakhl
to Hebron was taken but rarely by desert travelers. But even when it was
taken, now as before, it seemed to throw little or no light on the site
which Rowlands uplifted into such pre-eminence. His own report of it was
given in a hurried per sonal letter ; and the many questions asked about
points not touched in his description were not replied to by him in any
formal statement. Hence one and another European or American traveler made
the determined attempt to learn more on the subject by per sonal research ;
but all to little purpose.
Dr. Stewart, an English elergyman, passing over the mid-desert route, in
1853, somewhat westward of Seetzen s course, pressed his Teeyahah guides
for information as to the locality described by Rowlands; according to his
mistaken understanding of it. 1 There-
1 Tent and Khan, p. 189 /.
230 KADESH-BAENEA.
upon, they coolly informed him that the well in question, which he reports
as "Am el-Khudes," was "near the top of the western shoulder of the
mountain," Jebel Helal; and that while "no camels could approach it ... a
man with a water-skin slung on his back, could get at it by elimbing with
his hands and feet." This "chaffing" of the Arabs, Stewart actually took
for solid topo graphical knowledge, and on the strength of its possession
he pro ceeded to criticise and correct the statements of his more
successful fellow-countrymen. "This differs very widely from the glowing
description given of it [the mountain-top spring] by the Rev. Mr. Rowlands,
in a letter which appears in the appendix of his friend, Mr. Williams ,
book ; though it is probable they can be reconciled by supposing the
stream, by which he encamped, to come down from the spring near the
summit." And, on the strength of this story from the Arabs, Stewart entered
" Am Khades," accordingly, on the map accompanying his really valuable book
of travels.
Again Dr. William M. Thomson, the veteran and widely- known American
missionary, after a quarter of a century s resi dence in the East, reported
1 of his search within a few miles of the locality pointed out by Rowlands:
"I made diligent inquiries about Kadesh; but both our own Arabs and other
Bedawin we met in the neighborhood were either absolutely ignorant of such
a place, under any possible pronunciation of the name, or they pur posely
concealed their knowledge of it." lie knew enough of the Arabs, however, to
understand that seeming ignorance might really be studied concealment ; and
he indulged in no sneers at the elaims of Rowlands to have seen that which
a subsequent traveler w r as unable to re-discover.
Abeken, a German explorer, who was a companion of Lepsius in the latter s
expedition to Egypt (1842-184G), made a journey at a later date, along this
region; and a "Jebel el-Kudeis" Ls re-
1 South. Pal. (Land and Book,) p. 200.
FAILURES TO RE-FIX D ROWLANDS S SITE. 231
ported, as on his authority, in a position corresponding with the "\Vadi
el-Kdeis" of Seetzen. 1 But this was not the Ayn Qadees of Rowlands; and
there were even those who would frame an argument against the
identification of Kadesh at Qadees, on the strength of this proof of
another locality in the same region bear ing this correspondent name.
At length, after nearly thirty years from the discovery by Row lands,
Palmer, the English Oriental scholar, who had already made his important
explorations of the lower peninsula, and who had evidenced rare ability in
influencing and controlling the Arabs, went out for the express purpose of
exploring the Negeb and the desert immediately below it. 2 In this
undertaking, he had in mind the re-discovery of the site of Kadesh-barnea,
as one of the more important results of his researches ; and, in the minds
of those who believed that Rowlands had correctly reported his discovery,
there was little doubt that Palmer would now make this truth clear beyond a
question. But even he was unable to find any such site as Rowlands had
described, or to learn directly about it, 3 and, although he was convinced
that in that region was the locality of Kadesh-barnea, and made a
convincing argument in its favor, he came at last to believe that Robinson
s gratuitous misstatement concerning Rowlands s confounding of Qadayrat and
Qadees must have been the truth in the case; and he accordingly put himself
on record as supposing that Rowlands " applied the name [ Ain Gadis/ as
Palmer writes it] wrongly to Ain el Gudeirat,
1 Abeken s reports seem to have been made through the pages of the Berlin
Monatsbericht der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunden; but I do not find there a
record of the journey on which this discovery was reported. The mountain
is, however, laid down as by his authority on Kiepert s map in Murray s
Handbook for Syria and Pal., and is referred to in Smith-Hackett Bib. Die.,
Art. "Kadesh," note at p. 1522.
1 See his Des. of Exod., II., 283.
3 On this point I had the personal assurance of Professor Palmer, in a
conference with him, on my return from the East, in the spring of 1881. It
is also made clear by Besant, in his Life of Palmer (p. 101 /.)
232 KADESH-BARNEA.
some miles farther northward." l The " three springs, or rather shallow
pools, called themdU [_ cistern-dregs ] by the Arabs," which Palmer thought
were the real Ayn Qadees, were certainly not the springs described by
Rowlands, nor anything like them. As a reason for this failure of Palmer to
find the site which Rowlands had discovered, his accompanying shaykh, the
wily Sulayman, afterwards asserted that he had purposely held back the dis
tinguished explorer from a sight of the long-sought wells. 2
Palmer was followed, in 1874, by President Bartlett, an Ameri can scholar,
who was equally intent on ascertaining fche truth con cerning the discovery
of Rowlands, and equally unsuccessful. He also had the crafty Shaykh
Sulayman as his escort, who, under the pressure of strong urging, conducted
Bartlett to a locality which he said bore the name asked for. It was
subsequently proved that the place thus shown to Bartlett was Ayn Qasaymch,
3 one of the two sites named by Rowlands as westward of Ayn Qadees. Even at
the time, Bartlett was compelled to say of it : " It will be seen that this
locality docs not conform to Rowlands s specification ;" but he was now
prepared to believe that Rowlands s " narrative shows looseness of
statement, both in description of places and in estimates of distances;" 4
and to declare that "we may at once recognize the description of Mr.
Rowlands as somewhat overdrawn, his location confused, and his confidence
excessive." 5 Moreover, Bartlett brought a new element of confusion into
the discussion by insisting that there was really no such fountain as Ayn
el-Qaday- rat in Wady el- Ayn ; nor indeed a fountain of any sort ; that,
in fact, the fountain which both Robinson and Palmer, (and a host of
commentators and geographers between them,) had declared was mistaken by
Rowlands for Ayn Qadees did not have an existence, and therefore could
never have been misnamed by Rowlands s Greek
1 DCS. of Exod., II., 350. 2 See Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p. 359.
3 As will be shown farther on. 4 Egypt to Pal, p. 361. 5 Ibid., p. 367.
FAILURES TO RE-FIND ROWLANDS S SITE. 233
dragoman, even if Rowlands had had a dragoman, and that dragoman had
happened to be a Greek. 1 Bartlett said in defence of this opinion, that
neither Palmer nor Robinson, nor indeed Rowlands or any traveler before or
after him, elaimed to have seen this fountain ; 2 while he had searched the
wady thoroughly, and could " speak with some confidence on the subject." In
view of all that had gone before, this unexpected result of the researches
of so intelligent a traveler as Bartlett, raised anew the perplexing
questions : Are there really three distinct fountains in that region : Ayn
Qadees, Ayn Qadayrat, and Ayn Qasaymeh? or, are there only two ; and if
two, which two ? or is there indeed but one ? And so instead of new light,
there seemed only added shadows on the site of Kadesh-barnea through added
research.
Three years after this visit of Bartlett to the region in question, another
eminent American scholar, the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, crossed the desert
northward with a party of friends, and vainly attempted to go over this
route from Castle Nakhl to Hebron. Of his meeting with the Teeyahah Arabs
at their mid-desert starting- point, he said: 3 "The sheikh, a
commanding-looking man, di verted us from our intended route to Beersheba
and Hebron (although we were willing to run the risk of danger)."
A year after Dr. Schaff was thus turned aside from his purpose, the Rev. F.
"W. Holland, of England, already referred to as having no peer in his
experience as an explorer of the Sinaitic desert, 4 made his fifth visit to
that region, having it as one of the prime objects of his journey to settle
the question of the site of Kadesh- barnea. If he could not succeed in
finding the place so many times vainly hunted for, who could hope to do so?
Yet even he
1 See page 221, supra.
2 He did not refer to Seetzen, who mentions the surroundings of the
fountain as if he had seen it (Reisen, III., 47) ; yet even Seetzen does
not directly say that he vis ited the place.
3 Through Bible Lands, p. 202. * See page 77, supra.
234 KADESH-BARNEA.
was induced to return without penetrating to the site described by
Rowlands; being deterred by "the disturbed state of the country, owing to
constant raids of the Arabs from the east of the Arabah ; and [by] the
excessive drought." l
There was certainly little encouragement, in the experience of these
travelers, to new endeavor in the same direction. Yet all these failures
increased the obvious desirableness of farther and decisive information on
the subject, from some clearly independent source. And this was the state
of things at the opening of the year 1881.
1 Jour, of Trans, of Viet. List., Vol. XIV., p. 11.
Y.
KADE S H-B ARKEA : STORY OF A HUNT FOR IT.
KADESH-BAKNEA.
1. ITS AEAB GUARDIANS.
To begin with, it is important to know something of the hindrances to a
hunt in the region where the site of Kadesh- barnea must be looked for.
That region is the territory of the Bed ween ; of the men of the desert.
The Semitic Bed ween, although of many diverse tribes, are essentially one
people j 1 and in no particular is their race-unity more apparent than in
their unvarying recognition of their tribal- diversity. As a people, they
are agreed that as tribes they are not agreed. Each tribe, or confederacy
of tribes, stands firm as a representative of their common father Ishmael,
of whom it was pro phesied before his birth : " He will be a wild man ; his
hand will be against every man, and every man s hand against him." 2 The
solidarity of the tribe, and the separateness of the tribes, are facts held
with like religious zeal among all the Ishmaelitish Bed ween. And all are
as one, in counting sacredly permanent the " ancient
1 "The Bedawin, whose name is the plural of the word Bedawi (man of the
desert), although divided into independent tribes, which are often hostile
one to another, may be regarded as a single nation, united by a common
speech. ... In every age, the nomads, led by the chiefs of their families
(sheikhs) have pitched their tents on every spot from the banks of the
Euphrates to those of the Nile, from the shores of the Mediterranean to
those of the Persian Gulf." (Pierotti s Customs and Traditions of
Palestine, p. 200 /.)
2 Gen. 16 : 12.
237
238 KADESH-BARNEA.
landmark" 1 which designates the boundary line between the terri torial
possessions, or roaming places, of tribes which are not as one.
To see one tribe of Bed ween is to see a specimen of all tribes ; but to be
with one tribe is, in a peculiar sense, to be apart from all other tribes.
You can move at will within the domain of the tribe of which you are, for
the time being, a member; but the bounds of that domain you can pass only
at your peril. For example, Laborde tells of a rock at the upper end of the
Gulf of Aqabah on which every Muhammadan throws a stone in passing, in
imitation of Abraham who there threw stones at Satan, when the latter would
have turned him from the path of duty. " The rock just mentioned," says
Laborde, " serves as a line of demarcation between the Bedouin of the
peninsula of Sinai, and all the Arabs of the north. The moment we passed
this frontier, the protection of our guides was of no use, except in so far
as they might assist personally in defending us ; and they depended much
more upon our guns and pistols for the safety of their dromedaries than
upon their own prowess." 2
A recognition of these immutable facts of Bed ween life is essen tial to an
understanding of the barriers and limitations to research in the land of
the Bed ween.
The lower peninsula of Sinai is controlled by the Tawarah Bed ween,
including several tribes or elans, associated or confeder ated under one
head shaykh ; the Shaykh el-Belad, or Shaykh of the Territory. Their common
tribal name is derived from Tur, or Toor, a word signifying mountain, and
applied to the Sinaitie mountain group. They are sometimes known as Beny
et-Toor, Sous of the Mountain ; although this designation is given to them
by outsiders, they calling themselves by their separate tribal names. 3
1 Deut, 19: 14; Prov. 22: 28.
2 Laborde s Journey, p. 95. See, also, Robinson s Bib. Res. I., 162. 3 For
descriptions of the Bed ween of tbe Peninsula, and tbeir tribal lines, sec
Tlievenot s Rcisen, pp. 234-237; Shaw s Travels, I., 220-2,57; Hurckhardt s
Travis
ITS ARAB GUARDIANS. 239
The Tawarah are a kindly-disposed and trustworthy people ; the most so of
all the Arabian Bed ween. They have more to do with civilized travelers
than any of their neighbors; for they are imme diately responsible for all
the carrying trade the escort of cara vans and the guidance of pilgrims and
tourists between Suez and Sinai, and northward from Sinai to the great Hajj
route from Cairo to Mekkeh, which crosses the desert from west to east.
Their gentleness and fidelity so attach to them the travelers whom they
guide, that almost always they are parted from with regret, and remembered
and referred to affectionately. 1
North of the Tawarah, in the central desert, are the Teeyahah Bed ween,
comprising several elans, who again have their collective popular name from
the region they inhabit the Desert of Et-Teeh, or Desert of the Wanderings.
East of the Teeyahah, toward the Gulf of Aqabah, are the Hay wat ; 2 and
northeast of the Hay wat
in Syria, pp. 557-564; his Beduinen u. Wahaby, passim; Labordc s Voyage de
I Arabic Petree, pp. 52, 71 /. ; RiippelFs Reiscn, chap. 22; Robinson s
Bib. Res., I., G3/., 133-138, 105 /., 18G; Ritter s Gcog. of Pal., I.,
377-413; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 293-300.
For other descriptions of the characteristics of the Bed ween of the East,
see Con- der s Tent Work in Pal., II., 270-292 ; Bedouins of Euphrates,
passim ; Merrill s East of Jordan, pp. 467-515 ; McCoan s Egypt As It Is,
pp. 26-28 ; Klunzinger s Upper Egypt, pp. 248-267 ; Pierotti s Customs and
Trad, of Pal., pp. 200-207 ; Von Maltzan s Reisen in Arabien, I., 193-403.
1 For illustrations of the characteristics of the Tawarah in contrast with
other Bed ween, and of the tribal jealousies in the matter of convoying
travelers, see Burckhardt, Laborde, Robinson, Ritter, and Palmer, as above
referred to; also Fazakerley s "Journey, in Walpole s Travels in the East,
p. 385, 391; Lord Lind say s Letters, II., 163 ; Stephens s Incidents, II.,
31 ; Formby s Visit to East, pp. 254- 256; Miss Martineau s Eastern Life,
p. 343; Olin s Travels, I., 378; Bartlett s Forty Days in Desert, p. 163;
Stewart s Tent and Khan, p. 12; Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 270 /.; Bonar
s Desert of Sinai, p. 273 f.; Caroline Puine s Tent and Harem, pp. 252-264;
Strauss s Sinai u. Golgotha, pp. 113-121; Bartlett s Egypt to Palestine, p.
329; Schaff s Through Bible Lands, p. 137; Field s On the Desert, pp.
223-228.
* Dr. Wilson (Lands of Bible, I., 265) locates the Hay wat, or Ileiwat,
south of the Teeyahah, between the Hajj route and Jebel et-Teeh ; but
Burckhardt, Robinson, Ritter, and Palmer, locate them as above.
240 KADESH-BARNEA.
are the Ilawaytat and the Alnwcen ; west and northwest of the Tawarah,
toward Suez and Gaza, are the Terabeen. The three tribes, of the Tecyahah,
the Haywat, and the Terabeen, are in elose alliance, and are even thought
by some to be of a common recent stock. 1 Together they outnumber any tribe
or confederacy of tribes in the desert. From their central position, the
Tecyahah elaim the right to escort, within their borders, all travelers who
cross the desert in any direction, including the great Hajj, or annual
sacred pilgrimage from Cairo to Mekkeh and back again. The Khedive, in his
best estate, has been compelled to pay them liberally for this escort ; and
if they had been on the desert in the days of Abraham, Kedor-la omer would
have had a lively time trving to cross it without recognizing their elaim.
v O O
The Tceyahah are ruder and less trustworthy than the Tawarah. It was
pithily said of them by Palmer, 2 that while " the ancient Arabs prided
themselves on th^ee things, eloquence, hospitality, and plundering ; from
the Teyaheh tribe the first two have en tirely disappeared, but they are
still unrivalled " in the third.
All by themselves, in the mountains bearing their name, 3 north of the
region of the Teeyahah and the Haywat, are the Azazimeh Bed ween, " one of
the poorest and most degraded of Arab tribes " the most Ishmaclitish of
Ishmaelites. According to Palmer s testimony, 4 "they are superstitious,
violent, and jealous of intrusion upon their domain, suspecting all
strangers of sinister designs upon their lives and property." 5 Of the
difficulties in the way of
1 Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, p. 560) speaks of these three tribes,
together with the Tawarah, as "all derived from one common stock, the
ancient tribe of Beni Attye." Is it possible that he was misled by the term
Beny et-Teeh, " Sons of the [Desert of the] Wanderings ? " He evidently
does not mean " Ateeyeh."
2 Des. of E.rod., II., 294 /. 3 See page 70 /, supra. 4 Des. of Exod., IT.,
291 /.
5 Laborde (Journey, p. 283, note) calls attention to the fact, that this
jealous suspi cion of visitors from without, has been, from of old, a
characteristic of the tribes bor dering on the Holy Land; as illustrated by
the warning given by the princes of Ammon to their king against the kindly
messengers of David : "Are not his servants
ITS ARAB GUARDIANS. 241
any research into their territory, he adds, out of his own experi ence : "
To examine the country and wrest from them the secrets of its topography
and nomenclature, when the use of a prismatic compass exposes you to
execration as a sorcerer, and when to ask the simplest question is to
proclaim yourself a spy, is, as our own experience has taught us, neither
an easy nor an agreeable task."
Not only are the Azazimeh unwilling to make any terms with " Christians "
as they call all Europeans or Americans ; but they are watchfully
suspicious of their Teeyahch neighbors, when the latter are escorting
travelers along their territory, and they protest against any freedom being
allowed to the hated elass, in the line of archeological researches. 1
Ayn Qadees, the site of Kadesh-barnea, is in the heart of the Azazimeh
territory. The Azazimeh themselves will not guide travelers to it ; nor
will they give consent to the Teeyahah to do so. Hence, although it is but
a little distance east of the direct route from Sinai to Hebron, it has,
for generations, been practi cally inaccessible to travelers. The ordinary
Teeyahah guides could not escort travelers thither : the superstitious
Azazimeh would not. And, in this state of things, the Teeyahah have
doubtless been reluctant to admit to travelers that they knew of a place so
near their route, while they were unable to go to it. Therefore it is, that
there came to be doubts of its very existence, during the nearly forty
years in which intelligent and persistent explorers from Europe and America
failed either to find it or to gain any information concerning it, as they
journeyed in its region, after it was first lighted on in modern times by
the adventurous and zealous Mr. Rowlands, of England.
Rowlands, indeed, was peculiarly favored in having Terabeen guides, from
Gaza, as he went in search of the long-sought site.
come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land ? "
(1 Chron. 19: 3).
1 See, e. g., Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 370 /. ; 403, 407 /.
242 KADESH-BARNEA.
The Terabeen are the only Arabs who seem on good terms with all the other
tribes alike. Their immediate territory stretches from below Suez to Gaza.
They are in elose confederation with the ruder Teeyahah, 1 in fact they are
by some counted as a portion of that tribe. Moreover they are more than
friendly to the gentle Tawarah. As Robinson s guide " Tuweileb" said,
"Between the Tawarah and the Terabin, there is an oath of friendship, to
endure as long as there is water in the sea, and no hair grows in the palm
of the hand. " And what is still stranger, these kindly-disposed Terabeen
arc on excellent terms with the jealous, superstitious, and quarrelsome
Azazimeh, " and sometimes pasture within their territory," 3 even while the
Azazimeh and Teeyahah are at feud with one another. Thus the Terabeen arc
in a peculiar sense a resolv ing element in the disturbing forces of the
desert peoples ; and it was through their guidance that Rowlands was
enabled to reach the jealously-guarded fountain of Qadees within the
territory of the Azazimeh. But when he came out from that sacred enclosure,
it seemed as if its entrance were not only immediately elosed be hind him,
but actually lost to sight and knowledge. Because the Teeyahah were
commonly excluded from the land of the Azazimeh, it is probable that many
of them were really unfamiliar with the name and location of Ayn Qadees,
while those who did know it were prompt to avert all discussion of the
feasibility of a visit to it, bv professing ignorance of such a site, or bv
Iviug about it, and
* J_ O O * O
extemporizing a convenient substitute for it, just as the one plan or
another seemed most likely to accomplish the end desired. And
1 Dr. Sch afT (77ir0?i^7i Billc Lands, p. 202,) tells of warfare between
the Teeyahah, and the Terabeen and Haywat, at the time of his tour in 1877
; but it is more prob able that the opponents of the Teeyahah were the
Azazimeh ; as is indicated by the fact that his Teeyahah guides were
unwilling to escort him in the direction of the Azazimeh toward Hebron, but
were ready to take him among the Terabeen toward Gaza.
*ib. Res., I., 137. Ubid., I., 186.
A MID-DESERT STARTING POINT. 243
as to the Teriibeen Arabs, no traveler again found them in the willing mood
in this matter, in which they were found by Rowlands. And this raises the
question, How is it, then, that a Yankee traveler, on a casual tour, was
enabled to overcome all these obstacles, and find his way to a site
shielded so jealously, and lied about so vigorously and variously, by
successive generations of the typical Ishmaelites who surrounded it ? The
answer to this ques tion can be made plain only by quite a little story,
which is not without its dash of romantic adventure, as well as its gleam
of par ticular providences.
2. A MID-DESERT STARTING POINT.
In mid-desert, at the point where the great Hajj route from Mekkeh crosses
the main route from Sinai to Gaza and Hebron, stands the ancient Castle
Nakhl, 1 or Castle of the Palm, an Egyp tian military station for the
protection of pilgrims, and for the guarding of Egyptian interests
generally. Reaching that point, all travelers going north or east must
change camels and escort, and take a new start in their journeyings ; for
that is a central land mark of tribal divisions. It is even probable that
this has been so from time immemorial, and that here was the "El-Paran
which is on the wilderness," the desert oasis, at which Kedor-la omer
halted to make his new start northward when he went into Canaan by way of
Ayn Qadees. 2
The different offices of a desert-traveler s dragoman, and a
desert-traveler s escorting-shaykh, are not so clearly understood by the
untraveled reader generally, but that it may be well to say a word of
explanation just here. The dragoman, or " interpreter," as that term
primarily means, 3 is the man who contracts with you
1 See page 36 /., supra; also " Frontispiece." 2 Gen. 14 : 6, 7
:1 The Arabic word is ,V*cy-J (tarjamdn). The Chaldaic DJ^P (tergem) "to
interpret" (whence Targum, 1 "A Paraphrase") is from the same root.
244 KADESH-BARNEA.
to carry you over the desert, securing for you transportation, shelter,
provisions, service, escort ; all at a specified round sum per day, or per
trip. So far as trouble and expense are concerned, the dragoman is to
relieve you of all responsibility. But the drago man has no direct power
over the Arabs of the desert, in one tribe or in another. He cannot give
you protection at any point, save as he makes an arrangement for you with
"the shaykh of each tribe whose domain you may enter. And when a shaykh has
agreed with your dragoman for your safe escort through his territory, he
commonly accompanies you, himself, on your journey to the limits of his
domain ; and he always insists that the camels for your transportation
shall be hired from his people, or their full hire paid for by you, in case
other camels arc for any special reason to take their places in crossing
his territory. So, it will be seen, that while your dragoman can go with
you from the beginning to the end of your desert journey, you must change
your escorting-shaykh as often as you come to a new tribal line.
At Castle Nakhl, the northward-bound traveler must part with his
kindly-disposed Tawarah guides, and put himself into the hands of the
wilder and more unattractive Teeyahah. Books of desert travel have many
times described the noisy scene of arrang ing at this mid-desert
starting-point, with the Teeyahah shaykhs, for an escort eastward or
northward ; and each new traveler finds the scene more animated and
noteworthy than he had imagined.
Of late years Shaykh Musleh and his brother Sulaymrm have been at the head
of the mid-desert tribes ; and have met and baffled all curious seekers
after Ayn Qadees. Thc.se shaykhs have been well and fully described by
travelers ; especially by Palmer, 1 aud Bartlett. 2
Shaykh Musleh, the elder of the two, and the Shaykh el-Belad of the
Teeyahah Arabs, is quiet, dogged, shrewd, and strong
1 Desert of the Exodus, II., 328-336. * Egypt to Palestine, pp. 329-33-1.
A MID-DESERT STARTING POINT. 245
willed. Palmer spoke of him, in 1870, as "an ill-looking, surly ruffian,"
whose features were on an occasion " rendered more hideous than their wont
by a scowl of mingled cunning and dis trust." Twelve years later, Palmer
put more confidence in this " surly ruffian ;" and the tragic followings of
this confidence caused a thrill of horror to all the civilized world. It
was during the Egyptian-English war of 1882, that Palmer went into the
desert as an agent of the English government, with the purpose of de
taching from the support of Araby Pasha the Bed ween on the east of Egypt.
Meeting Musleh accidentally, at the westward of the old shaykh s proper
domain, 1 Palmer entered into a conference with him concerning the object
of his mission. Musleh, having personal ends to serve, 2 entered into an
arrangement with Palmer, after the ordinary Oriental reluctance had been
sufficiently exhibited ; 3 and from that time it would seem that there was
hardly any limit to the promises of assistance which Musleh was ready to
make. " "With Misleh," at this time, " was Meter abu Sofieh, who was
introduced to Palmer as the Sheikh of the Lehewats, occupying all the
country east of Suez." 4 This elaim of place and power for Meter was
baseless ; yet in consequence of it, Palmer trusted Meter, as he had
trusted Musleh, who introduced Meter, and it is "to this unfortunate
deception," for which Musleh seems directly responsible, "that the
unfortunate termination of the second expedition was principally
attributable." 5 Meter guided Palmer; and Palmer and his companions were
brutally murdered in the desert while under the guidance of Meter. 6 To
suppose that Shaykh Musleh was innocently deluded into the be-
1 Besant s Life of Edward H. Palmer, p. 275. 2 Ibid., p. 271.
3 Ibid., p. 2S7 /. Ibid., p. 275.
5 Col. Warren s opinion, as cited in Besant s Life, p. 275; also Besant s
mention (p. 307) of " Meter abu Sofieh, whom he [Palmer] trusted, and who
betrayed him."
6 For the circumstances and details of Palmer s tragic fate, see the
admirably written story by Palmer s enthusiastic friend Besant, as above
referred to.
246 KADESH-BARNEA.
lief that Meter was really all that he elaimed for himself, and was a
competent person to be entrusted, at such a time, with such an undertaking
as was assigned to him, is to misconceive both the character and the
ability of the wily old Shaykh el-Bclad of the Teeyahah Arabs.
The younger brother of Musleh, Shaykh Sulayman ibn Amir (Solomon, the son
of Omar, or of Amor 1 ), is described as brilliant and dashing, "a
slightly-built, dark-complexioned Arab, with a handsome, and even
intellectual countenance, and a polish of man ner that would have done
credit to a courtier." With " a clear eye and a fine black beard," a rare
possession for a desert Arab, Sulayman is " more picturesquely,
expensively, and tastefully dressed " than most desert shayks ; appearing,
in fact, like " an Arab gentleman with a tinge of foppishness." Palmer says
of him, in their earlier intercourse 2 : " Being .... a painfully polite
man, he naturally tried on all occasions to cheat us in a gentleman like
way, and we were obliged to parry his attempts at imposition as gracefully
as they were made." And Bartlett adds : " He showed himself to be a man of
character and decision by his com mand over his men, and a man of
determination by his attempts to control us."
Both Musleh and Sulayman have long been familiar with the desire of
travelers to find out about Ayn Qadees; and they are skilled in dexterous
methods of evading its disclosure. Had either of them been in charge of me
and my companions from Castle Nakhl northward, I should have been no more
successful in my search than the many who had preceded me. It was just here
that I had my first advantage, in favoring circumstances.
1 See Palmer s Des. of Es.od., II., 290, 333. In the Surv. of West. Pal., "
Name Lists," p. 263, referring to the names Amir, Ammurieh, Amr, Palmer
says: "All these are forms of the Arabic name Omar, and are identical with
the ethnic name Amorite."
2 Sulayman appears again in connection with Palmer s latest visits to the
desert. See Besant s Life, pp. 202, 270 /., 299, 307 /.
OUK SINAITIC SHAYKH.
SHAYKH MOOSA. OF THE TAWARAH BED WEEN.
FAVORING CIRCUMSTANCES AT NAKHL. 247
3. FAVORING CIRCUMSTANCES AT NAKHL.
It was oa Saturday morning, March 20, 1881, that I reached Castle Nakhl,
with my two traveling companions, Mr. George H. Wattles, a student of
medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Allan M. Dulles,
just from his post-graduate studies at Leipzig. We had come from Cairo, by
way of Mount Sinai, under the escort of Shaykh Moosa, the Shaykh el-Belad
of the Tawarah tribes; one of the very finest specimens of the Bed wy
chieftain, dignified, kindly, trustworthy ;* a man for whom we had acquired
sincere respect and hearty esteem. 3
Shaykh Sulayman was absent on a plundering tour, making good the reputation
of his tribe for its one remaining ancestral trait; 3 perhaps in the
country of the Anazeh, "who occupy the district around Palmyra, and to the
east of the Hauran ;" for they are said to be the " hereditary victims " of
the Tccyahah in their annual raids for plunder. 4 This of course put him
out of the
1 Caroline Paine, in her Tent and Harem (pp. 258-265) describes a visit
made by her in 1852, to the home of Shaykh Moosa, not far from Wady Fayran.
She empha sizes "the delicate and polite manner" of his wives, and the
courtliness of his perso nal bearing. " We had an opportunity," she says, "
of studying these women long and carefully, and every moment increased the
respect and wonder inspired by as true native gentleness, propriety, and
courtesy, as ever graced a marble hall. " Referring to the deference shown
to the Bed wy chieftain in his own household, she says: "Sheikh Moosa s
appearance certainly entitled him to all the consideration in which he was
evidently held by the ladies of his court. He was of a tall, good figure,
and his apparent height was increased by a long, narrow, woolen robe, and
the large white turban that surmounted his head. His face with tolerably
good features, had a refined and manly expression; his deportment was easy,
grave, and dignified ; and he escorted us with as much suavity as if he had
been accustomed to the refinement of civilized life."
2 See his portrait accompanying. 8 See page 240, sitpra.
4 " Once at least in every year the Teyaheh collect in force, often
mustering as many as 1,000 guns, and set off on camels for the country of
the Anazeh, a distance of more than twenty days journey. Having chosen for
their expedition the season
248 KADESH-BARNEA.
question as our escort. Shaykh Musleh was there ; but he was disabled by
ill-health. It was, indeed, with difficulty that he had come over the
desert to meet us, in response to a messenger sent to him across the
country by Shaykh Moosa, as we journeyed toward Xakhl. A ride to Hebron he
could not think of. Under ordinary circumstances, he would probably have
insisted that we should await his brother s return ; but he happened to be
in a position to desire our help, and that fact put us on a different
footing from travelers generally.
A younger shaykh of the Tceyahah (Hussan, son of a former shaykh, Moosa, a
kinsman of Musleh) had been arrested, with some companions, by the Turkish
authorities on a charge of plun dering (not of a robbery of which he had
been personally guilty, but a robbery by individuals of his tribe or elan,
for which, ac cording to Arab ideas of tribal solidarity, he was fairly to
be held responsible) ; and he and his fellows were now prisoners at Jeru
salem. 1 AVith all of the fatherly interest of an old shaykh in his people,
and of an Oriental patriarch in those of his own blood, Musleh was intent
on the release of the captive Hussan. By no fault of mine, Musleh hal
obtained from my Egyptian dragoman, and from the Tawarah Shaykh Moosa, an
exaggerated idea of my personal influence with those in authority in my own
land, and
of the year when the camels are sent out to graze, they seldom fail to come
across some large herd feeding at a distance from the camp, and watched by
a few atten dants only. These they drive off, the bawdrideh that is the men
who possess guns forming a guard on either side and in the rear, and the
rest leading the heasts. It sometimes, though rarely, happens that they get
off clear with their booty before the owners are aware of the invasion, but
in many cases they are hotly pursued, and compelled to relinquish their
prey, and take to their heels." (Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 295.) It is
the same to-day as it was in the days of the patriarch Job. (See Job 1:
17.)
1 Dr. William C. Prime, in his Boat Life in Egypt, (pp. 97-108), describes
graphi cally a similar arrest of the famous old shaykh of the Alaween,
ITusayn ibn-Egid, so long the dependence and the dread of visitors to
Petra; and his imprisonment at Cairo.
FAVORING CIRCUMSTANCES AT NAKHL. 249
with its representatives abroad ; and lie was exceedingly desirous of my
good offices in behalf of Hussan, through the American consulate at
Jerusalem. 1
Taking up the incidental statements of my young companions, concerning my
editorship of a periodical which circulated widely in the Bible-studying
community in my land, among the very elass most likely to make journeys to
Sinai and Jerusalem, my enthusi astic dragoman, with true Oriental license
and imaginings, had en larged the story, until, as I afterwards learned
(for it was all spoken in Arabic), he had actually reported me as "
Director-in- Chief" of all the religious papers "the sacred press" of
America, and the shaper, so far, of the opinions of American pilgrims. He
had moreover given this fact a practical bearing on Bed wy interests (for
an Arab cares nothing for anyone s position and honors except so far as
they may affect his personal interests), by gravely assuring the shaykhs
that if I were well treated on the desert, and were well pleased with the
route, I would speak so well of it as to turn by way of Suez and Mount
Sinai a large portion of that current of pilgrimage to Jerusalem which now
went by way of Alexandria to Jaffa ; and so there would be a larger de mand
than ever for camels, and for Arab escort. This was an argument that even a
Bed wy could appreciate ; and pressed as it was by a Muhammadan preacher,
whose character and mission in spired Arab confidence, it was not without
its weight. Sure I am that I had favors granted me, and was freed from
exorbitant de mands, at various points along my desert route, quite in
contrast with the treatment reported by well-known travelers before and
after me. Notably was this the case during my stay at Castle
1 This burden was still on the mind of old Musleh, when he met Palmer in
the desert in July, 1882. Palmer s report of Musleh s promise at that time
is : " He says that if I can get three sheikhs out of prison, which I hope
to do through Constanti nople and our Ambassador, all the Arabs will rise
and join me like one man." (Be- sant s Life, p. 271.)
250 KADESH-BARNEA.
Nakhl, and in my dealings with the shabby old Egyptian governor 1 there,
and the cunning Shaykh Musleh. I mention all this as so far explanatory of
certain advantages accorded me in my search for the long-hidden wells at
Ayn Qadees.
Of course Shaykh Muslch was ready to assure me of the ground lessness of
the charges against Hussan, and of the certainty of my reward if I should
be successful in securing his release. If Hus san were set at liberty, he
said, we who had compassed it should be "as kings in the desert," when we
came that way again. But if Hussan should be held and old Musleh s usHv
face lowered threat-
o *
cningly as he said it the desert would not be safe for any traveler. As a
proof of his confidence and his generosity, Musleh was even now ready to
give me an Arab steed, whose value lie said was 300, if only I would
promise to. make intercession for Hus san. His whole soul was on fire in
this matter ; and he was too anxious for my help in his need, to deny me
any reasonable re quest in the line of my purpose.
Old Musleh s eyesight was failing him, and his lungs were evidently
diseased. Learning that one of my companions was a physician ("a hakeem,"
as they call it) he asked to be restored to full sight, and to be relieved
of his cough. A mild palliative for the cough, and a simple eye wash,
gratified him, and tended to increase his willingness to accede to my
requests. When I pressed for an early move northward, he made a mild
protest, on the score of his inability to go with us, and his brother s
absence ; but he yielded that point gracefully, since "the king s business
required haste," 2 and the sooner I should reach Jerusalem the better it
might be for the captive Hussan. But when I urged the direct northward
1 This old wretch is described by Dr. Field in his On the Desert, pp.
215^"., 225 ff. lie was near the scene of Professor Palmer s murder, and
was strongly suspected of being privy to it, if not, indeed, directly
responsible for it. (See Besant s Life, p. 321/.)
2 1 Sam. 21 : 8.
FAVORING CIRCUMSTANCES AT NAKHL. 251
route to Hebron instead of the westerly one to Gaza, Musleh was more
reluctant to yield. The Gaza route lay through the land of the friendly
Terabeeu. The route to Hebron passed the fields of the hostile Azazimeh.
Musleh insisted that only three families (each traveling party on the
desert is called "a family") had passed over the Hebron route in now twelve
years, and he magnified its dangers. 1 But just there I was in dead
earnest, and when he was convinced of that, he was disinclined to risk my
possible help for Hussan, on a point like the choice of available routes.
He con sented, therefore, to my going by way of Hebron; and here again an
advantage was given me.
Shaykh Musleh had brought with him his son Hamdh, a good- natured,
over-grown boy of some eighteen years or more, with somewhat of his father
s doggcdncss, but with none of the old man s shrewdness. Ibraheem, a son of
Sulayman, was also there. He was brighter than Hamdh; a keen-eyed,
lithe-bodied youth, showing not a little of his father s alertness of mind
and graceful ness of manner. After some discussion, it was agreed that the
two young men should go together in charge of our escort to Hebron. Hamdh
was to be in command, although he had never before been sent on an
expedition of the importance of this, and the route itself was not wholly
familiar to him.
In view of Hamdh s youth and inexperience, a skilled and trusty guide was
secured, in one Owdy, 2 a shrewd and intelligent Arab, whose home was not
far from Nakhl, and who was acquainted with every step of the way to be
traversed, and with the needs and dan gers of desert travel in the region
of the Azazimeh. With all his experience of desert ways, however, Owdy had
not been accustomed to lend his services as an escort to travelers ; and he
seemed to feel
1 See page 240.$"., supra.
* I give this name by its sound. I do not know its form in Arabic. Bonar
(Dcs. of Sinai, p. 207) mentions an Arab, named " Aaudheh," which may be
the same name as this; but I give the phonetic equivalents of the name as I
heard it.
252 KADESH-BARNEA.
it somewhat beneath his dignity, to lead a camel for a " Christian," in a
party commanded by boy shaykhs. He was willing that his camel should go;
but he was inclined to stay by his fields of springing barley in "Wady el-
Arecsli and beyond. The pressure brought on him, in this emergency, was
much like that which Moses brought on Hobab, when the latter was desired as
a guide over this same desert, Hebron ward, and gave answer, "I will not
go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred." Then it was
that Moses urged: "Leavens not, I pray thee; foras much as thou knowest how
we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of
eyes." 1 Thus urged, Hobab went: so went Owdy.
AY hen arrangements for the escort were finally agreed on, in eluding the
number and the price of camels, the route to be taken, and the time of
starting and the number of days for the journey, the agreement was formally
ratified between the contracting parties, by Shaykh Musleh and my dragoman
sitting side by side; their open hands held, with upturned palms, before
their faces, as if they were the pages of a book; and reciting together the
words of the Fatfhat, or first chapter of the Quran. This formula, with
more or less of accompanying salutations and embracings, is pro nounced by
all Muhaminadans on every important occasion. 2 Its invocation is a sacred
pledge of fidelity between "believers."
Of course I was cautious about making promises in behalf of Hussan; and of
course I refused all reward. I did agree to in quire into the facts, on
reaching Jerusalem: and that promise I made good. I found, indeed, on
arriving there, that his case was apparently already in good hands; better
than mine, for him. 3 Xor did I plan to take any incidental advantage of
Shaykh
1 Num. 10 : 29-32.
2 See notes on this chapter, in TJie Koran with Notes, by George Sale. s
Yet the sequel shows (from his continued imprisonment, a year later) that
the efforts for his release were futile.
A MOVE NORTHWARD. 253
Muslch s expectation of service from me. It was only after the journey was
over, and I looked back over its details, that I real ized how all these
things had combined to give me exceptional opportunities in the line of my
research ; and I refer to them now by way of accounting for my unexpected
success in that line.
4. A MOVE NORTHWARD.
We were to start early on Monday morning, and the agreement was that we
should be at Hebron on the Saturday night following. Although Hamdh was
nominally the shaykh of the party, (or the "family ") for this journey, he
was so much younger than myself, and beardless at that, while I had a
patriarchal beard, that, in accordance with the Oriental custom of giving
deference to age, and of honoring the beard, I was called the " father " of
" the family," and Hamdh was formally committed to my fatherly care by his
original father. Putting the young man s right hand be tween my two hands,
old Musleh took our three hands between his two, and said to me earnestly,
in Arabic : " He has been my son. Now he is your son. Be to him a good
father." Then he en joined it upon his burly son to be faithful to me as we
journeyed, and to do for me any favor in his power. This injunction proved
of important service to me, in the line of my subsequent re searches.
Although there were but three of us travelers, the camel train, which
should bear us and our attendants, and all our needful tents and stores,
formed no insignificant caravan. The dromedaries which we three rode were
of a lighter build, and better blood, and hence faster of foot, than the
baggage camels which carried the heavier loads. 1 In all, there were about
fifteen beasts and as many
1 There is a popular notion, promoted by the dictionaries, that the
difference be tween a camel and a dromedary is a difference in the humps;
the one having one hump and the other two humps. But this is an error. A
dromedary bears the same
254 KADESH-BABNEA.
men. It was our custom to move off ahead of the baor<rao-e train
OO O
in the morning the three travelers and the dragoman. When we halted at noon
for a lunch, we usually rested for an hour and a- half or two hours, in the
shade of a light tent which the dragoman had brought, together with a
lunch-box, on his camel. Mean while the baggage train would come up and
pass us, and go on to the night s halting-place where we would find our
tents ready pitched for us on our arrival.
On Monday, March 28, we were off bright and early, being actually on the
march soon after seven o elock : an expeditious start for the first day of
a new journey, with all the elamor and wrangling over the apportioning of
loads to the camels, which are an essential preliminary to an Arab caravan
undertaking. And we made nearly nine and a-half hours of actual travel that
day with quick stepping and a tolerably straight course in addition to our
customary rest at mid-day. This was really a remarkable first day s travel
for such a journey ; as any Eastern tourist would recognize. 1 It showed
that our Tecyahah guide and escort were in earnest in speeding our journey,
as they had promised.
The second day s journey was also a long one, and its late elose found us
in Wady Jeroor, at a point at least sixty miles distant in an air line from
Castle Nakhl ; so that we must have made not less than thirty-five miles a
day, by the course we had taken. We had passed up along Wady el- Areesh,
and on northeasterly be tween Naqb Fahudeh and Jebel Ikhrimm (or Jebel
Hareem); 2 had skirted Wady Qarayyeh and Wady Mayeen, before traversing
Wady esh-Sherayf ; had seen Jebel Araeef en-Xaqah, the south western
bulwark of the Azazimeh mountain plateau, 3 looming up
relation to the camel, that a blooded racer does to a pack horse. (On this
point, see authorities quoted in Fazerkerly s " Journey," in Walpole s
Travels in the East, p. 384, also Tischendorfs AILS dcm he.iligen Landc, p.
20, note).
1 See page 142^7"., supra. 2 See Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 277. 3 See
page 138, supra.
YANKEE CATECHISING. 255
at our right, and Jebel Yelcq at our left, as we neared them and then
passed them by; and Jebel Helal stretched along our western horizon, as we
turned easterly out of Wady esh-Sherayf, for a convenient camping place in
Wady Jeroor.
Jeroor is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew Gerar. 1 It was at the city
of Gerar, somewhere at the northwest of our present location, that Abraham
sojourned, as he journeyed along south ward from Hebron; but the domain of
Shaykh Abimelech seems to have stretched far out in this direction; and
when Isaac s pros perity, in his growing grain fields, excited the envy of
Abimelech s people near Gerar, then "Isaac departed thence, and pitched his
tent in the valley of Gerar," or in Wady Jeroor, as we would call it
now-a-days, "and dwelt there." 2 And now we were near the old camping
ground of Isaac, from which he moved again and again, northerly toward
Rehoboth and Beersheba.
5. YANKEE CATECHISING.
It was well into the evening, after our dinner was over, that we called our
dragoman and the two young shaykhs to the entrance of our dining tent, for
a conference over the journey of the day and the plans of the morrow. They
sat, or squatted, on the ground before us, in Oriental fashion ; and we sat
in camp-chairs just above them. It was then and there that for the first
time I broached the question of the whereabouts of Ayn Qadees.
Being familiar with the views of Rowlands, and Palmer, and Bartlett, I was
of the opinion that Bartlett was correct in suppos ing that he had been
shown the real Ayn Qadees by Shaykh Sulayman ; and it followed as a matter
of course that it must be not far from our present location. On this
supposition, I began my inquiries. Finding that Jebel Muwayleh was but a
few hours
1 See page 63 /., supra. * Gen. 26 : 6-17.
25G KADESH-BARNEA.
northward of us, and remembering that both Rowlands and Bart- lett had
taken that as a starting point of their search, I asked if we could not
turn aside from our track beyond Muwayleh, on the morrow, in order that I
might visit Ayn Qadees. To my surprise, neither my dragoman nor cither of
the young shaykhs seemed to have any knowledge of such a place. After a
little groping for some elue to the locality, I asked that Owdy, our guide,
be sent for.
But Owdy, when he appeared, was seemingly more ignorant than the others. As
I questioned him about one locality after another, concerning which I could
not be in doubt, I became satis fied that his ignorance on every point was
too dense for reality, with such an experienced guide as himself. It was
quickly obvious that he was playing a part as the others were not ; and I
quite lost my patience with him. And there, again, I unconsciously gained
an advantage ; if I had kept my patience, I should have had nothing else to
report. Without any deliberate plan in my action, I instinctively took the
very course to bring out the truth from an unwilling Arab witness.
A Bed wy finds it hard to realize the actual value of books especially of
books of travel. He cither undervalues them, or he overestimates them. 1 He
commonly takes it for granted, to bco;in with, that you know nothing about
his country, if you have not visited it before. But if you. show him that
you know the truth of a matter about which he has professed ignorance, or
lied to you,
1 Wilson (Lan<1s of Bible, I., 264) tells of his discovering a
treacherous surface under a circle of ashes near a chalk hill at BeerRejeem
[the "stoned-up well?"] and asking an Arab to step across it who of course
plunged in it over foot. " When he found that lie lost his footing in it,
and that I was testing him by a practical joke, he immediately cried out,
Oh, these books of the English gentlemen ; they describe every knoll and
every pit in our country! The English have no need of guides, They know
everything better than we ourselves do. lie innocently thought that we must
have had a description of this wreath of ashes in some of our books."
Aeain, Palmer (Drs. of Exod., II., 387) tells of his surprising Shaykh
Sulayman by insisting on going a direct road to Beersheba when the latter
supposed he could take a cir-
YANKEE CATECHISING. 257
he is quite likely to think that it is useless for him to try to de ceive
one who has the help of Christian books ; and then he is ready to tell you
all he knows. 1 Moreover, he is exceedingly sensitive to his reputation of
familiarity with his own region of country ; for an Arab, like an American
Indian, thinks there is no ignorance so culpable as ignorance of the tracks
and landmarks of the territory he traverses.
" Oh, well ! " I said impatiently, " the trouble is, you don t know your
country as well as I do. We ought to change places. I am giving you
bakhsheesh, to show me your country. Now, you give me bakhsheesh, and I ll
show you your country."
I spoke quickly and contemptuously, and the Arabs could catch the spirit of
my sneer, even before my words were translated by the surprised and
interested dragoman. Nor was he slow in re peating my words in Arabic. The
innocent young shaykhs and the cunning Owdy watched me wondcringly, to know
just what I meant by all this ; and I proceeded to enlighten them.
" To-morrow morning we will go on to Ayn Muwaylch. We will go past that.
Then we will turn off from the track, to the right. We will go down that
way about one hour. There we will find, one, two, three, wells. Beyond
them, we will find flags and rushes growing. Then, a little further on,
there are more wells. That is Qadees. 2 You don t know it ; but I do. Give
me bakh sheesh ; and I ll show it to you."
cuitous path without being found out. "Suleiman was . . . astonished that,
without having visited the country before, we knew in which direction
Beersheba lay. He could not conceive it possible that any writing or spy
-glasses should tell us that. "
1 Palmer (Ibid., p. 326) says on this point : " When once an Arab has
ceased to regard you with suspicion, you may surprise a piece of
information out of him at any moment; and if you repeat it to him a short
time afterwards, he forgets in nine cases out often that he has himself
been your authority, and should the information be incorrect will flatly
contradict you and set you right, while if it be authentic he is puzzled at
your possessing a knowledge of the facts, and deems it useless to with hold
from you anything further."
2 See Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p. 359 /.
258 KADESH-BARNEA.
As this little speech was translated to them, the three men looked up at me
in blank amazement. Then they looked at the dragoman. Then they looked at
each other. After a little, the three talked among themselves in low,
earnest tones. Gradually they waxed warmer in discussion. After awhile they
turned to the dragoman, and carried on a spirited conversation with him.
Then lie turned to me.
" Mistar Trom-bool," he said, " I tell you now the true ; honor- bright.
They tell me true now, on the Quran." He was a Muhammadan preacher, and he
had pledged them on their faith. " They know that place you tell them ; but
they no call it that name. They no call that Qadees. "
" Oh ! they do know it, do they ? " I asked, as if still in doubt. " And
what do they call the place ? "
" They call that, Qasaymeh. "
At this unexpected response, which I could not but believe was sincere,
there flashed into my mind the thought, that the wily Sulayman had palmed
off Qasaymeh as Qadees upon my Ameri can predecessor on that route whose
description I had followed ; and at once I was on another track.
" But do they know where Qadees is, if they don t think it s there ? " I
asked, as if keeping them still on trial as to their know-, ledge of their
own country.
The two young shaykhs did not know ; but Owdy did. He had lived in that
region as a boy, and had traversed it far and near. He told the direction
of Qadees, and how it could be reached from our present camp. Its distance
was " a short day s journey." Then I asked him if he had ever seen Ayn
Qadayrat. He said that he visited it once, twenty years before. As I
questioned farther, he gave me the bearings of the one well from the other,
and both again from Qasaymeh. I was morally certain that Owdy was now
telling the truth ; for he thought I knew a great deal about the country ;
and he was trying to prove that he knew as much as I did.
A RESTLESS NIGHT. 259
By midnight, the tangle was all unraveled. I could see where the three
wells were, and how to reach them. But as yet this was only a personal
conviction. I had no proof to offer to anyone else. Now came the question.
Could I visit the wells, and see them for myself? Owdy said that this was
not to be thought of. " Qadees was in the Azazinieh s country. The Azazimeh
would rob and murder anyone who came into that region." It was bad enough
for the Teeyahah to go along, as now, on the edge of the Azazimeh s
territory. To venture directly into the enemy s country was an
impossibility. I must make the most of knowing where the wells were,
without the hope of seeing them. And with that for my comfort, our
conference broke up for the night.
6. A RESTLESS NIGHT.
That was a restless night for me. My thoughts were too busy for sleep. The
solution of a geographical mystery was almost within my grasp. How could I
let it slip? No one from abroad had yet visited the three wells in
question. It had even been doubted that there were three. Qadayrat, no
traveler had seen. Qadees had been seen by only one, in many centuries ;
and his visit there was forty years ago. Qasaymeh had at one time passed by
its own name ; and again it had done duty for each of the other two wells.
If only I could now visit the three, and note their peculiarities and
relative bearing, what a service I might render to the cause of biblical
research ! Had I any right to lose such as opportunity as this, on the
score of its possible dangers?
And what, after all, were the real dangers of the desired search ? My three
years of varied experience in active campaigning, during our American civil
war, had taught me that the actual perils of scouting in an enemy s country
were often far less than the imagi nary ones ; and I was sure that now our
timid young shaykhs, and perhaps the reluctant guide also, were seeing more
dangers ahead,
260 KADESH-BAENEA.
011 the suggested trip, than we should ever meet if we made the venture.
Moreover, my observation of the desert Bed ween thus far had not much
impressed me with a sense of their formidableness. I had noticed that the
only firearm of the average Bed wy was a long-barreled, smooth-bore,
flint-lock musket ; not infrequently minus the lock : and I had never yet
seen an Arab hit anything that he fired at. Yet every Arab seemed to think
his enemy s armament a great deal more to be dreaded than his own. In fact,
desert hostilities, so far as I had seen them, or had learned of them from
the Arabs themselves, looked to me very much like Chinese warfare : each
side trying to frighten his enemy away from a fight and succeeding. The
risk of bloodshed in such a move as I was pressing, seemed hardly worth
considering. And as to robbery, what was that in such a hunt as this ?
By daylight, my mind was clear ; and I was up and over at our dragoman s
tent, determined to compass a visit to those three wells whether it were
possible or not.
7, HELP FROM A NOTABLE DRAGOMAN.
Our dragoman, Muhammad Ahmad Hedayah, 1 was a character; too much of a
character to be let pass without fuller notice. He was an Alexandrian ; a
native Egyptian, of Moorish stock. He had been a dragoman for a quarter of
a century ; but was still in the prime of life. He had amassed a handsome
property, and was the owner of five or six substantial buildings in the
European quarter of his city ; all of which have since been swept away, in
the destruction of that quarter by Araby Pasha. He was also a mer chant of
some prominence ; but he kept on at his old business as dragoman from a
veritable love of it. He enjoyed being on the desert, or up the Nile, or in
the Holy Land ; he had special pride
1 This surname is the Arabic name for the " black hawk" (milvus atcr.)
HELP FROM A NOTABLE DRAGOMAN. 261
in accompanying travelers who were already well known, or who would help
him to become so ; for he cared more for reputation than for money. He had
been the dragoman of Canon Farrar, and of Lady Elizabeth Cartwright, and of
Colonel Colin Camp bell, of Great Britain ; and of General McClellau, and
of the Rev. Dr. Charles S. Robinson, and of Professor Charles M. Mead, of
the United States. He knew the value of books, and the possible gain to
himself from his mention in a book. It was, indeed, one of his boasts that
he figured in a book by Mr. Charles Dudley Warner ; figured, too, to very
good advantage. He also treasured a magazine in which he was mentioned
approvingly by Canon Farrar ; and he more than once asked me to write a
book, and " put him in it."
Mr. Warner s descriptive sketch of this dragoman cannot, in fact, be
improved on, for vividness and accuracy. "Achmed was a character. He had
the pure Arab physiognomy, the vivacity of an Italian, the restlessness of
an American, the courtesy of the most polished Oriental, and a unique use
of the English tongue. Copious in speech, at times flighty in manner,
gravely humorous, and more sharp-witted than the cutest Yankee, he was an
ex ceedingly experienced and skilful dragoman, and perfectly honest to his
employers. Achmed was elad in baggy trousers, a silk scarf about his waist,
short open jacket, and wore his tarboosh on the back of his sloping head. 1
He had a habit of throwing back his head and half elosing his wandering,
restless black eyes in speak ing, and his gestures and attitude might have
been called theatrical but for a certain simple sincerity ; yet any
extravagance of speech or action was always saved from an appearance of
absurdity by a humorous twinkle in his eyes." 2 Ahmad was brought to Mr.
Warner s notice by his "unselfish zeal" in behalf of the latter s dragoman,
Abd el-Attee, who was maliciously arrested and locked
1 See his portrait, accompanying. 2 Warner s In the Levant, p. 220.
262 KADESH-BARNEA.
up by Turkish officials in Bayroot. Ahmad s "quick generosity," his
"enthusiasm," his rapid swaying from hope to despondency as his
surroundings changed, are admirably illustrated in Mr. War ner s story of
him.
Knowing his vulnerable side, as I came to him in his tent that morning, I
approached it directly. I told him that no traveler had visited Ayn Qadees
in forty years ; and that none had ever visited Ayn Qadayrat. If he would
help me to get there now, I would write a book about it, and "put him in my
book." That touched him. " Write it, Muhammad Ahmad Effendi l Iledayah, 8
Silk Bazar, Alexandria, " he said promptly ; and he repeated the "8 Silk
Bazar." Then he asked me on what terms he mi<>;lit bar-
~
gain with the young shaykhs and their followers. I told him I would leave
that wholly with himself. Any bargain he should make, I would ratify; for I
knew I could trust him implicitly. He was thoroughly enlisted, and told me
he would soon have it arranged.
But the dragoman found it no easy task to bring the young shaykhs and Owdy
to his view of the case. They had no desire to figure in a book ; nor was a
venture into the Azazimeh country attractive to their unromantic
imaginings. Had it not been for the dragoman s influence as a Muhammadan
leader, and his enthu siasm in pressing his point for his own sake, their
consent would never have been secured. Even when Owdy and Ibraheem were won
over, Hamdh continued childishly obstinate. At Nakhl we had wanted to reach
Hebron by Saturday night, he said ; and his father had directed him to
press on accordingly with all possible speed. If we had now changed our
mind, that was no reason why he should change his. A bargain was a bargain.
He would stand by his original agreement; and not budge from it. The
1 His ability to write, and his social standing, justified him in the use
of the appel lative " Efiendi."
OFF FROM THE MAIN TRACK. 263
proffer to him of bakhsheesh seemed in itself of no weight. Obsti nacy and
prejudice were stronger than cupidity. Then the drago- maii pressed on
Hamdh the injunction of his father to do every thing in his power to favor
and gratify me on this trip. If the old shaykhs had been along, we could
never have deviated from our Hebron path ; but tact, persistency and
determination finally overbore the young man ; and the details of a new
bargain were entered on.
As to taking the entire caravan into the Azazimeh country, that was not to
be thought of. The camel train must wait where it was, or move slowly up
the road, while the dromedaries and their riders went off on this
expedition. But with the Arab idea of a share for all in any good fortune,
every man of the caravan must receive his portion of bakhsheesh, whether he
went or stayed. Extra payment must then be made to those who were on the
expedition ; and finally I must bind myself to release the Arabs from all
responsibility for their contract to be at Hebron w r ithin the time
originally specified ; and must promise, moreover, to make good any loss to
them from Azazimeh plundering. All this I agreed to ; and the new contract
was concluded.
8. OFF FROM THE MAIN TRACK.
It was yet only 7.25 in the morning (of Wednesday, March 30) when our party
was fairly off on its way eastward ; from our camping- place in "VVady
Jeroor. Besides ourselves the three travelers there were the dragoman, the
two young shaykhs, the guide Owdy, and a sooty Abyssinian slave of Shaykh
Musleh (eight persons), with four dromedaries, in the party. The remainder
of the caravan was put in charge of our " waiter," Muhammad, an intelligent
and enterprising Egyptian, who was of the Prince of Wales s escort in the
Holy Land in 1862. His orders were to make a short day s journey northward,
and there await our return.
264 KADESH-BARNEA.
Moving briskly eastward for about two hours and a quarter, we crossed
Wadies Sasab, Sa eedeli and Sainrah ; all three wadies running southerly,
the latter curving toward the west. Well- defined camel tracks traversed
them. As yet we had crossed no hills, the wadies being separated only by
gravelly ridges ; but we had skirted the southern face of a mountain range
which included a single prominent peak of peculiar formation, like a series
of bright colored terraces around a conical trunk (with a suggestion of the
step-pyramid of Saqqarah x ), resembling the central peak in Palmer s
sketch of the "Wilderness of Kadesh," 2 and perhaps being the " Jebel
Aneigeh," of his map ; possibly his " Jebel Meraifig : " on this point I
cannot be sure.
Passing along the border of a fourth wady Wojat also trend ing southerly we
approached a low range of hills running north west and southeast. Inclining
a little to the north of east, and then again eastward, we rose that hill
range, and an extensive plain, or wady, stretched before us from its
eastward base. The range was Jebel Hawwadeh. The plain was Wady Qadees. It
was with a thrill of delight that we caught our first view of the great
sanctuary camping-ground of the Hebrews; and we were quite too full of the
excitement of successful pursuit, to have a thought of special danger, as,
at 10.30, we descended the hill side into the wady beyond, after three
hours quick riding from our morning camp. This Jebel Ilawwadeh was a new
name to me. When I told of it to Professor Palmer, on my return to London,
he knew nothing of such a mountain ; but he gave me its meaning as "
Mountain of the Cisterns." 3
1 See Ebers s Picturesque Egypt, I., 155.
2 This sketch, by Tyrwhitt Drake, faces page 340 of the second volume of
Palmer s Desert of the Exodus. Although it is called "The Wilderness of
Kadesh," I am satisfied, from my conversation with Professor Palmer, that
it is a point westward of Wady Qadees.
3 Jebel el-IIawwadeh ( R,-gjy*- ), The Mountain of the Cisterns, or
Eeservoirs.
DESERT DANGERS. 265
9. DESERT DANGERS.
When fairly down in Wady Qadees we were for the first time out of sight of
all familiar landmarks. We were in a new region ; we were away from the
accustomed track of the Teeyahah; we were in the stronghold of the
Azazimeh. With our smaller party, the silence and solitariness of the
desert seemed even greater than usual. Our Arabs recognized this. They grew
uneasy. Young Hamdh began to question whether after all he had done wisely,
in this departure from the plans of his father and the traditions of his
people.
Having dismounted from my camel and turned aside to examine some fragments
of old building stones which had caught my eye, I returned to the party
just in season to stay Hamdh and his fol lowers from turning squarely about
and hurrying back to the cara van, in much such a panic as that which
possessed the Israelites of old in this same wady, when they counted
themselves as grasshop pers in comparison with the Azazimeh giants of their
day, and their cry was : " Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this
land, to fall by the sword . . . Let us return." l There w r as need of all
my energy and positiveness in their most determined expres sion, to
reassure the timid Arabs, and to start them forward again on their journey.
Nor, under the circumstances, were these fears of our Bcd ween entirely
without reason. In venturing upon the territory of the Azazimeh without
their consent, we rendered ourselves liable to the confiscation of all our
possessions. This would not be robbery, as the Arabs view it ; but simply
tax-collecting. "By desert law, the act of passing through the desert
entails forfeiture of goods to whoever can seize them." 2 "The desert is
ours, and every man
1 Num. 13 : 29-33 ; 14 : 1^. 2 Bedouins of Euphrates, p. 391.
206 KADESH-BARNEA.
who passes over it must pay us tribute/ l is the Arab elaim. Nor is this a
law of the desert alone. "Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or
tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?" "Of strangers." 2
Theft among brethren (and all who are of one tribe, including those who are
its guests, are Arab brethren 3 ) is rarer in the Sinaitic desert than
among the best of civilized communities. "The strict honesty of the Bcdawin
among themselves," says Dr. Robinson, 4 " is proverbial ; however little
regard they may have to the rights of property in others. If an Arab s
camel dies on the road, and he cannot remove the load, he only draws a
circle in the sand round about, and leaves it. In this way it will remain
safe and untouched for months." One of the Arabs in our party over the
desert dropped his pouch of corn. Discovering its loss some time after, he
proposed to turn back and find it. As we had meantime passed Arabs going in
the other direction, I suggested that they might have picked up the corn
and taken it for their own use. At this I w r as told that I did not
understand Arab ways. " That would not be posssible among the Bcd wecn."
Burckhardt tells 5 of being pointed to a eliff not far from Wady Gharandel,
from which a Bed wy " of the Arabs of Tor precipitated his son, bound hands
and feet, because he had stolen corn out of a magazine belonging to a
friend of the family." And Burckhardt adds, of the Arabs of the great
northeastern desert of Arabia, that " the Aneze Be douins are not so severe
in such instances ; but they would punish a Bedouin who should pilfer
anything from his guest s baggage." " It is true," says Palmer, 6 " that,
in the case of a strange or hostile tribe,"or of an unauthorized intruder
upon their own par ticular territory, their ideas of the rights of property
do not accord with our own ; but amongst themselves, or towards those who
have
O /
1 Stephcns s Incidents of Travel, I., 203. 2 Matt, 17 : 25, 26. 3 See page
237 f., supra. * Bib. Res., I., 142.
5 Travels in Syria, p. 475 /. G DCS. of Exod., I., 79 /.
DESERT DANGERS. 267
entrusted themselves to their guardianship, their honesty and faith is
unimpeachable ; while, thanks to the terrible rigor of the Vendetta/ or
blood-feud, homicide is far rarer in the desert than in civilized lands."
But stealing from one s own people is one thing ; while levying tribute on
strangers, or making reprisals from enemies, is a very different thing, as
the Arab views it. Every Bed wy is an author ized tax-collector when he
meets a stranger within the limits of his tribe ; and again he feels called
to speak and act for his tribe when he meets an enemy of his tribe
anywhere. But this is not lawless ness. As Burton expresses it ! : " The
true Bedouin style of plun dering, with its numerous niceties of honor and
gentlemanly manners, gives the robber a consciousness of moral rectitude."
Or, as "Warburton says of these lawfully-lawless people : 2 " Though they
will risk their lives to steal [conscientiously], they will never
contravene the wild rule of the desert."
It was in this light, therefore, that our situation in Wady Qadees must be
looked at, if we would view it fairly. By our contract with Shaykh Musleh,
the whole Teeyahah tribe was pledged to our protection until we were safe
at Hebron; and here we were provoking a conflict with the Azazimeh, who
were at enmity with the Teeyahah. Our pledge to acquit our escort of all
blame in case of loss or harm to us, could not relieve the young shaykhs of
a sense of responsibility for our safety while we were in the care of their
tribe. For their own sakes, as well as for ours, they dreaded an encounter
with the jealous and quarrelsome Azazimeh, which might re-open a blood-feud
between the tribes, or, at the best, subject the Teeyahah to the charge of
a breach of the laws of hospitality in allowing travelers under their
guidance to be robbed or harmed.
Our dragoman understood the case on both sides. He appre-
1 A Pilgrimage, I. 334. 2 Crescent and Cross, I. 118.
26 8 KADESH-BAENEA.
ciated the fears of the Tceyuhah, and lie also recognized our willingness
to waive all elaim on them for the time being. His aim was, therefore, to
see that in case of a meeting with the Azazimeh. there should be nothing,
at the worst, beyond robbery or tax-coilecting. His counsel to us was, to
attempt no resistance in such a case. " If they ask for your coat, give it
them ; and so give them everything," he said. And this put a new meaning
into the words of the Oriental Book of books, concerning non-resist ance
while on a peaceful mission : " Him that taketh away thy eloak forbid not
to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee ; and of him
that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again." 1 To have resisted the
Azazimeh by force, had we met them that day, would have been not brave, but
brutal. It would have been the smugglers resistance of the excise officers,
rather than the travelers defense against waylaying robbers.
Moreover, apart from the tax-collecting from intruding stran gers, there is
more or less danger of a bloody encounter when Arabs of one tribe invade
the territory of another, especially when, as in the case of the Teeyahah
and the Azazimeh at this time, there is ill-feeling between the tribes. The
experiences of such men as Palmer, and Condcr, and Holland, show that the
idea of danger from hostile Arabs is not wholly an imaginary one. Palmer
tells of his laughing, on one occasion, over Sulaymau s "real or assumed
terrors" at the thought of venturing into an enemy s territory not very far
north of this; and afterwards find ing tliat "Suleiman s fears had not been
unfounded," when he went on under pressure, against his judgment and
protest. "Had we met any of the hostile party," says Palmer, in recording
the visit, "these notes would in all probability never have been written."
2 Conder, as he approached this region from the north, in the spring of
1877, said: 3 "News of a serious fight near Beer-
1 Luke 6 : 29, 30. J Des. of Exod., II., 392. 3 Tent Work in Pal., II.,
172.
TRACES OF OLD-TIME OCCUPANCY. 269
sheba, in which seven hundred Arabs were killed and wounded, [the number of
casualties was probably an Arab estimate] deter mined us to set our faces
northwards" for the time being. Hol land, as has been already mentioned, 1
felt that it was quite unsafe for him to venture into this region, in 1878,
in view of the hostili ties then in progress between the Arabs. And since
my own visit there, Mr. Edward L. Wilson, of Philadelphia, having with him
my old dragoman, and also the escort of a Terabeeu Shaykh, was quite unable
to enter the Azazimeh region near Becrsheba, being driven off with
violence. In fact my later judgment is, that the young shaykhs had a truer
estimate of the dangers of our under taking, than we whom they accompanied.
But, danger or no danger, we pushed ahead !
10. TRACES OF OLD-TIME OCCUPANCY.
Wady Qadees is an extensive, hill-encircled, irregular-surfaced plain,
several miles wide, and said by Owdy to be a short day s journey long from
west to east, or from north of west to south of east. It is certainly large
enough to have furnished a camping- ground for Kedor-la omer s army, or for
all the host of Israel. East of it is Jebel Qadees. At its southeast is
Jebel Mu arrb, or Muarib. Southerly and southwesterly is Jebel Hawwadeh.
Northerly is Has Fasuah, or Fasooah. Northwesterly is Jebel Mawweeqa, or
Miawaykah. Or, I should say, these are the names given me by our Arabs, as
I understood them by sound. I report them for what they may prove to be
worth to subsequent travelers as landmarks of the region. The same may be
said of several of the wadies we had crossed. Of the mountains, only Jebel
Qadees was already noted on any map; and that inaccurately.
Along the middle of Wady Qadees, is an extensive water bed,
1 See page 233 /, supra.
270 KADESH-BARNEA.
of unusual fertility for the desert. Rich fields of wheat and barley
covered a large portion of this. From its being still moist after the
winter rain-flow, it was evident that the seed of the now grow ing grain
had been sown while the water covered the ground : bread cast upon the
waters, to be found after many days. 1 There were artificial ridges to
retain and utilize the rain-fall, for irriga tion. AVe saw one large
grain-magazine dug into the ground, with a mound heaped above it, somewhat
after the fashion of the Egyptian granaries shown in the tomb
picture-galleries of the Pharaohs. 2 The lintel of the doorway of this
granary was a large tree trunk larger than we should look for in the desert
now-a- days.
Again we came to an uncovered pit or dry cistern, ten or tw r elve feet
across it, and some six feet or more deep, walled up inside with stone, or
stoned-tip, to the surface level, and above this banked around with earth.
At the bottom of this pit \verc remains of a fire. It was unlike either a
grain-magazine or an ordinary Arab cistern. Our Arabs said it was a
memorial of a war between tribes ; whatever they may have meant by that.
When I made these notes of this cistern and the granary, I did not know
that Jebel Haww T adeh meant the " Mountains of the Cisterns, or Reser
voirs;" nor did Professor Palmer know of their existence when he gave me
the meaning of that name.
Along the rolling foot-hills of the ranges northward, we found cairns and
circles of stone, which could hardly be other than re mains of dwellings of
a pre-historic age. Soon after entering the wady, we found a section of a
marble column-shaft of a later date, yet evidently ancient. It was three
feet long by nine and a-half inches in diameter, and had been finished with
fluted rings, similar to the columns found by Palmer at El- Aujeh, not far
north of this, " surrounded with rings which give them the appearance of
1 Eceles. II: 1. 2 See Wilkinson s Ancient Egyptians, I., 371.
HOPE DEFERRED. 271
having been turned." l Not far from it was a square-edged, ham mered
marble-block, which might have been the base of such a column-shaft.
As we moved eastward, we found many lines of low stone walls cropping above
the surface like retaining-walls of an embankment, or like low dams, such
as Robinson 2 and Palmer 3 have described as the boundaries of Mazayri dt,
or " little plantations " of the olden time. In many places, the hillside
had been terraced for cultivation ; and again there were scattered stones
in great num bers, which seemed to have been once used for building
purposes. In fact, there were signs on every hand of a large population
there in former times ; and of possibilities of provision for it.
11. HOPE DEFERRED.
About 12 o elock, an hour and a-half after descending the slope of Jebel
Hawwadeh, we came to a ridge, or series of rolling gravel hills, which
seemed to bound the fertile portion of the wady. There now stretched before
us a rough, stone-covered plain, more like the ordinary desert-waste, but
still called Wady Qadees.
The heat of the sun at mid-day was intense. Our Arabs had not provided
themselves with water for the journey, and with their wonted freedom and
improvidence they had drunk copiously from our dragoman s one leather
bottle (not a large water-skin, but a small " zcmzcmieh"), and as that had
sprung a leak on the way, it was now empty. All signs of water were being
left behind us.
l Dcs. ofExod., II., 369.
2 It was of a short distance northwest of Wady Qadees, that Robinson wrote
: "Across the whole tract the remains of long ranges of low stone walls
were visible which probably once served as the division of cultivated
fields. The Arabs call them el-Muzeiri ilt, little plantations. We
afterwards saw many such walls, which obvi ously were not constructed by
the present race of Arab inhabitants ; but must be referred back to an
earlier period." (Bib. lies., I., 190 /.) 3 See Da. of Exod., II., 347.
272 KADESH-BARNEA.
In our front, beyond the plain we were traversing, glared the dazzling
chalk hills, without any apparent opening for a possible water-course. As
we were all the time moving farther away from our caravan route, and deeper
into the enemy s territory, with the face of the country increasing in
dcsolatencss, matters assumed a very serious aspect.
Again and again, in answer to our questions, Owdy insisted that we were
"just coming to the wells;" but at length, in spite of myself, I began to
share the anxiety of the young shaykhs, and to question in my mind whether
after all Owdy knew the region as well as he professed to, and was really
guiding us faithfully.
At all events, if this were the Wilderness of Kadesh, into which the whole
congregation of Israel was re-gathered at the elose of its period of
wanderings, I could no longer wonder that " the people chode with Moses,"
saying, " Why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this
wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there ? ... It is no place of
seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates ; neither is there any
water to drink." 1 That was my idea of it, just then.
13. THE LOST SITE RE-FOUND. But we kept up, and kept on; and at 1.30, after
nearly three hours of moving in the wady, we suddenly turned sharply to the
right, at a scarcely noticed angle of the low limestone hill-range we had
been approaching; and almost immediately, the long- sought wells of Qadees
were before our eyes. It was a marvelous sight! Out from the barren and
desolate stretch of the burning desert-waste, we had come with magical
suddenness into an oasis of verdure and beauty, unlooked for and hardly
conceivable in such a region. A carpet of grass covered the ground. Fig
trees, laden with fruit nearly ripe enough for eating, were along the
shelter of the southern hillside. Shrubs and flowers showed themselves in
variety and profusion. Running water gurgled under the waving grass. We had
seen nothing like it since leaving Wady Fayran ; nor was it equalled in
loveliness of scene by any single bit of landscape, of like extent, even
there. Standing out from the earth-covered limestone hills at the
northeastern sweep of this picturesque recess, was to be seen the "large
single mass, or a small hill, of solid rock," 1 which Rowlands looked at as
the eliff (Sela) smitten by Moses, to cause it to "give forth his water," 2
when its flowing stream had been exhausted. From underneath this ragged
spur of the north-easterly mountain range, issued the now abundant stream.
A circular well, stoned-up from the bottom with time-worn limestone blocks,
was the first receptacle of the water. A marble watering trough was near
this well better finished than the troughs at Beersheba, but of like
primitive workmanship. The mouth of this well was only about three feet
across it, and the water came to within three or four feet of the top. A
little distance westerly from this well, and down the slope, was a second
well, stoned-up much like the first, but of greater diameter; and here
again was a marble watering trough. A basin or pool of water larger than
either of the wells, but not stoned-up like them, was seemingly the
principal watering place. It was a short distance southwesterly from the
second well, and it looked as if it and the two wells might be supplied
from the same subterranean source the springs under the Rock. Around the
margin of this pool, as also around the stoned wells, camel and goat dung
as if of flocks and herds for centuries was trodden down and coming led
with the limestone dust so as to form a solid plaster-bed. Another and yet
larger pool, lower down the slope, was supplied with water by a stream
which rippled and cascaded along its narrow bed from the upper pool ; and
yet beyond this, westward, the water gurgled away under the grass, as we
had met it when we came in, and finally lost itself in the parching wady
from which this oasis opened. The water itself was remarkably pure and
sweet; unequalled by any we had found after leaving the Nile. There was a
New England look to this oasis, especially in the flowers and grass and
weeds; quite unlike anything we had seen in the peninsula of Sinai. Bees
were humming there, and birds were flitting from tree to tree. Enormous ant
hills made of green grass-seed, instead of sand, were numerous. As we came
into the wady we had started up a rabbit, and had seen larks and quails. It
was, in fact, hard to realize that we were in the desert, or even near it.
The delicious repose of the spot, after our journey over the arid
gravel-waste under the blazing mid-day sun, was most refreshing. The water
itself was hardly less of a blessing to us, than to the Israelites when it
flowed and murmured anew for them after their murmurings. We seated
ourselves in the delightful shade of one of the hills not far from the
wells, and enjoyed our lunch, with the music of brook and bees and birds
sounding pleasantly in our ears. Our Arabs seemed to feel the soothing
influences of the place; and to have lost all fear of the Azazimeh, even
when the danger from them was probably greatest. After a brief rest on the
grass, they all stripped, and plunged into the lower and larger pool for a
bath. One thing was sure: all that Rowlands had said of this oasis was
abundantly justified by the facts. His enthusiasm and his active
imagination had not colored in the slightest his picture of the scene now
before us. The sneers which other travelers had indulged in, over the
creation of his heated fancies, were the result of their own lack of
knowledge and charity. And as to the name of the oasis, about which
Robinson and others were so in credulous, it is Qadees, as it was written
for me in Arabic by my intelligent Arab dragoman, a similar name to that of
Jerusalem, El-Quds, the Holy; the equivalent of the Hebrew Kadesh. [In
writing up this description from my hurried notes made on the spot, I find
room for question at one or two points, as to the distance and bearings of
the several wells and pools one from another, but I give the facts at these
points, as accurately as I can recall them.]
1 Num. 20 : 1-5.
THE LOST SITE RE-FOUND. 273
1 Williams s Holy City, p. 490 /. Num. 20 : 8.
274 KADESH-BARNEA.
A BLOODLESS ENCOUNTER 275
dulled in, over the creation of his heated fancies, were the result
& /
of their own lack of knowledge and charity. And as to the name of the
oasis, about which Ilobinson and others were so in credulous, it is Qadees
(jt* JL), as it was written for me in Arabic by my intelligent Arab
dragoman, a similar name to that of Jeru salem, El-Quds, the Holy ; the
equivalent of the Hebrew Kadesh.
13. A BLOODLESS ENCOUNTER.
After a rest of a little more than an hour in this tempting fairy land
retreat, we half-reluctantly made preparations for a new start in our
explorings. As our dragoman attempted to mount his dromedary, the restive
animal sprang up and shot off by himself, as if the Azazimeh were after
him, scattering the crockery of the lunch-basket right and left as he went.
It was with some diffi culty that the dromedary was re-captured ; and then
the good- natured dragoman consoled himself for his broken dishes, by the
thought of the wonder they would occasion the Azazimeh who were next at the
wells. They may have already constructed a new theory of evolution, on the
strength of them.
It was about 3 o elock that we moved out into the open wady westward, on
our way to find Ayn el-Qadayrat the well which so many have supposed
Rowlands mistook for Ayn Qadees. After moving westward about twenty
minutes, we diverged to the right from our incoming route, and bore to the
north of west. Going on in that direction nearly forty minutes, we turned
sharply to the north, and began the ascent of a mountain which confronted
us.
This was about 4 o elock in the afternoon. Hardly had we begun this ascent,
before the quick eye of Owdy caught the far-off sight of a caravan coming
over the lofty pass toward which we were making. " Jemel ! " (camel !) "
Azazimeh ! " were words quickly passed from mouth to mouth of our Arabs ;
and all the
276 KADESH-BARNEA.
old fears of Hamdh and his followers were back again in full force. Looking
up the mountain side, I could see no sign of life there. I thought there
must be a mistake. But no, Owdy s eyes had not deceived him. It was soon
evident to us all, that a camel- train more extensive than ours was
approaching us ; although the camels as yet seemed no larger than dogs, and
my first impression was that they could only be goats.
Our Arabs wore anxious faces. They asked us to keep elose together, as we
moved forward to the encounter. Cheering words were in order, to keep their
spirits up ; and these we gave freely ; for we could not share all the
fears of our escort. Gradually the two trains neared each other. In the
train approaching us, were fifteen camels, including two young ones ; also
quite a number of goats. There were eight Azazimch men ; just our number ;
and about the same number of women and children. But some of the men were
old, and the party as a whole was more encumbered than ours ; and it had
more to lose. Its men were evidently not inclined to provoke a fight. It
even looked very much as if they were more afraid of our Arabs, than our
Arabs were of them if, indeed, that w r ere possible. No blood was shed ;
not a blow was struck ; there was no robbery. The Azazimeh and the Teeyaheh
held their breaths, as they passed each other on the mountain side, and it
was evident that both parties were greatly relieved when they were fairly
out of one another s sight.
The lofty mountain-pass before us was said to be Naqb Hawy, apparently the
same name as that of the well-known pass west of the plain of Er-Rahah
before Mount Sinai : Pass of the Winds, or Sky Pass. The fact that this is
the direct route northward out of "Wady Qadees effectually puts at rest the
objection, so vehemently and often urged against the identification of this
site with Kadesh- barnea, that there is no mountain ascent from it toward
Hebron. Robinson said emphatically on this point, as against Rowlands s
identification: "There is no mountain near by, by which the spies
A PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE. 277
could ascend into Palestine; nor by which the people could go up to Arad,
where they were discomfited." l And, as has been already shown, 2 a host of
later writers, as unfamiliar as Robinson with the real facts in the case,
have followed in reiteration of this error. In truth, there could not be a
eloser correspondence than here with the inspired record, as to the way out
of Kadesh northward. " Get you up this way Southward [or, Xegebward]," said
Moses to the spies, at Kadesh, "and go up into the mountain." 3 "So they
went up," as we were now going up, along that mountain pass. " They
ascended by the South [by way of the Negeb], and came unto Hebron." * And
so again, the rebellious people, smarting under their sentence of forty
years wandering, as they lay in their camp at Kadesh-barnea, " presumed to
go up unto the hill top " without the Divine guidance; "and they rose up
early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying,
Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place [the land] which the Lord
hath promised." 5 And it must have been up just such a mountain way as
this, that they went from the wady below the Wady Qadees.
14. A PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE.
We were nearly an hour elambering this mountain. Passing the naqb, we came
to a slowly descending slope, called by Owdy, Wady Umm A sheen. On the
rocks, along the sides of the road way here, were numerous inscriptions in
a character similar to those in Wady el-Mukatteb, or " Wady of the
Writings," in the neighborhood of Mount Serbal. Inscriptions in this
character are always noteworthy, in view of the fact that whatever may be
thought as to their date they are quite generally supposed to indi cate, by
their presence, a place of ancient pilgrimages. They were
Bib. Res., II., 194, note. See pages 221-229, supra.
3 Num. 13: 17. * Num. 13: 22. Num. 14: 40,44.
278 KADESH-BARNEA.
certainly spoken of as ancient, as early as A. D. 535 j 1 and it is even
thought that they were referred to by Diodorus Siculus, just before the
Christian era. 2 Their date has been estimated variously, all the way from
the period of the Hebrew exodus to the fourth Christian century. 3 It is a
question whether their writers were chiefly Christians, Jews, or Pagans;
although it would seem that all three elasses were represented among them.
What sacred place may have been here on this mountain top? Is it, possibly,
the grave of Miriam? She died at Kadesh, "and was buried there." 4 And
Josephus affirms, as showing the accepted tradition in his day : " They
bury her publicly at great expense on a certain mountain which they call
Sin " or Shin.
Indications of a former population abounded, in stone walls and primitive
building ruins ; and it was evident from the camel tracks, that this
old-time route, the " Way of the Spies," 6 was still much traveled.
15. LOST IN THE DESERT.
At 5.15 we descended into Wady Ayn el-Qadayrat. This wady was more like
Wady Fayran than any we had seen, of like extent, since leaving the lower
peninsula. Shrubs and trees were in comparative luxuriance. One tarfa tree
had a trunk four feet in circumference. Doves, quail, and snipe, w 7 ere
numerous. From the main wady, which lay east and west, several wady spurs
ran
1 By Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, a traveled monk of the sixth century,
who, at Alexandria, wrote "A Christian Topography Embracing the Whole
World."
2 See Tuch s Ein und zivanzig Sinaitischc Inschriften, pp. 31, 46.
:! See Eobinson s Bib. Res., I., 128 /., and Note XIX., p. 593 /.; and
Bartlett s Eijypt to Pal., pp. 226-232 for the views of various scholars on
this point; also see Tuch, as above; Beer s Inscriptiones Veteres; Sharpe s
Sinaitic Inscriptions, and Forster s Israel in the Wilderness, and other
works (the works of the last two authors are chiefly valuable as
curiosities).
4 Xum. 20:1. 5 Antiquities, Book IV., chap. 4, 6. 6 Num. 21 : 1.
LOST IN THE DESERT. 279
up among the hills northerly and northeasterly. Into one of these Owdy led
the way, in confidence that the wells were there.
It certainly seemed as if wells were to be looked for in that wady spur;
for vegetation was rich and abundant there; but it was followed to its head
in vain. Owdy was evidently greatly disappointed ; and finding his memory
at fault, he was at once confused and disturbed. He alone had ever been in
this region ; and that, many years before. The young shaykhs, like the rest
of us, had depended wholly on him as a guide. When he confessed that he had
lost his way, a new panic seized the party. It is a mistake to suppose that
the Bed ween are always cool-headed and confident as desert travelers. An
experienced observer of them has said : " Their faculty of finding their
way across the deserts has been much exaggerated. Bedawin, of course, know
their own district well, and that district is often a large one ; but once
take them out of it, and they are very nearly helpless." l We found it so
with Owdy and the young shaykhs in Wady el- Ayn.
And, at the best, our situation just then was by no means assur ing, even
to one of a cool head, and of strong nerves. Night was coming on rapidly.
We were in an enemy s country, not knowing the way out of it. We were
practically without food or water. Our escort and guide were
terror-stricken. Our dragoman was in despair. There was need of courage,
and of effort to impart courage, on our part. Then was when old army
experiences were of value. And just then there was actually a certain
comfort in the lesson of the forty days fast of Dr. Tanner (the great Ameri
can faster), which had concluded safely shortly before my leaving home. He
had shown that a strong-willed man need not die of starvation because of a
few weeks abstinence. We took heart in the memory of his continuance. We
spoke words of cheer to the Arabs determinedly. My counsel was, that if
Owdy no longer
1 Bedouins of Euphrates, p. 389.
280 KADESH-BARNEA.
knew the way, we should stop where we were for the night, in stead of
groping blindly in the darkness ; and then in the morning we should have
the full day to find our way to the open country, with its familiar
landmarks. Or, if Owdy would look farther for some remembered feature of
the region, in the still remaining light, we would follow him hopefully
until the night had fairly shut in. He decided on the latter course, and we
pushed west ward. Half an hour brought us to another spur of the wady,
running northerly, and then curving northeasterly ; and instantly an
exclamation of delight from Owdy assured us that once more he knew where we
were ; so that we were no longer lost.
16. AN ANCIENT VILLAGE.
Near the entrance of this wady spur, as we turned into it, \ve saw on a low
hill-top at our right, the remains of a massive stone structure, quite
unlike any other ruins we had seen in our journey ing. The rude cairns and
stone circles, which we had found all the way along during the day, were
numerous on the hillsides of Wady Ayn el-Qadayrat, but this was very
different from those. It was of huge blocks of cut or elosely-hammered
stone, laid in even courses, and laid double ; one wall immediately inside
of another. It was quadrangular, about seventy feet by seventy-five,
enclosing an open court ; and its double walls rose some six feet above the
ground. It was clearly an ancient ruin, although by no means so primitive
as the circles and cairns.
Either at this point, or at the wady spur we had first explored, or again
at both and along between the two, there were existing ruins enough to mark
the " Hazar," or "Hezron ;" or the " Place of Enclosure," or the "
Stone-encircled Place/ which, according to the Bible record, lay between
Kadesh-barnea and Adar ; or be tween Qadees and Qadayrat, In Numbers 34 :
4, " Hazar " is linked with " Adar "; in Joshua 15: 3, it is given
separately as
AN ANCIENT VILLAGE. 281
" Hezron." The Septuagint renders it, in the first instance, 1 the " fold,"
or the " enclosure " ; the Vulgate renders it " a villa [or, a village]
called Adar." 2
Palmer has thrown added light on this word as used in the Old Testament
story, by aid of the experience of his friend Tyrwhitt- Drake in Morocco,
among the African Arabs who originally emi grated from Arabia, and have
retained many of their ancestral customs. When these Arabs are in a region
where they are liable to attacks from enemies, they pitch their tents in a
circle, with their cattle and goods in the centre : " The whole is then
fenced in with a low wall of stones, in which are inserted thick bundles of
thorny acacia, the tangled branches and long needle-like spikes forming a
perfectly impenetrable hedge around the encampment. These are called
Dowdrs, and there can be but little doubt that they are the same with the
Hazeroth, or ( Field Enclosures/ used by the pastoral tribes mentioned in
the Bible." 3
Again, Mills 4 describes the remains of ancient " circular enclo sures of
loose stones " on Mount Ebal, " some standing, in a toler able state of
preservation, while others are partly demolished, with the stones scattered
all around." " One of these enclosures," he says, " measured 210 feet in
diameter, and some others are of simi lar dimensions." In his opinion,
these structures " belonged to the aborigines, or perhaps to the
Israelitish conquerors of the time of Joshua." And he thinks that " the
Hebrew word "^n (Mafeer), 5 generally rendered court or village, means in
its topographical sense a village exactly corresponding to what these might
have been namely, a stone wall having tent-cloth drawn over it." 6
1 At Num. 34: 4: f tiravktv ApatJ; eis epaulin Arced. 2 " Villam nomine
Adar."
*Des. ofExod., II., 321 /. *Nablus and Mod. Samar., p. 10 /.
5 Robinson s Gesenius (s. v. *^n) says, that this word is applied to the
"movable villages or encampments of nomadic tribes, who usually pitch their
tents in a circle, or so as to form an enclosure." See also Fiirst s Jleb.
u. Chald. Wortcrb., at the same word. g ce a ] SOj p . 314 /.
282 KADESH-BARNEA.
Naturally those nomads whose range lay along the lower border of Canaan
would find the need of such protection to their encamp ments ; and we are
distinctly told of the people who occupied the region of the modern
AzAzimeh, that they " dwelt in Haze- rim," l all the way along to Gaza. The
remains of those Hazerim, in exceptional prominence, are to be seen to-day
in Wady Ayn el- Qadayrat, and elsewhere along that line. Their place would
form a notable landmark ; inasmuch as the same state of things which
rendered them a necessity there at one time, would make their con tinuance
there a necessity.
17. AYN EL-QADAYRAT DISCOVERED.
The signs of fertility in this spur were far greater than in the main wady.
Grass and shrubs and trees were in luxuriance, and the luxuriance increased
at every step as we pushed on. One tree, called by our Arabs a " seyal "
(or acacia), but not showing thorns like the acacias of the lower desert,
exceeded in size any tree of the sort we had ever seen. Its trunk was
double ; one stock being some six feet in girth ; the other, four feet and
a-half. The entire sweep of the branches was a circumference of nearly two
hundred and fifty feet, according to our pacing of it. "With such trees as
that in the desert, it were easy enough to get the seyal, or shittim. wood,
of suitable size for the boards and bars of the tabernacle. 2 Still the
luxuriance of vegetation increased. Then, as we pro ceeded, came the sound
of flowing, and of foiling, water. A water channel of fifteen to twenty
yards in width, its stream bordered with reeds or flags, showed itself at
our feet between the hills. We moved eastward along its southern border.
Above the gurgling sound of the running stream, there grew more distinct
the rush of a torrent-fall. As we pressed toward its source, the banks of
the
1 Deut. 2 : 23. J Exod. 26 : 15-29.
A YN- EL - QADA YR&T DISCO VERED. 283
stream narrowed and rose, and we elambered them, and found our way through
dense shrubbery until we reached the bank of the fountain-basin. There we
looked down into a pool some twelve to fourteen feet below us; into which a
copious stream rushed from out the hillside at the east, with a fall of
seven or eight feet. The hillside from which this stream poured was
verdure-covered, and the stream seemed to start out from it, at five or six
feet below our level. The dense vegetation prevented our seeing whether the
stream sprang directly out of an opening in the hillside, or came down
along a concealed channel from springs yet farther eastward ; but the
appearance was of the former. Waving flags, four or five feet high,
bordered this pool, as they bordered the channel below it.
Our dragoman enthusiastically compared the fountain to that of Banias, 1
away northward, at the source of the Jordan. It was cer tainly a wonderful
fountain for the desert s border. Its name Ayn el-Qadayrat ( \ ** ) the "
Fountain of Omnipotence," or " Fountain of God s Power," was not
inappropriate, in view of its impressiveness, bursting forth there so
unexpectedly, as at the word of Him who " turneth the wilderness into a
standing water, and dry ground into watersprings." 2 ]S"o wonder that this
fountain was a landmark in the boundary line of the possession, which had
been promised of God to his people, as " a land of brooks of water, of
fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills." 3 Viewed merely
as a desert-fountain, Ayn el-Qadayrat was even more remarkable than Ayn
Qadees ; although the hill-encircled wady watered by the latter, was far
more extensive than Wady Ayn el-Qadayrat ; and was suited to be a place of
protected and permanent encampment, as the latter could not be. Perhaps it
ought to be mentioned, that the " date-palms " which Scetzen
1 "I can hear the rush of the fountains of Banias." (Bayard Taylor, in The
Lands of the Saracen, p. 114.)
1 Psa. 107 : 35. 3 Deut. 8 : 7.
284 KADESH-BARNEA.
spoke of as watered by this fountain, were not seen by us. Yet they may
have been elsewhere ; or indeed, they may have existed in his day, although
not now remaining.
There was a peculiar satisfaction in looking at this remarkable fountain,
when at last we had reached it. No visit to it had been recorded by any
traveler in modern times. Seetzcu l and Robinson, 2 and Rowlands, 3 and
Bonar/ and Palmer, 5 and others, had been told of it, and had reported it
accordingly ; but no one of them elaimed to have seen it. In view of all
that these travelers had said, and after his own careful search for it, up
and down the wady, Bartlett, (as has already been mentioned) had come to
the conclusion that no such fountain existed ; c that, in fact, Wady el-
Ayn, the Wady of the Well, was a wady without a well. To put our eyes on
it, therefore, the very day of our seeing Ayn Qadees, was enough to drive
out of mind all thought of our dangers and worry on the way to it. We
congratulated one another all around; and Muhammad Ahmad was promised anew
that he should go into that book" 8 Silk Bazar," and all.
18. A RIDE IN THE DARKNESS.
Before we had fully satisfied our curiosity in examining the fountain and
its surroundings, the moonless night was suddenly upon us; there being
almost no twilight in the desert. Our drom edaries had been left at the
entrance of this wady spur; and we turned to grope our way back to them.
Among the tall flags, and the dense and thorny shrubbery, it was not an
easy matter to pick our way over the rough wady-bottom. The darkness was,
of course, much greater, with the bed of green below us, than in the
desert, where the chalky surface made a starry night comparatively light
about us. All of us stumbled more or less; and the dragoman
1 Rcise, III., 47. 2 Bib. Res., I.,1S9. 3 Williams s Holy City, p. 491.
4 DCS. of Sinai, p. 293. 5 DCS. of JExod., II., 350. 6 Egypt to Pal., p.
362 ff.
A HIDE IN THE DARKNESS. 285
had a fall among the rocks which well-nigh disabled him. It looked for a
while as if we must watch with him there for the night. The Arabs were
again nervous and fearful. The loud hooting of an owl was mistaken by one
of our party for the call of a human voice; and its strange cry added to
the weirdness of the time and place.
It was with something of a feeling of relief that we once more had the
companionship of our dromedaries, and were weaving back and forth on their
humps, at the accustomed measure, as we moved out we knew not whither. Yet
in that blind start, in the darkness, out of AVady Ayn el-Qadayrat, we
realized as never before what a comfort to the Israelites on the desert
must have been the guiding pillar of God s presence, when "the Lord went
before them by day in a pillar of a eloud, to lead them the way; and by
night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night." l
The next few hours were wearisome and anxious ones to us all. It was about
7 o elock when we turned away from Ayn el-Qadayrat. Our day had, already,
been fourteen hours long nearly twelve from our leaving camp ; and the
nervous strain on us had been severe from the start. The night was chilly,
as well as dark. Our movements must be slow and uncertain at the best. Owdy
was sure of the general direction toward the caravan route up which our
camel train had moved; but not knowing just where the train had halted for
the night, it was by no means an easy task to push across the intervening
hills and wadies in the darkness, with any assurance of directness. There
were rough places to be passed ; and our course must be zig-zagged
repeatedly, in order to cross some of the separating ravines, inasmuch as
we were not moving in the line of any well-traveled route, but were passing
from one to another. In several instances we lost the track, for a
!Exod. 13: 21.
286 KADESH-BARNEA.
season, and then the way was perilous. Travelers, Arabs, and dromedaries
alike, were all anxious to get back to the rude trail again. Stumbling
along the narrow and ill-defined path of some rugged hillside, in the
darkness of that bewildering night, with the constant liability to swerve
from it, into unperceived or dimly seen dangers at right or left, we found
a new meaning in the prayer of the Oriental Psalmist : " Hold up my goings
in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." l
19. INTO CAMP AGAIN.
How we peered out into the darkness for some sign of the longed-for camp !
Once we caught a gleam of the white tents just ahead, as all of us were
sure when their keen-eyed discoverer had pointed them out to us. What a joy
that was to us, as we hurried toward them ! But they settled back into a
chalk eliff, when we were fairly abreast of them ; and their disappearance
left the night darker and the way rougher than ever, until a new hope was
sprung ahead of us by a light that flashed up suddenly on the far horizon.
It was but for an instant, and all trace of it was gone. Then there was
another flash in the same direction. And as, with all our eyes, we scanned
the horizon thitherward, we saw a small but steady light where the flashes
had fixed our gaze. The camp was just ahead. Our faithful waiter, Muhammad,
had hung out a lantern in the direction whence he looked for us, and had
flashed powder occasionally in the hope of its catching our eyes. He was
quite as much relieved by our shout of response to his signals, as we by
the sight of his beacon light ; for he had been even more anxious for us
than we for ourselves: his imaginings of danger for us being greater and
more constant than the reality of our experiences in that line.
1 Psa. 17 : 5.
A SECOND DAY S PLAN. 287
A desert camp had never seemed so pleasant to us, as when we were fairly in
ours in Wady es-Serarn, at 10 o elock that night, after our long and
exciting day s absence from it. There were re joicings and congratulatings
on every side, in true Oriental style. We certainly had a great deal
heartier welcome on our return from spying out Kadesh, than was given to
the spies of old, when they returned from Canaan to their camp in Kadesh.
And not even quails and manna were so satisfying to the Israelites, when
they journeyed toward the region we had just visited, as our desert dinner
proved to us, when we had come thus far by the Way of the Spies, unmolested
by A vim, or Amorites, or Azazimeh.
20. A SECOND DAY S PLAN.
Two of the three wells which had been so long in dispute, I had now
visited. The third one Qasaymeh had been seen by many; and it was fully
described in several books of travel. It might seem unnecessary for me to
delay longer for the purpose of seeing that. Yet, as the question of two
wells or three had long been an open one, it was desirable to set that
point finally at rest by per sonally visiting the three. Hence it was, that
I planned for a trip to the third well on the following morning Thursday,
March 31.
Wady Qasaymeh was behind us ; our baggage train having passed its entrance
on the way to Wady es-Seram, while we were hunting Ayn Qadees. It was
therefore arranged that once more that train should move slowly forward,
while we of the yesterday s party turned back to Qasaymeh. After an early
breakfast, we started southward, taking a route a little to the eastward of
that which our train had taken on the way northward. In Wady Sabh/ or
Sabhah, 2 we observed on the hillsides, not only those " relics of a
primeval people cairns and dwellings such as we
1 See Palmer s Map. * Stewart s Tent and Kfian, p. 197.
288 KADESH-BARNEA.
have noticed elsewhere " l as common in this region, but also more or less
of the " innumerable well-made heaps of stones, placed with extreme
regularity along the edges of the eliffs, and always facing the east/ which
Palmer 2 inclines to identify as " in some way or other connected with the
worship of Baal " by the idolaters of the land, before Israel destroyed the
cities of the South 3 iu all this region.
21. THE THIRD WELL VISITED.
Less than two hours brought us to Wady Qasaymeh ( aUx^uJJ ) and its
familiar wells. Robinson 4 describes these wells as " several pits of
bluish, brackish water, dug a few feet deep in a bed of blue elay,
surrounded by an abundance of coarse bulrushes and rank vegetation." Palmer
5 says: "They are not deep wells, nor springs proper, but a few thcmu.il,
or shallow pits;" and their position "is marked by a melancholy looking bed
of rushes." Bartlett, 8 thinking that these wells were in "Wady Qadees, is
fuller and more enthusiastic in their description ; yet all that he says is
borne out by the facts as I observed them, although his estimate of their
relative importance is exaggerated, through his failure to know of the more
remarkable wells near them. He found in this wady " the most abundant water
supply " he saw " between Nukhl and Beersheba." When he was here, he noted,
first, " three excavations in the sandy soil, each about seven feet in
diameter, containing water to the depth of two feet. Around these were
smaller holes, some two feet in diameter, also containing water." Passing
eastward " for several rods through a marsh filled with reeds and rushes,"
he crossed a number of "narrow channels of standing water. To the right, at
this point, a spur of rock projected north-
1 Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 355.
2 Des. ofExod., II., 35(1. 3 Josh. 10: ,36-40. 4 Bib. Res., I., 190.
5 Des. of Exod., II., 357. 6 Egypt to Palestine, pp. 359-302.
ANOTHER LANDMARK RECOGNIZED. 289
westerly from the southern embankment of the wady, and the water came out
of this spur in moderate quantities and flowed down a series of stairlike
ledges into the wady." Beyond the marshy ground he " came to a rather
higher level of sandy soil," and " found somewhat widely scattered, nine of
the larger and two of the smaller excavations now opened. In most of them
the water had been rendered dirty by camels, but wherever it stood in a
elean place it was clear and good." " Over a large space of the higher
sandy soil, it was evidently only a question of convenience where to scoop
a hole and find water."
All this we found substantially as described. We could also see that the
place was in a sense " notable " and " important ; " for any source of much
water is notable and important in " a dry and thirsty land, where " as a
rule " no water is." l Yet these wells bore no comparison with those we had
seen the day before. It was, however, their accurate description in
Bartlett s narrative, that had served me so good a turn, in causing my Arab
guides to believe that I knew their country better than they did ; albeit I
then supposed these wells to be in Wady Qadees.
22. ANOTHER LANDMARK RECOGNIZED.
That this " Qasaymeh " was the " Azmon" 2 of the ancient southern boundary
line of the Land of Promise, finds strong con firmation in the fact that
the Jewish Targums give " Qesam " 3 and "Qaisam" 4 for Azmon. And the
"Karkaa," 5 or "the bottom
1 Psa. 63 : 1. 2 Num. 34 : 4, 5 ; Josh. 15 : 4.
* Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan at Num. 34 : 4 (OOP, qesam).
4 Targum of Jerusalem at Xum. 34 : 4 (DD P , qaisam).
5 Josh. 15 : 3 CTP^Pj], haqqarqa a ; "the bottom-land").
" The word means a low-lying flat, and perhaps may belong to some district
in the border-land between Adar and Azmon, rather than to any town."
(Speaker s Com., in loco).
Robinson s Gesenius gives the meaning of this word as a " floor," or " the
bottom 19
290 KADESH-BARNEA.
land," which is referred to as between " Adar " (or " Qadayrat ") and "
Azmon" (or Qasaymeh), 1 would seern to be found in the bed of this
extensive water basin, which Bartlett 2 describes as " continuing a mile
beyond where the water is found," in the direc tion of where we found Ayn
el-Qadayrat ; forming " a kind of oblong basin enclosed on all sides by
continuous ranges of hills, and terminating at the east abruptly against a
still higher mountain range, which runs north and south." He adds, that "
at the eastern end of the wady, however, its northern hill-boundary breaks
down, and the valley connects here (as indicated in Mr. Palmer s map) with
the eastern terminus of Wady el Am."
This connection of Wady Qasaymeh, at its eastern, or north eastern end,
with Wady Ayn el-Qadayrat, I was told of by my Arabs. It conforms most
accurately with the description of the southern boundary-line of Judah, 3
which from Kadesh-barnea, or Qadees, passed along to " Hczron," or the
Place of Enclosures, and went up to " Adar," or Qadayrat ; and fetched a
compass from Qadayrat, through this break in the mountain-wall, to the "
Karkaa," or the Bottom Land beyond ; and passed toward " Azmon," or
Qasaymeh ; and went out toward " the river of Egypt," or Wady el- Areesh,
whence its goings out were at the Mediterranean Sea.
of the sea," and would find its root in qoor ("Up), to dig for water."
Fiirst ( Wor- terbuch) would connect it with raq a C^P^), "to spread out."
See, also, Wilton s The Negcb, pp. 162-164.
All these conditions are met in the earthen floor which is spread out
beyond Qasaymeh toward Qadayrat, as a water basin, in which one can dig for
water at almost any point.
1 To a person entirely unacquainted with the Oriental tongues, this
recognizing of "Adar" and "Azmon" in "Qadayrat" and "Qasaymeh" may appear
forced or strange. But it suffices to say, that these words are variously
written, as if beginning with a " Q," a " K," a " G," or an aspirated A ("
A") ; all these letters representing variations of a common guttural sound
of the original. And the terminal " at," or " eh," is an inessential
addition, according to the customs of the language. 2 Egypt to Palestine,
p. 360. 3 Josh. 15 : 3, 4.
ANOTHER LANDMARK RECOGNIZED. 291
It is a noteworthy fact, moreover, that Palmer 1 was pointed by the Arabs,
in this wady, to ruins which they said marked " the limits of the territory
of the old Christians/ " as the Bed ween call the ancient inhabitants of
their country. The very name of this wady in its root derivation, both in
Hebrew 2 and in Arabic 3 indicates " division " and " apportionment " ; and
although this does not, as some have elaimed/ necessarily suggest the idea
of " boundary/ it certainly consists with the idea of a place of boun
dary-division growing out of the apportionment of territory on one side to
one people and on the other side to another people. When I asked of my
dragoman the meaning of " Qasaymeh," his answer was : " When a man give out
all his property to his sons, he give one share alike to all. Qasaymeh mean
that" This wady is obviously a natural division-line in any apportionment
of the lands on either side of it.
I have quoted freely from Bartlett s description of Wady Qasaymeh for two
reasons. In the first place, I contented myself with verifying that
description on the spot, rather than in making extended fresh notes, as at
the other wells which had not been so fully described. And, again, there is
added force in the accuracy of these details, as conforming to the Bible
text, when it is remem bered that in their writing Bartlett supposed he was
describing Wady Qadees, and not Wady Qasaymeh. All the facts given me by my
Arabs were obtained without any leading questions on my part. Not having
come to Qasaymeh directly from Qadayrat, I could not be sure of the compass
direction of the one from the other. At the time, I thought that Qadayrat
lay farther north than Qasaymeh ; and I reported accordingly in the first
mention of my journeyings; 5 but a subsequent study of maps and
itineraries,
1 See Des. of Exod., II., 356 /. 2 DDJ5, qasam ; "divided."
3 Qasama; " duly apportioned." See Freytag s Lex. Arab. Lot., s. v.
4 See Surv. of West. Pal., " Name Lists," p. 9. 6 In Quarterly Statement of
Pal. Explor. Fund, for July, 1881.
292 KADESH-BARNEA.
together with a recall of my own course, led to the conviction that Ayn
el-Qadayrut lay easterly, or perhaps a little south of east, from Ayn
Qasaymeh ; as would be inferred from the Bible narrative. Owdy was positive
that there was no opening from either Wady Qasaymeh or "Wady Ayn
el-Qadayrat into Wady Qadees.
While we were at Qasaymeh, a party of Bed ween women came to the wells,
leading donkeys on the backs of which were slung large water skins to be
filled at the wells. There were also baby Arabs and baby donkeys; both
comical enough in their way. The donkeys were permitted to go directly into
the pools and trouble the water with their feet, before the water skins
were filled. Whether this was supposed to give a medical value to the water
did not appear ; but it certainly increased its specific gravity, and
commingled with it whatever helps to healing the soil of the region might
supply. The women followed the donkeys into the pools, and filled the water
skins at their feet. And this is the Oriental order of watering beasts and
men at watering pools. These Arab women were, I believe, of the Terabeen
tribe. Several tribes water here, as if Ayn Qasaymeh were the common
apportionment of the Arabs on every side.
23. AN ARAB S SHORT CUT.
Having satisfied our curiosity concerning Qasaymeh, we re mounted our
camels, and turned our faces northward. The shrewd Owdy professed to know
"a short cut" across the country on our way to overtake our caravan, and
naturally we trusted to his guidance. It seemed to us that we veered too
far westward, but he was positive that we should save distance by his
route, so we followed it. Still bearing to the west of north, we came to an
open plain with its waving grain fields. This, Owdy called Wady Rahhabeh,
or Rayhobch. I find no such wady on the maps; but I give the name as it was
given to me, for whatever it may prove
OWDY S USE OF SALT. 293
to be worth. It is a long way below the well-known Wady Ru- haybch,
commonly supposed to be the Rehoboth of Isaac, 1 which we passed the next
afternoon.
In one of the side hills above this wady, eastward, we saw a large cave, of
the sort often described in this region, 2 as possibly an old quarry, or
again as an ancient dwelling. And now we learned the secret of Owdy s
"short cut." He had a field of bar ley planted in this wady, and wanting to
take a look at it, he had brought us out of our way to enable him to do so.
The opportu nity to do this he deemed too good to be lost; and even if he
might have resisted the temptation, he did not. The barley looked well; and
Owdy was satisfied, whoever else was disposed to com plain. 3
Turning now to the east of north, we hurried on. Again we crossed Wady
Sabh; this time at its western end. There we saw a number of flourishing
fig trees. Soon after noon we were near our last night s camping ground in
Wady Seram ; and we halted for a lunch. All the afternoon, as we pushed
northward, we were surrounded by signs of present fertility of soil, and of
former extensive cultivation ; as many travelers have before reported. 4
24. OWDY S USE OF SALT.
Although I had surprised Owdy into truth-telling in our confer ence over
the wells, two evenings before, he was by no means dis-
1 Gen. 26 : 19-22.
2 Bonar s Des. of Sinai, p. 300; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 357; Bartlett
s Egypt to Pal., p. 357.
3 Sir Frederick Henniker (Notes during a Visit to Egypt, etc., p. 244)
tells of a similar deceit practiced on him by his guide, who desired to
visit a friend on the road from Mount Sinai.
4 See, Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 191 /. ; Bonar s Des. of Sinai, pp.
300-303 ; Stewart s Tent and Khan, p. 197 ; Palmer s Des. of Exod., II.,
359-361 ; Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., pp. 304-366.
294 KADESH-BARNEA.
posed to become "a slave of the truth." "Lying is the salt of a man/ l as
an Arab views it ; and Owdy did not propose to live without salt more than
one day at a time. His " short cut " to reach his own barley field was not
his only falsehood of this day.
When we came to "VVady Hanayn, known to the Arabs as " a valley of gardens/
Owdy insisted that its name was " Wady Hafeer." This was in accordance with
the Arab superstition that " should a sell [a sudden rain-flood] once come
down Wadi Ha- nein, there would be an end to all prosperity in the land."
As a guard against this danger, the " Christians/ who are supposed to have
a " mysterious influence over the rainfall/ are not permitted to hear the
name " Hancin/ or " Hanayn/ with its evil omen, lest they should be
prompted to hasten the dreaded doom. 2
Again, as we neared El- Aujeh, in the vicinity of which we ex pected to
come up with our caravan, and camp for the night, I asked casually how near
us was " Wady Beerayn." Owdy had " never heard of that place." His
expression of ignorance was seemingly so natural and artless that at first
I thought I was misunderstood by him, and I changed the pronunciation of
the name several times in repeating the question, but all to no purpose.
Then my dragoman sounded Owdy and the others of the party one by one, only
to find an appalling stupidity resting down on them all. I knew they were
shamming, although my dragoman thought it could not be so ; but as I had no
wish to follow up the matter, I let it drop.
That evening, when they were in camp, the Arabs gleefully in-
1 An "Arab proverb, el-kizb milk el-insdn." (Palmer s Des. of Exod., II.,
325 ; also Conder s Tent Work in Pal., II., 210.)
" Truth in ordinary matters, is not regarded as a virtue by the Bedouins,
nor is lying held shameful. Every man, they say, has a right to conceal his
own thought." (Bedouins of Euphrates, p. 390.) And there are traces of this
Oriental philosophy in the reasoning of many Occidentals.
" See Palmer s Des. of Exod., II., 3C5/.
A CAMP AT EL- AUJEH. 295
formed the dragoman that they knew Wady Beerayn well enough ; but they
thought I might want to visit it, and they had had well- hunting enough for
one trip. Owdy had quietly passed the word to them all to feign ignorance
under my questioning, and they had acted their part to perfection.
25. A CAMP AT EL- AUJEH.
El- Aujeh is one of three places prominent for their extensive ruins in the
western Negeb ; the other two being El- Abdeh and Sebayta. Palmer quotes a
saying of the Arabs, " There is nothing grander than El- Aujeh and El-
Abdeh, except Sebaita, which is grander than either." l As has been already
mentioned, 2 Robinson, misled by his Arabs and a Hebron camel-owner,
confounded El- Aujeh with El- Abdeh, 3 and his error has been followed and
popularized by Porter in Murray s Handbook. 4 After Seetzen s first mention
of El- Abdeh, as "Abde," 5 Bonar 6 and Stewart 7 pointed out the two
places, El- Abdeh and El- Aujch, in their separateness ; and finally Palmer
8 visited both places, as also Sebayta, and gave a full description of the
three. Stewart has suggested the identity of El- Aujeh with the capital of
ancient Gerar, 9 and it is certainly a more reasonable site for that city
than the ruins near Gaza, as conforming to the hints of its location in the
Bible text. El- Aujeh seems to be a favorite haunt of the Azazimeh, and
they are jealous of its approach by Christians; 10 yet, as it is not within
their extensive domain, they cannot confis cate the property of travelers
whom the Teeyahah guide past it.
1 Des. of Exod., II., 375. l See page 87 /., supra, note.
3 Bib. Res., I., 191, 600 /.
* See Murray s Handbook for Syria and Pal., edition of 1875, p. 100.
5 Eeise, III., 43. 6 DCS. of Sinai, p. 302 jf. "* Tent and Khan, p. 198 /.
8 DCS. of Exod., II., 359-413. Tent and Khan, pp. 200, 209.
10 Des. of Exod., II., 371.
296 KADESH-BARNEA.
The principal ruins of El- Aujch arc on the summits of a double hill, which
looms up above the plain of Wady Hauayn as one approaches it from the
south. Eastward and northerly of this hill gleamed our snowy tents, as we
came over the plain at the elose of the day. But between us and our camp we
saw, at our right, the black tents of Bed ween, whom our Arabs at once pro
nounced " Azazimeh/ and with this recognition the discoverers, dragoman
included, were filled with dismay. All seemed more fearful than usual, as
if from the thought that the Azazimeh might be aware of our elandestine
visit of the day before, to their jealously-guarded wells.
26. ARAB MODE OF BALANCING AN ACCOUNT.
The Aziizinieli camp was a large one. As we neared it, in passing, we saw
that we were watched curiously by sharp-eyed women and children at every
tent. Great flocks of sheep and goats were feeding in the vicinity. The men
whom we saw, gave us surly looks.
Hardly were we in our tents, on reaching our camp, before word came that
the Azazimeh had seized one of the dromedaries we had been riding. At this
our dragoman applied to the Azazimeh shaykh for an explanation. The shaykh
s reply was, that some two years before this the Teeyahah had taken a
dromedary from his people, and he had been waiting all this time for an
opportu nity of reprisal. At last the opportunity and the dromedary were at
hand. He had simply balanced a long standing account. Could anything be
fairer than this ?
Instead of denouncing the whole transaction as dishonest and outrageous,
Muhammad Ahmad, with true Oriental courtesy and shrewdness, admitted that
the principle affirmed was eminently a correct one. On the shaykh s showing
of the case, the Teeyahah clearly owed a dromedary to the Azazimeh ; and
the Azazimeh
ARAB MODE OF BALANCING AN ACCOUNT. 297
were quite right in desiring to collect their dues. But there was another
point in this case, which the shaykh would do well not to overlook. The
Teeyahah were now under contract with " Chris tian " travelers to convey
them safely and speedily to Hebron. The dromedaries of the caravan belonged
for the time being to the Christians. They were now on the highway, over
which the Teeyahah were by desert law entitled to pass. There was here no
trespass on the Azazimeh s exclusive domain. If a dromedary were taken from
this caravan, the Christians would rightly be angered; and their curse
might be brought on the land. They might bring a sayl down Wady Hanayn ; or
their people from afar might come to retake the desert. If the shaykh were
wise, he would postpone his attempt at reprisal until the Teeyahah came
that way without any Christian travelers in convoy.
This was the dragoman s putting of the case ; and he presented it as if out
of sheer love for the Azazimeh, rather than because of his incidental
connection with the Teeyahah. The shaykh, if not wise, was superstitious ;
as every Arab is. The pictured dangers he was incurring, were too
formidable for him. He would have braved the Teeyahah without hesitation;
but he was not ready to defy the mysterious " Christians " with their power
over the invis ible world. He expressed regret that he had failed to
comprehend the true state of this case, from the beginning ; and he
hastened to restore the dromedary to its place in the caravan camp. 1
1 It is possible that this narrow escape of a dromedary has increased the
Teeyahah reluctance to cross the Azazimeh territory northward. At all
events, Professor Post, of Bayroot, a long time resident of the East, while
crossing the desert with his friend, the Rev. Dr. Field, of New York, in
the spring of 1882, found himself unable to induce the Teeyahah to take
that course. He says (" Sunday School World" for January, 1883), " [They]
raised so many difficulties in regard to the route to Hebron, that we were
obliged to modify our itinerary and go by way of Gaza." An English party,
about the same time (as reported in " Macmillan s Magazine " for January,
1883), intent on going "by Nakhl, Beersheba and Hebron," had a similar
experi ence. The narrator says : " We were forced to make a detour by Gaza
[from Nakhl],
298 KADESH-BAENEA.
2T. AN AZAZIMEH PROTEST.
Later in the evening, the Azazimeh shaykh came again to our camp, as if
under exercise of mind about the suggestions of our dragoman concerning the
possible performances of the Christian travelers. He said that he very well
knew that all this country the desert land once belonged to the Christians
grandfathers, and that the ruins about us El- Aujeh included were Christian
ruins ; but now the country belonged to the Azazimeh, and he hoped the
Christians would respect Azazimeh rights.
He was much relieved when assured that the Christians of this party would
make no elaim to the territory, and that their declar ation to him was : "
We will go by the king s highway ; we will not turn to the right hand nor
to the left, until we have passed thy borders. And if we and our cattle
drink of thy water, then we will pay for it : We will only, without doing
anything else, go through on our feet." l
This Azazimch shaykh s anxiety was an illustration of the com mon dread,
among the wilder Arab tribes, of a Christian invasion of the desert ; a
dread which in itself has been one of the chief hindrances to unrestricted
visits to the region of Ayn Qadees. Owdy and our young shaykhs told our
dragoman, on this evening at El- Aujeh, that the prevailing unwillingness
of their people to have travelers visit Ayn Qadees and Ayn el-Qadayrat grew
out of the fear that if Christians knew there were such wells as those in
the desert, they would come and retake the country. Because desert wells
are such a priceless treasure to the Bed ween, it is hard for the Bed ween
to realize that Christians can see them in any less
as we learnt on the way that fighting was going on between certain tribes
round Beersheba, and nothing would induce our Arabs to go on unless we
would change our plans."
1 Num. 20 : 17, 19.
AN AZAZIMEH PROTEST. 299
attractive light. Indeed our Arabs grieved the heart of Muham mad Ahmad by
reproaching him for having used his influence as a Muhammadan preacher to
induce them to disclose the sacred trea sures of the desert to unbelievers.
1
And these incidents at El- Aujeh elosed up our two days romantic and
successful hunt for the wells of Qadees, Qadayrat, and Qasaymeh.
1 2 Kings 20 : 12-17 ; Isa. 39 : 1-6.
It is more than possible that the young shaykhs, Ilamdh and Ibraheem, were
taken seriously to task by their indignant fathers, when it became known
that they had actually piloted Christian travelers to the long-concealed
well at Qadees. If so, their mistake will be less likely to occur again.
VI.
K ADE S H-B AKNE A. THE SITES COMPARED,
K AD E S H-B AEJSTE A.
1. SUGGESTED IDENTIFICATIONS.
And now that all the facts in the case are fairly before us, it is
desirable to look back over their record, in order to a recognition of
their variety and their relative importance. The different sites suggested
in identification of Kadesh-barnea ought to be brought into direct
comparison, if we would arrive at a final and definite conclusion
concerning their merits respectively.
It has been seen that at least eighteen distinct sites have been proposed
for the identification of the sanctuary-stronghold on the southern border
of the Holy Land. These are: 1. Chawatha, or Hawwadeh, between Gaza and
Beersheba ; 1 2. Castle Nakhl, or its vicinity ; 2 3. A locality at a day s
distance northward from Mount Sinai ; a "4. A point near Ezion-gaber; 4 5.
The Arabah ; 5 6. " Embasch," at the mouth of Wady Jerafeh ; 6 7. Jebel
Madurah, and its vicinity; 7 8. Ayn Hasb; 8 9. Wady Gayan, or Abyad; c 10.
Ayn el-Waybeh ; 10 11. Ayn Qadees; 11 12. El-Khaloos ; 12 13. Wady Ghuwayr;
13 14. Ayn esh-Shehabeh ; u 15. Wady
J See page 192 /. supra. 2 See page 203 f. supra.
4 " " 007
e " 206, "
8 " " 206 /., "
10 " * 209 jf., "
12 ^ 9o- > n
U u 225i a
303
304 KADESH-BARNEA.
Feqreh; 1 16. Near the southeast portion of the Jebel Muqrah tract ; 2 17.
Petra ; 3 18. Along the Upper Arabah, and to the base of Naqb es-Sufah. 4
At first sight, this seems a strange and hopeless tangle ; yet on
examination it appears that the eighteen sites are ranged on the two sides
of a well-defined line ; and that they are to be considered, in their
comparison, with reference to that one line. Ten of these sites are in the
Arabah, or immediately ont of it and near its level ; while eight of them
are on the upper desert, or northward of it and near its level. And this
division at once simplifies the comparison of the many sites suggested.
2. THE TWO REPEESENTATIVE SITES.
Kadesh-barnea is to be recognized, either in or near the Arabah (the great
natural depression between the eastern arm of the Red Sea and the southern
end of the Dead Sea) ; or on or near the plateau of the Desert et-Teeh,
more than a thousand feet above the level of the Arabah. The approach of
the Israelites to Canaan must have been by the one direction or the other ;
by the lower Arabah, or by the upper desert ; and Kadesh-barnea must have
been at the northern extremity of the route thus taken.
Ayn el- Waybeh is in the Arabah, near its upper end. Ayn Qadees is on the
level of the upper desert, at a point northward of the desert proper, but
not within the commonly supposed boundaries of Canaan. These two sites are,
therefore, representative sites ; and it is not to be. wondered at that
they have been so accepted and discussed. The main arguments for, and the
main objections to, the one or the other of these sites, tell for or
against the seven, or the nine, other sites proposed in the same general
1 See page 228, supra. 2 See page 228, supra. 3 228, " * " " 227 /., "
CLAIMS FOR AYN EL-WAYBEH. 3Q5
region. If the general region of the one is established as correct, the
precise location of that one calls for supplemental examination ; but if
its general region is ruled out of the case, its precise location in that
region is of no further importance.
Hence the real issue in this case can fairly be settled by a comparison of
the two representative sites of Ayn el-Waybeh and Ayn Qadees. What,
therefore, are the elaims of, and what the objections to, these sites
respectively ?
3. CLAIMS FOR AYN EL-WAYBEH.
In support of the elaims of Ayn el-Waybeh as the site of Kadesh-barnea, it
is said, that as the Israelites went from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea "by
the way of Mount Seir," 1 they must have gone by the Arabah, which skirts
the western border of Mount Seir; and that Ayn el-Waybeh is the most
prominent fountain in the highway of the Arabah toward Canaan.
Moreover, it is said, that as Kadesh-barnea was at the uttermost border of
Edom, 2 and the Arabah was the western border of Mount Seir (which was also
Edom), Kadesh-barnea could not have been westward of the Arabah ; and, it
being in the Arabah, there is no more probable site for it than Ayn
el-Waybeh.
The surroundings of Ayn el-Waybeh are said to correspond with the
surroundings of Kadesh-barnea; including the mountain at the northwest of
it, up which, Canaanward, goes the Pass es- Sufah (suggested as a synonym
of Zephath); 3 including, also, Mount Hor, and other tentative
identifications. The A\ r ilderness of Ziu is elaimed to be identical with
the Arabah ; and the high way of the Arabah is said to be the Way of the
Red Sea, down which the Israelites passed when they turned from
Kadesh-barnea. 4
1 Deut. 1 : 2. * Num. 20: 16. 3 Judges 1 : 17. Comp. Num. 21 : 3.
4 Deut. 2: 1. 20
306 KADESH-BARNEA.
And as Kedor-la omer halted at Kadesh on his way into Canaan, it is elaimed
that his more natural course, after turning the southern end of the Mount
Seir range, would be up the Arabah, toward the site of Ayn el-Waybeh.
This seems to be the extent of the specific elaims in support of this
identification of Kadesh-barnea. Any reshaping of the argu ment is within
the limits of these elaims.
4. OBJECTIONS TO AYN EL-WAYBEH.
The prime objection to Ayn el-Waybeh is, that it is in the Arabah, where no
Bible mention of Kadesh-barnea, earlier or later, will justify the location
of that place.
Kedor-la omer swept on past Mount Seir to an oasis in the Wilderness of
Paran, before he turned northward. 1 The difficult passes of the southern
mountain wall of Canaan at the northern end of the Arabah, were quite
unsuited to such an advance as his; especially if, as seems most probable,
he came with horses and chariots. Moreover, the order of his movements in
Canaan shows that Kedor-la omcr struck the field of the Amalekites before
he reached Hazezon-tamar, or En-gedi; 2 in other words, that he approached
the Dead Sea immediately from the westward, and not directly from the
southward. This is inconsistent with his approach to Canaan by way of the
Arabah; and it was on this advance that he halted at Kadesh.
When the Israelites moved over from Mount Sinai to Kadesh- barnea, they
went across the "great and terrible wilderness;" 3 which would not have
been the case had they skirted the eastern peninsula into and along the
Arabah. That "wilderness" must have been the elevated desert -plateau of
Et-Tceh. In journeying by the " Way of Mount Seir," they simply took the
easternmost
1 Gen. 14 : 5, 6. 2 Gen. 14 : 7. 3 Deut. 1 : 19.
OBJECTIONS TO AYN EL-WAYBEH. 307
road out of the Mount Sinai group ; a road bearing the name and trending in
the direction of Mount Seir, but which they followed no farther than
brought them to the border of the wilderness beyond which lay the land of
their seeking. They took the Mount Seir Road, but they did not pursue that
road to Mount Seir.
The Arabah was not one of the ordinary routes from Mount Sinai to Canaan.
It was a most unnatural course between those two regions. Far less was it
suited to be the line of approach to Canaan for a hostile army. At the
best, it was but a rugged high way, shut in between frowning mountains,
proffering no opportunity to the invaders to turn aside into any shielded
covert near the borders of the objective territory, while reconnoitring and
making other preparations for an onward movement. While themselves
constantly exposed to sudden attack from flank and rear, they would have
before them the strongest and most easily defended natural bulwarks of the
enemy, as their only avenue to the land they would enter forcibly.
The idea of such a host as Israel's settling down at a prominent
watering-place in a common thoroughfare, to abide there " many days," and
that in such a torrent-swept and yet permanently barren region as the
Arabah, is utterly at variance with any fair conception of the prudence and
foresight of Moses and Joshua, or of the unfailing wisdom of their Heavenly
Guide.
In the site and surroundings of Ayn el-Waybeh, there is no fair
correspondence with the Bible descriptions of Kadesh-barnea. No distinct
Rock is there, such as that before which the congregation of Israel was
gathered by Moses and Aaron, and out from which the accustomed waters were
made to flow anew. 1 No site for " a city " is there ; nor yet a site for
an encircled-stronghold, such as that from which the spies were sent into
Canaan, 2 and the messengers to the kings of Edom and Moab. 3 There is no
moun-
1 Num. 20:7-11. 2 num. 13:21-26; Deut l:19-24.
3 Num. 20:14-16; Judges 11:17.
308 KADESH-BARNEA.
tain near it on the way into Canaan. 1 The nearest mountains are westward,
and they are not in the direction of Canaan. 2 The southern mountain-wall
of Canaan, up which ascends the Pass es-Sufah (suggested as the mountain
elambered by the rebellious Israelites), 3 is nearly or quite a day s
journey northward, and a deep wady intervenes between that and Ayn
el-Waybeh. There is no trace of the ancient name of Kadesh, or of its
meaning, in Ayn el-Waybeh or its vicinity. Nor is there a single site
identified in that region, of any place which was near Kadesh-barnea. The
site of Zephath, 4 for which Es-Sufah was suggested, has been identified,
with a correspondent name, at some distance to the westward; and that is
the only site for which any elaim was made, except that of a possible
identification in case Ayn el-Waybeh were accepted for Kadesh-bamea.
As a boundary-line landmark, Ayn el-Waybeh does not in any degree conform
to the requirements of the Bible mentions of Kadesh-barnea. The latter
place is named as on the southern border of Judah, at several removes from
the Dead Sea. 5 By all analogy, this would indicate its location as well to
the westward of that sea. Again it is named as the central one of three
main land marks between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean ; G which would
seem to fix it midway, or approximately so, between those two seas. Yet Ayn
el-Waybeh is well to the southward of the Dead Sea ; and the only way of
adapting it to a place in the boundary line would be by running a southern
line, for some distance, from northerly to southerly, instead of from
easterly to westerly, and then making an abrupt turn, almost at a right
angle, and passing westward over mountain ranges instead of between them,
in a
1 Deut. 1 : 19-24.
2 See the photograph of Ayn el-Waybeh accompanying this. The hills there
shown in the distance are westward, not Canaanward.
3 Num. 14 : 39-45. 4 Comp. Num. 21 : 3, and Judges 1 : 17.
5 Josh. 15 : 1-3. e Ezek. 47 : 19 ; 48 : 28.
OBJECTIONS TO AYN QADEES. 309
manner quite unlike the other boundary lines of the Holy Land, or the
boundary lines of any other land. Even then, the Bible mention of
Kadesh-barnea (as Ayn el-Waybeh) as a central point of the southern
boundary, would be either most inexplicable or absurd.
Finally, the Arabah was not the " Wilderness of Zin ; " l for the two
places are spoken of separately by their own names, in the Mosaic record.
The " Way of the Red Sea " 2 is also named as distinct from the " Way of
the Arabah/ 3 among the roads taken by the Israelites in their journeyings.
Nor have we any sound reason for supposing that Edom was ever limited
westerly by the Arabah ; while the proof is well-nigh absolute, that in the
days of Moses and earlier it stretched over into the Jebel Muqrah tract,
along the southern border of Canaan ; and as a result the upper Arabah, Ayn
el-Waybeh included, was within the territory of Edom ; hence Kadesh-barnea
could not have been located in the Arabah.
In fact, the elaims for Ayn el-Waybeh, as the site of Kadesh- barnea, all
prove baseless on examination ; while the objections to that identification
increase at every step of investigation ; and they are insurmountable.
5. OBJECTIONS TO AYN QADEES.
The more prominent objections which have long been urged against Ayn Qadees
as the site of Kadesh-barnea, are already shown to have had no solid basis
in fact, but to have grown out of a misunderstanding, and hence a
misrepresenting, of the report of its earliest modern-discoverer. This is
true of the elaim that Qadees was a misnomer for Qadayrat, and that
Qadayrat had no
1 Comp. Num. 20 : 1 ; Deut. 1 : 1. 2 Num. 14 : 25; 21 : 4; Deut. 2:1. 3
Deut. 2 : 8.
310 KADESH-BARNEA.
mountain at the northward of it, on the road toward Hebron. These
objections cannot longer be urged with any show of fairness.
To those persons who believe that the Israelites approached Canaan by the
way of the Arabah ; that Mount Seir was skirted in that approach ; and that
the Arabah was Edom's western border, the fact that Ayn Qadees is on the
higher level of the western desert is in itself an insuperable objection to
it as the site of Kadesh-barnea.
Again it has been urged, that the Israelites would not have approached
Canaan at the centre of its southern border, because of the very openness
of that region, and their consequent liability to be met in force as they
approached. Robinson even brings up, in this connection, the declaration in
Exodus 13 : 17, that in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, " God led
them not through the Way of the Land of the Philistines, although that was
near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war,
and they return to Egypt : but God led the people about, through the Way of
the Wilderness of the Red Sea." And Robinson says, that . " the object of
this circuitous route was to avoid the Philistines : " therefore for them
to have approached Canaan by way of Ayn Qadayrat and Beersheba, " would
have brought the Israelites directly along side of the Philistines, and
thus have frustrated the very purpose for which God led them by so great a
circuit." l
In this suggestion, Robinson leaves out of mind the organization and
training of the Israelites at Sinai, after the period of that declaration ;
and their new life as they moved northward, preceded by the sacred
tabernacle, after their experiences of successful com bat with the
Amalekites. 2 And he seems to forget the assurances newly given to the
Israelites, that they were now able to enter into the Promised Land s
possession. 3
1 Bib. Sac., for May, 1*49, p. 379. 2 Exod. 17 : 8-13. 3 Deut. 1 : 19-21,
27-31.
THE ARGUMENT FOR ATN QADEES. 31 1
Moreover, the mid-desert road to Beershcba and Hebron, was by no means the
same as the Philistia Road out of Egypt toward Gaza.
Various other objections to Ayn Qadees as the site of Kadesh- barnea have
been based on the erroneous identifications of other Bible places; or on
misconceptions of the requirements of the Bible text concerning other
stations in the record of the wander ings ; such for example as the
supposed proximity of Kadesh- barnea to Mount Hor or to Ezion-geber. Again,
the unconnected errors concerning Kadesh-barnea, and its vague descriptions
by ancient Jewish and Christian writers who had no personal knowledge of
the places they mentioned, have continued to be used as objections against
Ayn Qadees as obviously not answering to the requirements of those errors
and surmises. In fact, however, the doubts thrown, until very recently, on
the precise location of Ayn Qadees, have prevented the proposing of
intelligent objections to Ayn Qadees as the site of Kadesh-barnea. But all
the objections which seem entitled to any serious weight, are now before
the reader.
6. THE ARGUMENT FOR AYN QADEES.
In support of the elaim that the site of Kadesh-barnea is identified in Ayn
Qadees, it is seen, as follows :
1. The region of Ayn Qadees is a strategic stronghold on the southern
border of Canaan ; immediately accessible from the main road out of the
southern desert, Canaanward, yet secluded. from it. It is near the trunk
-connection of the principal roads into Canaan, at a point convenient for
watching or seizing those roads ; and it has an inner road northward
separate from those roads, and easily held by itself at its single mountain
pass.
It has a mountain-encircled plain, 1 of sufficient extent for the
I 0f course there are ways of entrance and egress at several points ; and
the wady drains itself, westerly, into one of the branches of Wady el-
Arcesh ; but, as a whole, it is mountain-shielded, and the avenues to it
could be easily guarded.
312 KADESH-BAENEA.
encampment of such an army as Kedor-la omer s, or such a host as Israel s.
That plain is arable, capable of an extensive grain or grazing supply, and
with adjoining wells of the best water. It is a region where a mighty host
could abide many days; and as such a region it stands absolutely alone
among all the localities yet discovered on the southern border of Canaan,
or near that border.
It is just such a stronghold as would be seized by a strategist of to-day,
who should approach the Holy Land from the southward, with a view to the
military capture and occupancy of that land. It is the place of places to
have been occupied by Kedor-la omer on his campaign, or by Moses and Joshua
in their onward movement toward Canaan. If Ilobab did not know of this
place, the Lord did ; and it would be strange if, having formed such a
strategic stronghold on the borders of the land he was preparing for his
people, he did not lead them to it, when the fulness of time for the
purpose of its fitting had arrived.
2. Ayn Qadees, with its adjoining plain, is the southernmost and central
point of the obvious natural boundary line along the southern border of
Canaan, from the lower end of the Dead Sea to the outgoings of Wady el-
Arish into the Mediterranean.
The Smooth Mountain, which forms the northern wall of Wady Feqreh, is
unmistakably the southern wall of Canaan, westerly of the southern tongue
of the Dead Sea. The boundary line thus begun at its eastern end, runs, by
its natural course, along Wady Fcqrch, until that wady loses itself in Wady
Madurah at the point where Jebel Madurah the Mountain the Mountain forms a
pivot, or a hinge, for a turn southward into the region where Ayn Qadees is
a new pivotal landmark, midway of this southern boundary line from sea to
sea. Thence, onward, the natural border line passes into Wady el- Arish
which is, and from time immemorial has been, the southwestern border line
of Canaan, Egyptward.
This natural boundary line stands alone as a possible natural
THE ARGUMENT FOR AYN QADEES. 313
border limit of Canaan southward. And Ayn Qadees stands at the centre of
this line, just as the Bible description fixes the location of
Kadesh-barnea.
3. Accepting Ayn Qadees as the site of Kadesh-barnea, secures, also, the
identification of every other landmark, in its order, along the southern
boundary line of Canaan, according to the Bible text.
Beginning at the tongue of the Dead Sea " that looketh south ward," the
Ascent of Akrabbim, the Wilderness of Ziu, Kadesh- barnea, Hezron, Adar,
Karka a, Azrnon, the Wady of Egypt, the terminal outgoing at the
Mediterranean ; l all the landmarks of that boundary are identified,
without any forcing. And the best that can be said of any other proposed
identification of Kadesh- barnea is, that no success has been had, in
connection with it, in point ing out the other border landmarks even
tentatively ; for an error at the central or pivotal point makes a hopeless
tangle of the rest of the line.
4. To identify Kadesh-barnea at Ayn Qadees, is to render clear the
movements of the Israelites toward, and away from, the southern border of
Canaan ; as no other identification of this site has done.
It would appear from the Bible text, and the latest explorations of the
region in question, that when the Israelites took their departure from
Mount Sinai, they journeyed by the easternmost of the three roads Canaan
ward ; a road known as the Mount Seir Road. Passing, on this road, along
Wady ez-Zulaqah and by Wady el- Ayn, they turned into Wady el Ateeyeh, and
thence descended to the plateau of the Desert et-Teeh. They were now upon
the " great and terrible wilderness " of the peninsula, and they swept
across it to the southern base of the Jebel Muqrah range.
The first encampment of the Israelites after leaving Mount
1 Num. 34: 3-5; Josh. 15: 1-4.
314 KADESH-BARNEA.
Sinai, as noted in their list of stations/ was Kibroth-hattaavah, at a
three-clays journey from their starting point. That station was probably
southward of the Jebel et-Tceh range, which divides the lower peninsula
from the mid-desert. It may have been at Erways el-Ebayrig, as suggested by
Palmer.
The second encampment was at Hazeroth, the " Place of Enclosures. " 5 It
has been common, since the days of Robinson, to identify this station with
Ayn el-Hudhera, also southward of Jebcl ct-Tech ; but there seems good
reason for distrusting this identification, on the ground of its location
and approaches. 3 It would, indeed, seem more probable that this second
formal encamp ment was at the northern side of the Desert et-Teeh ; perhaps
at the southeastern portion of the Jebcl Muqrah tract ; a region which has
been but casually examined by modern travelers, but of which enough is
known to suggest its fitness for a camping-place. Ayn esh-Shehabeh, one of
the proposed sites of Kadesh-barnea, is there. A road has been discovered,
running into the mountain tract from the Desert et-Teeh, not for to the
eastward of that spring. 4 This road man ^ e the ^ a y f the Mountain of
the Amorites, or the Amoritc Hill-country Road, by which the Israelites arc
said to have approached Kadesh-barnea. 5 And just there, is a far more
probable locality for Hazcroth (for the protecting " Enclosures " of
border-settlers), than any site in mid-desert, or in the shielding-
mountains south of the desert.
It is a noteworthy fact, as bearing on this suggestion, that the Arabs -who
to-day occupy that southeastern portion of the Jebcl Muqrah tract bear a
name which corresponds with the Hebrew
1 Xum. 33 : 1-49. 2 See page 280 /., supra.
3 Sec page 78, supra.
This " Ayn el-TIudhcra" may be the Well of an Enclosure; a living spring in
a mountain-enclosed basin ; bnt it is not a place of, nor yet a place for,
pastoral en elosures, such as the Hebrew term, Hazeroth, would indicate.
4 See page 82/., supra. 5 Deut. 1 : 19.
TEE ARGUMENT FOR AYN QADEES. 315
" Hivites," or " Villagers." Holland, in reporting his last trip to the
northern desert says : " Jebel Mugrah belongs to the territory of Haiwat
Arabs, and not to that of the Azazimeh, as has gener ally been stated." 1
And Robinson, or rather Eli Smith, has shown that this word " Haywat " (its
singular being " Hay wy ") corres ponds elosely with " Hivite." : It would
seem, indeed, that the Bible designations of Midianite, 3 Perizzite and
Hivite, corres pond with the modern designations of Bed wy, Fellah and
Haywy ; the desert- Arab, the life-long peasant, and the
temporarily-settled (or sojourning) Arab. In olden time, as now, the
border-line between the Midianite, or Bed wy, and the Perizzite, or Fellah,
was likely to be occupied by the Dweller in Enclosures, the Hivite, or
Haywy. Accordingly, the vestiges of the ancient Hazerim are still to be
found along the southern border of Pales tine, near the desert, 4 and again
along the eastern borders of Cen tral Palestine, 5 as exposed to
desert-approaches by way of the fords of the Jordan. 6 This would make
probable the existence of Hazeroth (the Place of Hazerim) there at the
southeastern portion of the Jebel Muqrah tract ; especially if the Way of
the Mountain of the Amorites, as taken by the Israelites, passed up along
there. At all events, wherever Hazeroth may have been, and whether
1 Report of Brit. Assoc., for 1878, p. 622 ff.
2 "Arabic Index " in Bib. Res., III., Append, p. 211, first ed. 3 Gen. 37 :
28.
4 See page 290, supra. Thus the inhabitants of Dhahareeyeh (which is to-day
a border town of Palestine, desertward) are of Bed ween stock, although a
settled people, and they would repel the suggestion that their settled life
brings them to the level of Fellaheen. They call themselves "Hudhr" or
villagers, or townspeople (or Hivites). See Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 211 ;
Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 351. 5 See page, 281 /., supra.
6 See Judges 6: 3-6; 7: 1, 12. Jabin, the Canaanitish king, or shaykh, who
op pressed Israel in the days of Deborah, is said to have " reigned in
Hazor " (Judges 4: 2). It is not improbable that his people were
sojourning- Bed ween from the east of the Jordan, living in Hazerim, within
the borders of Central Canaan. The place of his head-quarters finally came
to be a permanent town, with a trace of its earlier character retained in
its name. Sisera was "captain of the host of Hazor" ^1 Sam. 12: 9)
316 KADESH-BAMNEA.
the Israelites passed into the Azazimeh mountain tract from that
southeastern corner, near Jcbcl Muqrah, or kept on along the southern face
of that tract until they rounded Jebel Araeef en- Kaqah, their third
encampment was at the strategic stronghold (within that tract), then known
as Rithmah, afterwards as Kadesh, yet later as En-mishpat, later still as
Meribah-Kadesh, and now as Wady Qadees.
From Kadesh-barnea the spies went northward by the northern mountain-road,
which was probably a continuation of the Amorite Hill Country Road, but
which, cither thenceforward bore their name, or was already known as the
Way of Athareem, or the Way of the Tracks. 1 Their report provoked the
rebellion of the Israel ites. Then followed the foolhardy venture of that
people up that same mountain-road, and their defeat at Esau s old Land of
Seir. After this, came the well-nigh forty years of nomadic life, with
Kadesh-barnea as the pivot of the wanderings. Glimpses of the different
encampments of the tabernacle and the priestly headquarters on their
circuit, meantime, are given in the next seventeen stations in the formal
list of encampments.
As the appointed period of the wanderings drew near its elose, the
tabernacle, with its attendant ministry, removed from Ezion- gaber, near
the northern end of the eastern arm of the Red Sea (the extremest limit of
the wanderings 2 before the final move Canaan- ward), and re-entered the
sanctuary-stronghold of Kadesh-barnea; probably passing in by the Way of
the Mountain of the Amorites, from the southeastern corner of the Jebel
Muqrah tract. 3 " Then
1 The word athareem (D lj"^ at Num. 21: 1, translated "spies" in the King
James Version, occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. There really seems
no justification for its rendering as "spies." "Tracks," or "monuments"
(indicating a way marked or "blazed" by signal cairns, after a manner still
common in that region), would be justified from the Chaldaic athar
pj"W>) "a place," or "a track." See Gesenius and Fiirst, s. v.
2 Judges 11 : 16. 3 Num. 33 : 36.
THE ARGUMENT FOR A YN QADEES. 31 7
came [again] the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, [from
their scattered ten ting-pi aces in the wadies near and far] into the
desert of Zin, in the first month [of the fortieth year of the exodus] :
and the people abode in Kadesh j" 1 and they made new history there.
There Miriam died ; and was buried. From the unusual and sudden demand upon
the wells, or from an exceptional drought, the waters of Ayn Qadees failed
the people. Then, at God s direction, Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly
before the eliff from under which the wells were supplied, and the miracle
of the new- flowing water followed. For their sin at that time, the two
leaders were sentenced to die outside of the Land of Promise; 2 for the
final entering of which, preparations were now made speedily.
The line of contemplated advance into Canaan at this time was a new one.
Not, as seemed to be the plan thirty-eight years before, directly northward
by way of Beersheba and Hebron, but northeasterly, around the lower end of
the Dead Sea, through the principal highway of Edom, or through the road
between Edom and Moab, was the now purposed course. The first move fi as up
along the natural boundary-line of Canaan, from Kadesh-barnea, through the
Wilderness of Zin, to the boundary-hinge at Jebel Madurah on the plain of
Moserah ; the junction of wadies Murrah and Madurah ; and this move was
made while messengers were on their way to the kings of Edom and Moab,
asking permission for the purposed traversing of the territory of those
kings. 3 There at Jebel Madurah, or Mount Hor, on that isolated and
remarkable mountain, at the very border line of the Land of Promise yet
outside of it, Aaron died and was buried ; and before that mountain, on the
borders of Edom yet not within Edom s line, the people mourned for thirty
days over the loss of their faithful high-
Num. 20: 1. * Num. 20: 12. J Xum. 20: 14; Judges 11: 17.
318 KADESII-BARNEA.
priest. 1 Meantime, this forward movement of re-gathered Israel alarmed
both the Edomites on the one hand, and the neighboring Canaanites on the
other. Edom s king refused his consent to Israel s passing through his
territory, and he came down against Israel in force; "wherefore Israel
turned away from him;" turned about from Jebel Madurah and moved back
southwesterly along the course which had been taken thitherward. And as the
Israelites turned back, at this time, the Canaanitish king of Arad came
down against them, and struck at them, probably at their rear as they were
moving off, "and took some of them prisoners." 3 By whatever course the
Israelites had originally entered Kadesh, or Rithmah, they evidently went
out from that region by the westerly route ; for it is said, that " they
journeyed from Mount I lor," at this time, " by the Way of the Red Sea, to
compass the land of Edom."* In other words, they passed down along by Jebel
Araeef en-Xaqah, and struck the Red Sea Road, or the Hajj route, so that
they could sweep well clear of the western possessions of Edom ; not even
skirting them by the Way of the Mountain of the Amoritcs. This took them
across the Desert et- Teeh, almost its entire stretch from west to east ; "
and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the [Hajj]
Road," in its desolateness. Reaching the eastern edge of the desert, they
descended to the Arabah, and thence in due time they passed around the
southern extremity of the mountains of Seir, by the Way of the Arabah, and
turned northward along the eastern borders of Seir and Moab/ until they
were finally opposite the Jordan at the Plains of Moab. 6
Whatever changes of minor details, in this identification of the course and
journey ings of the Israelites, may be necessitated through
1 Xum. 20 : 22-29 ; Deut, 10 : 6. 2 Num. 20 : 18-21. 3 Num. 20 : 1 ; 33 :
40.
* Xum. 21 : 4; Deut. 1: 40; Judges 11 : 18. 5 Deut. 2: 1-8. 6 Xum. 22: 1.
THE ARGUMENT FOR A TN QADEES. 319
fuller researches in that region in the future, it is evident that the
Bible narrative as a whole is found consistent with the location of
Kadesh-barnea at Ayn Qadees, as it is not with any other identification
suggested.
5. The features and the name of Ayn Qadees correspond with the Bible
references to Kadesh-barnea ; as is the case with no other site proposed.
Wady Qadees is itself a " city," in the probable meaning of the Hebrew word
thus translated ; an encircled fastness among the mountains, easily guarded
at a few entrance-passes. And ancient ruins round about it still mark it as
a place of old-time occupancy. The water of the fountains of Qadees flows
from under just such a Rock, or eliff, as would be indicated by the term
Sel a, the He brew designation of the Kadesh-Rock known afterwards as
Reqam. And that Rock stands, as it were, in the inner sanctuary; in the
adytum of the larger Kadesh tabernacle, where the leaders and
representatives of the Israelites might have been gathered to witness the
miracle of the new water-flow.
The camping-field is there ; there, also, is the mountain pass northward.
Nothing is lacking in the features of the place itself, to complete its
correspondence with the descriptions and intimations of the Bible text.
Just outside of this sanctuary-stronghold, the name Rithmah, the earlier
name of the district of Kadesh, is still to be found, in its Arabic
equivalent, Aboo Retemat. And the place itself bears the equivalent name of
Kadesh in three-fold form, as Jebel Qadees, AVady Qadees, and Ayn Qadees.
Moreover, neither Qadees nor Retemat Kadesh or Rithmah is to be found
elsewhere in all that region. Even though too much dependence ought not to
be put on the preservation of such names as these, it must be admitted by
all, that when the proof of the location of Rithmah and Kadesh in just that
vicinity is made reasonably conclusive, by independent evidence, it is
certainly no objection to the identification to find that the ancient names
are still to be found there, as held and repeated by the unchanging people
of that region.
7. FAIR CONCLUSIONS.
In view of all the facts before us, there are certain conclusions which
must be admitted as fair, if not recognized as inevitable.
The site of Kadesh-barnea seems identified at Ayn Qadees. Every
requirement of the Bible-narrative, and every condition insisted on by the
critics as essential to the identification, are met in this place. Every
objection, also, that has been raised against this identification, is found
to have no force in the light of close examination.
This identification, -with its linkings, necessitates the re-shaping
of much of the geography of the southern border of Palestine and the
neighboring regions, as indicated in the maps, cyclopedias, commentaries,
and guide-books, now in common use. For example, as the westernmost limit
of Edom is not indicated in the Bible except by its relation to
Kadesh-barnea, that limit now passes from an unknown to a known quantity,
by the fixing of a site which is described as just beyond it. So, also, the
traditional Mount Hor must be recognized as an impossible Mount Hor ; and
the central and northern Arabah must no longer be counted a main
camping-ground of the Israelites in their wanderings.
It is clearer than ever, that many of the supposed confusions of
geographical data in the Pentateuch, are the results of later error
concerning the region in question. And there is even stronger reason than
before for believing, that Moses and Hobab were more familiar with the
desert of Sinai and the Xegcb border of Canaan, than the wisest of the
destructive critics of to-day.
The latest discoveries in the region of Kadesh-barnea tend to
indicate how much need there is of a fuller and more intelligent survey of
all that region. An unmistakable inference from that which has thus far
been shown concerning that region is, that there is much more yet to be
learned ; and, surely the lovers of biblical research ought not to rest
satisfied until the steps are taken for its learning.
FAIR CONCLUSIONS. 321
21
THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS.
A SPECIAL STUDY.
THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS.
1. THE BARRIER TO ISRAEL S PASSAGE.
Among the many linkings of Kadesh, there is a linking with Shur. Abraham,
as a pilgrim, is said to have passed a time be tween Kadesh and Shur. 1
Kadesh is found to have been a sanc tuary-stronghold on the borders of the
Land of Promise ; and Shur is found to have been a fortified wall across
the eastern borders of Egypt. 2 And as Kadesh proves to be the key to the
Israelitish wanderings, so Shur proves to be the key to the exodus of the
Israelites. The primary barrier to the exodus was not the Red Sea, but the
Great Wall ; and the Red Sea was opened, be cause the Great Wall was
elosed.
A starting-point of a proper study of the route of the exodus is,
therefore, that border-barrier of Egypt which stayed the Israel ites in
their flight. From what is clearly shown on the monuments and in the papyri
concerning that Great Wall itself, together with what is indicated of
similar fortifications of its time, we are en abled to picture its stretch
and its main features with tolerable exactness.
In view of its importance as a border-line fortification, with the methods
of warfare and the standards of building as they were in that day, that
Wall must have been massive in its structure and
1 Gen. 20 : 2. z See pages 46-58, supra.
325
326 KADESH-BABNEA.
formidable in its appointments. In addition to the many incidental
references to the walls and gates of Thebes and Memphis, which abound in
the old records, 1 as illustrative of the measure of strength and finish
deemed desirable iu structures of this char-
o
acter, there is preserved a monumental reference to one of the Pharaohs as
a protector of the exposed borders of Egypt, which shows clearly the
standard then for a border-wall of the Forti fied Land. 2 * It reads : "
Thou art for it as a fortified Wall of granite, whose battlements are
square stone, and every gate of it is iron. The strangers enter not into
it." And that such, substan tially, was the Great Wall of Egypt, there is
reason for supposing. 3 That this Wall would be strongly garrisoned, and
elosely guarded along its entire stretch, is what we might suppose from the
military habits of a people so much in warfare as the Egyptians ; and the
record of it stands explicitly, that there were " watchers upon the Wall in
daily rotation." 4 Moreover, such a Wall would of neces sity be doubly
strengthened and supplemented by added fortresses (or " khetams"), and by
special towers (" migdols " or "bekhens ") of observation and defense, at
each and all of the great highways which it covered and along which an
enemy would be likely to approach in force from the North or from the East.
Nor are refer-
1 See, c. rj., Inscription of Pianchi Mer-Arnon," in Rec. of Past, II.,
94-97 > " Annals of Ilameses III.," Ibid, VIII., 6, 8, 9, 10, 2-3, 26,
27. " They proceeded to fortify Memphis with a great bulwark made by
skilful artizans, and a moat round the eastern quarter. No point of attack
was found therein."
2 See Brugsch s Hieroglyph. Demot. Wtrterb., I., 335 /., s. v., " Uarma."
Ebers quotes this in its significancy (^Eyypt. u. die Jttich. Hose s, p.
82/., note).
3 The question of the strange lack of monumental ruins in the Delta, where
gran ite was largely used in building, is treated by Zincke, in his Egypt
of the Pharaohs, pp. 26G-284.
4 See " The Story of Saneha," in Rrc. of Part, VI., 135. " There, stood [on
the eastern border of Egypt], from the days before Abraham, the fortresses,
carefully constructed on principles we are pleased in our ignorance to call
modern, with scarp and counter-scarp, and ditch and glacis, well manned by
the best troops, the sentinel on the ramparts day and night." (Poole s
Cities of Egypt, p. 66.)
KHETAM AND ETHAM. 327
ences to these fortresses and towers lacking in either the Egyptian or the
Hebrew records. 1
Yet before tracking these towers and outworks, and the highways which they
covered, it is important to recognize another name than Shur by which the
Great Wall is referred to in the Bible narrative; for this other name has
an important bearing on the story and route of the exodus.
2. KHETAM AND ETHAM.
When the Israelites w r ere fairly beyond the confines of Egypt, through
their miraculous passage of the Red Sea, it is said that " they went out
into the wilderness of Shur ; and they went three days in the wilderness,
and found no water." 5 Recognizing in the wilderness of Shur the wilderness
beyond the Great Wall of Egypt, this statement is easily understood. But in
another record of their wanderings, it is said that the Israelites " passed
through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days jour
ney in the wilderness of Etham." 3 Here the term " Etham " is substituted
for the term " Shur ; " and this substitution has been a perplexity to
Bible commentators as well as to Egyptian students. Yet it is a point which
seems capable of a simple and satisfactory explanation.
1 For references to such fortresses and towers, see Wilkinson s Anc.
Egyptians, I., 2G7 ff. ; Rec. of Past, II., 94-97; VIIL, 9, 25, 27; Brugsch
s Die. Geog., s. v., "Makthal"; his Hist, of Egypt, I., 237, 239; II., 13,
380 /., 3S7 ; Gen. 11: 4; Judges 9: 51; 2 Kings 9 : 17; 18:8; 2 Chron. 26:
9, 10, 15; Isa. 32: 14; Jer 6 : 27 ; etc.
"Special attention," says Brugsch, "was devoted to the fortresses eastward
of Tanis, which covered the entrance from Syria." (Hist, of Egypt, II.,
138.) Again (Ibid., II., 98) he speaks of " the entrance of the great road
" from the East as " covered by khctarns, or fortresses."
* Exod. 15 : 22. Num. 33 : 8-
328 KADESH-BARNEA.
Etham is another name for the Great Wall of Egypt. This important fact
seems to have long escaped the attention of scholars ; even those scholars
whose investigations were furnishing the evidence for its proving. Ebers,
discerning and accurate as always, was the first to catch a glimpse of this
truth ; l jet he was not prompted to follow up his discovery to its more
important legitimate conclusions ; and the truth in its varied connections
7
still waits for that clearing, and that showing, which a fair exami nation
will not fail to secure for it. 2
Both Ebers 3 and Brugsch 1 have elaimed that the Etham of the Hebrew text
is identical with the Khetam of the Egyptian monu ments ; and they have
shown that while the latter word is a common name for " fortress," or "
elosure," there was evidently a Khetam at the cast of the Delta which was
distinguished on the monuments as pre-eminently " the Khetam of Zor," or
Tar ; the Fortification, or elosure, of Lower Egypt. Moreover, Brugsch has
shown that " the Egyptian texts, in agreement with the notices of the
elassic writers, speak only of towns and forts on the frontier ;" 6 hence
the Khetam of Zor is the Border-Barrier, or elosure, of Mazor, toward the
eastern desert; or as the Hebrews would desig nate it, the a Etham, which
is in [or at] the edge of the wilder ness." 7
And Brugsch has shown 8 that Ivhctam, in the plural form,
1 Gfiftrn zum Sinai, pp. 99, 110, 521, ~>?.1; JE<]ypt. u. die Bach.
Jfose s, p. 81.
- 1 ought, perhaps, to say just here, that I first arrived at this
identification of Etham with the Great Wall, by an independent process of
investigation, before I was aware that it had been suggested by Ebers. Yet
I have now revised my entire statement of it, in order to give full place
to the light shed on it by Ebers. It will be seen, however, that I
undertake to carry out the process of proof more fully than Ebers
attempted.
3 Goseti zum Sinai, pp. 99, 522. 4 Hist, of Egypt, II., 12, 3S7.
r> Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 387; also his Diet. Geoy., p. 637^. 6
Hist, of Egypt, II., 381. Exod. 13: 20; Num. 33 : 6.
8 Diet. Geog., p. C47.
KHETAM AND ETHAM. 329
"Khetamu" 1 ("Fortifications"), " is met with very often in the [Egyptian]
texts, without the addition of a proper geographical name, which would
define its topographical position ; " yet where the context, or some
accompanying appellative, would show that the term is employed as a proper
name, rather than as a common noun. Thus, in one of the famous Anastasi
Papyri, which Brugsch has translated, 2 there is found a report to a ruler
of the Nineteenth Dynasty, by a subordinate who has "allowed the tribes of
the Shasu of the country of Aduma [Edom], to pass through the strong fort
Pa-Khetamu [the Fortifications] of the king Minep- tah" in the land of
Thukoo. As Brugsch says of this writing, it was made "certainly with the
view on the part of the writer of giving to his superior a report on the
admission of foreign immi grants to the Egyptian soil;" hence the
conclusion is a fair one, if indeed it be not an inevitable one, that the
border " Fortifications" which those immigrants were permitted to pass
through, were the Fortifications of the border; the Great Wall of Mazor.
And as Thukoo seems to have been a district, or region of country (with
Pithom as its capital, or chief city 3 ) at or near the eastern border of
Lower Egypt, 4 it accords well with all the known facts in the case to find
the Khetam of Zor, and the Khetam of Thukoo, and the Khetam of Meneptah, as
portions, or as appurtenances, of the Great Wall the Khetamoo of the
eastern border of Egypt which is upon the edge of the wilderness.
There are various other references in the papyri to the Khe tamoo, as to
the well-known Border-Barrier of Lower Egypt, desertward. Thus, for another
example, 5 a father writes of his son s recall to the boundary of his own
land (when the son had
1 A terminal 4 (or oo) is the ordinary sign of a plural noun or adjective,
in the old Egyptian language.
1 See Hist, of Egypt, I., 247; also Diet. Gtog., p. 642.
8 Hist, of Egypt, I., 232 /. * See Ebers s Gosen zum Sinai, p. 520.
1 Anast. Pap., V., 13, as translated in Brugsch s Diet. Geoy., p. 649.
330 KADESH-BAENEA.
started out, like Saneha, 1 beyond " the Frontier Wall which the king had
made to keep off the Sakti ") : " My son, who was on his way to Phoenicia,
I have caused to return towards the Khetamu [the " Fortifications "] with
his companions, to re-enter Egypt" Here, as in other cases, the Khetamoo
would seem to be just such a well-defined border-barrier as we know the
Great Wall to have been.
But if added proof in this direction were still asked for, it could be
found with equal explicitness on the pictured monuments, as in the written
papyri. On the outer wall of the great hall of the Temple at Karnak, there
is a series of sculptured designs, re presenting the great campaign of
Setee I. in the north and in the east. 2 In one of these designs the king
is shown as having reached the border of his own land, bringing with him
many captives and other spoils of victory. As he passes through the open
gates of the Fortifications, and crosses the bridge which spans the Great
Canal within, he is welcomed by the priests and the princes of Egypt with
rejoicings and with tributes of gratitude. The in scriptions accompanying
this picture show that the fortification which the king is immediately
passing is the famous "Khetam of Zor;" the Border-Barrier of Mazor. 3 It
certainly is most im probable that the priests and people of Egypt would be
represented as waiting inside a detached interior fortress for the king to
enter its gates. But it is a most probable supposition, that the king s
passing through the gateway of the Great Wall, which we know bordered the
land of Egypt in the direction of his coming, would be recognized and
pictured as his return to his land and his people. And as if to make it
clear beyond all controversy that it is the border Wall of Egypt to which
the king has now returned in
1 See page 47/., supra.
- Reproduced in Lepsius s I)e/i/:m., Ahth. III., Rl. 12G and 128. 3 See
Ebers s JEgypt. u, die Buck. Mose s, p. 80 /. ; also Brugsch s Hist, of
Egypt, II., 19.
KHETAM AND ETIIAM. 331
triumph, the inscription gives the very words of the king s mar shal in
proclaiming the royal victories ; and those words show that the triumph has
been over the hostile Shasoo 1 the Arabs, or Bed ween, or Asiatics whose
sweep was " from the Khetam of Zor [or Tar] to Kan aan." 2
As the enemies of Egypt were not at this time inside the Great Wall of its
eastern border, 3 it would here seem evident that the Khetam of Zor, from
which their western boundary began, was identical at one point at least
with the Great Wall itself. And if the Khetam of Zor, or the Khetamoo, and
the Great Wall were identical at any one point, it is natural that the
designation of Khetam, or Khetamoo, should come to apply to the Great Wall
all the way along its course ; so that that line would be spoken of in
terchangeably as the Fortifications, or as the Wall.
Being influenced by his newer geographical theories of the route
1 " The Shashous, or Schasu, was a generic term applied to the Arab or
Bedouin tribes who inhabited the desert between Syria and the northeastern
frontier of Egypt ; they were a great source of annoyance to the Egyptian
kings, and were conquered, but only for a short time, by Amenhotep I., of
the Eighteenth, and Seti I., of the Nineteenth Dynasties." (Xote to the "
Inscription of Nes-IIor," by Paul Pierret, Sec. of Past, VI., 83.)
1 See Lepsius s Denkm., Abth. III., Bl. 126, a. ; also Brugsch s Diet.
Geog., p. 591 /.
3 Brugsch (Hist, of Egypt, II., 12) would infer from this picture, " that
the Shasu had pressed forward westward quite into the proper Egyptian
territory ; " and this idea is again expressed by him in Vol. II., p. 132,
of his History. But his own ex planation of the record of Setee s campaign
shows, that at this very time the Egyptian strongholds were occupied
outside of the Great Wall, even beyond Ostracine to Absa- qab; and it is
evident that while Aahmes and Amenhotep had expelled the Shasoo and
re-walled them out from the Delta, Setee had now undertaken the subjugation
of them in their roamings, from the Great Wall, or border Fortification, of
his domain, to Kana an, a strong fortress of their remoter stretch.
This fortress of Kana an has not been identified. It is pictured as
crowning a hill top, with a lake near it. Brugsch has strangely enough
proposed to find it in the Arabah, and has suggested the Dead Sea for the
lake (Hist, of Egypt. I., 248 ; II., 13/). But the route of Setee was up
northeasterly toward Philistia, not out easterly across the desert; as the
places which are known, in the sculptured record, abund-
332 KADESH-BARNEA.
of the exodus, Brugsch has latterly l supposed that the Khetam of Zor of
this triumphal representation at Karnak, is a double fortress at some
distance westward of the line of the Great Wall. He even says now that, "
according to this drawing, the strong place of Khetam was situated on both
banks of a river (the Pelu- siac arm of the Nile)," 2 a stream " swarming
with crocodiles, and with [its] banks covered with reeds." 3 Birch 4 (whose
high attain ments in Egyptian studies are less marked in the realm of
geographical details 5 ) follows Brugsch in this surprising state-
antly prove. And this fortress of " Kana an " is again referred to as in
the " land of Zulu," which comprised the Philistine and Phoenician country
(Hist, of Ejypt, II., 164, 420) ; and yet again, as on the road to Aranatu,
or the Orontes (See Rec. of Past, II., 51). Its representation, on a
detached hill, with a lake near it, together with its name, would seem to
identify it unmistakably with Mount Tabor, from the sum mit of which there
is seen the Lake of Galilee, which is called in the Egyptian re cords the
Lake of Kaina (See Rcc. of Past II., 42, 50) ; and near the base of which,
indeed, the sources of the Kishon form as it were a lake, after a rain.
This fortress is afterwards called Dapur ; but it was specifically the
fortress of the Plain, or the Kana an ; the stronghold of the plains of
that region including the great Plain of Esdraelon. It is not necessary to
suppose that the Edomitish Shasoo were the only enemies vanquished by
Setee. lie began with them, at his own border Wall, and swept on through
the land of Zahi, and up to the key-fortress of the plains near the Lake of
Galilee, smiting whomsoever he met on the way. Yet the Midianites and
Amalekites, and children of the East, (the Shasoo,) had sway in the days of
Judges, up to that very region (Comp. Judges 4 : 1-13; 5: 14, 19-21; 6:
1-5, 33); as they may have had in the days of Setee. In fact, everything
goes to identify the fortress of Kana an with the fortress on Mount Tabor.
1 Brugsch s Geographic (Tafel XLVIII.) shows that he had another opinion as
to this Khetam, before adopting his later theory of the exodus.
2 Hist, of Egypt, II., 3S7. 3 jhid., II., 12. * Egypt, p. 115.
5 As, for instance, when he would find in the Egyptian " Gailu," or "
Tarn," or " Garu," " the frontier town of Egypt, probably ITeroopolis, if
it is not Pithorn, which has been at all times the frontier and key of
Egypt" (Egi/pt, p. 115) ; and again in the same place would find " Pelusium
or Tsur " (Rir. of Past, II., 38, note), which as " Sin" has generally been
counted the key to Egypt; " and yetasrain would find in this same " Pithom"
(Eyypt, p. 125) the citadel of Tanis," or Zoan, and this as a stronghold in
the line of the Great Wall of Sesostris ; and once more would find in this
Gailu Khetam Ileroopolis Pelusium Tsur Sin Pithom Tanis thedwel-
KHETAM AND ETHAM. 333
ment. 1 A fatal objection to this theory would seem to be found in an
inscription on the famous picture itself, declaring that the water which
the victorious king is crossing is not a branch of the Nile, but is "
Ta-Tendt, y " The Cutting ; " 2 the Great Canal which was doubtless
protected by the Great Wall, or the Khetainoo of Zor, in the days of this
Pharaoh. 3
As Ebers has suggested, this Karnak picture, " in spite of its apparent
simplicity and naivete, is of the greatest significance and importance." 4
Its value in the settling of several questions con cerning the route of the
exodus is even greater than has been generally recognized, even after what
Ebers has said of it. That Brugsch could not deny the force of this
hieroglyphic reference to " the cutting," is shown in the fact that in his
" Geographic des Alten jEgyptens" 5 he gave a sketch of the Karuak picture,
and marked as the " Kanal von Heroopolis " the very stream which he now
calls " the Pelusiac arm of the Nile ; " and at the same time he marked the
water into which this canal entered as " Dcr hcutige Birkct Timseh See "
("the modern Lake Timseh"). But that was before his adoption of an old-time
theory of the exodus required of Brugsch a re-arranging of the
identifications of sites in Lower Egypt, and an " improvement " on the
plain declarations of the hieroglyphic inscriptions. 6
ling place of "the hostile Shasu " in the days of Setee I. (Egypt, p. 114).
Or yet again, when he would find Saneha stopping at a town in Lower Egypt
of the 13th, or Heliopolite nome," some time after he had passed the Great
Wall, and entered the thirsty desert (Rec. of Past, VI., 136, note).
1 And Geikie (Hours with the Bible, II., 172 /.) actually crosses the
Tanitic arm of the Nile on this bridge. Can he have been misled by the
Egyptian designation of the canal Ta- Tenat ?
2 The inscription is between the banks of the pictured stream (See Lepsius
s Denkm., Abth. III., Bl. 128, a), in the form here given in the margin. 3
See p. 51 /., supra.
* Pict. Egypt, II., 23. 5 Tafel XLVIII.
6 Brugsch, indeed, comes back to the " Cutting " idea in his later Geo- i
graphical Dictionary (p. 591).
334 KADESH-BARNEA.
Once more, the famous poem of Pentaur (a copy of which appears on another
face of the same wall at Karnak which presents the sculptured records of
Setee) brings out the fact that Khetam [or Khetamoo] was the Great Wall of
Egypt. Beginning with the accustomed tribute to the king 1 (Rameses II.),
whose heroic ex ploits are now to be recorded, the poem details the
preparations for a great campaign, as preliminary to the move from the
Pharaonic capital. 2 " After the king had armed his people and his
chariots, and in like manner the Shardonians, which were once his
prisoners, .... then was the order given them for the battle. The king took
his way downwards, and his people and his chariots accompanied him, and
followed the best road on their march." And they came to the borders of the
Walled Land. Only the Great Wall itself was to be passed before they were
on the desert-road northward. " In the fifth year, on the ninth day of the
month Payni, the fortress of Khetam of the Land of Zar [the Fortifications
of the Walled Land 3 ] opened to the king. ... As if he had been the god of
war, Monthu himself, the whole world trembled [at his ap proach], and
terror seized all enemies who came near to bow them selves before the king.
And his warriors passed by the path of the desert, and went on along the
roads of the north." The Great Wall itself being recognized in the Khetam
[or Khetamoo] here men tioned, and this opening of its gates is a fit
opening for the heroic poem; but to count this Khetam as a single border
fortress which the king went into and out of, is to belittle alike the poem
and its theme. Picture and poem combine to show that the Khetam of Zor is
the Great Wall of Lower Egypt.
1 " King Rameses Miamun May he live for ever ! " Here is the earlier
equivalent of the "God save the king" which was the cry of the Israelites
at the inauguration of Saul (1 Sam. 10 : 24), and which is echoed in every
land of a king to-day.
2 This beginning of the poem of Pentaur is not given in Lushington s
translation (in Eec. of Past, II., 65 ff.}. I quote from Brugsch s
translation (in his Hist, of
Egypt, II., 56).
3 These bracketed words are of my insertion.
KHETAM AND ETHAM. 335
As to the correspondence of the Egyptian word " Khetam " with the Hebrew r
or the Hebraized word " Etham," there is more than a mere probability.
Brugsch s first assertion of it as a fact 1 did not give it full acceptance
with philologists. 2 After wards Brugsch strengthened his elaim by
argument; 3 and Ebers 4 added to the force of the evidence already
produced. Even more than all that has been sho\vn by these two scholars can
be brought forward in support of the elaimed correspondence.
It is admitted by all students of Egyptology that in the days of the Hebrew
exodus, and earlier, there was a notable intermingling of the Egyptian and
Semitic languages in Lower Egypt. " The memorial stones, coffins, and rolls
of papyrus found in the ceme teries of ancient Egypt," says Brugsch, 5
"testify the undoubted presence of Semitic persons, who were settled in the
valley of the
Xile, and had, so to speak, obtained the rights of citizenship
We only need to glance over Lieblein s valuable list of Egyptian proper
names, to be fully persuaded of this fact." By this inter mingling of the
races, not only did Semitic words come into frequent use in Egypt, but the
blended peoples " even turned Egyptian words themselves into Semitic, by a
dissection of the syllables, if we may use such an expression." 6 This
being the case, we cannot wonder at finding an Egyptian word adopted into
He brew with more or less of a provincial cast in its re-shaping.
Brugsch and Ebers have shown that the rejection of the initial khe in the
Egyptian word " khetam " is thoroughly in accordance
" Khetam, the meaning of which a shut-up place, fortress, completely agrees
with the Hebrew Etham (Hist, of Egypt, I., 234). "
" It should be remarked that Professor R. Smith [W. Robertson Smith],
looking at the question from a philological point of view, regards Urugsch
s identification of the Khetam of the monuments with the Etham of Exodus as
quite inadequate." (Greville Chester, in Surv. of West. Pal., "Special
Papers," p. 97.)
3 Diet. Geoy., p. 637. * Gosen zum Sinai, p. 521.
5 Hist, of Egypt, I., 241. 6 Hi ^ L O f Egypt, I.. 242.
336 KADESH-BARNEA.
with the Egyptian language, and that it appears in the Coptic, in thorn
(-0-um,), thorn (-eoM,,), and torn (IOM.,), which arc substantives meaning
" elosure," and "walling," and which are radically con nected with the
Coptic verb shctem, " to shut." Brugsch further elaims that the E, or A
(ft), of the Hebrew " Etham " may fairly be taken as a representative of
the Egyptian khe ; that the root khatam is common to Hebrew and Arabic, as
well as to Egyptian ; that changes similar to that of the Egyptian khe into
the Hebrew E, take place in the Hebrew itself, as for instance atum and
khatham, both meaning " to shut," " to elose ; " which are, in spite of the
difference of a and kh, and t (teth) and th (tau) incontrover- tibly
connected by root.
The Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew " Etham " is Othom ^Odubjji), which
shows a variation from the present Hebrew text in vocalization at least. It
is noteworthy that the Arabic word ( jvisf ) othm, or othom ; uthm, or
uthum, means "citadel;" "forti fication built from stones." The Arabic word
corresponds with the Hebrew " Etham " in all the consonants except one ;
the th is a tha instead of a ti which would be the literal representation
of the Hebrew th. This variation is not uncommon, as an actual count and
comparison shows ; it takes place oftenest in cases where the corresponding
Aramean form shows a tcth (Arabic tha). In these cases there often exist
side by side, in the Aramaic, the Hebrew, and the Arabic, forms in both
teth (or tha) and tau (or ti); as for example in kathaph (HD^) and )
athapha(^a.!a.) which are radically connected and show this variation, with
another also. It is certainly not unreasonable to suspect a similar
historical vari ation in the "Etham" case; inasmuch as there are found in
the Hebrew itself two verbs, khatham ( Dj -7, tau for tJi), and khatam ( D
^n ? teth for t), both meaning radically, according to Fiirst, 1 " to elose
; " also an atam ( D 9^), with the same meaning. These three
1 Heb. u. Chald. Worterb., s. vv. Dnn, Dtpn, Dtp*
THE THREE EOADS DESERTWARD. 337
words in the Hebrew plainly corroborate the other evidence of the
connection of Etham with khetam, " to elose ; " and also with the Arabic
othom, " a citadel/ or " a fort." l
It appears to be evident, therefore, that the common Egyptian noun " khetam
" (" a fortress," or " a elosure"), came to be applied as a proper name to
the Khetam, or the Khetamoo of Zor ; to the Great Wall, or the strong line
of Fortifications, on the eastern frontier of Lower Egypt, along the edge
of the wilderness. The Egyptians called this border-barrier, indifferently,
by their own name, Anboo, or Khetamoo ; the Wall, or the Fortifications.
The Hebrews called it indifferently by their own pure Hebrew name " Shur
[the Wall] which is before Egypt," and by the Hebraized- Egyptian name "
Etham [the Fortifications] at the edge of the wilderness." Naturally
therefore, the desert which was just be yond the Great Wall was known to
the Hebrews, indifferently, as " the Wilderness of Shur," or " the
Wilderness of Etham."
3. THE THREE ROADS DESERTWARD.
From the earliest historic days, there seem to have been three great
highways out of Lower Egypt eastward. Each of these roads had its well
known cognomen, or descriptive title, by which it was spoken of in the days
of the Hebrew sacred writings, and by which it would be instantly
recognized by Hebrews and Egyp tians alike. These three roads passed out,
at the left, at the centre, and at the right, as one faced eastward from
the Delta. They were called, in that order: "the Way of the Land of the
Philistines," 2 "the Way of Shur," 3 "the Way of the Red Sea," or
1 Since the above was in type I find that the very word atem (or etam) " to
shut up " existed in the ancient Egyptian / /j <=> V\ r\ } . See
McCauley s Diet.
of Hierog, p. 12. This seems decisive.
2 Exod. 13: 17. 3 Gen. ifi: 7.
22
338 KADESII-BARNEA.
"the Way of the Wilderness of the Red Sea;" 1 or, "the Pliilistia Road,"
"the Wall Road," and, "the Red Sea Road." 2
Our English translation has misled many readers into the belief that the
term used in designating these well-known roads, "the way of," necessarily
indicated " in the direction of," or " by," or "toward;" but the Hebrew
word employed (}"vt dcrekJi) means literally a "road," a "beaten track," a
" trodden course." 3 It is translated in several instances, " highway ; "
as, " the king s high way." 4
Traces of all three of these great highways out of Egypt are to be found
to-day, as they could have been found at any time since the days of Abraham
and the early Pharaohs.
4. THE PHILISTIA ROAD.
" The Way of the Land of the Philistines," or the northernmost road of the
three, was the road more commonly taken by the Pharaohs on their
expeditions into Canaan and Syria. It is spoken of by Brugsch as " the old
royal road along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the well-known road of
the Philistines of Scripture, the road Zahi of the monuments." 5 Strabo 6
de scribes it as coming in near Pelusium, from the regions east of Egypt.
It crossed the line of lakes which form the bed of the
. 13: 18; Num. 14: 25; 21: 4; Dent. 1: 40; 2: 1.
z Bruce (Travels, I., 239 /.) described these three roads out of Egypt
eastward, although, like so many others, he did not observe that they were
named in the Bible text. His testimony is all the more valuable in its
impartiality, from the fact that he thinks that no one of those roads was
taken by the Israelites in their exodus.
3 The term is still in common use among the Arabs. See, e. g., the
references in the notes of Professor Palmer (Besant s Life of Palmer, p.
293) to "the Way of Wady Remliah, the Way Atrabin, and the Way of the
Hajj." (See, also, p. 74 /., supra.)
* Num. 20 : 17 ; 21 : 22. * Hist, of fyypt, I., 336.
6 Geog., Bk. XVII., chap. I., 21.
THE PHILISTIA ROAD. 339
modem Suez Canal, just north of Lake Ballah, at, a point still known as "
El-Qaiitarah," l " the Bridge," or " the Arch," or " the Span ; " where,
before the days of the canal, the modern caravan route between Egypt and
Syria passed over a two-arched bridge, 1 in the line of " the caravan route
" which Ebers specifies as " lead ing in ancient times from Syria into
Egypt." 3 Its passage of the Great Wall must have been at some distance
northeast of this bridge. The " Peutiuger Tables " 4 would seem to show
that the Roman road in this direction ran elose along the Mediterranean
shore.
i This Arabic term El-Qantarah ( S^ilAJL !) j s translated by Freytag
(Lexicon, s. v.) "the bridge." Palmer ("Name Lists," Surv. of West. Pal.,
pp. 23, 63, 162, etc.) translates it "the arch." It seems to differ from
"Jisr"( *-w*^ ) or "Gisr" (the Arabic ^ is pronounced as hard "g" in Egypt,
and as "g" soft, or " j " in Syria and Arabia), also sometimes translated
the " bridge," in that it has the idea of a "span," either by archway or
other open stretch, while the latter may be a solid causeway. As to this,
see a foot-note a few pages farther on. This passway of the northern road
to Syria is also called " Qautarat el-Khazneh," or similarly " Gisr el-
Qanateer," " The Bridge of the Treasury." (See the Topographical Chart of
Egypt in the Atlas of Napoleon s Descript. de VEgypte ; Berchere s Le
Desert de Suez, p. 41 ; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 426 ; Baedeker s
Lower Egypt, p. 422 /. ; also " Map of the Delta" in the latter.) Is this a
reference to the ancient store-houses, or grain magazines, or "
treasure-cities " (Exod. 1 : 11), to which this passway was a prominent
approach ? Or does it indicate an Oriental estimate of the Delta as the
great treasury of food for the outside world ? "All countries came into
Egypt, ... for to buy corn " (Gen. 41 : 57). Tacitus (Hist. Bk. III., chap.
8) speaks of "JEgyptus elatistra anno- n&:" " Egypt the treasure-house ["
elosure"] of corn [" annual produce "]. " Egypt . . . must have been to the
wandering tribes of Asia what the Roman empire was to the Celtic and Gothic
races when they first crossed the Alps. Egypt is to them the land of
plenty, whilst the neighboring nations starve ; its long strip of
garden-land was the Oasis of the primitive world." (Stanley s Sinai and
Pal., Introduction, p.
XXX. /.)
* Berchere s Le Desert de Sues, p. 53.
3 Ebers s Pict. Egypt, II. 21.
And Poole (Cities of Egypt, p. 114) adds: "The frontier wall has
disappeared, with its forts, but the eastward road, whereby the great
armies of Egypt went to war in Syria, is yet followed by the caravans."
* See a copy of these in Menke s Bibelatlas, No. VI.
340 KADESH-BARNEA.
5. THE WALL ROAD.
" The Way of Shur," or the central road of the three, is made known to us
chiefly by its mention in the Bible ; although helps to its identifying are
not wanting outside of the sacred text. The Bible references to it are
commonly from the Canaan direction ; going toward Egypt, rather than coming
from Egypt. It was the central road through Canaan, lengthwise, as it was
the central road into and out of Egypt. It came down through Hebron and
Beer- sheba, about half way between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea.
When Hagar fled from Hebron, before the birth of Ishmael, she went down
into the wilderness to the fountain on the Wall Road. 1 The road she took
seems to have been the road which Abraham had taken into and out of Egypt ;
2 and down along which he afterwards moved by stages until he sojourned
between Kadesh and the Wall. 3 It was probably along this route that Jacob
went down into Egypt, by the way of Beersheba and south ward, " in the
wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him," 4 when he moved thither with
his family at the invitation of Joseph. Incidental proof of this is given
in the Septuagint statement, that at that time, " Joseph having yoked his
chariots went up to meet Israel his father at Heroopolis ; " 5 for no
probable location of Heroopolis would put that city on the route from the
then capital of Egypt to the Philistia Road into the Delta. Again,
presumably, it was along the Way of Shur that Joseph went up to Hebron and
returned thence, on the occasion of the burial of his father , 6 for Hebron
was on that Wall Road.
1 Gen. 16:7. 2 Gen. 12: 6-10; 13 : 1-3. 3 Gen. IS : 1 ; 20: 1.
4 Gen. 46: 1-7. 5 Gen. 46: 29.
6 Gen. 50: 7-14. " The route taken by Jacob s funeral procession was
evidently along the usual caravan road between the Delta and Hebron. . . .
The Egyptian at tendants waited somewhere in the neighborhood of Beersheba,
while the Hebrews
THE WALL ROAD.
341
As each of the other roads passed the Great Wall at one of its flanks, the
Wall Road probably passed it at its centre. West of the Wall, its course
was probably between Lake Ballah and Lake Timsah, near the northern end of
the latter, across the high table land El-Gisr ; " The Bridge," " The
Causeway," or " The Threshold." l This would bring it not far from the site
of the modern Station Isma ileeya.
It will be seen by the diagram of a section through the Isthmus of Suez,
along the line of the modern canal, given herewith, that the plateau of
El-Gisr is the highest ground between the two
went alone through the winding passes up to the an- g cestral sepulchre at
Hebron "(Drew s /Scrip. Lands, p. 38, note).
1 The Arabic " Gisr " ( j"*"* ) is commonly trans- g lated the " Bridge "
(See, e. g., Eli Smith s Arabic In dex " in Robinson s Bib. Res., first
ed., III., Append., p. 215; Palmer s " Name Lists," Surv. of West Pal., M
pp. 22, 43, 127, etc. ; also Freytag s Lex. s. v. " Gisr"). But Freytag
also renders it a "causeway" (" Via la-
pidibus strata" French " chatissee"). Again, it is
o sometimes rendered " the threshold." " El-Gisr
in Arabic signifies elevation, and corresponds very
nearly with our word threshold " (Berchere s Desert
o of Suez, p. 64. See, also, Baedeker s Lower Eyypt, p.
422). Again (according to Dr. IT. H. Jessup, of Bay- root), it is a term
applied to the larger beams or _ stringers of the ceiling of a house ;
beams which ^ bridge the space between the walls, while they may R serve as
a threshold, or sill, of the rooms above. It will be seen that whether the
term as applied to this plateau, be understood as " The Bridge," " The
Causeway, it plainly suggests the idea of a main passage just here.
t*> r\j *. ^6 10 O O O O O O <
or "The Threshold," Justinian (Iiistit., Lib.
342 KADESH-BARNEA.
shores ; and it is probable that such has been the case in all this
geological epoch. 1 It is true that there has been much of fanciful
speculation on this point, together with no little of honest doubting and
inquiry ; but the finally gathered facts of the case would seem sufficient
to put the matter at rest, within the limits of the above statement. The
first careful surveys and scientific exami nations of Lower Egypt as a
whole, in modern times, were made by the great French Commission under
General Bonaparte (A. D. 1798-1801) ; and the Maps and Memoirs of that
Commission, as published in the early part of this century, are still
invaluable as a thesaurus of information on many of the special points
which they cover. The essay of M. Roziere on the " Ancient limits of the
Red Sea," 2 includes a full discussion of scientific and historic
indications of the changes in the configuration of the
<_; O
Isthmus of Suez ; and his conclusion is, that both geology and history go
to show that that region has been substantially as at present during all
this geological epoch. 3 Any independent and thorough investigation must
reach the same conclusion.
Between the Bitter Lakes and the present head of the Gulf of Suez, there
stand the heights of Shaloof, an impassable barrier to the waters of the
Gulf, and which are clearly of the tertiary for-
I., Tit. XII., 35) says that, as " the thresholds make a certain boundary
in a house, so also the ancients designed that the boundary of the empire
should be its threshold. Hence also it was called the threshold." Wilkinson
(Anc. Egypt., I., 71)andBrugsch (Hist. Egypt, II. , 3SS) translate " Gisr "
as "Dyke;" they, per haps, having in mind its " causeway " signification.
1 The diagram given is from Proceedings of Inst. of Mech. Engineers
(England), for 1S67, accompanying a paper by M. Borel, of Paris.
2 " MSmoire sur les Anciennes Limites de la Mer Eouge," in Memoires sur
VEgypte (Vol. I., pp. 187-192), Paris, 1803.
3 It is true that another member of this Commission (M. Du Bois Ayme, in
Vol. VIII., pp. 77-143 of this work) incidentally expresses the opinion
that the for mer limits of the Gulf of Suez were greater than now ; but he
brings no new facts in support of that position, nor does he argue the
question, like M. Hozire.
THE WALL ROAD. 343
mation, hence not formed within the period of the human habit- ancy of the
globe. These heights are a continuation of the prominent heights of
Geueffch, at the west of the Bitter Lakes, and would seem to shut off the
possibility of a union of those Lakes and the Gulf. On this point M.
Mauriac, the engineer of the Suez Canal Company/ was positive, in view of
his study of the case. In his correspondence with President Bartlett, he
held that " the ridge of Chaloof is now far above the highest known seas ;
" that " it is of the same age with the mountain Geneffch, of which it is a
kind of buttress or prolongation ; " that the overflow of the Red Sea into
the basin of the Bitter Lakes, which left there the existing strata of
salt, " could not have taken place during the present geological condition
of the globe ;" that the level of the Red Sea has not materially changed
within this geological epoch ; and that there has been " no communication
of the Lakes with the Red Sea except in pre-historic times." 2
Again, Dr. Klunzinger, a naturalist of no mean degree, who went to Egypt
directly in the interests of science, and " with the special object of
making zoological investigations and collections on the Red Sea," 3 has
recently furnished important testimony on this point, as a result of
observations in his particular sphere. He says: " The arm of sea which
springs from the great Indian Ocean, and bears the name of Red Sea or
Arabian Gulf, is a genuine tropical
1 Reference is here made to M. Mauriac s correspondence with President
Bartlett in the latter s work, From Egypt to Palestine (pp. 156-1G4), which
contains a good exhibit of facts bearing on this discussion.
2 Bartlett shows that Fraas (Aus dem Orient, p. 173), and Ritt (Hist, de I
Isth. de Suez, p. 5), agree with Mauriac as to the tertiary formation of
Shaloof; although the latter would like to introduce an earthquake for its
later uplifting, in order to suit his theory of the exodus. Indeed Ritt
makes no elaim that there are any signs of volcanic action there. His
reasoning seems to be, that as his theory of the changes of the Isthmus is
not to be reconciled with that ridge as it is, it is easier to introduce au
earthquake than to change his theory.
3 Upper Eyypt, Preface.
344 KADESH-BARNEA.
sea, although it stretches northwards far beyond the tropic. Though it is
separated from the Mediterranean Sea only by the Isthmus of Suez, in the
character of its animal life it is sharply distinguished from the former
sea, and only a few cosmopolitan forms are common to both, a proof that in
recent epochs at least there has been no communication between the two." 1
In addition to this aspect of the scientific probabilities of the case, the
historic evidence available is all in the same direction. Herodotus 2 was
specific in giving " the shortest and quickest dis tance " between the
shores of the Mediterranean, at Mount Casius, and the Arabian Gulf, or Gulf
of Suez, as " exactly a thousand stadia " or Roman furlongs. This would
show a distance, at that time, by the quickest route, of about one hundred
and fifteen English miles; 3 somewhat more than the present width of the
Isthmus. This testimony, of upwards of twenty-three centuries ago, carries
us back more than two-thirds of the way to the days of Moses ; and it goes
to show that whatever changes have taken place in the coast lines meantime,
have tended to diminish rather than to extend the breadth of the Isthmus.
Four centuries after Herodotus, Strabo, 4 writing of the same point said :
" But the Isthmus between Pclusium and the head [of the Arabian Gulf] near
Heroopolis, is a thousand stadia," and he quotes Poseidonios, a writer
about half way between Herodotus and Strabo, as calling the distance " less
than fifteen hundred " stadia. A little later than Strabo, Pliny 5 gave the
length of the
1 Klunzinger s Upper Egypt, p. 335. 2 Hist., II., 158.
3 A strange perversion of the testimony of Herodotus has been made by M.
Ritt, through a miscalculation of the length of the common elassical
stadion (see Hist, de VIsthm. de Suez, p. 5) ; but a reference to the text
of Herodotus (Hist., II., 149) will show that his measurements are in the
stadion hexaplethron, a stadion of six plethra (a plethron being one
hundred and one English feet). Eitt quotes no ancient writer but Herodotus,
and his measurements he misrepresents.
* Gcog., Book XVII., chap. 1, 2 21. = Hist. Nat., Bk. V., chap. 11.
THE WALL ROAD. 345
Isthmus, " from Pelusium to Arsinoe," the same as it had been given by
Herodotus. Yet two centuries later, and Ptolemy showed, by his tables of
latitude and longitude (a surer definition of relative locations than
distances along a traveled route would be), that the Isthmus between the
Mediterranean, at Peluriium, and the head of the Gulf of Suez, was then a
little broader than at present, and a little narrower than in the days of
Herodotus. Ptolemy s plotting, as compared with the actual positions of
to-day, is well shown by Kiepert s drawing of " Ptolemy s Map of the
World," in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britaimica. 1 Again, the
" Iter Antoniuum," a table of distances along certain routes in the Roman
Empire, seems to confirm, by a comparison of its various measurements, the
more direct testimony of Ptolemy, Pliny, Strabo, Poseidon ios and
Herodotus, to the eifect that the Isthmus of Suez was certainly no narrower
twenty centuries ago, than to-day. This view is affirmed by the competent
editor of Baedeker s Lower Egypt ; 2 and it would seem to be also the
opinion of Professor Huxley, in his latest study of the subject. 3
In short, whatever theory of the " might have been " is elabo rated or
defended by any advocate of a greatly narrower way than
1 Conder (Handbook, p. 247) says: "The maps of Ptolemy (second and third
cen turies of our era) show the mouths [of the Nile] some forty
geographical miles far ther south than at present." Yet one of the latest
careful students of this subject (Ruge, in Encyc. Brit., Art. "Map ") says:
"No maps appear to have been drawn by Ptolemy himself; those to be found in
the oldest editions of his work are by Aga- thodajmon (a mathematician of
the fifth (?) century after Christ), though accurately based, it is true,
on Ptolemy s data." Yet Ptolemy speaks (Book I., chap. 19-24) of his method
of working on his maps. And a comparison of Ptolemy s plotting with the
present line of the Mediterranean seems to show that the mouths of the Nile
were farther north in his day, instead of farther south, than they are
to-day. (Much information on the subject of the various editions, earlier
and later, of Ptolemy s Geography is to be found in Justin Winsor a "
Bibliography of Ptolemy s Geogra phy," in the Harvard University Bulletins
for 1883 /. )
* Handbook, p. 412 /. 3 " Unwritten History," in Macmillan s Mag. for May,
1883.
346 KADESH-BARNEA.
that of the present, between Africa and Asia, in the elays of the Pharaohs,
the hard facts of geology and history arc at one in showing that no such
thing was. 1 Hence we may fairly look for the lines of the roadways of
then, in the lines of practicable road ways of now.
A suggestion of Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, in a recent study of this
subject, 2 is worthy of note just here, as illustrative of a whole elass of
errors in this discussion. Misled by his own inaccurate fixing of
Heroopolis on the strength of an indefinite reference to its site by
Strabo, 3 Poole is necessitated to reconstruct the Isthmus to suit that
identification. He thinks that El-Gisr may haye been lower than now, so low
as to have been under the Gulf of Suez level; that the shore levels north
and south may have changed meantime; that there may have been "a gradual
fall of the land, at least in the north of the Isthmus of Suez, and a
corresponding rise in the south;" that the Gulf of Suez may even "have ex
tended in historical times, so far north as to include Lake Ballah,"
without making Africa an island; because, forsooth, how otherwise could we
account for the supposed fact that the only great road out
1 Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., II., 312-316) argues in favor of the inclusion
of the Bitter Lakes in the lied Sea within historic times. So also do
Sliarpe (Bartlett s Forty Dni/s, p. 25); Hayman (Smith-IIackett s Bib.
Die., Art. "Wild, of the Wand."); E. Stanley Poole (Ibid., Art. "Red Sea");
Canon Cook (Speaker s Com. Append, to Exod.) ; Graetz (Gesch. d. Jii len,
I., 378 ff.) ; Cornier (Handbook, p. 247 /.); Burton (Gold Mines of Mid.,
p. M /.) ; Villiers Stuart (Xi/c Gleanings, pp. 5-7) ; and others ; but no
one of these adds a single point to the arguments already disposed of;
while in several instances the uiaiii facts relied on. are now siiowu to be
bald errors.
2 In his Oities of Egypt, pp. 112-123.
3 All that Strabo says of the location of Heroopolis, can be reconciled
with a con nection of that city and the gulf by a canal the "Trajan Paver,"
as Ptolemy (Geog., Bk. IV., chap. 5, g 54) calls it. Ptolemy (Coinp. % 13
and $ 54 as above) shows that Heroopolis is some twelve or fourteen miles
farther north than the head of the gulf. Poole s conclusion, that "the gulf
extended over forty miles northward of its present head at Suez," of course
falls with the disclosure of his error in locating Hero opolis.
THE WALL ROAD. 347
of Egypt toward Syria passed north of the present Lake Ballah? "Obviously,"
he says, "the Pharaohs would have chosen the best line of march, north of
the Red Sea, and so between the two seas ; " and since, as the face of the
country now exists, the plateau of El- Gisr would proffer such a line, it
is reasonable to suppose that that plateau was then under water, even if
the Isthmus must be tipped up to keep it there. This is certainly an
ingenious way of meeting the difficulties which must present themselves to
any thoughtful student of the facts involved, who lacks a knowledge of the
great central road out of Egypt over El-Gisr, south of Lake Ballah, in the
days of the Pharaohs ; the " Way of Shur," or the Wall Road of Egypt.
As over against this suggestion of Poole s, a writer in the Edin burgh
Review, 1 not long ago, made an ingenious and plausible argument to show
that in the days of the exodus this midland road over El-Gisr, or rather
over the height next south of it, this " Way of Shur " must have been the
only practicable highway out of Egypt eastward. His elaim was, that the
region of Qantarah, the pass of the " Way of the Land of the Philistines,"
including all " the space now covered by Lakes Menzaleh, Ballah, and
Timsah, and the intervening and neighboring marshy and sandy districts,
must at that time either have been far below the level of the
Mediterranean, or have been covered by lagoon and marsh,
*/ O
accessible to the waters of that sea, when driven by a westerly wind." His
argument was based upon the data of other changes along the Mediterranean
shore ; and it was so neatly done as to half tempt a regret that it could
not be true. But the real barrier to its acceptance was, that its
conclusions were utterly at variance with the facts of the case as shown by
the Egyptian monument?, the Hebrew records, and the elassical geographers
and historians. And the same may be said of any theory which would fail to
leave
1 For Jaii., 1877, Art. " Mediterranean Deltas."
348 KADESH-BARNEA.
dry ground for both the " Way of the Land of the Philistines " and tlie "
Way of Shur " in the days of the Pharaohs, and in all the days which have
intervened since then.
It has been elaimed by many writers that a prophecy of Isaiah (11 : 15) was
literally fulfilled in the shortening of the Gulf of Suez; and an appeal to
this prophecy ("The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian
Sea") has been frequently made in support of some hypothesis of a much
narrower isthmus in the days of the exodus. But what reason is there for
supposing the "Egyptian Sea "to have been the "Yam Sooph," or the Gulf of
Suez ? l That gulf is never called the " Egyptian Sea " elsewhere than in
this passage; and here the prophetic reference would seem to be to the Nile
rather than to the Gulf. The Xilc is several times called the " sea,"
including at least two instances in Isaiah (18 : 2 ; 10 : 5) ; and it is so
known among the Arabs at the pres ent time. 2 The Pelusiac arm of the Xilc,
which was the great tongue of that Egyptian Sea eastward ; which both
bounded and gave life to that portion of primitive Lower Egypt; 3 into
which the Great Canal entered ; along which were the chief cities and inner
fortresses of the eastern border, from Pelusium (the " Key of Egypt ") to
Ilcliopolis ; and which was, in fact, worshiped as one of the legs of the
great god Osiris ; this tongue of the Egyptian Sea has been so " utterly
destroyed," and blotted from existence, that Egyptian explorers are unable
to track its ancient course, or to de fine the line of its former channel
and banks. 4 Surely there is here an ample fulfillment of the prophecy of
Isaiah, without any call to pervert the teachings of the other Scriptures,
the records of outside history, and the indications of geology, in order to
meet the condi-
1 The western arm of the Red Sea, by whatever name it was known.
2 See Gesenius s Heb. Lex., s.v. Yam (D ) 1. a. In Ancient Egyptian, also,
the
correspondent word " im," signified both " the sea " and " the Nile"; as,
again did
the word, " uat ur " (water ?). See McCauley s Diet, of Egypt. Hieroglyph.,
pp. 66, 206.
3 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 228 /. 4 Ibid., I., 236 /.
THE WALL ROAD. 349
tions of a hypothetical exegesis, and a hypothetical re-construction of the
Isthmus of Suez. There is even reason for thinking that the triple
parallelism of this portion of Isaiah s prophecy has ex elusive reference
to the river Nile ; although the commentators generally would find in " the
river " a reference to the Euphrates, and would understand that that river
is to be smitten into " seven streams." Certainly a more natural meaning
would seem to be found in a reference to the Nile in each of the three
elauses of the verse ;
" And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, And
with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, And shall
smite it in the seven streams, And make men go over dry shod."
" The river" clearly applies to the Nile in Isaiah 19:5, and there, also,
in a parallelism with the Nile as " the sea." And the Nile has been smitten
in that portion of it which was known as "the seven streams ; " five of
those seven streams being now elosed from sight.
Distinct traces of this Wall Road, midway of the Isthmus, have been
discovered but recently ; and even yet their discovery does not seem to
have been applied to the question here considered, by students of this
region. In 1878, the Rev. F. W. Holland made his fifth visit to the
Peninsula of Sinai, " in the hope of throwing some light upon the disputed
question of the site of Kadesh- barnea, and the boundary of the ancient
kingdom of Edom." When on the edge of the Negeb, the " South Country " of
Scrip ture, he was turned aside from his search of Kadesh-barnea, by
learning of an ancient road sweeping across the desert toward the modern
station Isma tleeya. This road, which is a continuation of the caravan
route from Hebron and Beersheba, desertward, passes to the north of Jebel
Yeleq (which mountain, Holland says, " has been placed too far to the
north," on the maps, hitherto) ; it
350 KADESH-BARNEA.
"crosses Jebcl Mugharah, 1 an important range, where there are wells 2 and
ancient ruins; and then turning due west, runs over a rolling plateau, in
places much covered with sand drifts, to Ismailia." " Large numbers of
flint flakes and arrow heads prove," says Holland, " that this road was
much used in ancient times ; and there can be little doubt that it was the
road followed by Abraham from the Xegeb, or South Country, to Egypt." A
brief report of this discovery was made by Holland to the British
Association for the Advancement of Science ; 3 but his death pre vented his
pursuit of this elue and its Unkings. In reporting it, however, he said
with enthusiasm : " The discovery of this road is regarded as one of great
importance ; and, as far as the author can learn, it has been previously
unknown." 4 It certainly fur-
1 This mountain range is laid down on none of the maps (except that of
Egypt, in Stanford s London Atlas, 1882), so far as I know, although a
station marked " Magar" is noted in its region, in the Atlas of the
Description de VEgypte, and on a few later maps. Nor is this omission to be
wondered at ; for the mountain ran,"e is no longer on the ordinary route of
desert travel, now that the " Wav of Shur" is discontinued as a main road ;
and it is in a district left out of all the modern thorough surveys. It is
however occasionally referred to as seen in the distance bv travelers
between Suez and Gaza. A good description of it, witli accompanying
illustra tions is given in the Archduke Ludwig s Caravan Route between
Enypt and Syria (See also Stewart s Tent and Khan, pp. C 02, 215).
Professor Palmer makes several references to Magharah, in his now famous
ride from Gaza to Suez (See Besant s Life of Palmer, p. 269), and his
biographer being unable to find the site on the maps falls into the natural
mistake (p. 274) of supposing that this " Magharah " is the " Jebel
Makrah," many miles eastward.
2 Is "the fountain in the Way of Shur "the watering place between Beersheba
and the Wall on that Wall Road yet to be recognized at this point.
3 See Report of the British Assoc. for 1878, p. 622 ff.
4 It is worthy of note that Laborde laid down this road on a route map in
his great work ( Voyage de I Arab. Pet.), just as Holland describes it, and
entitled it the " route of the caravans of the Midianites and Idumeans from
Syria to Efrypt." It seems to be indicated in Kiepert s map which
accompanied Robinson s Biblical Researches. Lepsius, also, (Denkm., Abth.
I., Bl. 3) notes the remains of an ancient road (alte Strasse) between Lake
Ballah and Lake Timsah, where El-Gisr furnishes the thresh old.
THE WALL ROAD. 351
nishcs a positive confirmation of the existence of the central Road of the
"Wall, referred to in the Bible, and indicated by the whole contour of the
country in the region of the " Wall that is before Egypt as thou goest
toward Assyria." l
There is even reason for supposing that the return of Setec I. from his
campaign against the Shasoo and other enemies, as shown in the famous
bas-relief at Karnak, was by the " Way of Shur," rather than by the " Way
of the Land of the Philistines." Even if he went out through the Wall by
the northerly road (as is by no means sure), he had certainly swept onward
in a northeasterly direction to Galilee, and beyond, and it would seem
natural for him to return by a director course from his victory at " Kana
an," than the Gaza seaside-route could offer to him.
One point is sure : near the place of his passing the Great Wall, and
crossing the Great Canal, as there represented, was a " Well of the Tower,"
or a " Tower of the Well ; " a Migdol and a Well in conjunction. To this
day there exists a "Bir Makdal," 2 a " Well of the Tower," on the edge of
the wilderness, a short dis tance from El-Gisr, northeasterly, in the very
line of that central roadway between Egypt and Syria the Way of Shur. If
Sctee I. did not return to Egypt by that roadway, this " Well of the Tower
" at the main entrance which he might have entered is a very remarkable
coincidence. If, on the other hand, that was the road of his return, this
"Well of the Tower" has retained its name, by tradition, in all the
intervening ages, in accordance with the customs of the unchangeable East.
There is certainly no Well of the Tower suggested as an identification of
this landmark of Setee s approach to Egypt, or any other road than this Way
of Shur.
1 Gen. 25: 18.
2 See " Carte Topographique," in Description de VEgypte (Arabic, JcX^^J s-o
; French, Bir Makdul); also " Karte von yEgypten," in Lcpsius s Denkmaler,
Abth. I., Bl. 2 (German, Muktal) ; also any complete modern map of that
region.
352 KADESH-BARNEA.
6. THE YAM SOOPH KOAD.
" The Way of the Red Sea," or " The Way of the Wilderness of the Red Sea/
was the road which swept out of Egypt, across the wilderness between the
two arras of the Red Sea, from the head of the Gulf of Suez to the head of
the Gulf of Aqabah. It is to-day the great Hajj route from Egypt toward
Mekkeh. It first finds mention in the Bible as the road toward which the
Israelites w T erc turned, from their encampment near the exit of the
Philistia Road through the Great Wall of the frontier, at the time of the
exodus. " God led them not the Way of the Land of the Philistines; although
that was near [i^p.qarobh, elose at hand ]; . . . but God led the people
about [or, better, turned the people to ] the Way of the Wilderness of the
Red Sea." 1 After this mention, this road is frequently referred to in the
narrative of the exodus and wanderings.
When this southernmost road is spoken of, in the Bible, from the Egypt side
of the Wall, it is called the " Way of the Wilder ness of the Red Sea ;" 2
but when it is mentioned from the wilder ness side it is called the " Way
of the Red Sea" 3 simply. The reason for this distinction is obvious.
As a question has been raised concerning the identity of the modern "Red
Sea " with the term so translated in our English Bible, and in the
Septuagint, it may be well to meet that question
at this point. /
s/ The Hebrew term is Yam Sooph* The word Yam means "sea," or " lake." The
word Sooph means " weeds," or " sedge," or " rushes," or " flags." Yam
Sooph, therefore, might fairly mean " Sea of Weeds," or " Sea of Sedge," or
" Lake of Rushes," or " Lake of Flags." Brugsch says emphatically, 5 that "
suph is a plant which
1 Exocl. 13 : 17, 18. 2 Exod. 13 : 13.
3 Xum. 14: 25; 21: 4; Deut. 1: 40; 2: 1. 4 See Geseuius aud Furst, . v. 5
Hist, uj Egi/pt, II., 430.
THE YAM SOOPH ROAD. 353
grows in lakes, but not in the sea." And Philip Smith adds, 1 that "the
leading passage to determine the original meaning of the word is Exodus 2 :
3, where the ark 2 of the infant Moses is made of stiph" But before these
asseverations could be accepted as con elusive, it would be necessary to
show how it was, then, that Jonah found a fresh-water turban in the depths
of the Mediterranean Sea ; for it was when he had been thrown overboard on
his way from Joppa to Tarshish, that he said : 3 " The sooph was wrapped
about my head." In other words, since it is clear that the Hebrew word
sooph is in one instance applied to the vegetation of the sea, and in
another instance to the vegetation of the river, it is proper to look for
some equivalent term, like " weeds," or " sedge," that shall be applicable
alike to the vegetation of river and of sea.
The Egyptian word sufi, or thufi,* which Brugsch counts the equivalent of
the Hebrew sooph, is applied, according to his testi mony, to the aquatic
vegetation of Lake Menzaleh and vicinity ; although the Hebrew word does
not seem to be specifically applied, in the Bible, to the vegetation of a
lake, as it is applied to that of
1 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 430, note.
2 This is an inadvertent error. The ark is made of gomt; but it is laid in
the sooph. The same error is made by Greville Chester in his article in "
Special Papers " (p. 107) of Surv. of West. Pal.
3 Jonah 2 : 5.
4 " The marshes and lakes rich in water plants, which at this day are
denoted by the name of the Birket Menzaleh, shared the name common to all
such waters, sufi (or, with the Egyptian article, pa-sufi, equivalent to
the sufi ), a word which com pletely agrees with the Hebrew Snf [Sooph].
The interpreters generally understand this word in the sense of rushes or a
rushy district, while in old Egyptian it denotes precisely a water rich in
papyrus plants." (Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 232.) In the Appendix to
his Geographical Dictionary (pp. 890-902, s. v. T/nift), Brugsch labors to
show that this word was limited to fresh water lilies and rushes; but he
simply multiplies evidence in proof of the admitted fact that the word was
sometimes so applied. And he shows the essential insufficiency of his
argument, when he admits that the word is of Semitic origin; so that Jonah
is quite as likely as an Egyptian scribe, or any other dweller in Egypt, to
have been informed of its possible meanings. 23
354 KADESH-BARNEA.
the river and of the Great Sea. Yet in both his Lexicon 1 and his
Geographical Dictionary, 2 Brugsch admits that the Egyptian \vord is
applicable also to sea-\veed (alga marina).
That the shores and the bottom of the Ked Sea arc such as readily to
account for the application to that sea of some name in dicative of the
peculiar growths which border and underlie it, is a fact made clear by the
testimony of impartial and intelligent ob servers of all ages. Strabo,
speaking of the Red Sea, says : 3 " Even trees (dsvopa, dendra ) here grow
from under the water." Bruce 4 says of the tree-like coral growths of that
sea (although he was unfamiliar with the other marine growths reported by
later scien tists) : " My opinion is, that it is from the large trees or
plants of white coral, spread everywhere over the bottom of the Red Sea,
perfectly in imitation of plants on land, that the sea has obtained this
name " of Yam Sooph. And he adds : " I saw one of these [trees] which from
a root nearly central, threw out ramifications in a nearly circular form,
measuring twenty-six feet diameter every way." Fazakerlcy 5 told of the
prominence given to this idea by the Arabs of Toor. " They proposed to us,"
he said, " to go with them in their boats, and promised to show us what
they called trees growing at the bottom of the sea." lie accepted their pro
posal. " There was not a breath of wind ; the water was as clear as crystal
; and when we had moved out to some little distance from the shore, we saw
clearly what they meant by trees : large elusters of coral, and madrepores
of different forms and colors, and some of great size, looking like shrubs
growing out of the sand." 6 Laborde, again, presented a strong array of
testimony on this point, 7 as showing the impropriety of limiting the
soopli to fresh water vegetation. Besides citing earlier writers, like
Rosenmuller,
iJIicr. Demot. Worterb., p. 1580. 2 Dirt. Geog., p. 890 /.
3 Geog., XVI., 4, 7. 4 Travels (1768-1773), I., 247.
B See his " Journey " (in 1811), in AValpole s Travels in East. 6 Ibid., p.
381.
7 Voyage de I Arable Pctrec, p. 5.
THE YAM SOOPH ROAD. 355
Buxtorf, Shaw, and Lipenius, he quoted the testimony of Lord Valeutia and
Giovanni Finati to the effect that " weeds and corals" are to be seen in
such profusion and beauty at many places along the shores of the Red Sea,
and again below its surface, as dis elosed at low water, " as almost to
have the appearance of groves and gardens." !
Even if it were shown that sooph was % term applied only to the reeds of
Egypt, there would still be reason for thinking that it designated a growth
along the shores of the Red Sea. Thus Stickel 2 cites Frcsnel in proof that
sooph signifies " the woolly bush of the ripe reed," " the juncus acutus,
arundo ^Egyptiaca, and arundo Isaica, which grows commonly on the shore of
the Red Sea ; and that it is a translation of the old Pharaonic/S ^an, in
the Egyptian name of the same sea, PJii-yom-en-Shari, the Sea of the Reed
(weed) ; just as at this day a bay of the same [sea] is called
Ghubbd-el-bus, Reed Bay. "
More recently, the observing naturalist Klunzinger has brought out added
facts of importance bearing on this question, as a result of his long
residence and careful studies on the Red Sea coast. He says that where the
soil of the desert along that coast is kept moist by " lagoons of sea
water, the eye is gladdened by spreading meadows of green rushes." 3 " The
coast flora of the desert which requires the saline vapor of the sea is
peculiar. A celebrated plant is the shora 4 (Avicennia officinalis), which
forms large dense groves in the sea, these being laid bare only at very low
ebb. Ships are laden with its wood, which is used as fuel, and many
1 Burton (Gold Mines of Mid., p. 315 /.) tells of "the lovely coral-fields
of the Northern Red Sea," as they are " described and figured in color and
perspective by Eugene Baron Ransounet."
2 " Der Israeliten Auszug aus ^Egypten, etc." in Stud. u. Krit., for 1850,
p. 331.
3 Upper Egypt, p. 238 /.
4 Is not this shora the same as " the old Pharaonic shari in the Egyptian
name of the same sea," as referred to by Fresnel and Stickel ?
356 KADESH-BARNEA.
camels live altogether upon its laurel-like leaves." l He divides, indeed,
the shore line of the Red Sea into the "outer shore zone," or the
reef-line, and the " inner shore or sea-grass zone." Even in the outer
shore zone there " flourish also in many inlets of the sea thickets of the
laurel-like shora shrub " as above described; and there are "sea-grass
pools." In the inner shore zone "among the rocks, which are Either bars or
covered with a blackish and red mucilaginous sea-weed," there "grow green
phanerogamous grasses of the family of the Naiadea?." 2
This peculiarity of the shores of the Red Sea has attracted the attention
of more than one traveler along its coast. While I was on my way from Suez
to Mount Sinai, as our party halted for its mid-day lunch at a point
between Ayoon Moosa and "Wady "Wer- dan, my two companions were tempted by
a sight of the cool sea at the westward, to walk down to its refreshing
shores. They found the distance tediously deceptive. It seemed indeed as if
the shore receded before them. And when at last they reached the sea it was
not there. Instead of the elean sandy shore that thev had looked for, there
stretched before them a wide expanse of marine vegetation between the dry
land and the blue waters beyond. Skirting this unexpected barrier of
peculiar sea-growth, they espied a sandy peninsula above the water level,
and going out on to that they looked back over this shore meadow or
heather, which had been laid bare by the low tide, and if they had then
been called to give a name to the sea before them they would have been
quite likely to designate it as the " Sea of Sedge," the " Sea of Shora,"
the Yam Sooph, the " Yom-en-Shari" or by some such title ex pressive of its
characteristic shores, unless indeed* -my companions had had some
preconceived theory of the exodus, to prejudice them against an appropriate
designation.
It is evident that there are sound reasons for supposing that the
1 Upper Egypt, p. 240. j 75;^ pp _ 342-349.
THE YAM SOOPH ROAD, 357
Hebrew term sooph was applied to the vegetation of the sea as well as to
the border rushes of the river. It is equally certain that the " spreading
meadows of green rushes," and the "green phane rogamous grasses " which
mark the " sea-grass zone " of the desert- bordered Ked Sea, together with
the " large dense groves," and " thickets " of " the laurel-like shora
shrub," which at low tide are there laid bare in such size and profusion as
to furnish food for the camels, fuel for the ships, and confusion and
bewilderment to the shore-seeking traveler (all these in marked contrast
with the Mediterranean, or the Atlantic, shores), would abundantly justify,
to-day, the designation of Yam Sooph, the Sea of Weeds, for the Red Sea.
Yet, after all, it is more important, as a geographical question, to know
what body of Avater was known as Yam Sooph, than to know what waters might
have been, or even what waters ought to have been, so known. And as to this
point the historical evidence seems complete.
The Yam Sooph is first mentioned in connection with the plague of locusts
(Exod. 10: 19) : "And the Lord turned a mighty strong \vest wind
[literally, a " sea wind," a " wind from the Mediterra nean"] which took
away the locusts and cast them into the Yam Sooph ; there remained not one
locust in all the coasts of Egypt." Now if that wind blew from the
Mediterranean Sea, it would have required a " boomerang " current quite
unknown in the realm of meteorology, to have swept all the locusts of Lower
Egypt either into Lake Serbonis, or Lake Menzaleh, on the southern border
of the Mediterranean, or into any other of the lakes which have been named
as philologically indicated in the Yam Sooph. 1 And the same would be true
if the wind were one directly from the west, instead of a wind from the
sea. But if a good strong wind either
1 " Yam Souph, the Sea of Reeds . . . was applied as a general term to
denote all the marshes and lagoons of Lower Egypt, which are characterized
by their rich veg etation, consisting of papyrus and of rushes." (Brugsch s
Hist, of Egypt, II., 376.)
358 KADESH-BARNEA.
from the west or from the northwest were blowing across Lower Egypt, the
locusts would have had to find a watery grave in the western arm of the
lied Sea, in spite of all their protests against the philological
impropriety of the performance.
The next mention of Yarn Sooph is in the narrative of the exodus, 1 where
it is said that God led not the people out of Eirvnt
f X A O/ X
by the Philistia Road, although that was just at hand, but he turned the
people to " the Way [or, the Road] of the Wilderness of the Yam Sooph ; "
and again that Moses, having crossed the miraculously-bared bed of the
waters, " brought Israel from the Yam Sooph ; and they went out into the
Wilderness of the Wall." 2 Yet again the Yam Sooph was touched by them
several stations later. 3 This " Wilderness of the Yam Sooph " would seem
to be a general name for the entire wilderness between the two arms of the
Red Sea. This view of it is sustained by every direct or inciden tal
reference to it in the Old Testament. 4 But as if to put at rest all doubt
as to the identity of the Yam Sooph with the Red Sea, the former term is
clearly applied, in several instances, to the eastern arm of the Red Sea,
or the Gulf of Aqabah. Thus, for example, God s promise to Israel is : "
And I will set thy bounds from the Yam Sooph even unto the Sea of the
Philistines, and from the desert unto the river;" 5 in other words, the
boundary stretch on the south shall be from the Gulf of Aqabah to the
Mediter ranean, and its reach north and south shall be from the Arabian
Desert to the Euphrates ; and this promise was literally fulfilled in the
days of David and Solomon. 6 To imagine this promised southern boundary as
being from Lake Serbouis to the Mediter ranean, is to bring out the
essential absurdity of the elaim that
i Exod. 13: IS.
2 Exod. 15 : 22. 3 Xum. 33 : 10.
*Comp. Exod. 13: IS; 14: 2; Num. 14: 25-33; 33: G-8 ; Deut. 1: 40; 2: 1;
Jadg. 11 : 1C, etc.
5 Exod. 23 : 31. 6 Sec Speaker s Con. at Exod. 23: 31.
THE YAM SOOPH ROAD. 359
Yam Sooph refers to that lake ; or, indeed, to any lake near the border of
the Mediterranean.
Again, Yaui Sooph evidently refers to the eastern arm of the Red Sea, when
Jephthah tells the king of the Amoritcs of the Israelites course from Egypt
through the wilderness, until at the elose of their wanderings they came to
Ezion-gaber on their way to their final assembling at Kadesh. " Israel came
up from Egypt," he says, and "walked through the wilderness unto the Yam
Sooph, and came to Kadesh ; " l or as the record in Xumbers stands : " They
. . . encamped at Ezion-gaber [at the head of the Gulf of Aqabahj. And they
removed from Eziou-gaber, and pitched in .... Kadesh." 2 And yet again it
was " on the lip of the Yam Sooph, in the land of Edom," that " king
Solomon made a navy of ships" 3 to traverse seas very different from the
oozing waters of the Scrbonian Bog and its appurtenances.
It would be easy to multiply evidences that Yam Sooph is a term which the
ancient Hebrews applied to the Red Sea. Indeed the proofs are so numerous
in the accepted text of our Hebrew Bible, that some of the fresh-water
theorists have urged that the Hebrew scholars who, while themselves
resident in Egypt, two thousand years ago, made the Septuagint version, and
other scholars before and after them, must have been misled by popular
errors as to the geography of that region, and so were induced to give an
unauthorized gloss to the text, where the term Yam Sooph is employed. 4
But, apart from all disputed readings and am-
1 Judg. 11 : 1C. See page 146 f., supra. 2 Num. 33 : 35, 36. 3 1 Kings 9 :
26.
4 See Schleiden (in his Die Landenge von Sus, pp. 177-199), as referred to,
approv ingly, by Brugsch (in his Hist, of Egypt, II., 430); the author of
"Mediterranean Deltas," in the Edinburgh Review for Jan., 1877 ; Chester,
in Surv. of West. Pal., "Special Papers," p. 87; and others. Bartlett
(Egypt to Pal., p. 170) by a single sentence, pricks the bubble of
Sehleiden concerning the "gloss" by which Yam Sooph crept into the text : "
Schleiden first alleged that this statement was in the Jehovistic, and not
in the Elohistic, portion of Genesis, and miirht therefore be set aside.
But if the importance of such a distinction be recognized, Exodus 13 : IS,
iu
360 KADESH-BARNEA.
biguous references, the evidence is ample that the Yam Sooph of the Hebrew
Scriptures was the lied Sea of modern geography ; and in fact the ordinary
method of making a fair show on the other side has been by ignoring 1 such
of the passages quoted above as would in themselves be sufficient to put
the matter finally at rest, or by denying the correctness of every
historical verity which stands in the way of a particular theory concerning
the interpretation of the only extant record on the subject of inquiry. 2
This " Way of the Red Sea," or this Red Sea Road, which swept across the
Wilderness of the Red Sea, from the head of the Gulf of Suez to the head of
the Gulf of Aqabah, was probably the road taken by Kedor-la omer when lie
turned into the wilder ness at the lower end of Mount Seir, and which he
pursued until he reached El-Paran, or En-Xakhl, the mid-desert oasis, where
he made his turn northward toward Kadesh-barnea. 3 It is also the road
toward which the rebellious Israelites were turned back from Kadesh-barnea
when they were sentenced to a life of wandering. "To-morrow, turn you and
get you into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea," 4 was the
direction. They were not to go to the Red Sea, but to take the well-known
Red Sea Road into the wil-
wliich the statement occurs, is Elohistic." Again, on Exodus 14: 1,
Schleiden coolly remarks (note at p. 180) : " The name Jehovah is here and
in the following verses obviously a later interpolation." It is easy to
prove one s pet theory, from the Bible text, if the privilege is granted of
changing the text to suit the theory. Schleiden h also at fruit in
supposing that the " Egyptian Sea " (the Xile) is the Mediterranean.
1 Chester (as above, p. 15G) says unqualifiedly : " It is remarkable that
throughout the direct narrative there is no mention of a Jam SAph, or Sea
of Heeds, at all. The Jam, the Sea, alone is spoken of." And this in the
face of two mentions of Yam Sooph in the direct narrative; one at Exod. 13:
18; the other at Exod. 15: 22.
2 To deny the historical verity of the Bible record is one thing; but to
take up for examination a Bible story as if it were veritable history, and
then to deny the accu racy of such portions as fail to conform to one s pet
theory of the history which has its only record in the Bible, can hardly be
called a scholarly method of study.
3 Gen. 14 : 6, 7. See page 36/., supra. 4 Num. 14 : 25.
THE YAM SOOPH ROAD. 361
deruess. They were to take the same road from Kadesh to the wilderness that
Kedor-la omer had taken from the wilderness to Kauosh. " Then we turned,"
says Moses, " and took our journey into the wilderness by the Way of the
Red Sea [by the Red Sea Road], as the Lord spake unto me." l And that Red
Sea Road is, to-day, as well defined and prominent a southernmost highway
out of Lower Egypt eastward, as is the northernmost road toward Gaza, which
marks the old-time Way of the Land of the Philis tines; while mid-way
between the two are the unmistakable traces of the central highway of the
three, the Way of Shur.
Brugsch, whose extended studies in the geography of Ancient Egypt have
largely shaped popular opinion in that field in recent times, is seemingly
so influenced by his peculiar theory of the route of the exodus, that he is
disinclined to recognize the traces of more than one ancient highway out
Lower Egypt eastward, while he does not seem quite decided as to the
location and course of that one. 2 The writer in the Edinburgh Review,
already re ferred to, was disposed by the theories to plunge the region of
El- Qautarah (north of Lake Ballah) under water in the days of Moses.
Reginald Stuart Poole s theory, on the other hand, led him to raise
El-Qautarah as the single pathway of that period, while he sank El-Gisr
(south of Lake Ballah) out of sight in the waters of the Gulf of Suez. To
avoid either of these extremes, yet to have only the one highway which his
theory calls for, Brugsch skilfully brings the two plateaus together, which
now flank Lake Ballah, at the north and the south, and lays one of
1 Dent. 2 : 1.
2 In one place, Brugsch states that " the great Pharaonic road " was the
one on which Khetarn was one of the main stations (Hist, of Egypt, II.,
387). But again he insists that this great Pharaonic road," "the old royal
road" (Ibid., I., 33C) "the Road of the Philistines of Holy Scripture, is
not that which commenced at Khetaru, the Etham of the Bible, or no matter
what other town in its neighborhood." (Ibid., II., 430.)
362 KADESH-BAENEA.
them on the other, giving to the double-structure the compound "name of
Gnisr-el-Qantharah, the dyke of the bridge " as he calls it, although that
term might properly mean, " the bridge of the arch." 1 In spite of the
separateuess of the two plateaus as shown by official surveys, and of the
distinctness of the two Arabic names, as proven by like authoritative
records, Brugsch is confident that his compound site of an old-time roadway
" must be regarded as the last reminiscence of the only passage which, in
ancient times, allowed a traveller to enter Egypt dryshod from the East."
Yet in his Map of Ancient Lower Egypt 2 Brugsch, with ap parent
unconsciousness, gives evidence of the inaccuracy of this sweeping
statement of his. Just in the line of the southernmost road the " Way of
the Wilderness of the Red Sea " he notes the " Wilderness Way of the Bed
ween into Egypt " (" Wudenweg der Bcdmncn nach JEyypten"}. This would
almost seem a para phrasing of the Hebrew designation of this Road ; and
Brugsch can hardly think that the ancient Shasoo were accustomed to enter
Egypt from their wilderness roaming-fields in boats. Again, on that Map,
Brugsch shows the summit-level of the Isthmus, the water-shed, in the line
of the lakes, to be just north of Lake Timsah, between that and Lake Ballah
; at the very point (El-Gisr) where, as it has been shown, the Way of Shur
came in from the eastward. Certainly there seems no reason (unless it be
found in a preconceived theory of the exodus which has to be sustained) why
this table-land summit should not, in ancient times as in later
1 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 388. No authority is given by Brugsch for
this compound name. Is it possible that lie was misled by the Topographical
Chart of Egypt in the Atlas of the Description de I sEyyptef On that chart,
the Qantarah passway is called in Arabic " Jisr-el-Qanatir" ( Y^^-^-^
j-^r*) which might easily be mistaken for"Jisr el-Qantarah" (x* Ulb H y^^)
; but the French translation of the Arabic, on the Chart ("Pont du Tresor"
"The Bridge of the Treasury"), shows that no such designation as Brugsch
suggests was here intended. 2 Accompanying his Hist, of Egypt.
THE YAM SOOPH ROAD. 363
ones, have " allowed a traveler to enter Egypt dryshod from the East."
Indeed, Brngsch s Map of Ancient Egypt taken by itself furnishes prima
facie evidence of the existence of the three high ways out of Egypt
eastward, which the Bible refers to as the " Way of the Land of the
Philistines/ the " Way of Shur," and the "Way of the Wilderness of the Red
Sea."
Moreover, the Egyptian records would seem to give plain indi cations of
more roads than one. In the ancient scribe s report of the pursuit of two
fugitive slaves, to which a reference has already been made, 1 it is
distinctly declared that the scribe was informed, at the barrier, or
fortress, of Thukoo, that the fugitives " had de cided to go by the
southern route." How there should have been any doubt as to the route they
would take, or why that route should be called the "southern" one, if there
was but one road above water eastward, is certainly not easy of
explanation. Acting on his information at Thukoo, the scribe continued his
pursuit; and the inference from the records as it stands would be, that his
new course was southerly, in the supposed direction of the fugi tives.
Having reached the Great Wall (" Khctam "), he received news that " the
fugitives had got beyond the region of the Wall to the north of the Migdol
of king Seti Miueptah." 2 This looks as if the Migdol here mentioned was
yet southward of the scribe s point of reaching the Wall ; but Brugsch, in
his narrative of the exodus affirms that the fugitives " had taken the
northerly di rection," instead of the " southern " one as reported to the
scribe. Brugsch was, indeed, in a sense, shut up to this opinion by his
theory of the one road out of Egypt, easterly, and of one Migdol (and that
a town), on the line of that road.
1 From the Anastasi Papyri, as translated by Brugsch (Hist, of Egypt, II.,
389) and quoted in this work (p. 47/., supra).
2 The " Migdol of king Seti Mineptah" was the Migdol of the Well (as the
pic tured inscription at Karnak distinctly declares); and "Beer Makhdal"
(or the Well of the Migdol), still retains its name on the line of the Shur
Road out of Egypt.
364 KADESU-BARNEA.
7. THE MANY MIGDOLS.
As Brugsch s argument in support of his theory of the exodus has depended
largely on his elaim that there was but one Migdol in eastern Lower Egypt,
it is not to be wondered at that he has been disinclined to see the full
force of any indication of a Migdol elsewhere than at the site he has
preempted for it. But as so much is involved in the question of one Migdol,
or many, it is well to compare the opinions of Brugsch, in this matter,
with the facts on which he bases them.
Having fixed upon a place, now known as " Tell cs-Samoot, 1 on the eastern
side of Lake Menzaleh," ~ and a short distance south west of the site of
Pelusium, as the location of ancient Migdol, Brugsch proceeds to maintain
that identification against all oppo nents or doubters whatsoever. He even
goes so far as to say : " This Migdol is the only place of that name which
I have met with in the Egyptian geographical texts ; among more than three
thou sand geographical proper names." 3 Yet if the evidence which Brugsch
proffers in defense of his elaim be examined, it will be found that there
is not in it a particle of proof that here was even one Migdol among many
in the days of the Pharaohs. There certainly were several Migdols elsewhere
in Lower Egypt at that period. There may have been one here. That is the
best that can be said for the case as Brugsch himself presents the proofs.
Brugsch s statement of the case is : that he finds on the monu ments a "
Samhud " and a " Migdol," or " Makthal," named as at the same place; 4 that
"Samhud" (Arabic, " Samoot ") is an Egyptian name, and " Migdol " a Hebrew
one ; 5 that an Egyptian
1 IIist. of Egypt, I., 237 /.
2 The Arabic " Tell " corresponding with the Hebrew, Tel I 7fU means " a
mound, 1 "a heap/ especially a heap of ruins. See Deut. 13 : 16. *IIist. of
Egypt, II., 382. 4 Diet. Gcoy., pp. 707, 905. 5 Hist, of Egypt, I., 237 /.
THE MANY MIGDOLS. 365
inscription of the days of Amenhotep IV., of the Eighteenth Dynasty, speaks
of the stretch of Egypt from Samhud to Ele phantine/ while a prophecy of
Ezekiel 2 speaks similarly of the stretch from Migdol to Syene, as if
Samhud, or Migdol, was the northern landmark of Egypt, as Elephantine, or
Syene, was the southern one ; that the Antonine Itinerary refers to a "
Magdo- lum " as twelve Roman miles from Pelusium in a southerly direc tion,
3 a distance which well corresponds with the modern <f Tell es- Samoot
;" 4 that a " Makthal " was near the return road of Setee I., as he
re-entered Egypt from his Syrian campaign ; 5 that a Migdol was near the
position of Rameses III., when he watched a battle on the sea near Pelusium
; 6 and finally that there is no Egyptian mention of more Migdols than one.
7
Now what is the force of this evidence in its details ? " Sam hud," or "
Samhudt," or " Samhudti," is, according to Brugsch s own admissions, " the
name of many places situated in Lower Egypt," 8 as proved by the ancient
monuments. And " the more important of the cities named Samhud is that
which the lists designate as the Metropolis of the Seventeenth Nome."
This preeminent Samhud of Lower Egypt " is the same city the situation of
which is indicated by the position of the modern city of Damictta " 9 the
present name of which is obviously a relic of the ancient one. A glance at
the map will show that Damietta is a salient northern land-mark of the
coast of Egypt. It stood, of old, at a central point of the coast line of
Lower Egypt proper, midway between the Pclusiac arm of the Nile eastward,
and the Canopic arm westward. 10 Then, as now, if one were to speak of
1 Hist, of Egypt, I., 498 ; II., 381 /.
2 Ezek. 29 : 10, as rendered in the margin, " From Migdol to Syene."
3 Hist, of Egypt, II., 427. * Hist, of Egypt, II., 426.
*Ibid., II., 11-14. lbid., II., 153 ff. Ibid., II., 389.
8 Diet. Oeog., p. 704. 9 Diet. Geog., p. 704.
10 "We can have little hesitation in considering the inhabitants included
between
3G6 KADESH-BABNEA.
Egypt from its northern to its southern limits, he would naturally tell of
the stretch from Damietta to Elephantine, or to Aswan. Who can doubt that
the ancient Egyptians were as familiar as the modern archeologist with the
relative prominence of the Phatnitic l Samhiul, in comparison with all the
other Samhuds of Lower Egypt ? Why should we question that the Samhnd
spoken of as a well-known northern boundary line, was the Samhud which was
a well-known northern boundary line, instead of an insignificant Samhud
which by its very location could not have been a northern boundary limit of
Egypt ; and which we have historical reasons for knowing never was such a
limit? Except for its supposed value in bolstering up a preconceived theory
of the exodus, Tell cs-Samoot could never have been seriously considered in
this connection.
Now, as to the coincidence of Samhud and Migdol. If as some of Brugsch s
followers have not unnaturally inferred, but which he himself does not
directly assert 2 Samhud is simply the Egyptian equivalent of the Hebrew
Migdol, of course every Sam hud was also a Migdol ; and as the Samhuds of
Lower Egypt were many, so also were the Migdols. Since, however, the testi
mony of Brugsch is only that one " Samhud," also called " Atef," was
designated in the days of the Ramessids as the place of " Pa-
the brandies of the Nile to have been for the most part of pure Egyptian
race. The line of demarcation, which separated this race from the
neighboring peoples was formed on the west by the Canopic branch of the
Xile, as by the Pelusiac branch on the opposite side toward the East ".
(Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 228 /., aud 236.)
i Sec Stanley Lane-Poole s Egypt, p. 31.
2Comp. Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 238, 498; II., 381, 42G; his Diet.
Geog., p. 1050; Poole s Cities of Egypt, p. 123; Chester s "Journey," in
Surv. of West. Pal. " Special Papers," p. 101; Baedeker s Lower Egypt, p.
470; etc. Poole speaks of ancient "Migdol" as a "place having, like Zoan, a
double name, one Semitic, and the other (Samut) Egyptian." Baedeker,
usually accurate in such matters, goes farther, and speaks, as if from
Brugsch, of " the Egyptian name of Samut (also sig nifying a tower"). But
Brugsch himself makes no such assertion.
THE MANY MIGDOLS. 367
Makthal/ 1 the main question is, Was that Sarahud located on the border of
the wilderness, near Pelusium? Brugsch shows that " Atef," was at one time
the metropolis of a nome bearing the same name. 2 Rameses III. tolls of his
honors, in being " crowned with the Atef-crown." 3 That Damietta or the
city which it has succeeded may have been such a metropolis as this is
possible. Brugsch, indeed, says 4 of the latter city, that it " was a
second The bes, a second city of Amon;" that it bore a " whole set of
names; that it was called, among other designations, " ( Na-mehit, the city
(par excellence) of the Xorth, as Thebes is called Na-ris the city of the
South ; " and that its importance " elose to the sea, was pre eminent in
ancient times as at the present day." It would have been not unworthy of a
Rameses to speak proudly of assuming " the Atef crown, together with the
Urseus serpents," in accepting the sovereignty of a metropolis like that,
with its "whole set of names," including " Samhud " and " Pa- Makthal " ;
but to suggest such a thing of a region like Tell es-Samoot, seems an
absurdity on its face.
" Migdol," whether in Egypt or out of it, is after all a recur rence of a
Hebrew common noun, meaning " a tower," or " a great tower." Its first
appearance in the Bible is as the "migdol" of Babel. 5 Afterwards it is
frequently used sometimes interchange ably with bakhun, 6 bakhan, 7 or
bakhon 8 with or without an accompanying local appellative, as descriptive
of a separate fortification, or of a portion of a line of defences. 9 It
would
1 Diet. Geoy., pp. 707, 1050. In his formal arrangement of nomes, Brugsch
clearly rests his assignment of "Atef," and " Samhud," and " Migdol " on
his argument in favor of Tell es-Samoot; in other words he reasons in a
circle, with no fixed point proven by the records.
2 Ibid. 3 Hist, of Egypt, II., 144. * Ibid., II., 418 /.
5 Gen. 11 : 1-9. 6 Isa. 23 : 13.
7 Isa. 32 : 14. Comp. 2 Kings 17 : 9 ; 18 : 8. 8 Jcr. 6 : 27.
9 Gen. 35 : 21 ; Judg. 8: 17; 9 : 46, 47, 49, 51 ; 2 Chron. 14: 7; Neh. 3 :
1, 25, 26, 27 ; 12: 38,39; Psa.48: 12; 61: 3; Song4: 4; etc.
3G8 KADESH-BARNEA,
appear to have been the same in the Egyptian records as in the Hebrew. "
That the ancient Egyptians . . . were well acquainted with the meaning of
this word, which was foreign to their lan guage, is proved most
conclusively by the masculine article prefixed to it, and the sign of a
wall ( ] [ ) which was added to the foreign word when written in Egyptian
characters." 1 There cer tainly were a great many "towers," "great towers,"
"watch- towers," and " fortress-towers" in ancient Lower Egypt. Whether
those towers were all called " migdols " by the Egyptians or not, they were
likely to be so called by the Hebrews, and to be so designated in the
Hebrew records. Mariette, indeed, applies the word " migdol " to those
"triumphal towers" which are "repre sented in the bas-reliefs of Karnak, of
Luxor, of the Ramcseum, and of Medinet-Abou itself, and which the kings of
Egypt were wont to erect on their frontier, at once as a means of defence,
and as a memorial of their victories." "
A word often used for "tower" in the Egyptian records is bekhcn, bakhun, or
bckhent? This word, Brugsch declares to be " identical with the Hebrew
bckhon" and to mean an " outlook," " a tower built on a hill." It applies,
he says, to " any building from which one can look far out into the land,
and which itself is visible afar; thence any house standing high; a tower."
This word may have had its root from the Hebrew, or again it may have been
carried into the Hebrew from Egyptian. In any event it is a word which is
used in the Hebrew (as has already been mentioned), interchangeably with
migdol," for a " watch-tower." 4 And whatever tower M r as called " bekhcn
" in the Egyptian might naturally have been called " migdol " in the
Hebrew. For ex ample, Brugsch says that on the shores of the Mediterranean,
at
1 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 237. 2 Monuments of Upper Egypt, p. 209.
3 Diet. Geog., p. 648 /. * Comp. as above, Isa. 23 : 13; 32: 14; Jer. 6:
27; 2 Kings 9 : 17 ; 17 : 9; 18: 8.
THE MANY MIGDOLS. 369
the place subsequently called Ostracine, " there was a bekhen, or tower,
which the inscriptions designate as Pa-nakhtu, or the l Con queror s Tower
of king Seti." l And he mentions that " at this point the proper Egyptian
boundary ended, and the territory of the land of Zahi, which was afterwards
the land of the Philis tines, began." He even adds 2 that, in the days of
Setee L, this bekhen was called " the Tower " [" the Migdol," as the
Hebrews would have said]. Now if there was a " Tower " (" the Tower ") at
the extreme territorial limit of Egypt northeasterly, is it not more
probable that that Tower was referred to by the prophet when he spoke of a
boundary Tower northward, than that he had in mind a Tower at Tell
es-Samoot (if ever there was a Tower there), which was not at any time a
limit of Egypt either eastward or northward ?
It is clear, therefore, that in all the evidence furnished by either the
Egyptian or the Hebrew records of the location of Samhud, or of Migdol, as
a northern limit of Egypt, while there is much in favor of Damietta for the
former, if not indeed for both, and of Ostracine for the latter, there is
literally nothing that will justify the supposition that Tell es-Samoot was
the site of either, or that it was anywhere in the vicinity of either.
There is, indeed, no need to suppose that the term Migdol when used as a
boundary limit, necessarily applied to a single place of that name. The
migdols were the border towers of the land, the well-known accompaniment of
the frontier fortresses. When the Hebrew prophet would speak of Egypt from
its northern to its southern bounds, it was sufficient to refer to the
stretch from border-tower to red-granite mountain, "from Migdol to Syene,
even unto the border of Ethiopia." 3 Thus to-day, in the United States, one
might speak of the stretch from prairie-fort to the
1 Hist, of Egypt, II., 13. See also his Map. 2 Diet. Geoy., p 129.
Ezelc. 29 : 9, 10 ; 30 : 6.
24
370 KADESH-BAENEA,
Atlantic, from ocean to outpost, without being supposed to have in mind one
particular fortification of the border ; far less a city bearing the name "
Prairie-fort " or " Outpost." It is the well- known term itself which
carries the meaning intended. So with the term Migdol as suggesting the
northern boundary of Egypt. There is no good reason for supposing that
there was any city of that name on the borders of that land in the days of
the Pharaohs or of Ezckiel and Jeremiah. 1 All the available evidence is
against the supposition. See, for example the uses of the term rnigdol in
this sense, where (2 Kings 17 : 9) the idolatrous high-places of the
Israelites are said to extend " from the tower [the migdol] of the watchman
to the fenced city;" and where (2 Kings 18: 8) the sweep of Hezekiah s
victories over the Philistines is said to be thorough, " from the tower
[the migdol] of the watchman to the fenced city."
As to the fact that there was a Well of Migdol, or a Migdol of the Well,
near the return road of Setcc I., as he came from his Syrian campaign, it
has already been shown that there arc traces of such a place in
"Bir-Maktal" near the great central road, the Way of Shur, into Egypt from
Syria. 2 Moreover, according to the bas-relief at Karnak, that Migdol was
clearly on the Syrian side of the line of the Great Wall. Beer-Makhdal
answers to this requirement ; Tell es-Samoot does not, as a glance at the
map will show.
In the records of Ramcses III., there would seem to be even less positive
testimony, than in those of Setee I., in favor of a Migdol at Tell
es-Samoot, or its neighborhood. Brugsch speaks confidently 3 of "a naval
engagement at Migdol, at the mouth of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile," in
the days of Rameses III. ;
1 See Jer. 44 : 1 ; 4fi : 14, where Migdol is simply the northern
starting-point of the sweep of Egypt toward its southern country.
2 See page 351, supra. * Hist, of Egypt, II., 153.
THE MANY MIGDOLS. 371
and he proceeds to give the details of that engagement from the Harris
Papyrus, as if that record somehow justified his statement. His
positiveness so carries away his English editor, Mr. Philip Smith, that the
latter assumes to cite the " testimony ... of the Harris Papyrus,
describing Rameses III. encamped (like Israel) between Migdol and the sea
to witness the victory of his fleet." 1 But in the translations of the
Harris Papyrus as given by Brugsch in his " History," 2 or as published in
the " Records of the Past," 3 there is no mention of Migdol ; nor is there
any indication of the naval engagement as " at the mouth of the Pelusiac
branch of the Nile," or in the region of Tell es-Samoot. The basis of
Brugsch s elaim is, probably, the pictured records of Rameses III., on the
walls of the temple of Medeenet-Aboo at Thebes. A naval com bat of that
king s reign is represented there; and as Mariette Bey says : 4 " The scene
is laid either elose to the coast, or at the mouth of some river." Possibly
it was off the coast from Ostracine. One of the pictures of this series
represents the king, on his return to Egypt, stopping " at a fortified
place called Migdol en Rameses- Hak-On, " the Tower of Rameses, Lord of On,
in order to count the number of hands cut off from the vanquished in the
battle. Where this Migdol was, is not indicated in the picture. It may have
been the Migdol near Ostracine ; or again it may have been the Migdol near
the Phatnitic mouth of the Nile, at the pre-eminent Samhud there. Certainly
it would appear from its name that it was somewhere else than at "the
Migdol of king Seti Mineptah," which Brugsch would locate at Tell
es-Samoot.
It is, indeed, true that the Antonine Itinerary locates a Magdolum at
twelve Roman miles southerly from Pelusium ; and that this identification
would suit the site of Tell es-Samoot, as it might suit a number of sites
within a considerable sweep east and west.
1 Hist, of Egypt, II., 427, note. 2 Ibid., II., 153-155.
8 Vol. VI., pp. 23 70 ; Vol. VIII., pp. 5-52. * Hon. of Upper Egypt, p.
221.
372 KADESH-BARNEA.
This evidence is, in fact, the only item of proof that there was ever a
trace of a " Migdol " at Tell es-Samoot at any time in the his tory of the
race. And the Antonine Itinerary does not, in whole or in part, go far back
of the beginning of the Christian era. At the best it shows only that, say
fifteen centuries after the days of the exodus, there was a station on a
Roman road from Pelusium southward to Serapeum, which bore a name based on
the old Hebrew term Migdol, a name then held by various places, stretch ing
from the Magdala on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in the north, 1 to the
Magdala among the mountains of Abyssinia 2 in the south. 3
In fact, although it is not easy to find any proof that there was a Migdol
in the neighborhood of Tell es-Samoot in the days of the Pharaohs, it is
easy to show that there were more or less Egyptian Migdols elsewhere in
that age, notwithstanding the un qualified assertion of Brugsch that he has
found no other Mig dol mentioned "in the Egyptian geographical texts, among
more than three thousand geographical proper names." 4 Apart from the "
Makthcl," on the Karnak list of places conquered by Thotmcs III., which
Brngsch identifies with "Migdol/ 5 but whether or not with his Tell
es-Samoot-Migdol, does not appear, 6 the latter certainly finds in the
scribe s report (already referred to)
1 The supposed home of Mary Magdal-ene. See Neubauer s Gcog. du Talmud, p.
216 /.
2 Where King Theodore committed suicide, April 13, 1868 ; and for the
capture of which General Napier was created Baron of Magdala.
3 Perizonius (JEqypl. Orir/., p. 41 6) discussing the ancient cities of
Egypt and Pales tine says that there were often many cities of one name; "
certainly there were many Migdols."
4 Hist, of Egypt, II., 3,82. *>Ibid., I., 392.
6 The place of this name in the lists would seem to indicate that it is in
central or upper Palestine; but as Brugsch insists (Hist, of Egypt, II.,
12, 132) that up to the time of Setee I. the Shasoo still elaimed the
eastern Delta as their own, it is more than possible that he looks upon
this " Migdol " as the one of which, in his opinion, Tell es-Samoot covers
the remains.
THE MANY MIGDOLS. 373
concerning the fugitive slaves, a mention of a Migdol which has an identity
quite by itself, at the same time that it indicates the probability of
other " Migdols " from which it is to be distin guished.
It is " the Migdol of king Seti Miueptah " which the fugitives are said to
have passed. 1 If there was but one Migdol in Lower Egypt, why was it
necessary to distinguish it in this manner ? Does not this distinctive
description in itself furnish presumptive evidence of the existence of more
Migdols than one ; of a Migdol which was not " the Migdol of king
Seti-Mineptah," as well as of a Migdol which was? As if to put the proof of
his own error beyond all dispute, Brugsch further admits that he finds
mention of a "Migdol Ilameses Haqau," 2 in the days of Ilameses III.; and
this is at least the fourth Migdol which he reports out of the texts where
he is confident that only one is named.
The simple truth is, that Brugsch is so possessed of his " pre conceived
theory of the exodus," and so swayed by its supposed necessities, that he
deliberately takes " Migdol," " Pa-Migdol," " the Migdol of king
Seti-Mineptah," " the Migdol of Ilameses Haqan," and all the other Migdols
of the monuments and the papyri, and piles one of them on the other, at the
site of Tell es- Samoot, saying to his admiring and enthusiastic followers
: " Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower [a migdol ], whose top may
reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name." 3 And the result of this
Migdol-building is the same as at the Migdol of Babel : there is a
confusion of language among those who would have a part in it, or who would
learn of the facts involved ; so " that they may not understand one another
s speech " without the aid of a
l llist. ofEyypt, II., 138, 389. See pages 47, 363, supra.
2 Diet. Geog., p. 310. This is, doubtless, the Migdol of Ilameses- Haq-On,
pictured at Medeenet Aboo, as mentioned on page 371, supra.
Gen. 11: 4*
374 KADESH-BARNEA.
studious and an unbiassed interpreter. And this is what Mr. Philip Smith
points to approvingly as " the geographical determi nation of the places in
question," as over against " the invention of sites to suit a preconceived
theory of the exodus ! " l
Traces of more than one Migdol in Lower Egypt are not lack ing in the
Arabic and Coptic nomenclature of that region. Cham- polliou 2 pointed out
two places there which bear the Coptic name " Meshtol " 3 by which the
Coptic version renders the name Mig dol in Exodus 14: 2. Ebers 4 would see
a correspondence of the Coptic " Meshtol " with the Arabic " Maschtul/ 5
and " of such Maschtuls " he says " there were a moderately great number,
accord ing to the tax-list given by Silvestre de Sacy in his translation of
Abd-el-Latccf." At all events, in addition to these supposed
identifications, it is evident that there are traces of an ancient Migdol
in the neighborhood of each of the three great roads through the Great Wall
desertward, as might be supposed from the necessities of the case, in a
fortification like that.
1. A Migdol at the central road, or the Way of Shur, stands out in
unmistakable identity in the Beer Makhdal, already referred to. 6 In the
preservation of the name of an ancient site in Arabic, there is far
stronger proof of identity than can be furnished in the filtration of that
name through the Greek or Latin. In this in stance, the Arabic name
corresponds elosely with the Hebrew and the Egyptian. The engineers who
made the surveys for the great map of the French Commission 7 at the elose
of the last century, entered that name on their charts in Arabic
characters, the phonetic force of which was nearly identical with the
Egyptian characters
1 Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 423, note.
2 L Eyypte sous les Pharaons, II., 69 /., 79 /. 3 Coptic, JJteXETJXUuV
4 Gosen zum Sinai, p. 523. 5 Arabic, JJLM*XJ . 6 g ee page 351, supra.
7 " Carte Topographiqne," in Descrip. de I Eyyptc. It will hardly be
elaimed that the savants of the French Republic of 1798 were influenced in
their scientific researches by any preconceived theory of the Hebrew
exodus.
THE MANY MIGDOLS. 375
that marked the site of that well on the earliest known map in the world s
history, 1 as still preserved on the temple walls of Karuak. 2. Although
there is no Arabic vestige of a Migdol near the northernmost road, or the
Way of the Land of the Philistines, the reference to a Magdolum iu the
Antoiiiue Itinerary gives a proba ble trace of the ancient site of a Migdol
in that vicinity. But whether that site is at Tell el-Heer, as supposed by
many, 2 or at Tell Sahau, as suggested by Pococke, 3 or at Tell es-Samoot,
as ad vocated by Brugsch and others, 4 is by no means clear; nor is it of
much importance as bearing on the point now at issue that there was a
Migdol near the northernmost road into Egypt from the East. There is much
in favor of the site of Tell el-Heer, from its superior advantages for the
place of a look out tower. " From the height of the eminence occupied by
these ruins," say Joanne and Isambert, 5 " the eye embraces an extended
horizon." " It is at once evident to the eye," adds Chester, 6 " that this
was an im portant frontier fortress, and its importance is such as to
justify its being considered the Migdol, or Fortress, par excellence, and
to justify the Greeks in continuing and perpetuating its more ancient name
under that of Magdolon." The elaim of Lepsius, as rein forced by Brugsch, 7
that Tell el-Heer is a vestige of " the ancient
1 It may be a question whether this map is earlier than the map of the gold
mines, preserved in a papyrus at the Turin museum (reprodueed in fac-simile
iu Chabas Inscriptions des Mines d Or, at p. 30).
2 Joanne and Isambert s Itineraire de L Orient, p. 1013; Smith s Ancient
Atlas, Map 39 ; Keith Johnston s map of " Modern Egypt and Sinai " in The
Bible Atlas; Chester, in Surv. of West. Pal., " Special Papers," p. 100,
etc.
3 Map in Descrip. of the East.
*IIist. of Egypt, I., 237 /., II., 381 ; Lepsius s Denkm., Abth. I., Bl. 3;
Smith s Ancient Atlas, Map 33 ; Map of Egypt, in A Thousand Miles up the
Nile, etc.
5 Itineraire, as above. 6 " Special Papers," Surv. of West. Pal., p. 100.
7 Hist, of Egypt, I., 235 ff., 270; II., 428, 431. It is true that Brugsch
says in one place lhat " there is scarcely a hope of ever again finding the
ancient site of the lost Hyksos city of Avaris " (I., 237) , but then again
he says: " Lepsius, after his jour-
376 KADESH-BARNEA.
Hau ar, (or Avaris,) of the Egyptian texts," by no means conflicts with the
idea that the Migdol which guarded the northernmost highway into Egypt was
located at this point. It is certainly as reasonable to suppose that there
was a Migdol at the metropolis of Avaris eastward, as that there was a
Migdol at the metropolis of Samhud (Damietta), northward. As against the
elaim that Tell es-Samoot was the site of a Migdol, it would seem rather
that a lookout tower is needed to recognize that site, than that it marks
the site of a lookout tower. Chester was unable to find its loca tion, or
to get any track of it from the Arabs of the region ques tioned by him. 1
Although Brugsch still insists, and with reason, that the site was known by
its present name as early as the four teenth century, that it is known by
all the authors " of modern times, and that no doubt can exist on the
subject of this identi fication," he does not elaim that it occupies a
commanding position for a look-out tower, over against a royal highway into
ancient Egypt ; and as every other reason suggested by him for its identi
fication with Migdol has been shown to have no weight, it can now hardly be
said that Tell es-Samoot is to be compared with Tell el-Heer for that
identification. But, at Tell el-Hecr, or at some other point in that
region, there is a site of the Magdolum of the Antonine Itinerary, which in
its time marked the site of the earlier Migdol that guarded the
northernmost highway into Egypt ; and so there are found traces of a Migdol
for the "Way of the Land of the Philistines, as for a Migdol of the "Way of
Shur. 3. At the southern road also, the " "Way of the Wilderness of the Red
Sea," there are Arabic traces of the Migdol we should ex pect to find
there. A short distance to the northwest of Suez,
ney to these regions proved, in a clear and perfect manner, the identity of
Tell el- Hir with the Hau ar, or Avaris of the Egyptian texts " (II., 431).
Brugsch can be depended on for both sides of almost any question which has
the possibility of a two-fold advantage, in the story of the exodus.
iSurv. of West. Pal., "Special Papers," p. 99 /.
THE MANY MIGDOLS. 377
beyond Qala at Ajrood, there is a station, or a pass, known as El-Maktal, 1
El-Muktala? El-Muntala? El-Muntula* Montala, 5 or El-Mukhdfeh. 6 It is
directly on the line of the Hajj route, and near the track noted by Brugsch
as the " Way of the Bed ween into Ancient Egypt." The Arabic names for "
tower," and " watch- tower," and " outlook," are various, including mejdel,
1 muntdr* muntarah, 9 mutattah; 10 and the elements of these names are
found in the alternative designations of the pass in question, 11 with the
exception of the last named (El-Mukhd/eK), and that suggests a place of
danger. 12 Wilkinson 13 judged " from its name and posi tion," that this
represents " the Migdol of the Bible." It is at a point near which one
would naturally expect to find an outlook station, 14 for guarding that
entrance into Egypt from the eastward.
1 See Wilson s Lands of the Bible, I., 45.
2 Wilkinson s Mod. Egypt and Thebes, I., 303; Strauss s Sinai und Golyatha,
p. 91 ; Keith Johnston s Royal Atlas, Map 42 ; elark and Grove s Bible
Atlas, p. 17 ; A Thousand Miles uj) the Nile, Map ; etc.
3 Lepsius s Denkm., Abth. 1, Bl. 3; Baedeker s Lower Egypt, Map of "Suez
Canal," etc.
4 Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 44; Smith s Anc. Atlas, map 39; Murray s Syria
and Pal., Map of Lower Egypt ; etc..
5 Burckhardt s Travels in Syria, p. 629.
6 This is given as an alternative name by Robinson (Bib. Res., I., 44),
with the meaning "fear; " and it appears in Lepsius s Denkm., Abth. 1, Bl.
3.
7 J J^SXX . See Surv. of West. Pal., " Name Lists," pp. 30, 62, 85, 114,
131, etc.
jaic . 2bid., pp. 131, 151, 165, 205, 235, etc. ). Ibid., p. 186. 10 xJJoXJ
Ibid., pp. 30, 432.
11 Eli Smith (in Robinson s Bib. Res., III., 223, first ed.) gives "the
ascent" as the meaning of el-Muntula; but the illustrations already cited
from the Survey of Western Palestine show that the name suggests an ascent
as for an outlook.
Robinson s Bib. Res., L, 44. " Mod. Egypt and Thebes, I., 303.
"Strangely enough Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com. at Exod. 14: 2) object to
iden tifying this name with Migdol, on the ground " that a tower f/^ JO")
[migdol] does not indicate a watch-tower (Ha^p) [mitspeh]. Yet it is clear
that "migdol" is so applied and rendered again and again in the Old
Testament. " The tower [migdol] of the watchman " (2 Kings 17 : 9 ; 18 ; 8)
; " There stood a watchman on the tower [migdol]" (2 Kings.!?: 17), etc.
378 KADESTT-BARNEA.
Several roads from the north and west come together just before reaching
this point, and here is a turn of the main highway toward the lied Sea and
the Hajj route at the head of that sea. 1 A hill near the pass bears the
same name as the pass ; 2 and Burckhardt tells of it as still used as a
lookout station by robbers. 3 Laborde 4 also saw an identification with the
ancient Migdol in this Arabic name. The very fact that the resemblances are
various in the varying names of the place, gives added force to the reasons
in support of this identification ; for it shows that there has been no
modern fixing of the old site in Arabic nomenclature. 5 In spite of all
forgetfulness of the earlier signification of the name/ and in spite of all
the warping influences of a hundred generations, the unmistakable traces of
the original name are there.
And so we find that " Migdol " is not the name of a single city ;
1 Mod. Egypt and TJiebes, pp. 302-308. 2 See Robinson s Bib. Res., L, 44.
3 Travels in Syria, p. G29.
4 Laborde is cited, to this effect, by Dr. Wilson (Lands of the Bible, I.,
45).
5 In his partisan advocacy of Brugsch s one-Migdol elaim, Philip Smith
(Hist, of Egyi>t, II., 427, note) says sweepingly : "A Migdol near the
Gulf of Suez is a purely imaginary site invented to suit that theory "
whatever " that theory " may be. But it is evident that the old-time Arabs
were responsible for this " invention."
6 It even seems that the modern Arabs would call this place Maqtaleh (
jjJLxJLo ) "slaughter," or the "place of slaughter" (of Pharaoh s host?),
as a change from Makhdal ( JcX^oo ), or Mcjdel ( JjLSXX) ) a "tower;"
through their habit of applying an odd name, of forgotten signification,
under a new form, or with a new meaning. (See Wilkinson and Wilson, as
above.) But the alternative designations of the place stand as added proofs
of the earlier meaning. In illustration of the habit of the Arabs here
referred to, see Palmer s Desert of the Exodus, I., 20, " In many parts of
Palestine we find the Hebrew words just sufficiently distorted from their
original form to give them an intelligible Arabic meaning. In Wady Feiran,
for example, there is an evident reminiscence of the ancient name Paran.
The Bedawin are unable to pronounce the letter^, and the word becoming
Faran, the Valley of Mice, a mime which would appear particularly
applicable to a place where their monkish predecessors had covered the
hill-sides with excavated tombs and cells resembling, as the natives say,
the burrows of field mice or jerboas." See also Surv. of West. Pal., "Name
Lists," p. 53 (En-Nakurah}.
NO CITIES ON THE ROUTE. 379
but is a common noun applied to many an outlook-tower in Egypt and beyond.
And especially are there traces of a Migdol at, or near, each of the three
great highways out of Lower Egypt eastward. This leaves still untouched the
question, Which Migdol is referred to in the Bible story of the Exodus ?
8. NO CITIES ON THE EOUTE.
A similar error to that so commonly made with reference to Mig dol, has
misled students at several other points in the exodus story. The search has
been for the site of a city or a town, when no city or town was referred to
in the Bible record. As Etham was a Wall, and as Migdol was a Tower, so the
earlier stations of Succoth and Rameses were districts or regions, and not
cities of which the ruins are likely to be unearthed in the course of later
Egyptian re searches.
There has been a vast deal of discussion over the probable site of the city
of Rameses; and there have been attempts to show that the treasure-city, 1
or more properly the grain-magazine, 2
1 Exod. 1 : 11.
2 " It is said of the Israelites (Exod. 1 : 11), They built for Pharaoh
treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses (v ujyeben arai meskinoth le-Phare oh
eth-Pithom va-tth Ra amses ODn^TnXl DnzmK n;naS rnjDDO "\y p"0- Whatever
the Egyptolo
gists may bring forward to prove the word meskinoth (niJDDO) Egyptian, the
unpre judiced investigator cannot part with the conviction that it is a
regularly formed Hebrew word, and comes from a genuine Hebrew root.
Meskinoth (niJDDO) means nothing else than magazines in which grain and
food were stored. See 2 Chron. 32: 28, magazines (oomeskinoth lethbooath
dagan ve-tee rosh ve-yitshar riSOSTV? mjDD"}!,) inn UMVm pi for the tithes
of grain, wine and oil. In Deut. 8: 9 it is said of Palestine: A land in
which thou shalt not eat bread out of magazines [as in Egypt] (Erets asher
lo bimeskenuth tokal beh lekhcm. SjDXn nJOD03 N 1 ? DnS D2)- That meskenuth
/T\J3pO"\ signifies the same as meskinoth certainly will not be disputed.
Pithom and Raamses, then, were towns in which reserves of bread stuffs lay
stored." (Graetz s Oesch. d. Juden, I., 382.)
The treasure cities, or store cities, were probably erections at the
termini or prin-
380 KADESH-BARNEA.
named in our English version as " Raamses," l one of the two treasuries
built by the Hebrews during the period of the oppres sion, was the same as
" Rameses," the starting point of the Israelites on their exodus. 2 It has
been elaimed, with a good show of reason, that the city of Zoan, 3 or
Tanis, 4 or San, 5 was the capital city of Rameses II. and his sons ; and
the further elaim lias been made (although that point is in dispute), that
this city, having been enlarged and practically rebuilt by Rameses II.,
received the name " Rameses" at that time. And out of all this discussion
there has come the popular opinion, that the starting point of the
Israelites was at the capital of the Pharaohs. Yet this opinion not only
has no syllabic of proof on which to rest, in the Bible text ; but it is in
direct conflict with the specific statements and the general tenor of that
text.
When the Hebrews came into Egypt, in the days of Joseph, they were assigned
a dwelling-place in the land of Goshen. 7 The region given to them at that
time is called by prolepsis " the land of Rameses." 8 This may mean that it
was the land on the verge of which they afterwards built the treasure-city
Raamses, or
cipal stations of the caravan routes, such as are seen at the present day,
for the ac commodation of merchandise." (Wilson s Lands of Bible, I., 119.)
Saadia (the Arabic translator of the Bible), for the term "treasure
cities," gives "cities, magazines. 1 So, again, does Eli Smith in the
modern Arabic version. 1 Exod. 1:11. Exod. 12 : 37 ; Num. 33 : 3.
3 "Zoan" is the name given in the Hebrew text (Num. 13: 22; Psa. 73: 12,
43; Isa 19: 11, 13; 30: 4; Ezek. 30: 14). It differs but slightly from that
given in the Egyptian records. (See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 383;
Ebers s Gosen zurn Sinai, p. 512 /. ; Poole s Cities of Egypt, p. 80 /.)
4 "Tanis" (Tawf), is the Greek form and it appears in the Septuagint.
5 " San " is the modern Arabic name.
6 See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 97-103; 383-380; Poole s Cities of
Eyypt, pp. 81-84. Ebers thinks (see his Gosen zum Sinai, pp. 512-518) that
there were two cities bearing that name ; one at the site of Zoan, and the
other in the region of the land of Goshen.
" Gen. 46 : 28-34 ; 47 : 1-6, 27. 8 Gen. 47 : 11.
NO CITIES ON THE ROUTE. 381
Rameses. But if, as is commonly supposed, they came to Egypt under a
Hykshos Pharaoh, whose court was at Tanis, 1 or at Mem phis, 2 or at
Avaris, 3 they certainly were not in elose proximity to that capital city
(whichever city it was) ; for they merely settled in " the land of Rameses
" with a particular view to their separation from the Egyptian capital and
court of then. 4
At the time of the conferences of Moses with Pharaoh, over the release of
the Israelites from bondage, when the Lord " wrought his signs in Egypt,
and his wonders in the field of Zoan," 5 it is evident that " the land of
Rameses," in Goshen, where the Israelites had their dwelling, was quite
distinct and apart from the capital city of Lower Egypt ; and that even
Moses himself was not then a dweller near the court of Pharaoh. When the
plague of hail came, " and the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt
all that was in the field, both man and beast," then "in the land of
Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail." 6 And this
was but a repetition of the division shown between Goshen and the rest of
Egypt in the plague of flies. 7 So, again, when " there was a thick
darkness in all the land of Egypt three days," " all the children of Israel
had light in their dwellings " in Goshen. 8 And during all the period of
those plagues, Moses and Aaron went back and forth between the city of
Pharaoh s abode and the homes of the Israelites, as if the two places were
at a considerable distance apart. The Lord s command came more than once to
Moses, in- words that in Oriental speech are indicative
1 Robinson s Bib. Res., I., ."> ; Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 300-302,
306 ; Lenormant and Chevallier s Anc. Hist, of the East, I., 197, 223;
Philip Smith s Anc. Hist, of the East, p. 98; Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p.
122, etc.
2 Wilson s Lands of the Bible, I., 116^.; Birch s Egypt, p. 75; Palmer s
Des. of Exod., I., 270, etc.; Sharpe, in Bartlett s Forty Days, p. 25 /.
3 Poole s Cities of Egypt, p. 71 /.; Birch s Egypt, p. 75; Sharpe s Hist,
of Egypt, I., 30 /., etc.
* Gen. 46 : 28. 5 Psa. 78 : 43.
8 Exod. 9 : 26. 1 Exod. 8 : 22. 8 Exod. 10 : 21-23.
382 KADESH-BARNEA.
of a start for a journey : " Rise up early in the morning, and stand before
Pharaoh." And when Moses returned from the mission on which he had thus
been sent, " Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh." 2
A search for the site of the city of Rameses is a very landable pursuit ;
and if it could be shown that the city of Rameses was the capital city of
the Pharaohs in the days of the exodus, and if its site could be
established incoutrovertibly, then at least it would be an established and
an incontrovertible fact, that there was the sure site of one place in
Lower Egypt from which the Israelites did not start. When the children of
Israel came into Egypt, they settled down " in the land of Rameses," which
was in, or which was, "the land of Goshen." AVhcu they started out of
Egypt, " the children of Israel removed from Rameses " " the land of
Rameses/ which was in, or which was, " the land of Goshen." Tlie land of
Goshen may have had the new treasure-city (or grain magazine) of Raamses,
or of Rameses, on its border ; but that city was not an abode of the
Israelites ; nor was it a starting point of their exodus. Their starting
point was " the land," or the district, " of Rameses."
The land of Goshen, in which, or which was, the land of Rameses, is fairly
well identified. The various references to it in the Bible text and on the
Egyptian monuments, as well as later historical data, 3
1 Exoil. 8: 20; 9: 13. The Hebrew term employed here (03$, shakham, to "put
on the shoulder ) is an Oriental phrase applied to getting ready for a
caravan start. "It seems to signify, primarily, to load up camels and other
beasts of burden, which among the nornades is done very early in the
morning ; hence to set off early. " (Gesenius s Heb. Lex., s. v.
"shakham.") See also Fiirst s Ilcb. und Chald. Wbrterb.: " to load up."
Compare the Bible uses of this word as noted in Young s Analyt. Concord.:
Gen. 22: 3; 23: 18; 31: 55; Num. 14: 40; Josh. 3: 1, etc.
2 Exod. 6 : 20.
3 See Robinson s Bib. Res., I., 51-53; Wilson s Lands of the Bible, I.,
117; Brtigsch s Hist, of -Egypt, II., 340, 369, 443; Ebers s Gosen zum
Sinai, pp. 500-513; Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., pp. 129-137 ; Poole s Cities
of Egypt, pp. 92-96.
NO CITIES ON THE ROUTE. 383
all go to fix it as including the "Wady Toornilat 1 (which sweeps from
above Cairo, northerly and easterly toward Lakes Timsah and Ballah),
together with more or less of the country on either side of that wady.
Ebers 2 outlines this region graphically, when he says : " As far as it is
possible to fix its ancient limitations, it exhibits the form of a
cornucopia, bounded toward the east, at the widest end or opening of the
cornucopia, by the water-way [the series of lakes through which runs the
Suez Canal] that divides Africa from Asia. The fresh-water canal which
already existed at the time of the sojourn of the Jews in Egypt, and which
was reopened by M. de Lcsscps, washes its southern frontier : the lake of
Menzaleh lies to the north of it, and to the west the Taniticarm of the
Nile which has now dwindled to a narrow watercourse." There are many who
would not carry the Gosheu district west of the Pelusiac arm of the Nile,
but who would extend it southward somewhat below the fresh water canal.
Apart from these differences, however, the boundaries indicated by Ebers
would be generally accepted among scholars.
It was from their many homes in the length and breadth of this land of
Rameses-Goshen, that the Israelites took their hurried start after that
first passover night, which inaugurated their exodus. "And the children of
Israel journeyed from Ixameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on
foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also
with them ; and flocks and herds, even very much cattle." 3 It was from no
single city that such a host as that went out. Xor did they seek a city as
a place of rendezvous. Any research which looks to identifying the re-
1 " The general situation of Goshen is conceded. And whatever question may
exist as to its extent, it is agreed that the Wady Tumilat was a part of it
; was, in the lan guage of Schleidcn, the kernel of it. We may also
consider it an admitted fact that, in accordance with the testimony of
Aristotle, Strabo and Pliny, corroborated by the evidence of ancient
remains, and accepted by such writers as Bunsen, Brugsch, Wilkinson and
Mariette, the canal from the Nile ran along that wady." (Bartlett s Egypt
to Pal., p. 156.)
1 Pict. Egypt., L, 87 /. s Exod. 12 : 37-38.
384 KADESH-BARNEA.
mains of some city starting-point, or of some hotel stopping-place, of the
Israelites in tlicir exodus, will be misdirected effort in its immediate
object. Yet there has been a great deal of fruitless dis cussion over the
possibilities and the results of such research. 1
" And the children of Israel removed from Rameses, and pitched in Succoth."
: It would appear that up to this time there had been no assembling of this
people fora common movement. They were not brought together for a start
from the land of Rameses-Goshen.
o o
In the evening each family in its own home had eaten of the pass- over
meal. During the night an order had been issued for a hurried start on the
long- planned pilgrimage. " On the morrow after the passover the children
of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians." 3
Moving out from their various homes in the land of Rameses-Goshen, the
Israelites must first find their way to a common rendezvous, in order to
their united move ment, as one people, from Egypt into the wilderness
beyond. That place of their rendezvous was Succoth.
9. TAKING TIME AND BAKIISHEESH.
It is not necessary to suppose that all the Israelites reached Succoth on
the day of their hurried start from their homes in Rameses-Goshen. There is
nothing in the Bible text that requires such a supposition ; and there is
much in the nature of the case to
1 Since the above was written, a striking illustration of this mode of
treating the exodus of the Israelites as if it were the journey of a
commercial traveler, is given in Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole s sketch of The
Discovery of Pithom-Succoth," in the " British Quarterly Review " (for
July, 1883) : I have not only walked within the very rooms which the
Israelites built, but I have slept a night where the Israelites slept
anight when Moses led them out of the land of Egypt." Almost anywhere along
the route from the Delta to Sinai, aman would have to sleep by day and
travel by night, if he would avoid sleeping a night where some of the
Israelites slept a night when Moses led them out of the land of Egypt.
2 Num. 33: 5. 3 Num. 33: 3.
TAKING TIME AND BAKHSHEESH. 385
forbid it. The start was made on the fifteenth day of the new year of the
Israelites. 1 "On the fifteenth day of the second month after their
departing out of the land of Egypt, " 2 they came to "the Wilderness of
Sin," which was their eighth station beyond Rameses-Goshen. At the
briefest, the intervening period was a full month; 3 which had been spent
at or between the stations named. This gives an average of say four days to
each stage. From the intimations of the time occupied between the lied Sea
and Elim, 4 it might even be supposed that ten days would be an ample
period for the movement and rest on that side of the Egyp tian border ;
leaving twenty days between the hurried start of the Israelites from their
homes, and their midnight crossing of the Red Sea. 5 This would easily
allow several days for the gathering at the Succoth rendezvous.
Uncalled-for barriers to an understanding of the Bible narrative have been
raised, by a popular belief that all the preparations of the Israelites for
their departure out of Egypt had to be made during the passover night, and
that the first stage of their journey was passed before the morning of the
coming day. Nothing of that sort can be fairly inferred from the Bible
text.
i Comp. Exod. 12 : 1-20, 20-39 ; Num. 33 : 3. 2 Exod. 1C : 1.
3 This would seem, on the face of it, to be the plain meaning of the text.
They went out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month ; they
came to Sin on the fifteenth day of the second month. So think "Rashi" ( al
ha-Torah) ; Bush (Notes on Exod.) ; Murphy (Com. on Exodus); all in loco;
Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., III., 12) and others. But Canon Cook (Speaker s
Com. in loco) speaks of the time as " two months and a half," and again as
"six weeks," and Geikie (Hours with thr Bible, II., 176) seems to think
that the computation of time at Elim dates from the passage of the Red Sea,
and that ten weeks or more may have elapsed after the pass- over-night,
before Pharaoh started in pursuit of the Hebrews. 4 Comp. Exod. 15 : 22-27
; Num. 33 : 8-10.
"According to Jewish tradition, the passage through the sea and the song of
Moses belong to the seventh day after the celebration of the passover in
Egypt. We have no decisive evidence to the contrary; at the same time it
cannot be. positively established from the original narrative." (Kurtz s
Hist, of Old Cov., II., 307.)
386 KADESH-BAENEA.
While Moses was yet in the wilderness of Horeb, the whole plan of the
wonders in Egypt, with their sure result, was foretold to him, and he was
directed to lay it all before the elders of his people. 1 Then it was,
also, that the instructions were issued, that the Israelites in making
ready for their leaving Egypt should ask the customary gifts 2 ("
bakhshecsh" such gifts arc called in the East to-day 3 ) from those whom
they had served, and among whom they had lived ; now that they were to
leave that land and go out on a sacred pilgrimage, for an observance of a
sacred feast. 4
. 3: 1-22.
2 At the three elays festival which follows Ramadan, the month of fasting,
in modern Egypt, as in other Muhammadan countries, "servants and other
dependents receive presents of new articles of elothing from their masters
or patrons ; and the servant receives presents of small sums of money from
his master s friends, whom, if they do not visit his master, he goes to
congratulate ; as well as from any former master." (Lane s Thousand and One
Nights, p. 6 2f.) A Turkish writer (Oscanyan, in The Snltitn and His
People, p. 86 f.) speaks of the generous giving to the poorer pilgrims who
are starting for Mekkeh : " But few can withhold a tribute. The miser opens
his hoards, and the widow adds her slender mite ; the grandee and the
slave, one and all, gladly answer the appeal of their fellows," at such a
time. A person coming back from a pilgrimage may bring presents. " When a
person arrives from a foreign country, he generally brings some articles of
the produce or merchandise of the country as presents to his friends. Thus,
pilgrims returning from the holy places bring water of Zemzem, dust from
the prophet s torn 1 ), etc., for this purpose." (Thou sand and One Nights
I., 23.) But departing gviests would expect to receive gifts rather than to
give them (See Pierotti s Customs and Traditions of PuL, p. 89). This,
although the cry for bakhshcesh is now often raised against those who go as
well as against those who come.
3 This term, in one form or another, with the uniform idea of a present or
gift, is in tise from the Straits of Gibraltar to India.
4 " Let my people go, that they may hold a feast [literally, a fchag (JH),
or a hajj] unto me in the wilderness " (Exod. 5 : 1), was the first message
of God to Pharaoh at the hand of Moses. The hajj of the East means more
than a mere pilgrimage jour ney. From time immemorial it has included the
idea of circumambulatory movements in some way, as the Hebrew word here
used would indicate. (See Gesenius and Fiirst, s. v.) Making a sevenfold
circuit of the sacred Ka aba at Mekkeh, and making a similar circuit of the
sacred sepulchre in the Church of the Holy Sepul chre at Jerusalem, are but
illustrations of the well-nigh universal idea. It is illus-
TAKING TIME AND BAKHSHEESH. 387
In the Hebrew, there is no necessary suggestion of any " bor rowing " from
the Egyptians, as if with a proposal to return the things received. The
term employed means " ask," l rather than " borrow." It evidently refers to
the custom, which is fresh now as always in the unchangeable East, of
soliciting a gift on the eve of a departure, or on the elosing of any term
of service of any sort whatsoever. 2 That this was the custom in that day,
as it is now,
trated again in the primitive ceremony at the annual feast, or hajj, at the
ancient tomb of Neby-Saleh, near Mount Sinai (see Palmer s Des. of Exod.,
I., 50/., 262-264) ; also in the common method of worship at the
chapel-tomb of any Arab saint (see Lane s Tliousand and One Nights, I.,
215). The circuit by which the Israelites were led in all their pilgrimage,
until it ended by their sevenfold circuit of the city of Jericho (Josh. 6 :
2-6, 20), and then moved every man straight before him into the first
secured stronghold of their new inheritance, was longer and stranger than
they had dreamed of.
1 Shaal n\R&\ " To ask for either by way of demand or entreaty." (Gesenius
s Heb. Lex., s. v.) This is precisely the idea of "bakhsheesh."
2 "In Palestine men are born, live and die, to the one tune bakhshish, bakh
shish, " says Pierotti (Customs and Traditions of Pal., p. 88 ff.). "It may
perhaps be said," he adds, " that the custom exists generally in the East,
and this is tme ; but it is nowhere so rampant and so unreasonable as in
Palestine." Yet he who enters the East at Egypt will be likely to think
that there is the region above all others, where the asking of gifts (for
the call for bakhsheesh is distinct from begging) is the surest
accompaniment of meeting and of parting. Burton says (Pilgrimage to El
Mcdinah. etc., p. 121): " Bakhshish was the last as well as the first
odious sound I heard in Egypt." And Macgregor, (7?oft Roy on the Jordan, p.
20), who entered the East at Egypt and went thence to Palestine, has
re-phrased and extended this statement in his testimony : " Backshish ! was
the first cry I heard in the East ; and the last I heard there, after
wandering long, was Backshish ! " As to the cor respondence of this custom
with that of olden time, Pierotti says confidently. " The Arabs only follow
(though carrying to excess) the practice of the Hebrews in the matter of
bakhshish." There could hardly be a better illustration of the extent to
which this asking of bakhsheesh is carried throughout the East, than that
given in the experience of Burckhardt, who learned so much of the ways of
the Arabs, and who told it so well. He moved among them as one of them.
Wherever he went he found them accustomed to ask gifts not only on any
occasion when there was a show of reason for it, but also whenever they
knew that a person had anything worth ask ing for. "An article of dress, or
of equipment, which the poorest townsman would be
388 KADESH-BABNEA.
is indicated in many Bible references to the giving of gifts ; l but more
explicitly in the divine command to the Israelites themselves not to forget
the bakhshcesh when they released a servant at the be ginning of the
sabbatical year : " And when thou scndest him ont free from thec, thou
shalt not let him go away empty : thou shalt fur nish him liberally out of
thy flock, and out of thy [threshing] floor, and out of thy winepress : of
that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thcc thou shalt give unto
him." And, as if the receiving of gifts from the Egyptians was to be
brought to mind by this observance of the custom which was in that instance
illus trated, it is added : " And thou shalt remember that thou wast a
bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed
ashamed to wear, is still a covetable article with the Bedouins," he said.
"They set no bounds to their demands ; delicacy is unknown among them, nor
have they any word to express it. If indeed one persists in refusing, they
never take the tiling by force ; but it is extremely difficult to resist
their eternal supplications and com pliments without yielding at last."
When he had given away as a present, or had exchanged for poorer ones, his
every personal ornament or attractive article of dress, even to his
"leathern girdle and shoes," and had cut down the tube of his tobacco pipe
" from two yards to a span," in response to the incessant calls on him for
gifts, he "expected to be freed from all further demands; " but he was
mistaken. "I had forgotten," he says, "some rags torn from my shirt, which
were tied round my ancles, wounded by the stirrups which I had received in
exchange from the sheikh of Kerak. These rags happening to be of white
linen, some of the ladies of the Iloweytat thought they might serve to make
a berkoa, or face veil, and whenever I stepped out of the tent I found
myself surrounded by half a dozen of them, begging for the rags. In vain I
represented that they were absolutely necessary to me in the wounded state
of my ancles: their answer was, You will soon reach Cairo, where you may
get as much linen as you like. By this incessant teasing me, they at last
obtained their wishes." (Burckhardt s Trnv. in Syria, pp. 309 /., 438.)
Burckhardt would not have stumbled at the Bible declaration, that the
Israelites asked bakh- sheesh from their old neighbors on leaving them for
a religious pilgrimage; nor would Bishop Colenso have done so, if he had
lived among Orientals instead of among South Africans.
!See Gen. 12: 16 ; 20: 14, 16; 32: 13-15; 33: 11 ; 43: 11; Judg. 3: 15-18;
1 Sam. 9: 7; 17: 18; 25: 18, 19, 23-27; 2 Kings 5: 15, 16, 21-23, 26; 8: 8,
9; 16: ; 20: 12; Ezek. 27: 15; Matt. 2: 11.
TAKING TIME AND BAEHSHEESH. 389
thee : [and you received bakhslieesh] therefore I command thee this thing
[of giving bakhslieesh to your departing servants] to day." 1
In directing the request for bakhsheesh from the Egyptians, the Lord added
a promise that he would give his people " favor in the sight of the
Egyptians " z so that the gifts received should be large and many , so
numerous and valuable, in fact, that it would be as though they had taken
the "spoil" of the Egyptians 3 after a victorious battle ; such a battle
for example, as that of the Israelites with the Midianites in the plains of
Moab, when among the " spoils" given into the Lord s treasury were "jewels
of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, ear-rings, and tablets ; " 4 or,
again, the battle when Gideon triumphed over the Midianites, " and the
weight of the golden earrings " of the spoil " was a thousand and seven
hundred shekels of gold ; besides ornaments, and collars, and purple
raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were
about their camels necks." 5
And all that the Lord had directed and promised was reported by Moses and
Aaron, not only to the elders but to the people gene rally, on the first
coming again of Moses into Egypt. " And the people believed : and when they
heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had
looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped."
6 From that time forward preparations were making for the final move.
After the ninth plague, the Israelites were told that the tenth plague
would be followed by their going out on their journey un molested. 7
Instructions were renewed for the asking of the bakh sheesh, 8 and
doubtless the gifts were then obtained. 9 Ample notice
1 Deut. 15: 13-15. 2 Exod. 3 : 21, 22. 3 Exod. 3 : 22.
4 Num. 31 : 7-12, 48-50. 5 Judg. 8 : 26. Exod. 4 : 31.
7 Exod. 11 : 1. 8 Exod. 11 : 2.
9 Exod. 11 : 3. The subsequent reference to this asking (Exod. 12 : 3."),
3C), and its results, at the time of the exodus, is to be understood as a
mention of what had been
390 KADESH-BARNEA.
was given in advance of the passover-night. 1 The Israelites were to have
all things in readiness for an immediate move on the mor row after that
night ; and this included the having their flocks and herds prepared for a
start. They were even to stand at their pass- over-feast, having their
loins girded about for a march, and having sandals on their feet and a
staff in their hand; awaiting perhaps an agreed signal for a movement at
the early dawn.
It was at midnight that the first-born of Egypt were smitten. 2 Not until
after that were Moses and Aaron sent for by the king. 3 Then followed
directions for the exodus. 1 A single flashing lio-ht,
o o o /
bv the order of Moses on his coming out from the citv of the kino-,
/ o / o/
or a single wave of a signal banner in the early morning, might have been
sufficient in view of arrangements already made, 5 to start the order from
lookout to lookout over all the land of Ramcses-Goshcn," and to set the
mighty multitude in motion, to ward the appointed rendezvous at Succoth.
As an illustration of the multiplication of difficulties in the Bible
narrative, by their ingenious manufacture, the exhibit in this line by
Bishop Colenso, in his description of the first move of the Israelites, is
really worthy of reproduction just here ; for his method of criticism is by
no means yet out of date. He says : 7 " We are required to believe that, in
one single day, the order to
done. The Hebrew language has no such division of tenses as the English. "
The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses," is only a
Hebrew way of saying, " the children of Israel had done according to the
word of Moses."
1 Exod. 12 : 1-6. 2 Exod. 12 : 20. 3 Exod. 12 : 30, 31. * Exod. 12 : 31-33.
5 Comp. Exoil. 4 : 29-31; 5: 15; 0: 13-25; 11: 1-8, 12: 1-28.
6 The order for the celebration of the passover-feast in commemoration of
the exo dus, was announced, year by year, in the later days of the Hebrew
occupancy of Canaan, by the flashing of signal lights, first on the brow of
the Mount of Olives, and then from hill-top to hill-top over all the land
not only from Dan to Beersheba, but "far beyond the boundaries of Palestine
to those of the dispersion beyond the river. " See, on this point,
Edersheim s The Temple, its Ministry, etc., p. 170 f. The Pentateuch, I.,
111/.
TAKING TIME AXD BAKHSHEESH. 391
start was communicated suddenly, at midnight, to every single family of
every town and village, throughout a tract of country as large as
Hertfordshire, but ten times as thickly peopled; that in obedience to such
order, having first borrowed very largely from their Egyptian neighbors in
all directions (though, if we are to suppose Egyptians occupying the same
territory with the Hebrews, the extent of it must be very much increased),
they then came in from all parts of Goshcn to Rameses, bringing with them
the sick and infirm, the young and the aged ; further, that, since
receiving the summons they had sent out to gather in all their flocks and
herds, spread over so wide a district, and had driven them also to Ramescs
; and, lastly, that having done all this, since they were roused at
midnight, they were started again from Ilamescs that very same day, and
marched on to Succoth, not leaving a single sick or infirm person, a single
woman in child birth, or even a single hoof (Exod. 10: 26) behind them !
This is, undoubtedly, what the story in the book of Exodus requires us to
believe. (Exod. 12: 31-41, 51)."
Yet there is hardly a single statement in that extended descrip tion which
has any basis in either the letter or the general tenor of the Bible
narrative. And that is a fair example of the difficulties in the narratives
of the Pentateuch which Bishop Colenso delib erately, and, as it is
elaimed, conscientiously, put before the public as a source of perplexity
to him and his Zulu flock. Nor is Bishop Colenso alone as a critic in this
sort of misrepresenting the Bible narrative, as a preliminary to elaiming
its unreason ableness at the point where it is misrepresented.
In no instance is it said that a day s journey took the Israelites from one
station, or formal encampment, to the next ; if we ex cept the crossing of
the Red Sea during a single night. 1 It is dis-
1 The strange objection made by Colenso, and others of his stamp, to
admitting the reasonable probability of rest-days between or at stations is
: " Nothing whatever
392 KADESH-BARNEA.
tiuctly declared that it was " on the morrow " after the passover, that
they began their hurried move toward Succoth. It is by no means probable,
nor have we any call from the text itself to sup pose, that every family
from the remoter portions of the land of Rameses-Goshen reached the common
rendezvous on the day of their setting out. But sooner or later, all the
Israelites, with all the " mixed multitude " of Semitic and Egyptian
refugees which accompanied them, were together at Succoth.
10. THE PLACE OF RENDEZVOUS.
Succoth l is a Hebrew word ; not an Egyptian one. 2 It means " booths " or
t: tents," 3 and so a " place of booths," or " a place of tents." 4 It is a
term that might naturally be applied to a common camping-ground, to a
region where nomads, or tenters, were in the habit of pitching their tents.
There is such a locality, for ex ample, a short distance outside of Cairo
at Birket el-IIajj 5
is said or implied about these days of rest in the Scripture. There would
surely have been some reference made to them, if they really occurred."
(Colenso s The Pent., p. 116.) Imagine this elaim applied to every Bible
narrative. For example : Jacob slept at Bethel one night. His next recorded
stop is in Haran. (Gen. 28: 18, 19 ; -!>: 1-4.) Of course he made the
intervening " journey " in a day ! 1 Sukkah (H33); in the plural, Sukkoth
(iVOp).
2 Even of the Egyptian word which Brug^ch would identify with Succoth, he
says : "The meaning . . . can be established only by help of the Semitic"
(Hist, of Egypt, I., 233; II., 373). Ebers (Gosen zum Sinai, -p. 520)
thinks he sees in it a likeness to another Egyptian term. As the word is
found in a Hebrew record, and has a well-defined Hebrew meaning, it is but
fair to accept that meaning as the in tended one, in the absence of proof
to the contrary. Any corroboration or corre spondence of the Hebrew meaning
in the Egyptian records is, of course, legitimate. 3 Comp. 2 Sam. 11 : 11 ;
22 : 12 ; 1 Kings 20 : 12 ; Psa. 31 : 20.
4 See Gesenius and Fiirst, s. v. It is a frequent thing in the Hebrew, to
apply a common noun to a locality, with the added idea of "the place of."
Thus, e. g., "Gilgal," "Rolling"; the " Place of Rolling " (Josh. 5 :
9-10).
5 " Birkctt el-IIajj, or the Pilgrim s Lake, where the last stragglers can
join the
THE PLACE OF RENDEZVOUS. 393
where the great Ilajj caravan for Mekkeh makes its final rendezvous for a
start every year. There is another such common camping- ground across the
lied Sea southeasterly from Suez, where the pil grims from the East are
tediously quarantined. Again there is an other, near Castle Nakhl, where
every caravan from the east or west camps for a longer or shorter time.
There was evidently a region of this sort between the line of lakes which
formed the eastern boundary of the land of Goshen (or perhaps from a little
west of that line, and the Great Wall (the Khetam-Etham-Shur), which lay
between Lower Egypt and the Wilderness. 1 At that Succoth, the Israelites
probably made their rendezvous.
It is clear from the Egyptian records, 2 that the Shasoo, or Bed - ween, or
nomads of the desert, were in the habit of finding their way into the
Delta, and pitching their tents inside the Great Wall. A reference has
already been made 3 to an official s report in the days of Mcneptah II.,
telling of the admission of Edomitish Shasoo through the Great Wall into
the region of "the lakes of the city Pi-turn of Mineptah-Hotephima, which
are situated in the land of Thuku, in order to feed themselves and to feed
their herds on the possessions of Pharaoh." 4 For the region thus oc cupied
by the Shasoo-teuters, between the Great Wall and the lakes (and more or
less to the west of the lakes) on the eastern borders of the Delta, the
term "Succoth" would be a most natural designation ; and its location
corresponds with the in-
caravan, where the skins are refilled with water, and the leader at last
gives the defi nite signal for a final start eastwards, across the sandy
wastes of the Arabian desert" (Ebers s Pict. Eyypt, II., 130).
1 Niebuhr (Beschreibunrjvon Arabien, p. 358) suggests that the Succoth-
rendezvous of the Israelites was Birket el-IIajj. This shows his
understanding of the nature of their camping-place ; but from the known
limits of the land of Goshen, and the direction of the Israelites route, as
indicated in the text, it is evident that Succoth must have been well
eastward of Birket el-IIajj.
2 See Brugsch s Hist, of Efjypt, I., 247 /. ; II., 132 /. 3 See page 329,
supra. * Hist, of Egypt, II., 133.
394 KADESH-BABNEA.
dications in the Bible text of the Succoth-rendezvous of the Israelites.
Brugsch argues strongly for the correspondence of the Egyptian " Thuku," or
Tlmkoo (as mentioned in the above named record), with the Hebrew "
Succoth." In his opinion, the Egyptian word, like the Hebrew one, meant "
tent," or " tent-camp," and was applied to a district on the pastures of
which "the wandering Bedouins of the eastern deserts pitched their tents to
procure necessary food for their cattle." Ebers, however, 2 would derive
the name Succoth from the hieroglyphic " Sckhet " (which has the meaning of
"afield"); a place which he thinks was near Lake Timsah. But this meaning
does not materially differ from the other ; nor is the probable location
changed by its adoption. It merely gives a " campus " for a "
camping-place."
As to the location of the Egyptian Tlmkoo, it is shown by the monuments,
that Pi-turn (the House of [the god] Turn), which probably was the Pi thorn
of the Bible text was the chief city of the district of Tlmkoo; that that
city was situated "at the entrance of the East ; " 3 and that it was near
the lakes 4 of the eastern border. This is just where all indications would
tend to fix the location of Succoth, in the narrative of the exodus ; and
it is where Ebcrs finds his Sckhet. As has been shown, 5 the land of
Rameses- Goshen was in the general shape of a cornucopia, with its mouth,
or opening, by the line of lakes between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
Out from that Rameses-Goshen cornucopia, the children of Israel poured
forth in their flight, into the Succoth, or common Tenting-place, at the
entrance of the East along those lakes.
Explorations in the Delta, made since this writing was begun,
1 Hist, of E<jnpt, I., 233 /. ; II., 373, 421 ff. * Gosen zum Sinai, pp.
510 /., 520.
3 Ibid., p. 510 ; also Brugsch s Ifist. of E jypt, I., 233 /. 4 See page
393, supra. 5 See page 383, supra.
THE FIRST UNITED MOVE. 395
have seemed to identify the site of Pi-turn, or Pithom, at Tell el-
Maskhootah, 1 a short distance west of Lake Timsah. This corres ponds very
well with all the hints of both the Hebrew and Egyp tian texts, toward
locating a chief city of Succoth ; if it only be borne in mind, that the
temple-city, with its guarded grain-maga zines, of an entire border
district, is not the district itself, nor yet, of necessity, in the centre
of that district. Such a city would na turally be on the inner border of
the district, as the safer location. 2 Pi-tum, or Pithom, was not Thukoo,
or Succoth ; but Pi-tum, or Pithom, seems to have been the chief city of
Thukoo, or Succoth, and as such it might well have been located at the
westernmost stretch of Thukoo or Succoth between the Shasoo-tenters and the
Hebrew-fellaheen. There would seem to be the place for the fortified
granary of the fertile district sweeping eastward from Goshen. And all this
goes to show, that Succoth was a well-known Tenting-field, along the line
of lakes of which Lake Timsah is a centre. 3
11. THE FIRST UNITED MOVE.
And this would seem to make clear the region of the starting point, and the
region of the first gathering place, of the children of Israel, at the time
of their exodus. "And the children of Israel journeyed from [the land of]
Rameses to [their rendezvous
1 See "The Discovery of Pithom-Succoth," in Brit. Quart. Rev., for July,
1883.
2 The chief city of the district of Goshen (Qosem, or Pa-qosem) seems to
have been at the western stretch of that district. (See Brugsch s Hist, of
Egypt, II., 349, 369; also Ehers s Gosen zum Sinai, p. 519 /.)
s In incidental proof of the error of Brugsch, in his locating of Pithom
and Succoth (near the borders of Lake Men/.aleh) is his own use of the
Egyptian scribe s report of the pursuit of fugitives toward the desert.
That scribe reached the fortress of Thukoo on the tenth day of the month,
and in zealous haste he reached Khetam, or the Great Wall, on the twelfth
day. Yet Brugsch insists, in the face of this, that Khetam (Etham) and
Thukoo (Succoth) are only one day s caravan march apart. (Comp. Hist.
ofEyyjit, II., 387, 389, 390.).
396 KADESH-BARNEA.
at] Succoth." And when they had all gathered at that Tenting- placc near
the lakes, and were finally ready for their pilgrimage "they took their
journey from Succoth, and encamped in 2 Etluini [that is, inside, or
within, the Great "Wall, which is], in 2 [or, at] the edge of the
wilderness." 3 And now they were at the ex- tremest limit of the land of
Egypt, with only the frowning Wall between them and the forbidding desert.
o
They had left their homes with the promise of being led toward Canaan. 4 A
three-days journey into, or across, the desert was the length of the
proposed stretch before them, after they should once be fairly outside the
Great Wall which bounded the wilderness. 5 With this in their minds, their
natural course would be out from Ramcses-Goshen into Succoth. and up from
Succoth toward the northernmost road of Egypt, the directest and shortest
road into Canaan; the "Way of the Land of the Philistines," as that road
was called. 6 As they had received the royal permission to journey into the
wilderness 7 beyond the Great Wall, they were doubtless supplied with the
needful authority to pass the guards at the gate, or sally-port, of the
frontier fortifications. But instead of moving directly out, they encamped
within the Wall which was on the edge of the wilderness. Instead of
hastening through the border barrier, they halted before it. And why?
12. A SHARP TURN AND ITS PURPOSE.
It was not for the people to move or to rest entirely at their own will. As
it was common for Eastern armies to be guided by a
Exod. 12 : 37. 2 The Hebrew word is be (3V " in, " within," or " at." 3
Exocl. 13 : 20.
4 See Exod. 3: 7, 8, 15-17; 4: 29-31; G: 2-8; 14: 3-5, 11, 12. 5 Exocl. 3:
18; 5: 3; S: 25-27. A three days journey might have taken them from Shur to
Kadesh.
6 See page 338, supra. 7 Exod. 12 : 30-33.
A SHARP TURN AND ITS PURPOSE. 397
column of smoke moving on in their van by day, and by a streaming banner of
flame before them in the night ; l so now, as
1 Traveling by night is a favorite practice with Eastern caravans, because
of the heat of the day in contrast with the coolness of the night. Burton
illustrates this in his Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (American
edition, pp. 153-166). Roberts tells of it (Oriental lllus., p. 72) as
common in India. Distance is even often noted by the number of "nights,"
rather than "days." Thus, for example, Egypt is said in an Arabian
geography to be " forty nights " in extent from north to south (see Ex
tracts from " Geography of Abd-er-Rashid el-Bakouy," in Memoirs Relative to
E jDpt, p. 433, note). " The Arabian authors frequently reckon by nights ,
and not by days , journeys."
The custom of guiding caravans by means of smoke and light is referred to
by many authors. Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., II., 297 /.) elusters numerous
illustrations of the custom. Curtius ( De Rebus Gestis, V., 2-7) tells of
Alexander the Great em ploying this method in his campaigns. A trumpet gave
the signal for a march. But as its sound could not be heard amid the noise
and confusion of an encampment, it was supplemented by a beacon or cresset
on a lofty pole before his head-quarters pavilion. This could be seen by
all from near and far ; and it was a guide to all. " Fire was to be the
signal by night; smoke by day" (" Observabatur ignis noctu, fumus interdiu
"). The context of the narrative in Curtius shows that Alexander adopted
this custom in the East where it probably had long prevailed. Harmar
(Observations, II., 265-273) shows that to the present day the same custom
is adopted by trading caravans. In one of the Anastasi Papyri (quoted in
Speaker s Com. at Exod. 13 : 21), " the commander of an expedition is
called, a flame in the darkness at the head of his soldiers. " It is not
that the pillar of fire and eloud which led the Israelites was not
miraculous ; but it is that its form and purpose were in the line of
Oriental methods. "We cannot but acknowledge," says Kurtz, "that in the
pillar of eloud and of fire, in which Jehovah himself accompanied and
conducted his people, there was some reference to the ordinary
caravan-fire, which served as a guide; as well as a signal of encampment
and departure to the caravans and armies of the East. For, in the design
and form of the two phenomena we can trace exactly the same features ; the
difference being that the one was a merely natural arrange ment, which
answered its purpose but very imperfectly, and was exceedingly insig
nificant in its character, whilst the other was a supernatural phenomenon,
beyond all comparison more splendid and magnificent in its form, which not
only served as a signal of encampment and departure, and led the way in an
incomparably superior manner, but was also made to answer far greater and
more glorious ends."
Pitts (Religion and Manners of Mahometans, p. 430 /.), describing the
annual Mekkeh Pilgrimage, says : " They have lights by night (which is the
chief time of traveling, because of the exceeding heat of the sun by day),
which are carried on the
398 KADESH-BARNEA.
the children of Israel went out at the Lord s command, " the Lord went
before them by day in a pillar of a eloud, to lead them the way; and by
night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night. He
took not away the pillar of the eloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by
night, from before the people/ And they must march or rest as the guiding
pillar mossed on or stayed. 2
" And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led
them not through [out of Egypt by] the Way of the Land of the Philistines,
although 3 that was near 4 [when, they were en camped there not far from
it, within the Wall after their leaving Succoth] ; for God said, Lest
peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to
Egypt." The people were not yet a nation in condition for warfare ; to
fight their way into Canaan. They muse have a farther training to fit them
for a work of con- tops of high poles, to direct the hnyges [pilgrims] in
their march. They are some what like iron stoves, into which they put short
dry wood, which some of the camels are loaded with ; it is carried in great
sack.s, which have a "hole near the bottom, where the servants take it out
as they see the fires need a recruit. Every cottar [company, or division]
hath one of these poles belonging to it, some of which have ten, some
twelve, of these lights on their tops, or more or less; and they are
likewise of different figures as well as numbers ; are perhaps oval way,
like a gate ; another triangular, or like an N or M, etc., so that every
one knows by them his respective cottor. They are carried in the front, and
set up in the place where the caravan is to pitch, before that comes up, at
some distance from one another. They are also carried by day, not lighted ;
but yet by the figure and number of them the kagges are directed to what
cottor they belong, as soldiers are, by their colors, where to rendez vous
; and without such directions it would be impossible to avoid confusion in
such a vast number of people."
1 Exod. 13 : 21-22. 2 Num. 9: 15-23.
3 There has been some discussion over the force of the Hebrew word l-ee (
2), here translated " although." It is elaimed by some (see Schaff-Lange
Com., in loco) that it should be rendered " for." But the meaning of the
sentence is the same in either case. " They were not led that road for its
nearness." Yet Gesenius, Kalisch, Alford, Murphy, and others, approve the
reading "although."
* Hebrew qarolh (3 <n P ), " nigh," " at hand."
A SHARP TURN AND ITS PURPOSE. 399
quest. " But God led the people about [around by] the Way of the Wilderness
of the Red Sea." ] From the northernmost of the three roads out of Egypt
desertward, they must turn to the south ernmost. Well-nigh the whole
stretch of the Isthmus, the entire eastern border of Lower Egypt, must be
wearily traversed by that restless and undisciplined multitude. " And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they
turn [literally, "turn away " 2 ] and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between
Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon : before it shall ye encamp by
the sea." ; All that journey to be taken, and then an encampment at the end
of it. A strange and bewildering order. And God knew that it would seem
strange, and that it would be bewildering; and it was for just that reason
that he gave the order. " For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel
[when he hears of this strange retrogressive movement, said the Lord], They
are entangled 4 [confused, bewildered, dazed] in the land [in my land, in
the land of Egypt] ; the wilderness [beyond, with its terrors] hath shut
them in [here]. 5 And ... he shall follow after them ;
1 Exod. 13: 17, 18. This statement is clearly a comprehensive one, in
advance of the details of the narrative which it summarizes. It is so
understood by scholars generally. " We have here to do with an introductory
and summary account," says Lange (Schuff-Lange Com., in loco).
2 See Gesenius and Fiirst, s. v. shoobh (21$). The word always means an
entire change of direction, a turning away from. Commonly, although not
always, it means to turn back, to return. In Josh. 19 : 12, 27, 29, 34, it
is employed as describ ing an abrupt change of direction, yet not a return.
The word is used for the turning away from sin in "conversion." (See
Englishman s Ileb. and Chald. Concord, s. v.) As Mead says (in Sch^ff-Lange
Com. in loco), " If merely turning aside had been meant [hero], soor PID),
or panah (HJ3) would have been used."
3 Exod. 14: 1,2.
4 Hebrew bookh (^3), " confused," " perplexed." See Gesenius and Fiirst, s.
v.
5 It is a noticeable fact, that to this day a common argument against
accepting the plain record of the Bible text, as to the directed course of
the Israelites in this move southward from the northernmost road, is its
seeming unreasonableness. Thus, for example, the Jewish historian Graetz
(Gesch. der Juden, I., 384) says confidently:
400 EADESH-BARNEA.
and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host." It has been so
common to understand the word " entangled," of our English version, as
referring to a geographical, instead of a mental, entanglement, that the
plain meaning of the text has been obscured in the minds of most readers.
When Pharaoh should hear that the people whom he had manumitted had failed
to go out from the land of their bondage ; but that on the contrary, after
days of waiting, they had actually turned back from the very gates of the
wilderness barrier, and were now wandering in seeming aimlessncss along the
inner face of that barrier, what could he think but just that which is
foretold in the text, as sure to be his opinion? " Poor fools ! " he would
say to himself. " They would not know when they were well off. Now that
they have reached the borders of my land, and think of going out into the
wilderness beyond, they shrink from it ; and no wonder that they do. They
move from place to place, uncertain as to their better course. They are in
sore perplexity here in the land ; but they cannot go outside of it. The
wilderness is too forbidding for their entrance to it ; it shuts them in
here. They arc now in a good state to be brought back to their work and
their homes."
Like the Bible narratives generally, this story of the exodus does not read
in unbroken continuity. First there will come a
"Arc we to suppose that they marched forty-five miles along the western
shores of the Bitter Lakes [after reaching that part of the eastern
border], and even to the southern point [of the Isthmus] ? To what purpose
? The farther south they followed that route the more dangerous was their
march. It was just rushing into the lion s jaws." It evidently strikes
Graetz now much as the Lord said it would strike Pharaoh at the time. So,
again, it has impressed Villiers Stuart (Nile Gleanings, p. 7) : " It would
he utterly inconceivable," he says, " that Moses, . . . would delib erately
go out of his way to place the lied Sea between himself and the point to
reach, when the direct route of the isthmus lay before him. That he may
have done it to create an occasion for a miracle is quite untenable "
notwithstanding the fact that the Bible distinctly declares (See Exod. 14:
1-4) that this was so!
1 Exod. 14 : 3, 4.
A SHARP TURN AND ITS PURPOSE. 401
summary statement, as of the Lord s leading his people around by the
southernmost road instead of the northern one. 1 Then there will follow the
details of the people s movements, step by step. 2 After that, in
alternation, the movements of Pharaoh and of the people, will be given, one
by one. 3 So now, after the Lord s an nouncement of what will surely be the
opinion of Pharaoh, the record goes back to show how Pharaoh s mind had
been prepared for this stage of the Lord s plans. 4
The order for the manumission of the Israelites had been given by Pharaoh
in an hour of intcnsest excitement, and under the pressure of personal
grief and fear. 3 After the orders issued by him, had been obeyed, the
report of their execution by those to whom they had been entrusted, was
duly made to the king. Then came the natural conflict of feeling in view of
all the facts involved. " And it was told the king of Egypt that the people
[had 6 ] fled [had gone as he had directed]: and the heart of Pharaoh and
his servants was turned against the people." 7 "A good riddance ! " was the
first thought, with the memory fresh in mind of the terrible plagues which
Egypt had endured on that people s account. But when the empty houses of
all that people were numbered, and the thought came of the lack of those
efficient laborers, and those border-land defenders, 8 there was another
feeling than that of re joicing on the part of Pharaoh and his servants. "
And they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from
serving us ? " And when Pharaoh was in that frame of mind, and the news was
brought to him of the aimless wanderings of the bewildered people on the
borders of his land, and still within its walls, is there any wonder that
he should rouse himself up for their pursuit? His feeling must have been :
" I will go down and drive back those
1 Exod. 13 : 17, 18. Exod. 13 : 19, 20.
3 Exod. 14 : 5-12. Exod. 14: 5. 5 Exod. 12 : 30-33.
See note on Hebrew tenses, at p. 389, /. 7 Exod. 14:5. 8 Exod. 1 : 10-14.
26
402 KADESH-BAENEA.
poor fools to their work again." And " the Egyptians pursued after them,
all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horse men, and his army,
and overtook them encamping by the sea, be side Pi-hahiroth, before
Baal-zephou." l
13. THEORIES OF THE ROUTE.
The prefatory summary of this narrative in the Bible text 2 shows, that the
new move of the Israelites was from near " the Way of the Land of the
Philistines," to near " the Way of the Wilderness of the Red Sea;" or, as
has already been shown, from the northernmost to the southernmost of the
three great highways out of Lower Egypt eastward. This would place their
encamp ment, at the time of Pharaoh s coming in their pursuit, at a point,
or in a region, near the then head of the western arm of the " Yam Sooph,"
or Red Sea, the modern Gulf of Suez ; over against that gateway, or
sally-port, of the Great Wall, which served as the exit of that
southernmost road into the wilderness. This in itself sufficiently locates
its vicinity, even without any identification of the particular land-marks
noted in the narrative ; al though helps to such identifyings are not
entirely wanting.
It is obvious that the doubts which have been raised by some, concerning
the ancient limits of the western arm of the Red Sea,
O *
and its identity with the Yam Sooph of the Bible-text, have con fused the
minds of investigators in their endeavors to track the route of the
Israelites. Tims, for example, Graetz 3 has latterly argued for the
crossing of the Israelites at a point north of Lake Timsah, near what has
been shown to be the highest point of the Isthmus, and not far from what
must have been the Way of Shur. Any one who is familiar with the proofs of
the limits of the Gulf of
1 Exod. 14 : 9. 2 Exod. 13 : 17, 18.
3 Gesch. der Juden, I., 378-300.
THEORIES OF THE ROUTE. 403
Suez in ancient times will see the essential error in the argument of
Graetz. M. de Lesseps 1 has suggested a crossing-place a little to the
south of Lake Timsah. But he is evidently not so familiar with the Isthmus
as it \vas in the days of Moses, as with the Isthmus as it is to-day. And
so it might be said of many others who have proposed to find the ancient
head of the Yam Sooph con siderably farther north at the time of the
exodus, than at present.
Yet another theory of the route of the exodus, would carry it along the
borders of the Serboniau Lake, on a narrow strip of land between that lake
and the Mediterranean Sea. This theory seems to have been first broached by
Hase 2 at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and then taken up by
Richter, 3 later in the same century. It was re-stated and pressed by
Thierbach, in 1830. 4 It was further elaborated, and advocated with fresh
vigor, by Schleidcn, 5 in 1858 ; and it had the support of Schneider, and
Radeuhausen. 6 Again it was taken up anew with a really brilliant and
dazzling array of elaimed corroboratory evidence from the Egyptian monu
ments, by Brugsch, before the International Congress of Orien talists at
London, in 1874. 7 This theory, as thus re-shaped and presented by Brugsch,
attracted very many and carried captive not a few. Its strength lay in the
reputation of its eminent advocate, and in his unqualified elaim of sure
identifications in a field where his knowledge was unchallenged. But it
could not stand the test of thorough examination. Its very foundations were
baseless.
For myself I can say, as an illustration of the effect of an ex-
1 See Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p. 146 /., and his sketch map at p. 156.
2 Hamelsveld s Bib. Geog. (A. D. 1796), IV., 3., p. 349. * See Chester s "
Journey " in Surv. of West. Pal., " Special Papers," p. 86. 4 See Stickel s
"Der Israeliteii Auszug aus ^Egypten" (p. 330), in Stud. u. Krit.,
for 1850.
6 Die Landenge von Su(s, pp. 189-202.
6 See Ebers s Gosen zum Sinai, p. 107.
7 This essay, " The Exodus and the Egyptian Monuments," is given in full in
Brugscu s Hist, of Egypt, II., 363-3y.
404 KADESH-BARNEA.
animation into the several points elaimed by Brugsch in support of his
theory, in contrast with the effect of its surface reading, that I was
swept along in the current of its bold assertions, and that I bcejan the
investigations here recorded with a strong
o o o
prepossession in its favor ; a prepossession which was increased by a
conversation concerning it with the late Professor Palmer, of London, and
by a knowledge that it had the confidence of other scholars to whom I
looked up with admiration. But at every step of an independent
investigation I found fresh cause for rejecting the conclusions of Brugsch
on the pointvS which were vital to his theory. In my studies I gave first
prominence to his own volu minous and learned writings ; to his " History
of Egypt under the Pharaohs," his " Geography of Ancient Egypt," his
"Hieratic and Demotic Lexicon," and his " Geographical Dictionary." The re
sult of these studies as supplemented in the broader field of kindred
literature on the points in question, T have already referred to, in their
order in the foregoing pages. I have found, and I think I have shown, that
in the treatment of the sites of Ramcscs, Succoth, Etham, and Migdol ; in
his limitation of the roadways out of Egypt, and the extent of the Wall,
Sliur ; as, also, in his explana tion of the term Yam Sooph, at each and
all of these points, Brugsch is clearly at fault in his exodus theory, and
is at variance with positive declarations and exhibits of fact made by
himself else where in his writings. He has re-arranged sites, changed direc
tions, and mis-stated distances, as if for the purpose of conforming the
facts to a preconceived theory of the exodus. And as to the one remaining
point which his own writings did not negative for its necessary use in his
theory, his brother Egyptologists affirm that he is wholly incorrect.
Scholars so eminent in this realm as Ebers 1 and Ileuouf 2 insist that
Brugsch s understanding of the
1 In Gosen znm Sinai, pp. Ill, 526. a In Proceedings of Soc. of Bib. Arch.,
for Nov. 7, 1882, pp. 13-13.
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL. 405
meaning, and hence of the location, of " Pi-hahiroth " is entirely at
fault, Reuouf going so far as to say that Brugsch s attempt to identify
this site " involves the wrong reading of many words, a fatally erroneous
and exploded system of etymology, and false theories of decipherment and
language."
In short, it has been found that of the eight main points of elaimed
identification in Brugsch s theory of the exodus, as indi cated above, not
one of them stands the test of a thorough ex amination ; whereas if any
seven of them were show r n to be fairly probable, the proven error at the
eighth is sufficient to necessitate the rejection of the theory. 1
14. THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL.
And now to return to the Israelites at their encampment " by the sea,
beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon." 2 They were yet within the Great
Wall. They were near the Way of the Wilderness of the Red Sea ; near the
modern Way of the Hajj out of Lower Egypt, a highway which has swept across
the desert, from gulf to gulf, from time immemorial. They were not far from
the shore of the Red Sea ; in a locality where three well known land marks
were back of them, or about them 3 : Migdol, Pi-hahiroth, and Baal-zephon.
Migdol was the outlook tower which overlooked
1 1 will say, just here, that this examination of Brugsch s theory was
substantially completed, and its results written out, before the record of
the discovery of the site of Pithoin was received. In fact, that discovery
does not in itself disprove a single essential point of Brugsch s theory ;
although it seems to have reversed the opinions, concerning that theory, of
reputable scholars, who had before this overlooked the great facts of the
Hebrew and the Egyptian records which were irreconcilable with
his elaims.
2 Exod. 14 : 9.
3 The Hebrew liphnai ( 33?), rendered "before," and "over against," with
refer ence to these places (comp. Exod. 14: 2, 9; Xum. 33: 7, 8), commonly
means in front of," "at the east of," as indicating direction; yet it also
may mean over against " in a general sense.
406 KADESH-BARNEA.
that southernmost road dcsertward. A trace of its site seems to be
preserved in the hill and pass of Muktala or Muntula, some five to six
hours northwesterly from Suez. 1 Pi-hahiroth, or as it appears in the
Hebrew, at Numbers 33 : 8, " Hahiroth " (without the Egyptian place-mark "
Pi "), is not identified beyond dispute ; yet there are seeming traces of
its name in Agrood, 2 or Ajrood, 3 or Akrood, 4 where is now, at about four
hours northwest of Suez (northeasterly from Muktala), a fortress, with a
very deep well, for the accommodation of pilgrims going out on the Way of
the Red Sea. 5 The correspondence of Ajrood with Hahiroth has been
recognized by such scholars as Ebers, 6 Ewald, 7 Kurtz, 8 Stickel, 9 Keil
and Delitzsch, 10 Laborde, 11 Strauss, 12 Tischendorf, 13 Canon
1 See page 377, supra.
2 jf^*\ as given in " Carte Topographique " of Description de VEgypte. 3
^3f "^ C as Si yen by Edrisi (see Ewald s Hist, of Israel., II., 69, note)
; also in "Arabic Index," Robinson s Sib. Res., III., Append., 201, first
edition. 4 As given by Xiebuhr (Reiseb. nach Arabien, p. 216).
5 See Xiebuhr (as above) ; Burckhardt s Trav. in Syria, p. 627 ; Robinson s
Bib. Res., I., 45 ; etc.
6 As concerns the name Adjrud, Agirud, one can recognize in it, without
hesita tion, Pi-hachiroth, or, as it appears in its Egyptian form, with the
rejection of the prefix syllable Pa, or Pi, denoting locality (properly
house ), Achiroth " (Ebcrs s Goscn sum Sinai, p. 52G).
7 " The opinion of Leon de la Bordc, in his Comi/icntairc Geographique sur
VExode ct Ics Xombrcs (Paris, 1S41), that the present castle Ajerud, or
Ajrud .... is to be identified with its site and name [of Pi-hahiroth] ....
is not without probability " (Ewald s Hist, of Israel., II., G9, note).
8 "Pi-hachiroth, we find even by name, in Ajrud; for Pi is merely the
Egyptian article, . . . and there are many instances of analogous changes
(compare Stiekei [Studien u. Kritiken, for 1850], p. 391) " (Kurtz s Hist,
of Old Cov., II., 323).
9 " Der Israeliten Auszug," in Stud. u. Krit., for 1850, p. 391. 10 " The
only one of these places that can be determined with any certainty is
Pihachiroth, or Ilachiroth (Num. 33: 8, . . . ), which name has undoubtedly
been preserved in the Ajrud mentioned by Edrisi, in the middle of the
twelfth century " (Keil and Delitzsch s Bib. Com., at Exod. 14: 1, 2).
11 Com. Geog. sur VEsode, p. 75. u Sinai u. Golgatha, p. 92.
13 De, Israditarum Transitu, p. 25.
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL. 407
Cook, 1 elark, 2 President Bartlett, 3 and many others whose opinions are
entitled to weight.
Baal-Zephon is the name of a divinity. It represents a com bination of
Semitic and Egyptian objects of worship. The precise nature and symbolism
of this divinity have been much in question ; but I think that an
examination of the facts available will make the whole thing clear.
When the Hykshos kings were in supremacy in Lower Egypt, they introduced
there the worship of the sun-god Ba al, 4 a chief deity of the nations
north and east of Egypt, 5 and probably their
1 Speaker s Com., at Exod. 14 : 2.
* " The spot [Pi-Hahiroth] may reasonably be identified with Ajrud " ( The
Bible Atlas, p. 21 /.).
3 "There seems on the whole to be good reason for finding Ilahiroth at
Ajrood" (Bartlett s Egypt to Pal., p. 169).
* " In mentioning the names of Ba al and Astarta, which we so frequently
meet with in the inscriptions, it is scarcely necessary to point out that
both have their origin in the Phoenician theology" (Brugsch s Hist, of
Egypt, I. 244). Birch> as cited in Appendix to (A Thousand Miles up the
Nile) names " Bal or Ba al " as an object of Egyptian worship " introduced
from Semitic sources." See also his Egypt, p. 117. Ebers (Pict. Eyypt, I.,
100) directly ascribes the introduction of Ba al wor ship into Lower Egypt
to the Hykshos conquerors.
5 " The inhabitants of the region from the valley of the Euphrates to the
river of Egypt, and the Phoenician colonies in the Occident, were united in
the worship of the supreme deity, Bel or Baal. The Babylonian and Assyrian
Bel is probably a compressed form from 7^3 (Be el). It is, at all events,
the same as the Hebrew and Aramaic 73 (Ba al) lord. Not infrequently,
however, we find the plural Q 7j- 3 (Be alim). This may, as a plural of
number, in some cases, refer to a plurality of gods as worshiped at
different places, and under different attributes, but usually it is an
intensive plural, great lord, or supreme lord, like DTI^S (Elohim), the
supreme object of reverence. . . . Baal was also the sun-god, and hence is
associated with the term K^3t? (shemesh) sun ; and his place of worship is
called Bfth-Shemfsh, and in Phoenician inscriptions he receives the
predicate Baal Samim." (Prof. C. A. Briggs, on " Jehovah and Baal " in "The
Sunday School Times " for Aug. 4, 1883.)
" The Ba al of the Syrians, Phoenicians, and heathen Hebrews is a much less
elevated conception than the Babylonian Bel. He is properly the sun-god, Ba
al Shamen, Ba al (lord) of the heavens, the highest of the heavenly bodies,
but still a
408 KADESH-BARNEA.
own god before they entered Egypt. In doing this, with a view to meet the
prejudices of the Egyptians, and to secure for their god a recognized place
in the worship of the conquered people, they associated their deity, under
an appropriate symbolism with Set, or Sutekh, or Typhon, who was already
the patron-divinity of Lower Egypt; 1 and they uplifted that dualistic-god,
of Ba al- Typhou, into the pro eminent place, in Lower- Egyptian worship. 2
mere power of nature, born like the other luminaries from the primitive
chaos." (Prof. W. Robertson Smith, in Encyc. Brit., ninth ed., Art., "Ba
al.")
Sanchoniathon (as given from Eusebius, in Cory s Ancient Fragments, p. 4
/.) says of the first inhabitants of Phoenicia, that when great droughts
came [upon the land] they stretched forth their hands to heaven, toward the
sun, for this (he says), they supposed to be the only god, the lord of
heaven, calling him Beelsaniin [Ba al- shamem], which name among the
Phoenicians signifies lord of heaven, but among the Greeks is equivalent to
Zeus, or Jupiter."
1 De Rouge (Six Prem. Dyn., p. 9, etc., cited by Tomkins) finds traces of
Set in the Fourth Dynasty. Meyer (Set-Typhon, p. 47, cited by Tomkins)
tells of a temple dedicated to Memphis in the Fifth Dynasty. An altar in
the Turin Museum, of the time of the Sixth Dynasty, has on it an
inscription to Set, according to Lepsius ( Ueber d. erst. JEyypt.
Gutterkr., p. 48).
2 "Set . . . appears on the monuments as early as the Sixth Dynasty, and is
treated with the same honor as the other members of the family of Seb. . .
. But the great interest of the god Set was his connection with the Hykshos
and Canaanites, when he generally bears the name of Sutekh or Sut. As such
he was worshiped during the Shepherd rule in Amaris [ Avaris ?] ; after
which his worship still continued, apparently in connection with Baal, and
he was the type of Northern, as Horus of Southern, Egypt." (Birch in
Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt, III., 144 /.)
" The testimony of the Papyrus Sallier is clear and explicit : The king
Apepi adopted Sutech as his god ; he did not serve any god which was in the
whole land. [Lushington s translation, in Rec. of Past, VIII., 3, is: "King
Apapi took to him self Sutech for Lord, refusing to serve any other god in
the whole land."] Sutech, or Set, in later ages the representative of the
evil principle Typhon, is identified, and was certainly confounded with Ba
al of the Phoenicians," says Canon Cook (in Essay I. appended to "Exodus"
in Speaker s Com.); and he adds: " The peculiarity of Apepi, and probably
of his predecessors, would seem to be his exclusive devotion to this
deity." As will be shown, Ba al was not "identified" with Set, although he
was combined with him in worship.
"At the head of all stood the half Egyptian and half Semitic divinity of
Set, or
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL. 4Q9
In the Egyptian mythology, Ril, Osiris, and Horus, represented the sun.
There were various symbolisms in these deities, in their different
manifestations and relations ; but in a peculiar sense they all stood for
the sun, and its light, and its favor, and its life-e;ivin<r
9 fJ O O
power. 1 Over against them stood Set, as a symbol of darkness and the works
of darkness ; and he was at times in conflict with each of these gods of
light. In this antagonism, Set was the representa tive of evil, as in
contrast with good ; more especially with good as represented by PTorus,
his immediate and constant rival ; yet, at the first, it was rather the
notion of evil as the necessary adjunct and complement of good, than of
absolute evil an idea which had no place in the early Egyptian mythology. 2
Sutekh, with the surname Nub gold, who was universally considered as the
repre sentative and king of the foreign deities in the land of Mazor. In
his essence a primitive Egyptian creation, Set gradually became the
contemporary representative of all foreign countries, the god of the
foreigners." (Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, I., 244.)
1 " There can be no controversy about the meaning of Ra," says Renouf
(Relig. oj Anc. Egypt, pp. 113-117). "Ra is not only the name of the
sun-god, it is the usual word for sun." Again there are " mild Osiris, the
sun," and Isis, the dawn, who were "wedded before they were born, and the
fruit of their marriage was Horus, the sun in his full strength." And in
the Egyptian Book of the Dead (chap. XVIII., 42, 43, as cited by Renouf) it
is told how Osiris came to the soul of Ra, and "each embraced the other,
and became as one soul in two souls." "This," adds Renouf, " may be a
mythological way of saying that two legends which had previously been
independent of each other were henceforth inextricably mixed up. This, at
all events, is the historical fact. In the words of a sacred text, Ra is
the soul of Osiris, and Osiris the soul of Ra. But Horns also is one of the
names of the sun, and had his myths quite independently of Ra or Osiris."
There are some reasons for suppos ing that the two sun groups of Ra and
Osiris were originally quite distinct, but wen- brought together through
some political uniting of the regions of their central wor ship. (See R. S.
Poole s Art. "Egypt" in Encyc. Brit.) At all events they were ultimately
connected interchangeably. For added light on the myths of Ra, Osiris, and
Horus, see Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., III., 1-242 ; Bunscn s Er/>/pl s
Place, Vol. I. : Lepsius s Ueber d. erst JEtjypt. Gotterkr.; Poole s Art.
"Egypt" in Encyc. Brit.; Villiers Stuart s Funeral Tent of an Egyptian
Queen, pp. 25-28, etc.
8 " Set, though the antagonist of light, in the myths of Ra, Osiris, and
Horus, is
410 KADESH-BARNEA.
Set stood over against Ilortis (and in Horns there was, as we have seen, a
certain blending of the symbolism of lla and Osiris also), in the relation
of night to day, of winter to summer, of desert- waste to river-valley, of
treacherous sea to solid land, of struggle and warfare to rest and peace. 1
Set, moreover, stood as in a sense
not a god of evil. lie presents a physical reality, a constant and
everlasting law of nature, and is as true a god as his opponents. His
worship is as ancient as any. The kings of Egypt were devoted to Set as to
Horus, and derived from them the sovereignty over North and South. On some
monuments, one god is represented with two heads, one being that of Horus,
the other that of Set." (Renouf s Rdirj. of Anc. Enypt, p. 119.)
"Of evil in the positive sense as opposed to good, the Egyptian religion
had no knowledge. Their feeling as to evil was that it was but transitory,
a passage to future salvation ; as dying was merely the process of death,
which was in fact the threshold of the true and everlasting life." (Ebers s
Pict. Egypt, I., 100 /.)
" Looking, therefore, upon the bad as a necessary part of the universal
system, and inherent in all things equally with the good, the Egyptians
treated the Evil Being with divine honors, and propitiated him with
sacrifices and prayers. . . . During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Dynasties, and perhaps long after that period, he continued to receive the
homage of numerous votaries ; but subsequently a general feeling of hatred
seems to have sprung up against him, and his figure was erased from the
sculptures." (Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., III., 142.)
1 " Whatever may be the case in other mythologies," says Renouf (Rrttj. of
Anc. Egypt, p. 113), in referring to Max Miiller s theories, " I look upon
the sunrise and sunset, on the daily return of day and night, on the battle
between light and dark ness, on the whole solar drama in all its details,
that is acted every day, every month, every year, in heaven and in earth,
as the principal subject of Egyptian mythol ogy." " Set the destroyer ....
is darkness." " The victory of darkness over light was appropriately
represented by the myth of the blind Horus." (11>i L, p. IIS.)
Referring to the myth of the conflict between Set and Osiris (which was
continued by Horus for his father Osiris), Ebers says (Pict. Egypt, II.,
210"! : " The inundation of the Nile, and the fertility of the earth, the
illuminating power of the sun, the fundamental principles of human life,
the ultimate triumph of goodness and truth, as figured by Osiris, are
apparently assailed and vanquished by Typhon [and Birch adds in a note,
that in hieroglyphs Typhon is called Set ] that is, by drought and the
encroachments of the desert, by the darkness of ni^ht, mists, elouds, and
storms, by death, by lies, and all tlr^ evil and restless stirrings of the
soul ; but as soon as the diminished flow of the rive- swells again, the
young crops grow green, a new sun lights and cheers the world, and
disperses the mists, the human soul rises figain in
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN TUE WALL. 411
the guardian god of foreigners, as over against Horus the guardian god of
the home-born. And as Horus was peculiarly the tutelary deity of Southern
or Upper Egypt, so was Set of Northern or Lower Egypt. 1
It was not uncommon in the mythology of Ancient Egypt, to combine
divinities, as well as to interchange them in their peculiar symbolisms.
This has been referred to in the association and inter mingling of Rti and
Osiris, and again of Horus with both these gods. Again it is illustrated in
" Amen-Ra," and " Aten-Ra," and in their combinations with other gods. 2
Ordinarily, however, these
the other world to a new and everlasting life, truth triumphs over
falsehood, and good conquers evil. Horus has overthrown Typhon, avenged his
father, and restored him to his throne."
Lepsius ( Ueber d. erst. ^Egypt. Gotterkr., p. 54) speaks of Set as the god
of the empty desert, and the god of the unfruitful sea." Kenrick (Egypt of
Herodotus, p. 186) quotes Plutarch in proof that the Egyptian Typhon
represented the burning " wind of the desert ; " also, that " as the
sea-water swallows up the Xile, Typhon became an emblem of the sea, which
was held in abhorrence by the Egyptian priests, as by the Brahmins."
Ebers says (Pict. Egypt, I., 100) that " Seth or Typhon" was "worshipped
first as the god of war, and of foreign lands." " The connection of Typhon
and Mars, of both of which the hippopotamus was said to be an emblem, is
singular," says Wil kinson (Anc. Egypt., III., 147) ; "and there appears to
be a great analogy between Hercules and other of the reputed Typhonian
figures." Brugsch (Hist, of Egypt, II., 3) speaks of Sutekh as "the
glorious god of war." In the representations of the coronation of the kings
of Egypt, Ilorus, in one of his forms (Hat, or liar-Hat) is present to give
to the king the emblems of life and power, while Set, in one of his forms
(Xubti), conies to teach him the use of his weapons of war. (See Wilkinson
s Anc. Egypt., III., 134 /.)
1 Of Ilorus (as liar-Hut) Wilkinson (as above) says : " When opposed to
Nubti [or Set] he appears to represent the Upper as the latter the Lower
Country."
2 "Amen-Rfi, like most of the gods, frequently took the character of other
deities; as of Khcm, Ra, and Chnoumis; and even the attributes of Osiris. .
. . which though it appears at first sight to present some difficulty, may
readily be accounted for, when we consider that each of those whose figure
or emblems were adopted, was only an emanation or deified attribute of the
same great Being, to whom they ascribed various characters, according to
the several offices he was supposed to perform. The intellect of the deity
might be represented with the emblems of the almighty power,
412 KADESH-BARNEA.
combinations were of deities which were similar, or kindred, in their
symbolism. 1 Only in the case of Horns and Set does there seem to have
been, in the days before the Hykshos, a combination of two gods of opposing
or antagonistic characters and purposes. Indeed such a combination would
hardly be possible except with the two forces, or essences, represented in
these two gods. But this combination clearly did exist, as is shown by its
representation on the monuments, 2 under the figure of a man with two heads
; the one the hawk-head of Horus (which was also the head of Ha) ; the
other the peculiar head of Set, resembling " an ass with elipped ears." 3
Xor is it difficult to understand the meaning of this symbolism. Horus, as
representing the South with its light and life-giving power, stood for
Upper Egypt with its supply sources of the Xile, the stream which was all
in all to Egypt. Set, as representing the
or with the attributes of his goodness, without in any manner changing the
real character of the heavenly mind they portrayed under that peculiar form
; and in like manner, when to Osiris, or the goodness of the deity, the
emblems of Ptah the crea tive power were assigned, no change was made in
the character of the former, since goodness was as much a part of the
original divinity from which both were derived, as was the power with which
he had created the world." (Wilkinson s Anc. Eyypt., III., 9/.) See also a
description of "Arnrnon-IIorus," and his worship as Khem, in Birch s
Etji/pt, p. 50; and again of "Aten-Ra" (at p. 107/.).
1 Wilkinson (Anc. E jijpt, III., 11) says of Amen iri his mythological
combina tions, " Under the name Amen-Ra he was the intellectual sun,
distinct from Ra, the physical orb." And he adds : " If it be true that
Amunti, or Amenti, signified the giver and receiver, the Amen-Ra may be
opposed to Aten-Ra, and signify the sun in the two capacities of the
receiver and the giver. "
2 See Plate 531, in Wilkinson s Anc. Eyypt., III. 135; also Plate in Bunsen
s Egypt s Place in Univ. Hist., at elose of Vol. I.
3 Tomkins (Tunes of Abraham, p. 148) thinks that "the horns or ears of the
Set- monster may be conventional representations of rays of light," such as
are found on the eagle, and on the hawk-headed gryphon of Ba al, in the
hieroglyphs. " The Set-monster is occasionally represented with wings," and
in Tomkins s opinion, was intended for "an eagle-headed lion." lie thinks
that the evidences "clearly estab lish the joint worship of Osiris (or his
son Horus) and Set in these very early times of the Fourth Dynasty, by the
builders of the great pyrmids."
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL. 413
North with its shade and its desolation, stood similarly for Lower Egypt,
where the desert and the sea received and absorbed the Nile. But the South
and the North, the light and the darkness, the river and desert and sea,
had certain common interests and relations, and were interdependent on each
other. It was fitting that their combination and balance should have some
such re cognition as was evidenced in the two-headed figure of Set-Nubti,
whose seat of worship was at Ombos, 1 and who seemed in a pecu liar sense
to indicate the co-working for a common end, of the protecting divinities
of both Upper Egypt and Lower. 2 Indeed the two-headed Set-Nubti is called
the "lord of the earth " 3 (which includes the idea of all Egypt), instead
of being counted the divin ity of only one portion of Egypt.
It will now be seen how naturally and easily the incoming Hykshos
conquerors may have adapted the Ba al cult to the old Egyptian worship. Ba
al, their sun-god, might stand for Ra, Osiris, and Horus, the sun-deities
of the ancient Egyptians. And in dualistic conjunction with this sun-deity,
they could take its fitting opposite, Set, or Typhon, the distinctive
divinity of Lower Egypt, where they now ruled. Whether they had worshiped
Set, or Sutekh, before they came into Egypt, or not, 4 there was now a
1 Birch (in Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., III., 145) says of Set : " The chief
seat of his worship was at Ombos, where he had the name Xubti, or Ombos,
and Set-Xubti, of Set, Lord of Ombos." It was Xubti whose figure was
represented with the double head. (See plates in Wilkinson and Bunsen, as
above referred to.)
2 Ebers (sEyypt. u. d. Bach. Hose s, p. 248) says, that in addition to its
cosmic signi fication, this combination of two opposing principles, in
Horus-Sct, has " a political signification ; " for this dual-divinity " is
often called the Single-one of both lands [the Twain-one of Upper and Lower
Egypt] ; the Horus of the South and the North ; the bestower of the white
crown of Upper Egypt, and the red crown of Lower Egypt. " See, also, on
this point Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., III., 135 f> Tomkins s Times of
Abraham, p. 146 /.
5 Wilkinson s Anc. Eijypt., III., Egypt is often spoken of, on the
monuments, as the earth, or the world ; as including all the earth that was
worth having. 4 After the days of the Hykshos, the god Set, or Sutekh, was
a chief god of the Klieta
414 KADESU-BARNEA.
reason for their exalting his worship ; in the fact of his being both the
local divinity of their new dominion, and the recognized patron god of
foreigners such as they had been before their triumph.
This new dualistic god would naturally be uplifted into a prom inence far
beyond that ever occupied by Horus-Set; for it in eluded in its scope that
which had been included in the worship of Rii, Osiris, and Horus, as well
as of Set and Xubti. It was in a sense the worship of Ra-Sct, 1 or Set-Rfi,
and traces of its attempted improvement under that very name have been
found on the monu ments. 2 Yet Ba al so took the place of the Aineu-Ra, and
the Ilfi-
in the north of Syria. This may have been a result of the Ilykshos reign in
Egypt ; or, again, it may indicate that Set was familiar to them before
their Egyptian sway. An image of Sutekh, or Set, accompanied the image of
Khetasin, the king of the Kheta, (as his patron divinity), on the silver
tablet of the famous treaty of peace between that king and Rameses II. (See
Ecc. of Past, IV., 32; Brugsch s Hist, of E jypt, II., 70, 410 /.). I have
not found any evidence, nor any reason for supposing, that Set, or Sutekh,
was a god of the northern nations before his Ilykshos wor shipers had
brought a knowledge of him out of Egypt, at the time of their expulsion;
whereas the evidence is complete, that, centuries before that date, Set was
worshiped in Egypt, and Ba al was worshiped in the North and East ; and,
that from the days of the Ilykshos rule Ba al was worshiped in Egypt, and
Set was worshiped beyond.
1 " There is reason to believe that the god Ra corresponded to the Syrian
Ba al, a name implying lord, which was given par excellence to the sun,"
says Wilkinson (Anc. E<uipt., HI. 53).
2 " M. Mariette has discovered the curious fact that one of those kings [of
the Twenty-second Dynasty], a hitherto unknown Osorkon, altered the figure
of Seth in the legends of Ramses II. at Tanis to that of a Set-Ra" (Jlusee
Boulaq., p. 273). See R. Stuart Poole s Art. "Egypt," in Encyc. Brit.,
ninth ed. Birch adds, that Set s " worship as Set-Ra . . . was kept up by
Osorkon II." (Wilkinson s A nc. Egypt., III., 145.) This change from Set,
which had come to include the idea of Ba al-Set, to Set-Ra, is a natural
change on the part of one who would restore the more ancient religion to
the land.
Plutarch (De Isid. et Osir., Chap. 50) tells of a statue of Typhon shown at
Her- mopolis (Ileroopolis) in his day, as " a hippopotamus on which stands
a hawk fighting with a serpent." This statue has been counted by some
(including Graetz in Gesch. d. Juden, I,, 385) as " Ba al Zephon; " but its
symbolism is clearly that of Ra-Set, or Ilorus-Set, rather than of Ba
al-Set, or Ba al-Typhon. The hawk represented Ra, and also Horus and other
sun-gods of Egypt. (See Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt, III., 4,
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL. 415
Osiris, cult, that it is not strange that those who introduced it were
charged with abandoning the worship of all the old gods save only Set. 1
From this time on, the worship of Ba al in conjunction with the worship of
Set, or Sutekh, or Typhon, was so general and so prom inent in Lower Egypt,
that the intermingling of the symbols of the two gods in the inscriptions
has led some of the Egyptologists to believe that the two gods were deemed
absolutely identical, in stead of inter-dependent and co-equal ; that their
individual per sonalities were lost, instead of being combined in a
dualistic union. Buusen first suggested 2 that Bar, or Bal, or Ba al, was
one of the names of Set ; and that Champollion had brought out the proof of
this "without recognizing it." Ebers 3 has affirmed that in the
hieroglyphics, " for Set, the Canaanitish Ba alim are regularly the
representatives." 4 And Canon Cook 5 has elaimed that "Sutech is
50, 124). " Porphyry says, The hawk was dedicated to the sun, being the
symbol of light and spirit, because of the quickness of its motion, and its
ascent to the higher regions of the air." " The hawk-headed Har-IIat, whose
emblem was the winged globe, placed over the doors and windows of the
Egyptian temples," is also elosely connected with Horns ; and indeed seems
to be one manifestation of Horns. Moreover, Ilorus is frequently
represented as battling with a serpent (Aphophis, or Apop), which in its
turn is linked with Typhon. And Typhon is represented by the hippopotamus."
(See Anc. Egypt., III., 121, 152, 154). Thus the Heroopolitan image seems
to have been the lineal successor of Ba al-Zephon, but not that divinity
him self. It was, in fact, Ba al-Zephon after the reformation. Yet that
image illustrates the dualistic divinity idea of Ilorus-Set, and of Ba
al-Typhon.
1 " King Apapi [a Hykshos ruler] took to himself Sutech for lord, refusing
to serve any other god in the whole land." " (First Sallier Papyrus " Bee.
of Past,Vin., 3).
2 Egypt s Place in Univ. Hist., I., 426. 3 Gosen zum Sinai, p. 524.
4 Ebers has thought (see Pict. Egypt, I., 100) that the Egyptians gave the
name Set to the Hykshos god Ba al as a term of opprobrium ; but the
evidence from the monuments is conclusive that the god Set received
unfeigned homage in Egypt down to long after the days of the Hykshos. As
Renouf says (Relig. of Anc. Egypt, p. 120) : " It was not till after the
empire that this deity came to be regarded as an
evil deity."
5 In Essay I., appended to Exodus, in Speaker s Com.
416 KADESH-BARNEA.
identified with Ba al in numerous inscriptions ; " and that " Sntech, or
Set, in later ages the representative of the evil principle, is identified,
and was certainly confounded, with Ba al of the Phoe nicians." But Lepsius
l is sure, that while the fabulous beast which stands for Set is sometimes
placed as a determinative after the name of the god Bar, or Barn (which
Lepsius naturally thinks may be the Semitic Ba al 2 ) ; yet that the god
Bar, or Ba al thus indicated is "always distinguished from Sutckh the son
of Nut." And Lepsius thinks that the reason for this use of the
Set-determinative in con junction with Ba al is, that Set was regarded in
Egypt as the god of " the out-land," having patronage of foreign peoples
and foreign gods ; hence Ba al as a god from an " out-land " is brought in
under the guardianship of Set. 3 And this would well agree with the com
bination of Ba al-Set, as inaugurated by the Hykshos conquerors.
Certainly there was a clear distinction kept up between the gods Set and Ba
al, even while they were worshiped together, in the days of the Ramossids.
4 Rameses I. gave to his son a name signifying "He that is devoted to Set."
5 At the crowning of Setee s son, Rameses II., Set and Horus are shown to
have partic ipated. 6 Yet Rameses II., 7 according to the poem of Peutaur,
is
1 Uebcr d. erst ^Egypt. Gutterkr, p. 50.
2 Bunsen (Egypt s Place, Vol. I., p. -127) gives Bar and Bal in the
Egyptian as synonymous with the Phoenician, Syrian, and Babylonian Bel,
Bol, Ba al, Ba hal, Belus. Birch, also (E<jy%>t, p. 117), gives Bar
as synonymous with Ba al. And Lushington (Rec. of Past, II., GS, note)
says: " Bar, a war-god of foreign origin, allied to Set in form and
properties, supposed to he the same as Ba al."
3 So Brugsch (already quoted at page 400) says Set gradually became the con
temporary representative of all foreign countries, the god of the
foreigners."
* " King Seti and his race worshiped the foreign gods in the most obtrusive
manner and at the head of them the Canaanitish Ba al-Sutekh, or Set, after
whose name his father, Rameses I., had called him Seti that is, the Setish,
or the follower of Set. " ( Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 24.)
5 See Renouf s Rdirj. of Anc. Egypt, p. 119 /. 6 See Wilkinson s Anc.
Egypt., Plate LXI., at Vol. III., p. 361.
7 See " Poem of Pentaur," in Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 58.
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL. 417
likened by his eulogists to " Ba al in his time" ; l one of his brig ades,
in the great battle of his life-dine, bears the name of Set; and by his
enemies he is said to represent both "Set" and Bar;" "Sutekh " and " Ba
al." 2 "No mortal born is he whoso is among us ; Set, the mighty of
strength ; Bar, in bodily form," is their cry in the hour of his prowess at
Kadesh on the Oroutes. 3 Set and Ba al were manifestly two gods, although,
from the days of the Hykshos rule in Egypt, they had been worshiped in
dualistic combi nation, as Ba al and Set ; and that combination justified
(and it explains) their apparent interchangeable mention after that date.
Finally, as if to put at rest all question as to the identity of the Ba
al-Sct of the Hykshos cult, as revived by the Ramessids, 4 the name itself
of the dualistic deity in its Semitic- Egyptian form of Ba al i-Zapoona, 5
or Ba ali-Tsapuna, 6 is found on the monuments ; and that this is the same
name as the Ba al-Zephon (or the Ba al-Tsephon) of the Hebrew Scriptures
does not admit of
1 See Lushington s translation of " The Third Sallier Papyrus," in Rcc. of
Past, II., 68.
2 See Brugsch, as above (p. 60) ; and Lushington, as above (p. 72).
3 The mention of Bar or Ba al, and Sut or Sutech, in conjunction, in this
poem of Pentaur s, clearly does not mean that the two gods are identical ;
for Ammon, an 1 Ra, and Horus, and Ptah, are also named as represented by
Rameses in that battle ; but they are not thereby confounded in their
separate identities.
4 The Ba al-Set worship in Egypt, which was introduced by the Hykshos
kings, fell from its pre-eminence with their expulsion; and in this fall
the worship of Set, himself, lost somewhat in its repute; although Set
still received honor from the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, even from
the last king of that dynasty Hor-em- heb, whose name indicates his
devotion to Horns the opponent of Set, and who is called "Horus" by
Manetho. (See Lepsius s Denkm., Abth. III., Bl. 119, 122.) But witli the
Nineteenth Dynasty there was a marked revival of the Ba al-Set, or Ba al-
Typhon cult. (Comp. Wilkinson s Anc. Egypt., III., 136-145; Brugsch s Hist,
of Egypt, I., 243-245, 274-278; II., 23-25, 393; Renouf s Rdig. of Anc.
Egypt, p. 119 /., etc.)
6 As discovered by Goodwin, in one of the papyri in the British Museum.
(See Brugsch s Hist, of Egypt, II., 393.)
6 See Ebers s Gosen zum Sinai, p. 524 /. 27
418 KADESII-BARNEA.
serious question. Indeed on this latter point there is no dispute. It is
agreed, by all, that Ba ali-Tsapuna is Ba al-Zephon. The only remaining
doubt has been, as to the identity of Ba ali Tsa- puna (or Ba al Zephon)
with Ba al-Set or (Ba al-Typhon); 1 and
1 Ebers (Gosen zum Sinai, p. 524 /.) recognizes the fact that Ba al-Zephon
is re ferred to in the Ba ali-Tsapuua of the monuments. He is also
confident (Pict. fyypt, !> 100; II., 210) that "Set" and "Typlion" are
identical.; and in this he agrees with Lepsius, Bunsen, Wilkinson, Brugsch,
Birch, Kenrick, Renouf, Maspero, Lenormaut, Cook, and Egyptologists
generally ; but he is not sure that Tsapuna (or Zephon) is the same as
Typhon, or Set. He thinks, indeed, that the " Tsapuna" in eluded in the "
Ba ali-Tsapuna " of the monuments (the " Baal-Zephon" of the Bible) " may
liave been the Phoenician god of the North Wind, which latter, accord ing
to Philo, was named Tsaphon. " As a reason for his doubt concerning the
identity of Ba ali-Tsapuna and Ba al-Set, he says of the hieroglyphs which
represent
the former: "After the Ba al group is placed the Set-animal/ ^vl ) as
determina
tive; after the name Tsapuna [is placed] the elass sign ( n J, marking him
as a god of foreign lands." But docs this properly throw doubt on the
identification ? The elass sign ( JI \ which here follows the name Tsapuna,
is the ordinary determinative for " a god" ; and Lepsius has shown ( Ucbcr
d. erst. JEyypt. Gottcrkr, pp. 30, 52) that this
very determinative is repeatedly employed for Set ( ~ y) ) in the Egyptian
" Book
v iU 7 of the Dead." Ebers may, indeed, consider this determinative as
indicating a foreign
god, because it is not the specific designation the proper name as it were
of any well-known Egyptian divinity (although it was sometimes, as we see,
employed as the proper name of Set, or Typhon, who was himself, according
to Lepsius, and Ebers, and others, the "god of foreign lands"). It must be
considered, however, that a composite god, combining the objects of worship
of the old Egyptians and of their new masters, and bearing a Semitized
Egyptian designation, could not well have a familiar specific Egyptian
determinative. In this case, the name of the Semitic Ba al is followed by
the determinative of Set an unmistakable Egyptian deity (although Ba al,
the sun-god, and Set, the god of darkness, could not, in the nature of
things be considered one and the same ; and they were not so considered, as
Lepsius has shown). Then follows in a Semitic-Egyptian form the name of a
god known in Egypt as Set, and in Phoenicia as Tsaphon, with a elosing
determinative to show that the combination as a whole was a divinity. This
very peculiarity of presentation would seem to show that this dualistic
divinity was an exceptional one in Egypt. The missing link of proof that
the Ba al-Tsaphon and the Ba al-Set were one and the same object of
worship, is found, in the evidence of their identity of symbolism.
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL. 419
that doubt will be removed, I think, by the evidence of the iden tical
symbolism of these two dualistic gods.
" Ba ul-Zephon " is understood by many to mean " Lord of the North ; " l
but this is to take the words in their hard and literal meaning, without
recognizing their applied and symbolic signifi cation. Ba al had a
personality in the minds of his worshipers, which went beyond the
etymological meaning of his name as "lord" and " master." To them Ba al was
Ba al. 2 So, also, it was with Zephon.
Tsaphon, 3 or Tsephon, 4 Tsephona, 5 means in Hebrew, and in Phoenician,
the North, or the Darkness, or the Shadow, or the Winter, or the Region of
Destructive Winds ; as over against the South, the Light, the Summer, the
Region of Calm and Warmth ; " since the ancients regarded the North as the
seat of gloom and darkness, in contrast with the bright and sunny South " ;
6 as " the dark cold region, where the sun and stars are extinguished, and
the light swallowed up." 7 Tsaphon, as a god, therefore, included the idea
not of the North as a region, but of that which the region of the North
typified. "Tsephon," or " Tsaphon," in the Hebrew and in the Phoenician, 8
was the correspondent of " Tebha " in the
See Selden s De Dis Syris (chapter De Bel-Tsephonte) ; Chabas and Lauth, as
cited by Ebers, in Goscn zum Sinai (p. 524) ; Von Gerlach s Com. on Pent,
at Exod. 14: 2; Bunseii s Egypt s Place, II 1., 201; Brugsch s Hist, of
Egypt, II., 393, 427 ; Sayce, in " The Sunday School Times " for June 23,
1883.
2 The prophets of Ba al, at the trial on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18: 21-40),
" called on the name of Ba al from morning even until noon, saying, O, Ba
al hear us! " And Elijah s mocking comment was : " Cry aloud : for he is a
god ; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or
perad venture he sleepeth, and must be awaked."
3 | 12. This appears to be the form given by Philo, as cited by Ebers.
4 |i3!f. As given with Ba al, at Exod. 14 : 2, 9.
b KriSS. As given in Buxtorf s Lex. Chald. Tal. et Rab.
*Gescuiub d Heb. Lex., s. v., " Tsaphon." T First s Ileb. Lex., s. v., "
Tsaphon." 8 See references at foot of page 418, supra.
420 KADESII-BARNEA.
Egyptian, 1 of " Tephon," or " Tuplion," in the Aramaic, 2 and of "Typhon"
hi tlic Greek. 3 Either word represented the idea of each and all of the
other equivalents ; and each word when used as the name of a divinity
represented a distinct identity, an ideal personality.
Every indication which the monuments or records of Egypt, of Phoenicia, or
of the regions east or west of those lands, give to us concerning the
characteristics of a divinity bearing any one of these names, goes to show
the same idea which is represented in the earlier Egyptian divinity, Set ;
in the later Hittitc divinity, Sutekh ; and in the still later Greek
divinity, Typhon. It would seem clear indeed, that Set, Seth, Sutekh,
Tebha, Tephou, Tuphon, Typhon, Tsapuna, Tsaphoua, Tsaphon, Tscphon, Zephon,
represent one and the same idea, principle, essence, divinity ; and that Ba
al (as the Semitic correspondent of the Egyptian Ra, Osiris, and Ilorus) in
combination with any one of those names, represents the opposite of that
idea, principle, essence, divinity ; the two terms together representing
the dualistic divinity of Ba al Set, or Ra-Set, or Horus-Set, or Ba
al-Typhon, or Ba al- Tsaphon, or Ba al-Zephon.
How clearly all this brings out the identification and relative location of
the sanctuary, or the image, of Ba al-Zephon, in the story of the exodus.
Typhou was the guardian of Lower Egypt. Typhon was the god of the desert.
Typhon was the emblem of the sea. Typhon was the controlling deity of all
foreign peoples. Typhon was the favored divinity of the reigning Pharaohs
in the
1 Ebcrs (Gosen znm Sinai, p. 225) says : " Typhon appears, according to
Diestel s thoughtful exhibition of the evidence, to be originally
un-Egyptian. . . . We must, therefore, with Diimichen, look to Tebha, for
an existent name, and one to be held as Typhon."
y See Lcnormant s Beginnings of History p. 551.
3 Kenrick (Egypt of Herodotus, p. 185) says : " The name [Tv0ui>]
appears to be originally Greek."
THE LAST CAMP WITHIN THE WALL. 421
days of the Hebrew oppression. Ba al-Typhon, or Ba al-Zephon, was the one
object of common worship among those who accepted the Bu al cult imported
from the North, and those also who de terminedly adhered to the old
divinities of the Egyptian theogony. The place of places for a shrine of Ba
al-Typhon was over against the wilderness-gateway of Lower Egypt ; looking
toward the East whither the Ba al worship was always directed ; overlooking
the desert which Typhon ruled; above the sea which Typhon typified ;
watching against the foreigners whom Typhon controlled. The northernmost
highway out of Lower Egypt, as also the central one, went Canaan ward. Only
the southern road led pre-eminently desertward, while at the same time it
was in proximity to the sea. And when Pharaoh-Meneptah, of the family
Devoted-to-Typhon, neared the eastern borders of his dominion, and saw the
objects of his pursuit gathered there under the very shadow of his own
patron-divinity, the guardian god of the Land which they would flee from,
how auspicious must the sign have been to him ; and how confident his
assurance that success was now his, so certainly as Ba al-Typhon was Ba
al-Typhon. 1
1 The more common symbol of Set, or Typhon, was a dog of peculiar form (as
shown herewith, ^sjf ). It is noteworthy, therefore, that a rabbinical
tradition
was, that Ba al-Zephon " was a brazen dog fabricated by the magi of
Pharaoh, . . . that he might turn aside the Israelites from their directed
journey, by his horrid barking ; and so might stop their flight "
(Dieterici s Antiq. Bib., p. 24). " Rashi " ( al ha-Torah, at Exod. 14: 2)
states that Ba al-Zephon was the one remaining idol of Egypt from whose
seductions the Israelites were to escape (as, in fact, Ba al-Set was the
one dominant idol of the region of the Israelites bondage); and "Rashi"
declares that this idol was called 3VX (Ayob), or " Enemy," " from causing
nations to err, and destroying them." This character corresponds with the
Typhonic or Satanic idea. Indeed the Hebrew name of Satau (\V) means
Adversary, or Accu ser (See Job 1: 6, and margin; also, Psa. 109: 6; Zech.
3: 1). And Villiers Stuart has suggested (Funeral Tent of an Egyptian
Queen, p. 27) that Set being " repre sented as a beast with long pointed
ears and erect tail" may "be the origin of the popular representations of
Satan, the ears having come to be regarded as horns."
422 KADESH-BARNEA,
In fixing the location of the shrine of Ba al-Zcphon yet more definitely,
there are helps in its mention in the text. The place of the encampment of
the Israelites by the Red Sea is described by four cardinal points. It is
in some way bounded, or indicated, by : Migdol, the Sea, Pi-hahiroth, and
Ba al-Zcphon. 1 The Sea must, in the nature of things, have lain at the
eastward. As the com mandment was to encamp "between Migdol and the Sea," 2
Migdol is naturally to be looked for at the westward of the Sea. And as
Pi-hahiroth is said to be " before," or "over against," Ba al-Zephon, 3
while the camp is at one time said to be " before," or over against
Pi-hahiroth, 4 and again to be " before " or " over against " Ba al-
Zephon, 5 at the same time that it was " before " Migdol, 6 it follows that
Pi-hahiroth and Ba al-Zephon must have been in the relation of northerly
and southerly to each other ; 7 since Migdol was westerly, as over against
the Sea which lay easterly.
This corresponds, so far, with the supposed identifications of Migdol, at
or near, Muktala; and of Pi-hahiroth, or Hahiroth, at Ajrood. The landmarks
at the northerly and westerly bounds of the place of encampment are at
points which conform with all the indications of the text. This goes to fix
the shrine of Ba al- Zephon as at some point southerly from Ajrood, and
southward of a line running from Muktala to the Sea. 8 In that direction
the
De Rouge, followed by Tomkins (Times of Abraham, p. 149 ff.), thinks that
the Egyptian Set is connected with the Hebrew shedheem (D 119) translated
"devils" iu Dent, 31 : 17, and Psa. 10G: 37.
i Exod. 14: 2, 9; Num. 33 : 7, 8. 2 Exod. 14 : 2. 3 Num. 33; 7, 8.
* Exod. 14 : 2. 5 Exod. 14 : 2, 9. 6 Num. 33 : 7.
7 Our English translation renders the same Hebrew word with different
equiva lents in the Bible narrative. Liphnai ( Jp/) * s rendered as
before," and again as " over against. This is a word that frequently means
" eastward," in the sense of " in the face of" (see note at page 44). But
the fact that the word is applied in the course of this narrative to two or
three places interchangeably, shows that it here means "over against,"
rather than "eastward." Two places could not, each of them. be eastward of
the other; but each of them could be over against the othor.
8 Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com., at Exod. 14 : 1, 2) say that the hill of
Muktala,
UNLOOKED-FOR PURSUIT. 423
mountains of Atftqah stand out too prominently to be overlooked as a
probable site of such a shrine, as that of Ba al-Zephon must have been.
Their summit commands a view of the isthmus, of the sea, and of the desert
eastward; just that sweep which the worshipers of Ba al-Typhon would have
wished to have under his watchful gaze. Ebers 1 has advocated Gebel Ataqah
as a site of Ba al-Zephon, and other scholars 2 have accepted his judgment
on this point as probably correct. It is not easy to find any sound reason
for questioning its correctness.
15. UN 7 LOOKED-FOR PURSUIT.
A glance at the map will show the field where the Israelites encamped (over
against Pi-hahiroth on the north, and Ba al- Zephon on the south, between
Migdol on the west and the Red Sea on the east), when they had turned back
at the Lord s com mand from their encampment within the Great Wall, in the
vicinity of the Road of the Land of the Philistines. And it was there that
they were surprised by seeing the chariots of Pharaoh coming down from the
westward in their pursuit.
It must not be forgotten that the Israelites were up to this time not
fugitives, but emigrants. They had gone out from their homes not secretly,
nor in the fear of pursuit, but openly and above-board ; " with a high
hand, in the sight of all the Egyp-
" when looked at from the sea, is almost behind Ajrud ; so that the
expression en camping bofore Migdol does not suit the situation." But the
hill is farther west, and farther south than Ajrood ; and its tower would
plainly be a western landmark, as over against Ajrood as a northern one.
The description of the locality, in the command to the Israelites, was not
intended to fix the four cardinal points of the compass precisely, but to
indicate well-known land (and water) marks, in four gene ral directions.
1 Gosen zum Sinai, pp. 524-526.
2 So, e. g., Keil and Delitzsch (as above) ; Hamburger (Real-Encyc., 8. v.,
" Ba al- Zephon") ; Bartlett (Egypt to Pal., p. 170).
424 KADESH-BARNEA.
tians." l It is true that the " Egyptians were urgent " upon them to lose
no time in leaving their homes, and that " they were thrust out of Egypt/
or out of their old Egyptian dwelling-place, because of the fear that to
hold them back another day from their desired exodus would endanger the
lives of all who hindered them. 2 But all this made any pursuit of them for
their re-capture the less probable, even though they dallied, as it were,
for many days, at the entrance of the wilderness. Hence their surprise
when, at their encampment by the sea, " the children of Israel lifted up
their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them ;" ! the chariots
of Pharaoh coming toward them from the field of Zoan.
Then it was that " they were sore afraid," and that they " cried out unto
the Lord." And for what? Pharaoh s unexpected pursuit of them showed a new
change of mind and purpose on his part. Either he was actuated by a desire
to avenge the blood of his first-born, or his thought was to turn them back
to the land they had come out from. In either case, if they were to pass
through the Great Wall which frowned before them, they must now battle for
the privilege. And that put a new face on the entire situation. After all,
was the prize before them worth what it now must cost ? They had been long
enough away from their homes to feel the discomforts of a nomadic life; but
not long enough away to see its possibilities of good to them. The
wilderness beyond the Wall was at the best a forbidding outlook ; more so
than ever, with a prospect of a life and death struggle to reach it.
The sight of their former masters brought fairly before them the question
whether they had really gained anything by leaving their old service, or
whether they were likely to gain anything. " And they said unto Moses,
Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us [from our old
homes in Egypt] to die in the wilder-
1 Num. 3:5 : 3. See, also, Exod. 14 : <?. 2 Exod. 12 : 33. Exod. 14 :
10.
THE GREAT WALL FLANKED. 425
ness [which stretches out before us here ? What are you looking for, anyhow
? Is it graves for us all ? If that is what you are after, there were
graves enough in Egypt. It is a land of tombs and mummies. And there is
certainly nothing better than graves in the wilderness we have set out
for]. Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of
Egypt ? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us
alone that we may serve the Egyptians ? For it had been better for us to
serve the Egyptians, than that we should [go on any farther, to] die in the
wilderness." 1 And the Israelites were more than half ready to make terms
with Pharaoh, as he drew near their camping- place ; and to promise to turn
back with him to their old bondage. They certainly were not ready to fight
for a passage through the sally-port of the Great Wall in their front.
16. THE GREAT WALL FLANKED.
Then it was that Moses spoke the words of cheer and promise which put new
heart into that panic-stricken people : " Fear ye not," he said to them. "
[You will have no fighting to do.] Stand still, and see the salvation of
the Lord, which he will show to you to-day : for the Egyptians whom ye have
seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight
for you, and ye shall hold your peace." 2 And such a prophecy from such a
source commanded respect, and prepared the way for renewed obedience on the
part of those who had learned to look for wonder working from the Lord.
Then followed the divine directions for the miraculous passage of the Red
Sea at their right and front. The frowning Wall might continue to frown.
The Lord s people should pass around its seaward bulwarks.
" And the Angel of God which went before the camp of Israel,
1 Exod. 14: 11, 12. Exod. 14: 13, 14.
426 KADESII-BARNEA.
removed and went behind them ; and the pillar of the eloud went from before
their face, and stood behind them : and it came be tween the camp of the
Egyptians and the camp of Israel ; and it was a eloud and darkness [to
them], but it gave light by night [to these]." "And the waters were
divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the
dry ground : and the waters were a Wall l unto them on their right hand and
on their left. And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the
midst of the sea," 2 along that new Wall Road in the bed of Yam Sooph, in
the darkness of that eloud. It was as though a dense fog had shut in
between the Israelites and the Egyptians ; and all the land marks of the
region were hidden from the host of Pharaoh, while they were still clear as
daylight to the children of Israel. The Egyptians knew that the Israelites
were moving off in their front, but they could not see whither. They groped
on after them in the eloudy darkness, but without coming near them ; " the
one came not near the other all the night."
One of the most plausible objections that has been raised against the
narrative of the crossing of the lied Sea as it stands in the Bible text
is, that when the Egyptians saw that the Israelites were passing over on a
new made ford, they would have been more likely to go with their chariots
around the head of the sea, and intercept the fugitives on the other shore,
than foolishly to follow them in their perilous path. But it is plain from
the narrative, 3 that the Egyptians were following the Israelites into the
bed of the waters without knowing it. They were as in a fog, so that
neither Wall nor mountain nor shore could be discerned by them ; and the
last thing in the world they could have thought of as a possi bility, was a
miraculous pathway through the waters of the Red Sea.
1 In the Targum of Onkclos (at Exod. 14 : 22, 29) the word used for the
water- walls is " Shurs " (Chaldaic Shooreen, j"W), the plural of Shur.
2 Exod. 14: 19-23. 3 Exod. 14: 19-23.
THE GREAT WALL FLANKED. 427
It was enough for the Egyptians that the Israelites were unmis takably
moving before them. Where it was safe for Pharaoh s bondsmen to lead, it
ought to be counted safe for Pharaoh s chosen chariots to follow.
And so the night-march went on. The Israelites moved for ward in the light.
The Egyptians groped on after them in the bewildering darkness of the
fog-like eloud. And it came to pass, that in the early morning, after all
that night s marching and groping, when at last the Israelites were safe on
the eastern shore of the sea, and the Egyptians were all unconsciously
midway be tween the shores, the chariot wheels of the Egyptians began to
drag heavily, and to wrench and yield in the treacherous sands of the bared
sea-bed ; and at the same time the Lord let in upon the eyes of the
folly-blinded Egyptians the startling glare of a preternatural light, and
caused them to realize at a glance that in pursuing the Israelites they
were encountering Jehovah. " Jehovah looked to ward the host of the
Egyptians, through the pillar of fire and of the eloud ; " and at that look
the cry of the appalled and dismayed pursuers went up : " Let us flee from
the face of Israel ; for Jeho vah fightcth for them against the Egyptians."
But it was too late. The hour of the Egyptians doom had come. There was no
help in Ba al-Zephon. " Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand
over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their
chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over
the sea . . . and the waters returned and covered the chariots, and the
horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them ;
there remained not so much as one of them." 2
" Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians."
Thus the Great Wall of the Land of Bondage was flanked, and Israel went
beyond it into the Land of Training, as a
1 Exod. 14 : 24, 25. l Exod. 14 : 26-28.
428 KA DESH-BA RXEA.
nation of freemen. And Israel s song of rejoicing rang out in the morning
air of the desert :
" I will sing to Jehovah ;
For excelling, he hath excelled :
The horse and his charioteer hath he cast into the sea. . . .
" The chariots of Pharaoh and his might hath He cast into the sea ;
His choice captains were drowned in the Weedy Sea :
The deeps covered them ;
They went down to the bottom like a stone.
" Thy right hand, Jehovah, is glorious in strength : Thy right hand,
Jehovah, brake in pieces the foe ; In the greatness of thy exaltation, thou
hast overcome them that rose
up against thee :
Thou didst send forth thy wrath and it consumed them like stubble; And with
the breath of thy nostrils, the waters piled themselves on high : The
flowing waters stood up like a mound : The waters were congealed in the
heart of the sea.
" Spake the foe :
I will pursue ;
I will overtake ;
I will divide the spoil ;
My soul shall be glutted upon them ;
I will draw my sword ;
My hand shall destroy them.
" Thou didst blow with thy wind :
The sea covered them ;
They whirled down like lead in the mighty waters.
" Who is like thee among the gods, Jehovah ?
Who is like thee, glorious in holiness; terrible in renown ; doing
marvels?. . ."
" So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the
Wilderness of the Wall." 2
1 Exod. 15 : 1-11. * Exod. 15 : 22.
POINTS NOW MADE clear. 429
17. POINTS NOW MADE clear.
In view of all that this study of the route of the exodus has disclosed, it
is evident that several points which have been com monly overlooked or
undervalued in the biblical narrative and in the monumental records, are of
unmistakable importance in the resolving of that route.
1. A prominent feature in the Bible narrative is the Great Wall of Egypt,
which stood as a border barrier between the Delta and the desert, from the
Mediterranean Sea to the modern Gulf of Suez. The existence of that Wall is
established beyond all fair questioning. It was variously known, by the
Hebrew name of Shur, by the Egyptian name of Khetam or Khetamoo, and by the
Sernitized Egyptian name of Etham. The desert beyond the Great Wall,
eastward, was known interchangeably, as the Desert of Shur, and the Desert
of Etharn. It was into that desert that the Israelites made their exodus
from Egypt.
2. There were three great highways out of Egypt eastward. They are
mentioned in the Bible text by their former well-known descriptive titles :
the Road of the Land of the Philistines, the Road of the Wall, and the Road
of the Red Sea, or the Road of the Wilderness of the Red Sea. These three
roads are clearly re ferred to in the Egyptian monumental records. The face
of the country on the eastern borders of Lower Egypt, and beyond, shows
where must have been the course of these roads ; and it still gives traces
of them severally. The sure location of these roads, respect ively, fixes
important points in the route of the exodus.
3. The numbers of the Israelites, and the requirements of the Bible
narrative forbid the suggestion that any city or town was a starting-point,
or a stopping-place, in the route of the exodus ; hence the hope of
determining that route by any discovery of the rnins of one town or another
in Lower Egypt, is based on a miscon-
430 KADESH-BAENEA.
ception of both the letter and the general tenor of the Bible narra tive.
The Israelites started out from their scattered homes in the district of
Rameses-Goshen, and made their general rendezvous at Succoth, in an
extensive camping field along the line of lakes of which Lake Timsah is the
centre. Thence they moved forward toward the Great Wall, and encamped
within it, at some point near the northernmost of the three roads
desertward. From that camp ing-place they were turned southward nearly the
entire length of the Isthmus, and made their final camp, before the exodus,
at a region bounded eastward by the western arm of the Red Sea, west ward
by a prominent w r atch-tower such as guarded each of the three roadways
out of Egypt, northward by Hahiroth, and south ward by an image or shrine
of the Semitic Egyptian dualistic- divinity Ba al-Set.
4. It would appear from the Bible narrative, that while there was haste in
the starting out of the Israelites from their homes in Rameses-Goshen to
their Succoth-rendezvous, there was no press ing haste in their subsequent
movements, until the time of their midnight crossing of the Red Sea. The
indications of the narrative would point to, from say ten to twenty days,
or more, between the passover-uight and the night of the crossing.
Moreover, there is nothing in the text that justifies the belief that there
was but a day s journey between any two of the stations named as the great
landmark camping-places ; while there is every reason to believe that
several days must have been taken in passing down along the Great Wall,
from the encampment near the Philistia Road to the encampment by the Red
Sea. Hence, there can be no help to an identifying of any particular site,
by its supposed single day s dis tance from another site.
5. The northernmost stretch of the western arm of the Red Sea was then
practically at the present head of the Gulf of Suez. Whatever difference
existed must have been a slight one. Hence the last camping-field of the
Israelites must have been near the
POINTS NO W MADE clear. 431
northern shore of the Gulf of Suez, as being near the exit, through the
Great Wall, of the lied Sea Road (which corres ponded with the modern Hajj
route into and over the Red Sea desert). The crossing of the Red Sea must
have been from that starting-point.
6. AVhatever disclosures may be made by further explorations in the region
of eastern Lower Egypt, must be studied and viewed in the light of these
facts, which by the Bible narrative and the monumental records are already
made clear and definite beyond a perad venture.
INDEXES.
LIST OF AUTHOEITIES CITED.
[This list indicates the particular edition of each work from which
citations have been made in this volume. Where more than one edition has
been cited, both editions are indicated. All of the works named in this
list have been given at first hand. A supplemental list indi cates the
works cited at second hand.]
ABULFEDA :
Descriptio Aegypti. Edidit, latine vertit, notas adjecit Johannes Da vid
Michaelis. Gottingen : 1776. Historia Anteidamica. Edidit cum versione
latina, notis et indici- bus Henricus Orthobius Fleischer. Leipzig: 1831.
Tabula Syriae; cum excerpto geo- graphico, ex Ibn Ol Wardii Geo- graphia et
Ilistoria Naturali. Ed idit Johannes Jacobus Reiskius. Leipzig : 1706.
ADRICHOMIUS, CHRISTIAN :
Tlteatrum Terrae Sanctae et Biblica-
rum Ilistoriarum. Delft: 1593. ALFORD, HENRY :
The Book of Genesis and part of the Book of Exodus. A revised ver sion,
with marginal references. London: 1872. ALI BKY EL-ABASSI:
Travels in Morocco, Egypt, Arabia, and Syria, between the years 1803 and
1807. London : 1816. ASIIER, A. :
The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudelck. 2 vols. London and Ber lin :
1840. BACIIIENE, WILIIELM ALBERT:
Historische und gcographische Be- schreibung von Palastina. 7 vols. eleve
and Leipzig: 1766-75. BAEDEKER, K. :
Lower Egypt, with the Fayilm and the Peninsula of Sinai. Leipzig : 1878.
Palestine and Syria Handbook for
travellers. Leipzig : 187(5. Booster s Comprehensive Bible. London :
1846. BARING-GOULD, S. :
Legends of the Patriarchs and Pro phets and other Old Testament Characters.
New York : 1872.
BARKER, CHRISTOPHER:
English Bible. London : 1599. BARRETT, RICHARD A. F. :
A Synopsis of Criticism upon those Passages in the Old Testament, in which
Modern Commentators have differed from the Authorized Ver sion. London:
1847. BARROWS, E. P. :
Sacred Geography and Antiquities.
New York : [s. a.] BARTLETT, SAMUEL C. :
from Egypt to Palestine; Observa tions of a journey made with spe cial
reference to the history of the Israelites. New York : 1879. BARTLETT, W.
II. :
Forty Days in the Desert, on the track
of the Israelites. London: 1851. BASSLER, FERDINAND :
Das Ifeilige Land, und die angrenz- enden Landschaften. llerseburg : 1846.
BERCHERE, N.:
Le Desert de Suez; Cinq mois dans
1 Isthme. Paris: [s. a.] BEER, E. F. F. :
Inscriptiones Vetrres litteris et lingua hucusque incognitis ad montem
Sinai servatae. Leipzig: 1840. BESANT, WALTER:
The Life and Achievements of Ed ward Henry Palmer. London : 1883.
Bible Educator, The. Edited by the Rev. E. II. Plumptre. 4 vols. London,
Paris and New York : [s. a.~\ BIRCH, S. :
Egypt from the Earliest Times to
B. c. 300. London : 1879. BLUNT, LADY ANNE :
Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates. Edited, with a preface, by W. S. B. New
York : 1879.
435
436
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
BOCIIART, SAMUEL:
Geographia Sacra; seu, Phaleg et Canaan. Leyden: 1707.
BONAR, HORATIUS:
Desert of /Sinai; Notes of a spring- journey from Cairo to Beernheba.
London : 1857.
BBEYDENBACH, BERN HARD vox:
Itinerariuni Hierosolimi. Spires:
1490. BROWN, JOHN :
A Dictionary of the Holy Bible.
Edinburgh: IS 10. BRUCE, JAMES :
Travels to discover the Sources of the
Nile. 6 vols. Dublin: 1700. BRUGSC ii, HEINRICH:
A History of Egypt ujider the Pha raohs. Translated and edited by Philip
Smith. Second edition. 2 vols. London : 1881.
Dictionnaire Geographiquc. Leip zig: 1879.
Die Geographic des Alien ^Egyptens. Leipzig : 1857.
Hieroijlypltisch-Dcmot ischcs Wortcr-
luch. 4 vols. Leipzig: 1861. BUDPEUS, CARL FRANZ:
Historic Ecclcsiastica Veteris Tcsta-
mcnti. Halle : 1744. BUENTING, HEINRICH :
Itinerariuni Sacrx Scriptures; dass ist, Ein lleisebuch iiber die gauze
Heilige Schrift. Magdeburg: 1.591.
The Travels of the Holy Patriarchs,
Prophets, &c. London : 1705. BUNSEN, CHRISTIAN C. J. :
Egypt s Place in Universal History.
5 vols. London: 1848. BUNSEN, ERNEST DE:
The Chronology of the Bible; Con nected with contemporaneous events in the
history of Babylon ians, Assyrians and Egyptians. London: 1871. BUECKHARDT,
JOIIANN LUDWIG :
JScmerkungen iiber die Jjcduinen iind Wahabt/. Gesam melt wall rend sei-
nen Reisen im Morgenlande. Wei- mar: 1831.
Travels in Syria and the Holy Land.
London: 1822. BURTON, RICHARD F. :
A Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. American edition. New York: 1*5(5.
The Gold Mines of Miclian, and the Ruined Midianite Cities ; A fort night s
tour in North- Western Ara bia. Second edition. London: 1878. BURTON AND
DRAKE:
Unexplored Stirin ; Visits to the Li- banus, the tuliil el Safa, the Anti-
Libanus, tlie Northern Libanus, and the Alah. 2 vols. London : 1872.
BUSH, GEORGE:
Notes, Critical and Practical, on the
Hook of Genesis. Ninth edition.
2 vols. New York : 1850. Notes, Critical and Practical, on the
Book of Numbers. Chicago: 1881.
BUXTORF, J OH ANN .
Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum, et Jlabbinicnm. Edidit Johannes Buxtorfius,
films. Basle: 1640. Synagoga Judaica; hoc est, Schola
Judseorum. Hanau : 1G04. CALMET, AUGVSTIN :
Great Dictionary of the Holy Bible. Revised, corrected, and augmented under
the direction of C. Taylor. American edition. Charlestown : 1813.
CASTELLUS, EDMUND :
Le.ricon tfyriaciim, ex eius Lexico Ileptaglotto. Adnotata adjecit Jo
hannes David Michaelis. Gottin- gen : 1787. CASTILLO, F. ANTONIO DEL:
El devoto Peregrino ; Viage de Tierra
Saiua. Madrid: 1(]G6. CATAFAGO, JOSEPH :
An English and Arabic Dictionary.
In two parts. London: 1858. CELLARIUS, CHRISTOPHER :
Notitia Orliis Antiqni; sive, Geo- gra])hia Plenior. 2 vols. Leipzig :
1731. elIABAS, F. :
Etudes sur V Antique 7Jf ,sfoiYr,d apres les sources Egyptiennes. Second
edition. Paris : 1S73. Les Inscriptions des Mines d Or ; Dis sertation sur
les textes Egyptiens. Paris: 1862. CHAMPOLLION, JEAN FRANCOIS :
Enypte sous les Pharaons. Paris: 1814. elARK, SAMUEL :
The Bible Atlas. With an index of geographical names, by George Grove.
London : 1868. COLEMAN, LYMAN :
Historical Geography of the Bible.
Philadelphia : 1850. COLENSO, JOHN WILLIAM :
The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined. New York : 1866.
CONDER, elANDE REGNIER:
Tent Work in Palestine ; A record of discovery and adventure. 2 vols. New
York : 1878.
CONDER, F. R., AND CONDER, C. R. : A ILandbook to the Bible; A guide to the
study of the Holy Scriptures. New York : [s. a.] CORY, ISAAC PRESTON :
Ancient Fragments of the Phoenician, Carthaginian, Babylonian, Egypt ian
and other authors. Edited by E. Richmond Hodges. London : 1876.
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
437
Critici Sicri; sive, Doctissimorum Vi- roriini in SS. Biblia Annotations et
Tractatus. 9 vols. London : 1660. CROSBY, HOWARD :
Expository A otes on the Book of
Joshwi. New York, 1875. Lands of the Moslem ; A narrative of oriental
travel, by " El-Mukat- tem. 1 New York : 1851. CUCHE, R. P. :
Jesuits French Arabic Lexicon. Bay- root: 1802. CURTIUS, Q. RUFUS :
De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Mayni libri qui supersunt octo. Eiiidit Georg
.Enotheua Koch. Leipzig: 1849. DAPPER, O. :
Naukcurirje Beschryving van gantsch Syrie, en, Palestyn of Ileilige Lant.
Amsterdam : 1677. DELITZSCII, FRANZ:
Coiiimeittar iiber die Genesis. Leip zig: 1872. DE Rouufe, OLIVIER CHARLES
:
Le Puenie de Pen-Ta-Our. Lyons:
1858. DESAULCY, F. :
Narrative of a Journey round the Dead Sea and in Bible Lands, in 1850 and
1851. 2 vols. Philadel phia: 1854.
Description de I Eg /pte, Recueil des ob servations et des recherches qui
out te faites en Egypte pendant 1 ex- pedition de 1 armee Francaise. 20
vols.. Paris: 1809-1822. Also, 24 vols. Paris: 1816. DlETERICII, JOHANN
CONRAD :
Antiquitates Jiiblicae. Publicatse a Johanne Justo Pistorio. Giessen :
1671. DlODORUS SlCULUS :
Bibliotkecae Historicae quae super sunt. 6 vols. Leipzig : 1829, DREW, C.
S. :
Scripture Lands, in connection with
their history. London: 1871. DULLES, JOHN W. :
The Ride Through Palestine. Phila delphia: 1881. DURBIN, JOHN P. :
Observations in the East; Chiefly in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia
Minor. Ninth edition. 2 vols. New York: 1851. EBF.RS, GEORG :
jEt/ypten und die Biichrr Mose s ; Conimentar zu den /Egyptischen Stellen
in Genesis und Exodus. Leipzig: 1858.
Dnrch Gonrn zum Sinai ; aus dem Wanderbueh und der Bibliothek. Leipzig:
1881.
Egypt : Descriptive, Historic and Picturesque. Translated from the German
hy elara Hell. Edited by Samuel Birch. 2 vols. London and New York. 1881.
EBN HAUKAL:
Oriental Geography. Edited by Wil liam Ousely. London : 1800. EDERSHEIM,
ALFRED :
. The Exodus and the Wanderings in
the, Wilderness. London: [s. a.] The Temple; Its ministry and service, as
they were in the time of Jesus Christ. London : 1874. EDWARDS, AMELIA B. :
A Thousand Miles uj) the Nile. Lon don : 1877.
Encyclopcedia Britannica ; A Diction ary of Arts, Sciences, and General
Literature. Ninth edition. Ameri can reprint. Philadelphia: 1875 Englishman
s Hebrew and Chaldee Con cordance of the Old Testament. 2 vols.
London: 1874. EUSEBIUS, PAMPIIILI:
Onomasticon Urbium et Locorum Sa- crae Scripturae. Cum latina in-
terpretatione Hieronymi. Edide- runt F. Larsow et G. Parthey. Berlin: 1862.
EWALD, HKINRICH :
The History of Israel. Translated from the German. Edited by Rus sell
Martineau. 6 vols. London : 1876. , FABRI, FELIX :
Evagatorium in Tcrrae Sanctae, Ara- biae et Eqi/pti Peregrationem. 3 vols.
Stuttgart : 1843. FAIRBAIRN, PATIHCK :
The Imperial Bible Dictionary.
2 vols. London : 1867. FATJSSET, A. R :
The Englishman s Critical and Ex pository Cyclopadia. Philadelphia. 1878.
FIELD, HENRY M. :
On the Desert; With a brief review of recent events in the East. New York:
1883. FlKRY, MtTHAM>fAD AMF.EN :
Jeogrdfeeah Misr. Cairo: A. H.
1296. FORMBY, HENRY M. :
A Visit to the East ; Comprising Ger many and the Danube, Constan tinople,
Asia Minor. Egypt and Idumea. London : 1843. FOSTER, CHARLES :
Israel in the Wilderness; or, Glean ings from the scenes of the Wan
derings. London: 1865. The Historical Geography of Arabia; or, The
patriarchal evidences of re vealed religion 2 vols. London : 1844.
438
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
FREYTAG, G. W. :
Lej-icon Arabico-Latinum. Halle:
1837. FCERER, CHRISTOPHER :
lieis-Beschreibung in Egypten, Ara- bien, Paldstinam, Syrien, etc. Nu
remberg: first edition, 1565-67; second edition, 1646. FUERST, JULIUS:
Hebraisches und Chaldaisches Hand- worterbuch. Leipzig : 1857.
A Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament. Translated from the
German by Samuel Davidson. New York: 1867.
Illustrated Bible. Leipzig: 1819.
Librorum S<tcrorum Veteris Testa- menti Concordantiae Hebraicac at- que
Chaldaicae. Leipzig: 1840. GEDDKS, ALEXANDER:
Th e. I foli/ Bible ; the Books accounted sacred by the Jews. London :
1792.
GEIK.IE, CUNNINGHAM :
Hours with the Bible ; or, The Scrip tures in the light of modern dis
covery and knowledge. Vols. I. and II. New York: 1881. Gesta Dei Per
Francos; sive, Oriental-
ium Expeditionum, et Regni Fran- corum Ilierosolimitani llistoria. A
variisscriptoribus. Hanover: 1611. GESENIUS, WILHELM:
A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Translated and edited by
Edward Robinson. Bos ton, 1881.
Hebraisches und Chaldaisches Hand- worterbuch. Edited by F. Miihlau and W.
Volck. Leipzig, 1878.
Hebrew Grammar. Enlarged by E. Rodiger. lie-edited by B. David son. London
: 1852.
Thesaurus philologicus criticus Lin guae Hebraeae et Chaldaeae Vete- rii
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Geschichte der Juden, von den alte- ste.n Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart.
Vol. I. Leipzig : 1874. GREENE, J. BAKEU:
The Hi broi Migration from Egypt.
London : 1879. HAC-KETT, HORATIO B.:
Illustrations of Scripture, suggested by a tour through the Holy Land.
Boston: 1860. HAIIN, AUGUST :
Biblia Hehraica Seeundum edi- tiones Jos. Athiae, J. Leusden, J. Simonis
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HARMAN, THOMAS :
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1826. HIT/IG, FERDINAND :
Der Prophet Ezckicl er/cldrt. Leip zig : 1847. HOJIANN, JOIIANN BAPTISTS :
Atlas Novus ; Terrarum Orbis Impe-
ria, etc. Nuremberg : 1707. HORSI.EY, SAMUEL:
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HOUGIITON, W. :
Gleanings from the Natural History of the Ancients. London, Paris, and New
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JESSUP, II. H. :
Syrian Home Life. New York : 1874. JOANNE AND ISAMBEKT:
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JOHNSTON, ALEXANDER KEITH :
The Royal Atlas of Modern Geogra phy. Edinburgh and London : 1882.
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Opera Omnia. Ab Imraanuele Pek- kero recognita. 6 vols. Leipzig : 1855.
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Bible. Tiguri: 1550. JUSTINIAN, IMPERATOR:
Institutiomim Libri IIIL Amster dam : 1638. KALISCH, M. M. :
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[s. a] KLUNZIGER, C. B. :
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AUGUST :
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:
Egypt. London : 1881. LEE, SAMUEL :
The Peshitto Syriac. London: 1873. LEESER, ISAAC :
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440
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
LoFTrs, WILLIAM KENNETT :
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LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
441
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LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
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! SALE, GEORGE :
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LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
443
SIMON, JOIIANN :
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444
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
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77<e Lund of Israel ; A journal of travels in Palestine, undertaken with
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Ein und zwanzig Sinaitischc In-
schrijten. Leipzig : 184<J. UNRUH, GUSTAV :
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VAN DE VELDE, C. W. M. :
lieise (lurch Syrien und Paldstina,
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1 865 . VAN HAMELSVELD, YSBRAND:
Hiblische Gcoyrapliie. Aus dem Hoi-
lilndisuhen iibersetzt von liiulolph
Jiinisch. 3 vols. Hamburg: 1793. Victoria Institute : Journal of the Trans
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VOELTER, Ll DWIG :
Dan Ileilige Land, und das Land der israelitischen Wauderung. Stuttgart:
18G4. VOLNEY, C. F. :
Travels through Syria and Egypt, in the years 1783, 1784 anil 1785.
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Palaxtina. Mit einer Karte von
Paliistina. Vierte, vermehrte und
verbesserte Auflage. Leipzig :
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Der Zug der Israel/ten aus .^Egypten
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Praktisches Handbueh der neu-Ara- biscken Sprache. Geissen : 1861.
WALPOLE, ROBERT :
Travels in Various Countries of the
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Biblia Polyc/lotta. 6 vols. London :
1657. WARBURTON, ELIOT:
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An Historical Geoaraplnj of the Old and New Testaments. Oxford : 1840.
WELLSTED, J. R. :
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by Samuel Birch. 3 vols. New York : 1878. Topography of Thebes, and general
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The Holy City; or, Historical and topographical notices of Jerusa lem.
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The Egypt of the Past. Second edi tion. London : 1882. WILSON, JOHN :
Tlie Lands of the Bible, visited and revisited. 2 vols. Edinburgh : 1847.
WILSON, THOMAS:
Christian Dictionary. London: 1678. WILTON, EDWARD :
The J\ r e(jcb, or " South Country " of Scripture. London and Cam bridge:
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Uib/isches Realworterbuch fiir Studi- rende, Candidate!!, Gymnasialleh- rer
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Chaldaische Grammatih fiir Bibel und Targumim. Dritte Auflage ver- mehrt
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Holy Bible with Notes. London :
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LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED.
445
ZlMMERMANN, KARL :
Karte von Syrien und Paldstina.
Berlin : 1850. ZINCKE, F. BARHAM :
Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Khe dive, London : 1873.
PERIODICALS.
The Academy :
London : May 5, 18S3. The Biblical Repository :
Andover : October, 1832 ; April,
1833; October, 1883. Bibliotheca Sacra :
Andover: February, 1843; January, 1848; May, 1849; January, 1869. British
Quarterly Review :
American reprint. New York : July,
1883. Bulletin de la Societe Geographique :
Paris : June, 1839. Edinburgh Review :
Edinburgh : January, 1877.
The Independent :
New York: December 7, 1882. Kitto s Journal of Sacred Literature: London:
July, 1848; April, 18CO. Mac m Ulan s Magazine :
London and New York : January
and May, 1883.
Monatsbericht iiber die Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde:
Berlin : May, 1848.
Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement :
London : July, 1875 ; January, 1881 ;
July, 1881. Studien und Kritiken :
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4, 1883. The Sunday School World :
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: Vols. I-VI. Leipzig.
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED AT SECOND HAND.
ABD-ER-RASHID EL-BAKOUY :
Kitab Talkis el-Atfar. In manu script : date of the work, 1403. ABULFEDA :
Annales Moslemicae. Leipzig: 1788-
1795.
Reliquiae Geographicae. Manuscript in the Imperial Library, at Vienna.
BUNSEX, CHRISTIAN C. J. :
Vollstandiges Bibelwerk : 1858-1870. COSMAS IXDICOPLEUSTES : A Christian
Topography Embracing the Whole World.
D AxviLLE, J. B. B. :
Memoires sur VEyypte Ancienne et
Moderne. Paris: 1766. FRAAS:
Aus dem Orient. 1867.
HOUBIGANT, CHARLES:
Biblia Hebraica. Paris : 1753.
LEXGERKE, C. E. :
Kenaan : Volks- und Religionsges- chichte Israels. Konigsberg : 1844- 1848.
MICIIAELIS, J. D. :
Dissertatio de Locorum Differentia.
Gottingen : 1769. MOVERS, F. C. :
Die Phonicier. Bonn: 1841. RUSSEGGER, JOSEPH:
Reisen in Europa, Asienund Africa.
3 vols. Stuttgart : 1841-1849. YAKOOT EL-HAMAWI :
Geographical Dictionary. 1220,
PERIODICALS.
Monatsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akndr- mie der Wisscnschaften. Berlin :
1866.
Zach s Monatlicher Corrcspondenz. 1806, and following years.
INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED.
[The names of authors in this Index appear also in the List of Authorities
Cited. Others
again appear in the Topical Index. All are here given together for
added convenience of reference.]
AARON, 20, 23, 129, 130, 133, 135, 136, 148, 149, 198, 210, 317, 381, 389,
390
Aahmes, or Amasis, 48
Abbott, Lyman, 228
Abekcn, II., 230
Abd-er-Rashid El-Bakouy, 72
Abimelech, 255
Abraham, 15, 28, 31, 33, 44, 56, 59, 60, 61,62, 63, 64, 88, 89, 90, 102,
129, 13G, 188, 255
Abulfeda, 41, 49, 50, 67, 170, 173, 174
Achsah, 104, 106
Adrichomius, Christian, 151, 196, 197, 198, 201, 208
Ainsworth, Henry, 151
Alee, Muhammad, 72. 136
Alford, Henry, 62, 94, 223, 398
Ali Bey el-Abassi, 207
Amalek, 40, 41
Amalric I., 186, 188
Amenhotep IV., 365
Amenemhut I., 47, 48
Amenemhat II., 54
Antonio (of Castile), 199
Arculf, 185
Aristotle, 51, 54, 383
Arnold, Franz, 223
Asshur-bani-pal, 31, 32
Athanasius, 175
Ayme, Du Bois, 342
BACIIIENE, WILHELM ALBERT, 202 Baedeker, Karl, 63, 112, 339,341,345, 366,
377
Baldwin III., 186 Baring-Gould, S., 176 Barker, C., 194
Barrett, Richard A. F., 19, 126, 127 446
224,
382,
381,
Barrows, E. P., 228
Bartlett, Samuel C., 45, 63, 142, 166, 228, 232, 233, 244, 246, 255, 257,
284, 290, 291, 293, 343, 359, 381, 383, 403, 407, 423
Bartlett, W. II., 239, 346
BiUsler, Ferdinand, 227
Baumgarten, M., 153
Beer, E. F. F., 278
Berchere, N., 339, 341
Berghaus, II., 227
Bertou, 122, 1.36, 207
Besant, Walter, 10, 245, 246, 350
Bevan, W. L., 41
Birch, Samuel, 39, 47, 49, 53, 56, 162, 407, 408, 413, 414, 416, 418
Bissell, E. C., 165, KJ6
Blaeu, W. and J., 199
Bochart, Samuel, 56
Bonar, Horatius, 37, 63, 88, 239, 251, 293, 295
Borel, 342
Breydenbach, Bernhard, 143, 191, 196, 202
Briggs, Charles A., 11
Brocardus, 190, 192, 196, 197, 208
Brown, John, 151
Browne, E. Harold, 69
Bruce, James, 338
Brugsch, Ileinrich, 39, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 56, 63, 89, 99, 160, 161,
162, 164 326, 327, 328, 329, 331, 332, 333, 335, 336, 338, 339, 342, 352,
353, 357, 359, 361, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 371, 372, 373, 375,
376, 377, 380, 381, 382, 383, 392, 393, 394, 395, 403, 404,
405,407,409,411,414,416, 417,418,41 J
192,
INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED.
447
Buddeus, Carl Franz, 227
Bunsen, Christian C. J., 48, 51, 54, 383,
409, 412, 413, 415, 416, 418, 419 Bunsen, Ernest de, 32, 46, 165, 223
Bunting, Ileiurich, 25, 198 Burckhardt, J. L., 37, 68, 128, 134, 144,
150, 151, 154, 174, 175, 205, 206, 207,
208, 238, 239, 240, 266, 377, 378, 388,
406 Burton, Richard F., 36, 46, 68, 267, 346,
355, 387, 397
Bush, George, 41, 108, 228, 385 Buxtorf, Johann, 176, 177, 355, 419
CALEB, 104
Callier, 88
Calmet, Augustin, 25, 151
Campbell, Colin, 261
Cartwright, Lady Elizabeth, 261
Catafago, Joseph, 170
Cellarius, Christopher, 63, 151, 175, 201
Chabas, F., 46, 47, 161
Chalfa, 37
Chambers, T. W., 11
Champollion, Jean Francois, 56, 374
Chedor-la omer, 31, 32
Chester, Greville, 359, 360, 366, 375, 403
Chevallier, E., 31, 32, 41, 89, 160, 164, 381
Clarius, 41
Clark, Samuel, 223, 225, 227, 377, 407
Coit, T. W., 11
Coleman, Lyman, 228
Colenso, John William, 20, 390, 391
Conant,T. J., 228
Condor, C. R., 28, 62, 63, 101, 104, 105,
162, 179,227,268, 345,346 Cook, C. L, 39, 346, 385, 406, 415, 418 Cory,
Isaac Preston, 53, 408 Cosmos, 278 Cox, Geo. W., 186
Crosby, Howard, 97, 108, 118, 133, 228 Cyril, 63
D AxviLLE, J. B., 135
Dapper, O., 199
Davidson, Samuel, 35, 174, 217, 218
Delitzsch, Franz, 18, 19, 24, 33, 36, 41, 63, 64, 65, 70, 71, 94, 97, 108,
110, 114, 126, 142, 145, 149, 151, 176, 223, 377, 406, 422, 423
Delukah, 49
De Roug6, 160
De Sola, 41
Dieterici, 421
Diodorus, (Siculus), 49
Drew, C. S., 130, 226, 341
Drusius, 151
Dulles, Allan M., 247
Dulles, John W., 164
Durbiii, John P., 26, 38, 97, 228
EBEES, Georg, 39, 46, 47, 51, 54, 56, 143, 160, 323, 329, 330, 333, 335,
339, 380, 382, 383, 392, 393, 394, 395, 403, 404, 406, 407, 409, 411, 413,
415, 417, 418, 419, 420, 423
Edersheiin, Alfred, 18, 21, 24, 151, 223, 390
Edwards, Amelia B., 160
Eleazer, 130, 135
Elon, 37
Esau, 37, 40, 41, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 98,99
Espin, T. E., 21, 151, 224
Eusebius, 18, 69, 120, 121, 130, 131, 167, 168, 171, 173, 175, 178, 179,
180, 181, 185, 187, 189, 190, 193, 194, 196, 198, 199, 201, 202, 208, 408
Ewald, Heinrich, 20, 25, 41, 43, 44, 46, 138, 148, 222, 223, 406
Ezekiel, 120, 122
FABEI, Felix, 143, 191, 192, 202
Fagius, Paul, 43
Fairbairn, Patrick, 41
Farrar, F. W., 261
Faussett, A. R., 46, 151, 172, 226
Fazakerley, 239, 354
Field, Henry M., 239, 250, 297
Fikry, Muhammad Ameen, 170
Finati, Giovanni, 355
Fischer, Bernhard, 41, 172
Formby, Henry, 97, 239
Forster, Charles, 36, 151, 152, 180, 278
Fresnel, 355
Freytag, G. W., 96, 105, 112, 150, 170,
291, 339, 341 Fries, W., 19, 21, 41, 64, 100, 126, 151.
152, 222 Fritzsche, 165
Fiirer, Christopher, 151, 200 Fiirer, Jacob, 200 Fiirst, Julius, 24, 56,
84, 89, 103, 111, 116,
150, 172, 386, 392, 399, 419
448
INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED.
GEDDES, Alexander, 107, 103, 110, 118 Geikie, Cunningham, 21, 2 2 3, 333,
385 Gesenius, William, 44, 55, 56, 70, 84, 89,
103, 113, 125, 150, 223, 352, 386, 3y2,
398, 399, 419 Gildemeister, 174 Glyun, Joseph, 51 Goodwin, C. W., 47, 417
Graetz, II., 27, 50, 223, 346, 379, 399, 403 Greene, J. linker, 45 Grotius,
II., 43, 44 Grove, George, 18, 40, 63, 64, 65, 75, 103,
109, 105, 166, 172, 174, 377
HACKETT, II. B., 24. 143, 41, 46, 64
68, 71, 75, 89, 103, 104, 109, 143,
165, 166, 172, 346 Hagar, 28, 44, 58, 340 Hall, Isaac II., 11 Ham, 41
Hamburger, I., 31, 223, 423 Hamdli, 251, 253, 262, 263, 265, 276 Harmar,
Thomas, 397 Harris, A. C., 371 Hartranft, C. D., 11 Hase, 403
Hasius, J. M., 20, 63, 202 Hauqal, Ibn, 173
Hayman, Henry, 21, 68, 71, 226, 346 Hedayah, Muhammad Ahmad, 260,
262
Heidinann, 199 Heilprin, M., 11 Heiigstenberg, E. W., 41, 120, 122,
149, 153
Henniker, Frederic, 207, 293 Herodotus, 56, 344, 345 Herzog, J. J., 223
Hillertis, Joannes, 25 Hitzig, Ferdinand, 120, 227 Hobab, 80 Holland, F.
W., 45, 77, 78, 79, 80, 82.
101, 102, 140, 142, 227, 228, 233,
315, 349, 350
Homann, Johann Baptiste, 199 Horsley, Samuel, 108, 110 Houbigant, C. F.,
107, 118 Houghton, W., 39 Ilus^an, 249, 250, 251, 252 Huxley, T. II., 345
IlJRAlIEEM, 251, 262, 299
Irby, C. I,., 108, 109, 128, 174, 207
261,
123,
, 83, 268,
Isaac, 62, 91, 92, 102, 255 Isambert, 375 Istachri, 56
JACOB, 62, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 99, 102. Jerome, 18, 24, 43, 69, 101, 120,
121, 130,
131, 166, 167, ItiS, 171, 173, 175, 178,
179, 180, 181, 185, 187, 189, 190, 193,
194, 196, 202, 208 Jessup, II. II., 10, 90, 341 Joanne, 375 Johns, 212
Johnson, Alexander Keith, 226, 375, 377 Joseph, 340 Josephus, Flavius, 52,
55, 56, 69, 93, 101,
130, 131 , 167, 168, 169, 173, 175, 181, 202 Joshua, 62, 94, 102, 103, 106,
120, 312 Juda, Leo, 152 Judah, 101
KALISCH, M. M., 43, 62, 68, 71, 94, 223,
398
Kedar-el-Ahmar, 32 Kedor-la omer, 33, 34, 35, 36 37, 39, 40,
42, 43, 65, 80, 82, 84, 88, 99, 185, 187 Kedor-nakhunta, 31, 32 Keil,
Friedrich, IS, 19, 24, 33, 36, 41, 63,
64, 65, 70, 71, 93, 97, 108, 110, 114,
122, 126, 142, 145, 149, 151, 223, 377,
406, 422, 423
Kenrick, John, 411, 418, 420 Kiepert, II., 345, 350 Kitto, John, 35, 41,
71, 151, 217, 226, 227 Klunzinger, C. 15., 239, 343, 344, 355 Knobel,
August, 104, 108, 111, 138, 223 Koehler, J. B., 112, 176 Kudur-Mabuk, 32
Kurtz, Johann Heinrich, 18, 20, 21, 24
33, 41, 46,55, 58, 63, 69, 70, 93, 97,
115, 126, 145, 148, 149, 151, 152, 222,
346, 385, 397, 406
LABOEDE, LEON DE, 46, 128, 148, 177,
206, 207, 238, 239, 240, 350, 354, 378,
406
Lane, Edward William, 73, 170, 386, 387 Lane-Poole, Stanley, 366, 384
Lange, John, 19, 21, 27 31, 36, 55, 94, 104,
108, 110, 119. 122, 126, 127, 138, 142,
148, 149, 153, 223, 398, 399 Leake, W. M., 175 Leeser, Isaac, 108
INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED.
449
Legh, 128, 207 Lengerke, 153 Lenormant, Francois, 31, 32, 41, 53, 89,
160, 164, 381, 418, 420 Lepsius, Eichard, 37, 46, 47, 54, 140, 230,
331, 333, 350, 351, 375, 377, 408, 409,
411, 416, 417, 418 Lerch, 56
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 383, 403 Leusden, Johann, 25 Lieblein, 335
Lidenthal, De, 41
Lightfoot, John, 19, 169, 176, 200, 201, 227 Linant, 88, 206
Lindsay, Lord, 38, 97, 133, 136, 137, 207, 239 Lipenius, 355
Loftus, William Kennett, 31 Lot, 33
Lowrie,S.T., 11, 19,21, 27, 148, 153,224, 228 Luchvig, Salvator, 350
Lushington, E. L., 408, 416, 417 Luther, Martin, 95 Lynch, W. F., 108 Lyra,
41
MACGREGOR, J., 387
Maimonides, 189
Malvenda, 41
Manetho, 52, 53, 54, 56
Mangey, 64
Mangle, James, 108, 109, 128, 174, 207
Maqdisi, See Abulfeda
Mariette, Auguste, 47, 368, 383, 414
Martineau, Miss Harriet, 97, 128, 144, 239
Masius, 118
Masper6, 418
Maundeville, John, 185
Maundrell, H., 144
Mauriac, Antoine du, 343
McClellan, George B., 261
McClintock, John, 228
McCoan, J. C., 116, 239
Mead, Charles M., 261
Meneptah, 425
Menke, Theodor, 121, 122, 223, 339
Menochius, 41
Mercator, Gerard, 195, 196
Merrill, Selah, 36, 239
Meter aboo Sofieh, 245, 246
Michaud, J. F., 186, 187, 188
Mk-haelis, J. D., 44, 55, 67
Mills, Charles, 186, 187
Mills, John, 281
Milman, Henry Hart, 27
Miriam, 23, 148, 177, 278, 317
Moncony, Balthasar, 177
Montano, 199
Moosa, Shaykh, 247, 248
Moses, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 26, 43, 59,65, 73, 75, 76, 79, 83, 93, 94,
101, 107, 130, 135, 136, 148, 149, 177, 186, 198, 204, 210, 252, 312, 317,
320, 353, 361, 381, 382, 389, 390, 399, 403, 424 f., 427, 428
Movers, F. K., 165
Miihlau, F., 223
Miiller, Max, 203, 410
Miinster, Sebastian, 41, 194, 195, 196
Murphy, James, 41, 385, 398
Murray, John, 88, 105, 226, 295, 377
Musleh, Shaykh, 244, 245, 246, 248, 250, 251, 252, 253, 267
NAPIER, JOHN T., 11, 171
Neubauer, Adolph, 58, 164, 168, 372
Newnham, \V. H., 177
Niebuhr, Carlsten, 58, 143, 393, 406
Niebuhr, Marcus Von, 31
Nissim, 169
Noah, 41
Noldeke, Theodor, 41
OLIN, STEPHEN, 38, 97, 228, 239 Oliphant, Lawrence, 36 Onkelos, 44
Ortelius, 195, 196 Oscanyan, O., 386 Osiris, 54 Osirtasin, 39 Othniel, 104
Otho, Johannes, 168
Owdy, 251, 252, 256, 257, 258, 259, 262, 263,272, 275,276, 279, 292,294,295
298
PAINE, CAROLINE, 97, 239, 247
Paine, J. A., 11
Palfrey, John Gorham, 21, 71
Palmer, Edward Henry, 18, 21, 27, 37, 38, 39, 46, 63, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71,
77, 88, 93, 94, 96, 100, 104, 105, 117, 119, 123, 133, 134, 137, 142, 148,
165, 166, 175, 223, 231, 232, 233, 239, 240, 241, 244, 245, 248, 249, 250,
255, 256, 257, 264, 266, 268, 270, 271, 281, 284, 287, 291, 293, 294, 295,
338, 339, 341, 350, 378, 381, 387, 404
450
INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED.
Patrick, Simon, 19, 151
Perizonius, Jacobus, 372
Pharaoh, 398, 399, 400, 401, 402, 425, 427
Philo, Judseus, 64, 419
Pierotti, Ernesti, 237, 239, 386, 387
Pietrement, C. O., 40
Pitts, Joseph, 397
Plantin, Christopher, 194
Pliny, 51, 101, 345, 383
Pococke, 112, 138, 177, 204
Pool, Matthew, 151
Poole, 11. S., 326, 339, 346, 347, 361,380,
381, 382. 409, 414 Pool, Stanley Lane, 19, 41, 108, 111, US,
127, 384 Porphyry, 415 Porter, j. L., 36, 45, 63, 89, 101, 164, 226,
295
Poseidon ios, 345 Post, G. E., 297 Prideaux, Humphrey, 16 Prime, William
C., 11, 248 Ptolemy, 54, 58, 101, 120, 194, 345, 346
QUARESMIUS, Franciscus, 151, 199
RADENIIAUSEX, 403
Raleigh, Walier, 62, 116, 151, 199
Ram oses I., 416
Rameses II., 50, 52, 54, 334, 380, 414, 416
Rameses III., 53, 365, 367, 370, 371,
373
Ranke, Leopold von, 149 Ransouner, Eugene Baron, 355 Raphall, 41 Rashi,
(Solomon lien Isaac), 43, 44, 123,
151. 189, 38.-, 421 Rawlinson, Henry, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38,
40, 50, 56, 63, 64, 73, 163, 165 Roland, Adrian, 41, 63, 85, 86, 88, 101, \
120, 121, 165, 166, 175, 201, 208 Renouf, P. Le Page, 48, 404, 405, 409,
410, 415, 416, 418 Reuss, Edouard, 227 Richardson, 144 Richter, 403 Riehm,
C. August, 151 Ritt, Olivier, 51, 344 Ritter, Carl, 20, 25, 26, 37, 43, 62,
63, 64,
68, 93, 104, 105, 148, 162, 166, 193,
222, 223, 239
Roberts, J., 397
Robinson, Edward, 38, 42, 62, 63, 67, 70,
76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88,
94, 96, 104, 105, 109, 110, 112, 113, 119, 120, 122, 126, 127, 128, 133,
134, 136, 137, 138, 145, 146, 147, 151, 162, 163, 165, 166, 173, 174, 175,
179, 190, 192, 202, 204, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 216, 217, 218, 219,
220, 221, 223,
224, 226, 217, 228, 231, 239, 242, 271, 275, 281, 284, 288, 289, 293, 295,
310, 314, 341, 350, 377. 378, 381, 382, 406
Rodiger, E., 174
Roger, Eugene, 19D
Rosellini, Ippolito, 161
Rosenmiiller, Ernst F. K., 73, 115, 202,
354
Rouge De, 408, 422 Rovillius, 194 Rowland, John, 10, 45, 62, 64, 79, 93,
95, 96, 100, 111, 151, 211, 212, 213, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223,
224,
225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 241, 242, 255, 274, 284
Roziere, 342
Riickert, K. T., 162
Ruge, S., 194
Riippell, Edward, 206, 207, 239
Russegger, J. 207
SAADIA, 58, 380
Sacy, Silvestre, de, 374
Saladin, 188
Sale, George, 170, 252
Saleh, 136
Salim, Shaykh, 212
Salvator, Ludwig, 116
Sanson, Xicolas, 199
Santander, 194
Sanuto, Marino, 190, 195
Saul, 55
Saunders, Trelawney, 10, 27
Sayce, A. II., 31, 32, 41, 56, 57, 66, 419
Schaff, Philip, 19, 21, 27, 31, 36, 55, 94, 104, 108, 110, 119, 122, 126,
127, 138, 142, 148, 149, 153, 165, 166, 223, 233, 239, 242, 398, 399
Schleidcn, M. I., 359, 360, 403
Schmidt, Sebastian, 107, 118
Schneider, 403
Schroder, Paul, 103
Schubert, II., von, 38, 133, 136, 162, 207
INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED.
451
Schultens, H. A., 176
Schwarz, Joseph, 69, 151, 222
Schweigger, Salomon, 200
Seetzen, Ulrich Jasper, 38, 67, 68, 88, 114,
133, 13G, 174, 204, 205, 219, 220, 229,
231, 233, 284, 295 Selden, John, 419 Selfisch, 194 Sesoosis, or Sesostris,
49, 50, 51, 53, 54,
56
Sesortosis II., 54 Sesortosis III., 54
Setee I., 51, 52, 54, 351, 369, 372, 416 Setee Meneptah, 48, 50, 53 Sharpe,
Samuel, 50, 55, 108, 278, 346, 381 Shaw, Thomas, 37, 177, 203, 204, 355
Simeon, 106 Simon, Johann, 24 Sineh, 47
Smith, Eli, 105, 173, 210, 341 Smith, Geo., 32 Smith, R. Payne, 21, 226,
227 Smith, Philip, 39, 353, 371 Smith, W. Robertson, 408 Smith, William,
21, 27, 41, 46, 64, 65, 68,
71, 75, 89, 103, 104, 109, 146, 165, 166,
172, 225, 346 Solms, 191
Spanheim, Frederick, 199 Spiegel, 56
Stanford, Edward, 350 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, 23, 26, 38, 43,
44, 101, 112, 125, 128, 137, 225, 228,
339, 366, 384 Stark, K. B., 63
Stephen, Francis, 194, 207, 239, 266 Stewart, Robert Walter, 37, 46, 62,
63, 88,
166, 229, 230, 239, 287, 295, 350 Stickel, 355, 403, 406 Strabo, 51, 56,
137, 338, 344, 345, 354, 383 Strauss, Friedrich Adolph, 63, 223, 239,
377, 406
Strong, James T., 228 Stuart, Villiers, 39, 53, 160, 346, 409, 421
Sulayman, Shaykh, 223, 244, 240, 247,
251, 255
TACITUS, C. CORNELIUS, 339 Thevenot, J., 37, 143, 203, 233 Thierbach, 403
Thomson, W. M., 26, 62, 63, 64, 90, 103, 104, 105, 175, 230
Thotmes I., 39, 53
Thotmes III., 372
Tischendorf, Constantine von, 55, 406
Thrupp, J. F., 151, 224
Tomkins, Henry George, 31, 32, 35, 36,
56, 160, 161, 163, 408, 412, 422 Toy, C. II., 11, 172 Tremellius, 41
Tristram, H. B., 40, 62, 63, 64, 104, 103,
110, 120, 122, 151, 163, 165, 174, 175,
223
Trumbull, J. Hammond, 11 Tuch, Friedrich, 21, 34, 35, 38, 45, 58, 64,
68, 71, 216, 217, 218, 222, 278 Tuchcr, 193 Tyrwhitt-Drake, C. F., 36, 264,
281
VALENTIA,, 355
Van de Velde, C. W. M., 62, 108, 122, 162
Van Dyck, 10, 119, 380
Van Hamelsveld, Ysbrand, 189, 204, 403
Vitriacus, 196
Volck, W., 223
Volney, C. F., 207
Volter, Ludwig, 223
Von Gerlach, Otto, 41, 127, 140, 148, 227,
419
Von Maltzan, Heinrich, 239 Von Raumer, Karl, 44, 73, 122, 153, 175,
176, 179, 202, 206, 207, 227, 228 Von Schubert. See Schubert Von Zimber,
Hans Werli, 191
UXRUH, GUSTAV, 227 Usertesen I., 52 Usertesen II., 54
WAHRMUND, ADOLF, 173 Walpole, Robert, 239, 254, 354 Walton, Brian, 171
Warburton, Eliot, 267 Warner, Charles Dudley, 261 Warren, Charles, 246
Wattles, Geo. II., 247 Webster, Noah, 74 Wellbeloved, 108 Wellhausen, J.,
21, 25 Wells, Edward, 69, 201 Wellsted, J. R., 37 Wctzstein, I. G., 36
Williams, George, 38, 45, 62, 63, 93, 95, 100, 211, 212, 213, 216, 230,
273, 284
452
INDEX OF PERSONS NAMED.
William of Tyre, 186, 196
Wilson, E. L., 269
Wilson, John, 217, 254, 378
Wilson, Thomas, 25, 38, 39, 68, 94, 97,
104, 113, 116, 120, 128, 130, 133, 136,
137, 162, 239, 256, 377, 380, 381, 382 Wilton, Edward, 18, 36, 39, 45, 62,
63,
64, 82, 94, 99, 119, 120, 122, 123, 132,
135, 138, 151, 152, 223 Winer, Georg Benedict, 21, 31, 41, 65, 69,
71, 112, 146, 153, 165, 166, 173, 217,
218
Wolcott, Samuel, 40, 165 Worcester, Joseph E., 74 Wordsworth, Christopher,
94, 151, 223 Wright, Thomas, 185
YAKOOT, 68 Young, Robert, 172
ZIEGLER, JACOB, 195 Zimmermann, Karl, 39, 193 Zunz, Leopold, 189
INDEX OF FOREIGN WORDS CITED.
EGYPTIAN.
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LA TIN. GERMAN. FEENCH.
457
LATIN.
Ager Hamalckitarum 41
Akrabbim 195
Alga niarina 354
Arad 180
Arama 180
Arundo JSgyptiaca 355
Arundo Isaica 355
Asason Thamar 121
Avicennia officinalis 355
Cades 180, 193, 197
Cades-barne 194
Cades-Bersabce 195
Cades En-mishpat 194
Chades Barneah , 195
Filius mutationis 24
Fumus in itinere 397
Hamalekitarum, Incolas agri ... 41
Ignis in itinere 397
Juncus acutus 355
Milvus ater 260
Or 130
Petra dura 96
Eecem Superbam 171
Via lapidibus strata 341
GEEMAN.
Birket Timsah See 333
Kanal von Heroopolis 333
Muktal . . .351
Strasse, alte 850
Wiistenweg der Boduinen .... 362
FEEXCH.
Bir Makdai 351
Chausde 341
Kedesch . . 164
Muraille defensive 47
Murailles, les 48
Pont du Trfoor 362
INDEX OF BIBLE TEXTS.
GENESIS.
TEXT. PAGE.
3-15 111
TEXT.
17: 5. . .
PAGE.
90
TEXT.
28: 18 .
PAGE.
. . . 382
18: 1
. 61, 340
28 : 18, 19 . . 29: 1-4 .
392 392
10 19 . .
.62
18: 17 . .
(30
11: 1-9 . . 11: 4 . . .
.... 307 . . 327, 373
20: 1 . . . 20 : 1 2 .
. 28, 44, 59, 60, 61, 63, 340 62 166
30 : 25-43 . . 31 : 55 . . . 32: 1-3
92 382 92
12 1-7
60
12 : 2, 3 . . .
60
20: 2 . .
325
32: 3 . . . . 32 : 3, 4 . . . 32: 13-15 . . 32: 24-32 . . 33: 11 .
. 85, 91, 131 90 388 91
388
12: 6 . . . .
62
20: 14, 16. 21 : 14, 21 . 21 : 20, 21 .
388 68 .69
12 : 6-10 . .
.... 340
12 : 9 . . .
. 18
12- 10-19
60
21: 21 . . . 21: 22-33.. 22 : 3 . . . 23 : 3-20
98 62
12- 13
60
33: 14 .
85
12: 16 . . .
.... 388
382 129
33: 16 . . . 33: 17-20 . .
91 . 92
13 1-3
340
13: 1-4,14-18 13: 7
60
24: 62
. . . 18
34: 30 .
62
62
25 : 18 . . .
44, 51, 57, 351 89 90 . . 90
35: 1-8 . . . 35: 4 .
92 36
13: 18 ... 14: 1-7 . . .
61
28
25: 25. .. 25 : 27-34 . 25: 30 . .
35: 21 . . . 35: 27 . . . .
.... 367 92
14: 1-12 . . .
33 3(>
14: 1-16
31
26 : 1 . . .
63 166
35 : 27-29 . . 35 28 29
. . 90, 91, 92 92
14: 3 .... 14: 5
... 38, 40 31
26: 1, 6 . .
. . 61
26 6-8
62
36 : 1-8 .
90 91 92
14: 5,6 . 14 : 5-7 . . . 14: 6 . . .71, 14: 6,7 . . .
... 35, 306 . . . . 223 85,88,94,131 . . 360 243
26 : 6, 16-18 26: 6-17 . . 26: 17
62 255
62
36: 1, 8, 9,19, 36: 2 . . . . 36: 3 . . . . 36: 6 . . . . 36: 7 . . . . 36:
8 . . . .
21, 43 . .85 98 .... 98 98 92 28
26: 18-23 . 26: 19-22 . 26 23
62 293 62
14:7 . . .17, 99, 153, 14: 7,8 . . .
37, 43, 66, 67, 170, 223, 306 40
26 : 26-33 .
. 62
36 : 8, 9 . . . 36: 8, 21 . . .
85 .... 131
14: 8-12 . . 14: 11, 16, 21 14 : 12-lff . . 15: 6
38 40 33 61
26 34
98
26 : 34, 35 . 27: 11 . . . 27 : 34-40 .
90 94 90
36 9-15 .
112
36: 10-12 . . 36: 11, 15 . . 36: 12, 20, 22 36: 21 . . . . 36: 34 . . . .
37 : 25 ..
. . 40 .... 118 98 .... 131 .... 118 35
15: 16. . . . 16: 3 ....
65
. . 98
27: 41-45 . 27 : 44 . . .
90 59
16: 7 . . .41, 98, 16: 12..
44, 75, 81, 337, 340 237
27 : 1-33 . . 27- 46
90
98
28 : 5 . .
.... 90
37: 28 . . . . 41 : 43 ...
.... 315 39
16- 14
28 44 213
28 6 9
90
17-1 8
61
9S- Q
98
41 : 57 .
.... 339
458
INDEX OF BIBLE TEXTS.
459
TEXT.
43: 11 . . .
PAGE
.... 388
TEXT.
12 : 1-28 .
PAGE
390
TEXT.
17: 14
PAGE.
59
46: 1-7 . .
.... 340
12 : 29 . .
390
19 1
140
46: 5-7 . . .
41
12: 30,31 12 : 30-33 12 : 31-33 12 : 31-41, 12 : 33 . . 12 : 35, 36 12 : 37
. . 12 : 37-38 13: 14 . 13: 17 . .
. . . 390
19: 1,2 20 1
140
46 : 20 . . .
.... 340
396
900
46: 28 . . . 46 : 28-34 .
.... 381 .... 380
390
20 : 2 . .
. . 59
51 . . 391
20: 13,24 23 : 31 . 24 4
900
46 : 29 ... 47 : 1-6, 27 .
39 .... 380
424 389
358 59
47: 11 . . . 48: 22 ...
.... 380 66
.... 380, 396 3S3
26: 15-29 27 14
.... 282
900
50: 7-14 . .
. 340
59 310 337
34: 27 . 40: 34-38
NT 1: 1-54 1 : 51, 52 2: 1-34 2: 34 .
59
1JJ1
50: 9 ....
. 39
EXODUS. 1 : 10-14 401
13: 17,18 13: 18. .
13: 18; 14 13: 19,20 13 : 20 . .
. . . 352, 399, 401, 402 . . 75, 338, 352, 358, 359, 360 : 2 .... 358 . . .
401
JMBERS. 140
1: 11 .... 2: 3
339, 379, 380 353
141 . . 140
2: 5
100
. . 141
2: 11-22
. . . .59
. . . 328 396
7:3-8 .
. . . . 78
3 : 1
44
13 : 21
285 397
9: 15-23 9 : 18, 21, 10: 11 .
80 398
3: 1-6 ... 3 : 1-22
59 386
13: 21-22 14: 1 . .
398
22 .... 145
360
. . 19
3: 7,8 .
59
14 : 1, 2 . 14 : 2 . . .
14 : 2, 9 .
14: 3,4 .
. 399, 406, 422 . 374, 358, 419, 421, 422 . 405, 419, 422 400
10: 11, 12 10: 12 . .
149 ... 68 69
3:78 15-17
396
3 : 13-17
60
10 : 12, 33 10: 13 . .
.... 69
3 15-17
61
.... 149
3: 18 ....
.... 396
10: 29-31 10: 29-32 10 : 33 . .
80 252
3-21 22
389
14: 3-5,11,
12 .... 396
3- 22
389
14: 5 . .
401
.... 142, 149
4: 29-31 . . 4 31
. 60, 390, 396 389
14 : 5-12
401
10: 33-36 11 : 1-3 .
141
14 : 7 . . .
39
142
5:1
386
14 : 9 . . .
. . . 402,405
11: 33-35 12: 1-16 .
148
5 3
396
14 : 10
424
148
5 15
390
14: 11,12 14: 13,14 14: 19-23 14: 22,29 14: 24,25 14 : 26-28 15 : 1-11 . 15
: 22 . . .
15 : 22, 23 15 : 22-24 .
. . 425
12: 16 .
. 69
6 2 8
396
. . 425
13: 1-20
.17
6 : 13-25
390
426 426
13: 3 . . 13: 11-16 13: 17 . 13: 21 .
17, 148 223
6 9
382
8 20
382
427
. . 18, 219, 277 . . 19
8 25-27
396
427
9:13....
.... 382
428 57, 75, 327, 358, 360, 428 140
13: 21-26 13 : 22 . .
307 277
9 26
381
10 19
357
13 : 22 . .
380
10 21-23
381
13: 26. . 13: 27 .
. 17, 28, 67, 147, 149, 151, 154 19
10 26 .... 11 1
.... 391 389
47
15 : 22-27 16: 1 . . 17: 1 . . 17: 6 . . 17: 8 . . . 17 : 8-13 .
385
11 1-8 ... 11 2 .... 11 3 .... 12 1-6 ... 12 1-20, 29-39
.... 390 .... 389 .... 389 .... 390 .... 385
. . . 140, 385 140 124 98 310
13: 29-33 14: 1-4 .
. . 41,66,265 265
14: 1,34 14: 1-45 14: 4 . .
17
.... 19, 153 17, 22
460
INDEX OF BIBLE TEXTS.
TEXT.
14: 10. 14 : 25 .
14: 25-33 14 : 2(3-34 14 : 39, 40 14: 39-45 14: 40 . 14 : 40, 44 14 : 44,
45 14: 45 . 15: 35, 36 1C .
FACE. 171
. . 81, 148, 309, 338, 352, 360 358 CO 18 . . 308
TEXT. PACE.
24 : IS 85
27 14 28 67 119
TEXT. PAGE.
1 : 2, 44 28 1 6 7 19 . . . 17
31 : 1-8 . . 168 31: 1-12 175 31 : 7-12, 48-50 .... 389 32: 8. . . .17,
19,24, 149 33 : 1-49 145, 314
1: 7 8 21
59
1 : 19 . .19, 75, 80, 81, 150, 215, 306, 1 : 19-21, 27-31 .... 1 : 19, 22
134, 314 310 17
. . . 17, 211, 382 277 219
33 : 2 59
1 : 19-24 307,
308
CO
33 : 3 . . 380, 384, 385, 424 33 : 5 384
1 : 19-40 .
1 : 20
81
. . 18, C5, 94, 98 172
33 : 6 328
1 : 20 24 .
17
33 : 6-8 358 33: 7 4 ? 2
1 : 24, 41
1: 40 75 81 318
219 338,
,93, 19
17 ...
20 : 1 . .
20: 1, 2 20: 1-5 20: 2-11 20 : 7-11
23 . 19, 23, 28, C7, 71, 147, 151, 223, 278, 309, 317, 318 .177
33 : 7, 8 405, 422 33 : 8 327, 406 33 : 8-10 385 33 : 10 . . 358
352, 358 1 : 44 . . . .18, 65, 85 94, 213 1: 46
33 : 10-14 . . . . 140
2:1. . . 305, 309, 338, 358, 361, 81, 7 2:1-5 131,
352, 5,19 132 318
. 85 128 309 176 . 88 282 fifi
272 23 . 124 307
33: 16-37 . . 150
33 : 18 151
33 : 18-36 20
2 : 1-8 146
20: 8 . 20 : 12 . 20: 12,24 20: 13 . 20: 14 . .
273 317 . . . "3
33 : 26, 27 153 33 : 31 32 . 153
2 : 4, 5, 8, 29 2:5 .... 80, 90,
33 : 32-35, 41-43 ... 153 33 : 35, 36 359
2:8. . . . 70, 75, 85, 2 : 9, IS, 29
. . . 23, 119, 169 317
33 : 36 28, 71, 316 33: 36, 37 . . . . 146, 147, 150, 223 33 : 37 .... 28,
127, 132 33: 37-39 . . . . 1^8
2: 12 2 : 23
20: 14-16 20: 14-21 20: 1C. . 20: 17 .
67 307
. . 23, 24, 129, 223 . 28, 83, 102, 305 . . . . 75 338
3:8.
3 : 24-28
59
4: 49 . ...
70
20: 17, 19 20: 18-21 20 : 19 . . 20: 22-28 20: 21 . . 20: 21, 22 M : 22 . .
20: 22-29 20: 23. . 20 : 26, 27 21: 1. . . 21: 3 . .
298
33: 40 . . . 132, 318
5:6
59
318
34 : 1 100
6: 3-12
59
129 135
34 : 3 94, 100, 131 34 : 3 4 ... . 69 71
6: 12
59
8: 1-C 15 16.
59
134 28 . . 23, 127, 128, 130, 215 .... 128, 318 132 135
34 : 3-5 . . 28, 96, 107, 313 34: 4 . . .24, 28, 71, 106, 110,111, 114,125,
167,169,171,201, 280, 281, 289. 34 : 4, 5 289 34- 5 116 117
8:7
283 59
8 : 7-10
8:9 ...
379
59
8: 14
9 : 22
142 318 145
59
10: 6 .... 128, 135, 10- 6 7 . .
75, 132, 278, 316 . . 305
34: 7, 8 127
11: 10-15
34 : 7-9 127
13: 5
59
21: 4. .
21 : 4-20 21 : 15, 28 21 : 22 . . 21 : 33 . 22: 1 .
. .131, 134, 309, 318, 338, 352 3
34: 10-12 . . 108
13 : 16 . ....
364 389 238 422 .67 200
00
DEUTERONOMY. 1 1 70 309
15 : 13-15 19: 14
176
31: 17
338 75 70 318
1 : 1-19 75 1:2. . . .42, 67, 71, 75, 131, 153, 215, 305
32 : 15 32: 51 119, 33 : 2 ...
INDEX OF BIBLE TEXTS.
461
TEXT.
33 : 8 . . .
PAGE
. . 200
TEXT.
17 : 16
PAGE. 39
TEXT. PAGE.
25 : 18, 19, 23, 27 ... 388
27 : 8 41 44
84- 1, 8
. 70
18: 19 ....
109 120 162 399 103 163 104 162 131 . 59
.66 103 154
JOSHUA. 3 1 qfi9
19: 2
31 : 10, 12 . 154
19: 12
2 SAMUEL. 4:7 70
3: 16 . .
70
19 : 12, 27, 29, 34 . .
1O 39 37
5: 1; 10: 5: 9-10 . 5: 10 . .
6 66 392 . . 70
20: 7-9 21 : 9-15 21 28
11: 11 .... 392
15 : 2 100
15 : 29 59
C: 2-6,20
387
24-4 85 90
21 : 2 66
24: 7
21 : 12 154
10: 5; 24 10: 31-35 10: 36,37 10: 36-39 10: 36-40 10* 38
15 65
JUDGES.
1:9 1 : 11
22: 12 392
1 KINGS. 4 : 12 154
102
102
161
9QR
6. K 1Q 90 inn
1 : 13
8 6 8 103
104
1 : 17 213, 305
8: 65 116
10: 38,39 10: 40,41 11: 4,6,9 11: 15-17 11 : 16, 17 11: 17 .
.... 03,104
1f>A
1 : 27
154 124 104 388 332 315 , 39
1 : 36 81
IS - 21-40 41 Q
Qf)
3 : 9-11
19 1 18 59
QA
3 : 15-18
19 4 5 1 p;n
OQ
4: 1-13
20 12 392
95, 110
4:2
2 KINGS. 2 : 2, 4, 6 59
4:3
10 1
19 Q
5 : 14, 19-21
332 331 315 .59 5
12: 7 . .
28 95 110
6: 1-5, 33 6:3-6
5 : 15, 16, 21-23, 26 . . 388 8 : 8, 9 . 388
12: 7,8. 12 : 22 . .
94 163
6:8 6 : 10
9 : 17 327, 368, 377 14 : 7 125
6: 11, 19
36
15: 29 163
15: 1-3 . 15: 1-4 . 15: 1,8 .
. . .69, 71, 308 . . 28, 107,313 215
6: 18
5P
16 : 8 388
7: 1,12 . . .
315 163 367 389 367 327 358 , 23
17 : 9 . . 367, 368, 370, 377 18 : 8 . . 327, 367, 368, 370 377. 18: 21 .
59
7 : 6-12
8: 17
i c; 1 91
15:3. . .
28, 111, 125, 169, 201, 280, 289
8: 26
9 : 46, 47, 49, 51 . . . . 9 : 51
19 : 24 56
20 : 12 388
15: 4 . .
.... 223, 290 .... 116, 289
11 : 16 316,
25 : 4 70
11: 16,17
25 : 5 70
15: 13-15 15: 15
.... 108, 109
11: 17
317 318 100
388 334 ,55 388 250 . 68 ,69
1 CHRONICLES. 1: 53 118
103
11 : 18 . . . 131
11 : 26
15: 16, 17 15: 21-28 15 : 21-32 . 15 : 26 . .
104 . .... 100 18 120
1 SAMUEL. 9 : / 10: 24
4 : 28 120 6 : 76 163
7 : 29 .... ... 154
15: 46 . .
. . . . 100
15: 7. . . 44
2 CHRONICLES. 3 16 103
15: 49 . .
103
17: 18 . . ...
15 : 58 . .
166
21 : 8
15 : 59 . .
. . 165
23 : 14, 24 25: 1, 2 68
4:7-9 103 8 : 17 146
17: 11,16
154
462
INDEX OF BIBLE TEXTS.
TEXT. P 1" 1
AGE.
131
367 131 131 ,41 60
TEXT.
19: 1-18 .
PAGE. . . . 59
XECHARIAH.
TEXT. PAGE.
3:1 421
H. 7
19 5
348, 349 . . . 56
15 -17
19: 6
JUDITH.
1 : 7-10
165 165
111
165
388 266
144 268
178 31
19-8
19: 11, 13
. . 380
20-2 .38
19: 18
. . . 66
5: 14
on . 7
91-9
31
1 2
131 2v> : fi
. . . 39
1 MACCABEES.
5:3.
25 11 12
1 9; >
23 : 8 . ...
... Go
26: 9, 10, 15
NEIIEMIAH. 1:1
327 31
23: 11 23-13 ...
. . . 66 367, 368 . . 116
11 . 63, 73
MATTHEW.
27 12
30 : 4
. . 380
3: 1, 25, 26, 28 . . . . 9- 16 17 17
367 22 120 367
^1
32 : 14 . . . . 327, 37 25
367, 368 56
2 : 11
17 25 26 ...
LUKE.
2 : 42-45 . ...
11: 26
41 8
a<\
12 38 39
JEREMIAH.
6 : 27 . . . . 327, 367, 368 25 : 25 31
ESTHER.
G: 29 30
JOHN. 5:2-7
JOB.
1:6 30-4
421
150
286 302 367 367 289 380 381 422 283 421 150
238
270 197
,0-
367
131 31
348 348
44-1
. . 370
37fl
49 : 7, 20 49 34 39
. . 118 31
ACTS. 2-9 ...
PSALMS.
17- ~,
EZEKIEL
25 : 13
. . 118
5- i-ll
168 165 154
139 . 59
178
n
9-10
31 9fl
27 : 15
. . 388
9: 32, 35, 38
48: 12
f!1 3
29 6-12 . . .
... 59
ROMANS. 3:4
29 : 9, 10
. . 369
RV 1
29 : 10
. . 365
30-5 ...
... 57
11: 1-6
78 43
30: 6
. . 369
1 CORINTHIANS 10: 4
10fi 37
30 : 14
. . 380
32 24
31
47 13 21
119
10: 11
120: 4
PROVERBS.
22-28 . . .
47-18 ....
. . 119
GALATIANS.
1 17 .
59
47: 19 . . . .116 47: 19; 48: 28 . .
308
48 9Q
169, 223 28, 201,
119
3:6-9 3:7-9
. 60 . 59
59
ECCLESIASTES. 11 1 . . .
DANIEL. 8:2
. . .31
4: 22-26
HEBREWS.
3- 8 11 16 18
fiO
24 14
THE SONG OF SO] MON.
10 : 14
. . 100
HOSEA. 12: 7
. . .65
4: 1-11
59
12: 16, 17
, 90
ISAIAH.
8 14
AMOS. 1: 12
. . 118
JAMES.
O . OQ
60 , 59
11: 11 11: 15 109 18: 2. .
2- 9 10 . ...
... 65
REVELATION. 11:8 .
JONAH.
2: 5 .
.353
TOPICAL INDEX.
ABDE. See Abdeh, El.
Abdeh, El, confounded with El- Aujeh, 29.3.
Aboo Retemat. See Retemat.
Adar, identified with Qadayrat, 215, 280 /., 290, 313.
Aduma. See Atuma.
vEgyptos, a name of Egypt, 56.
jEgyptus, a name of Sesostris, 56.
vElanitic gulf. See Aqabah, gulf of.
Agrood. See Ajrood.
Aileh. See Eloth.
" Ain Khadees." See Ayn Qadees.
Ajrood, probable location of Pi-hahiroth at, 406, 422.
Akrabbim, meaning of the word, 109,
111/.
. Akrabbim, Ascent of: a turn in the boundary-line at, 107 /., Ill, 113/. ;
its proposed location in the Arabah, 109 ; a description, not a proper
name, 111 /. ; its proposed location at Pass es-Sufah, 111; its proposed
location at Pass el- Yemen, 111 ff., 126.
Akrood. See Ajrood.
"Although," Hebrew word translated, 398.
Amalek, Arab traditions concerning, 41.
Amalekites, 18, 37, 55, 332 ; Arab tradi tions of their ancestry, 41 ;
Bible account of their ancestry, 40/., 98; field of the, 40 /., 99, 306.
Amen-Ra, 411 /.
American scholars concerning Row- lands s discovery, 223 /.
Amir, Ammurieh, Amr, forms of the word Omar, 246.
Ammon, oracle of, 43.
Amorites, 18, 37 ; location of their terri tory, 65; a representative
people, 65 /.; the "Highlanders," 65 /.; mountains, or hill-country of, 65
ff.; Way of the Hill-country of. See Road.
Anastasi papyri, See Papyri Anastasi.
Anboo : understood to mean the Wall, 47 ; Egyptian name of a fortification,
48; a plural word, 48 ; designates a line of fortresses, 48 /.
Anbu. See Anboo.
Apda Martu, " the Conqueror of the West," 32.
Apocrypha : Edom in the, 101; Kadesh in the, 165 ff. ; origin of the name
Kadesh-palm from a misreading in the, 197.
Aqabah : fort of, 42 ; gulf of, 36 ; name Yam Sooph applied to gulf of,
358.
Arab: traditions, 41, 131, 135 f.; conser vatism, 72 /. ; pretended
ignorance, 230, 256 /., 294 /.; method of ratify ing a contract, 252 /.;
estimate of the value of books, 256 /., 261 ; use of weapons, 260 ;
estimate of enemies, 260; distinction between theft and "tax-collecting,"
265^.; hostilities, danger from, 268 /.; timidity, 265, 276, 279, 296 ;
knowledge of the de sert exaggerated, 279; method of encampment, 281 ;
women at Qasay- meh, 292 ; short cut, 292 ff. ; con tempt for the truth,
293 /.; super stitions, 294, 297 ff.; mode of balanc ing an account, 296
/.; shrewdness, 296 /./dread of Christian invasion, 298 /.; unwillingness
to guide trav- 463
464
TOPICAL IXDEX.
ellers to certain wells, 298 /.; tribal names, 315 ; changes in Hebrew
local names, 378.
Arabs. See Bed/ween.
Arubah : not the Wilderness of Zin, 69/.; 309 ; strict use of the term, 69
/. ; Desert et-Teeh above the, 80; in eluded in Edom, 99, 13:2; proposed
location of Kadesh in, 82, 86 /,. 227 /., 303 /.; elosed to the Israel
ites, 132; Kadesh located in, by Burckhardt, 205 /.; Kadesh located in, by
Robinson, 209 ff. ; Kadesh either in, or at a much higher level, 304; ten
proposed sites for Kadesh in, 303 /. See, also, Wady el- Arabah.
Arabia, 34; the Land of Training, 59 ff.
Arad, king of, 132, 134, 318.
Areesh, El, fort and village of, 110.
Arekeme, meaning of the word, 175 /.
Ark of Moses, the, 353.
Arkub. See Arqoob.
Arqoob: meaning of the word, 112; as an identification of Akrabbim, 112^f.
Ashteroth Karnaim, 35.
Assyria, 44; highway from Egypt to, 45.
Atef, 367 ; crown, 367.
Athareem: meaning of the word, 316; Way of. See Road of the Spies.
Atuma, 89.
Aujeh, El : erroneous location of Eboda and El- Abdeh at, 87/ ; a camp at,
295 ff; proposed identification of Gcrar at, 295 ; ruins of, 296.
Avaris: as a site of Migdol, 375; pro posed identification of, 375 /.
Ayn, meaning of the term, 17.
Ayn : TInsb, proposed location of Kadesh at, 207, 227 /., 303.
- Karim, 172, 174.
Mishpat. See En-Mishpat.
- el-Hudhera, 78, 314.
- Muwaylih, 219, 257.
ol-Qadayrat : located by Row lands, 220 ; and Ayn Qadees, Row- lands s
alleged confounding of, 219, 231/.; its existence denied, 232 ; visit ed,
2S2/. ; described, 282 ff. ; meaning of the name, 283 /. ; and Ayn Qa dees
compared, 283 ; departure from, 285.
Ayn Qadees : discovered by Rowlands, 213 ff. ; confounded with Ayn el-
Qadayrat, 218 /.; 221; failures to refind, 229 ff.; located by Stewart near
Jebel Ilelal, 230; and Ayii Qadayrat, Rowlands s alleged con founding of,
2"! /. ; difficulty of reaching, 241 ; in the Azazimeh ter ritory, 241;
inquiring for, 255 ff.; 258 /. ; first sight of, 272 ; described, 272 ff. ;
departure from, 275 ; com pared with Ayn el-Qadayrat, 283; location of
Kadesh at, 303 ; a repre sentative site, 304 /.; objections to it as the
site of Kadesh, 309 ff.; the argument for it as a site of Kadesh, 311 ff.;
its surroundings, 311 ff.; 319 ; in Canaan s southern boundary, 312 /. ; in
relation to the route of the Isralites, 312 /. ; failing of its waters,
317.
Qasaymeh : Azmon identified with,
117; located by Rowlands, 220 ; shown to Bartlctt as Ayn Qadees, 232 ; Owdy
s revelation concerning, 258; visited and described, 288 /. ; its pos ition
relative to Ayn el-Qadayrat, 291 /.
esh-Shehabeh : as a site of Kadesh,
225, 227, 303. el-Waybeh : location of, 209 ; de
scription of, 209 ff. ; Robinson s loca tion of Kadesh at, 209, jf. 303 ;
its lack of present importance, 210; Robin son s later defense of, 217 ff.;
a re presentative site, 304 /. ; elaims for it as a site of Kadesh, 305 /.;
objec tions to it as a site of Kadesh, 306 ff.
Azazimeh. See Bed ween, Azazimeh.
Azazimeh mountain tract, 38 /. ; de scribed, 70 /. ; includes Wilderness of
Zin, 71 ; alternative road through, 82 /. ; Ayn Qadees in the, 241 ; diffi
culties in crossing, 297.
Azfizimat. See Azazimeh mountain tract.
Azmon : identified with Qasaymeh, 117, 215, 289 /.; name given to it in the
Targums, 117, 289 /.
BA AL: his Egyptian worship introduced by the Hykshos, 407 /. ; associated
TOPICAL INDEX.
465
with Set, 408; his place in Egyptian mythology, 413 ff.
Ba al-Set, adualistic god, 415 ff.
Ba al Shamen, 407 /.
Ba al-worship, cairns possibly connected with, 287 /.
Baal- Zephon : camp of the Israelites be fore, 402, 405 ; location of, 407
ff., 422 ff. ; the name of a divinity, 407 ff. ; a dualistic god, 413 ; its
place in Egyptian mythology, 415 ff.; origin of the name, 417 /.
Ba ali-Tsapuna, 417.
Ba ali-Tapoona, 417.
Babel, Migdol of, 373.
Babylonia, conquest of, 31.
Badiyat et-Teeh Beny Israel, origin of the name, 67.
Bakhsheesh : required by Arabs, 263.
taking time and, 384 ff. ; univer sal demand for in the East, 386 /.
Bakhun, bakhan, bakhon, 3(37. See also
bekhen.
Ballah, Lake, 341, 346 /., 349, 361 /. Banias, fountain of, 283. Bar,
meanings of the word, 24. Barley, Owdy s field of, 293. Barnea, use and
meaning of the word,
24, 165. Bashan, 36 /.
Bathn-Nakhl. See Nakhl, Castle. Bayt Ainoon, 165. Beard, Oriental custom of
honoring the,
253. Bed weon : meaning of the word, 237.
their tribal unity, 237 /.; 248;
their tribal diversity, 237 /. See, also, Arab.
Alaween, 240.
Anazeh, 247 /.
Azazimeh, 205 ; their location, 240 ;
their superstitions, 240 /. ; in the stronghold of, 264 ff.; the inadvisa-
bility of resisting, 268; first meeting with 275 /. ; second meeting with,
296 ff.
Hawaytat, 240.
Haywat, 239, 315-
Sa eediyeh, 94.
Tawarah : territory of, 238 ; kind ness and fidelity of, 239.
Teeyahah, 229 /., 233, 267, 296 ff. ;
their location, 239; their character istics, 240; their plundering, 240,
247/.; their deceit, 242. Bed ween Terabeen : their friendliness,
242, 269; their assistance to Eow-
lands, 242. Wilderness-way of, into Egypt,
3C2. Bed wy, its suggested correspondence
with Barnea, 24. Beer, meaning of the word, 17. Beer-lahai-roi. See Hagar s
Well. Beer-Makhdal, 351 ; Tower of the Well
at, 303, 370; Migdol identified at,
374.
Beersheba, 61 ff., 90; wilderness of. 68. " Before," Hebrew word
translated, 405,
422 /.
BeitKerm, 174 /. Bekhen, Egyptian word for tower, 368.
See, also, Migdol. Bekhon, a Hebrew word corresponding
with the Egyptian word bekhen.
368. See also bekhen. Bel. See Ba al. Belqa, El, location of, 173 ^ Beny
Israel. See Israelites. Beny et-Toor. See Bed ween, Tawarah. Bered : Kadesh
over against, 44 ; its lo cation uncertain, 64. Betane, or Betanoth, 165.
Beth-Shemesh, 407. "Bir-Maktal." See Beer-Makhdal. Birket : el-IIajj,.its
similarity to Succoth,
392 /.
Menzaleh, 353.
Timsah See, 333.
Books, Arab estimate of their value,
256 /., 261. Border-Barrier of Egypt. See Wall of
Egypt. " Borrow," the Hebrew word translated,
387. " Bridge," El-Qantarah translated, 339 ;
Gisr translated, 341. Bridge of the Philistia Road, 339. Butrn, meaning of
the word, 37.
CAIRNS : in Wady Qadees, 270 /. ; in Wady -el-Qadayrat, 280; on Mount Ebal,
282; in Wady Sabh 287 /.
Callah Nahhar. See Nakhl, Castle.
466
TOPICAL INDEX.
Camp : finding the, 286 /.; the last, with in the Wall, 405 ff.
Camping-ground, Succoth name for a, 392 /.
Campaign, the first, of history, 15, 28,
Canaan : spies sent into, 17 ; Israelites final move toward, 23 ; permanent
importance of, 34 ; the Land of Rest, 59.$ . ; meaning of the word, 65 /. ;
original application of the name, 66; new line of advance into, 317.
Canaan s southern boundary : position of Kadesh in, 61, 106 /., 114, 119
ff., 123 /.; Bible indications of, 106 ff.; Ascent of Akrabbim at the turn
of,
107 /., 114; an attempt to trace,
108 ff. ; indicated by Ezekiel, 1 19 ff. ; wedge-shaped, 123 ; identified,
290/.; Ayn el-Waybeh not in, 309 ; Ayn Qadees in, 312 /.
Canaanites, the " Lowlanders," 65 /.
Canal of Egypt : traces of its early con struction, 51 ; its help in
locating the Wall, 51 /. ; mistaken for the Nile, 333.
Caravan route between Egypt and Syria, 61, 64.
Castle Nakhl. See Nakhl, Castle.
Catechising, Yankee, 255 ff.
Chalasa, 166.
Chaloof. See Shaloof.
Chalutz, El, name for Gerar in the Ara bic Bible, 63.
Chariots of Kedor-la omer s army, 39, 306.
Chawatha: proposed location of Kadesh at, 192, 303 ; a probable mispronun
ciation of Hawwadeh, 192; its posi tion, 193.
Chelus or Chellus, 166.
Christian : supremacy lost in Palestine, 188 ; power, superstitious dread
of, 294, 297 ff.; leniency implored, 298/.
Cistern in Wady Qadees, 270.
Cisterns, the Arabic word Hawwadeh means, 152, 270. ruins of, at Bayfc
Ainoon, 165.
City : Kadesh not a, 83 ; meaning of the Hebrew word translated, 83 /. ; Is
raelites not encamped in any single, 84; Migdol not name of a single,
378 /; start of the Israelites not from a single, 383 /.
City of Pharaoh. See Rameses.
Compass, Hebrew method of marking points of, 44.
Conclusions, fair, 320 /.
Consonants, transposition of. See Semi tic languages, changes of consonants
in.
Contract, Arab method of ratifying a 252.
Cottor, 398.
Coub, 57.
Crusades, a gleam during the, 186.$*.
DAMIETTA, 365 /. ; other names for, 367.
Dangers of the search for Ayn Qadees, 259 /., 265 ff.
Dapur, not Debir, but Tabor, 162.
Darkness, a ride in the, 284 ff.
Date-palms, mentioned by Seetzen, 283 f.
Day s journey, a measure of distance, 72 ff. ; length of, 73. See also Jour
ney, a first day s.
" Days of rest," in the Bible story, 391.
Dead Sea, its southern end not a fixed point, 108; tongue of the, 109, 313;
plain of the. See Siddim, vale of.
Debeer. See Debir.
Debir : taken by Joshua, 102 /. ; import ance of, 103 /.; its true
identification at Dhahareeyah, 104; a faulty identi fication of, 161 /.
Debooreyeh, 162.
Dehikah, king, "El-Ajoos," or the " Old Woman," 49.
Derekh. See Road, Hebrew word for.
Desert: junction of roads of, 42; travel, fresh hints from, 203 ff. ;
dangers, 265 ff. ; lost in the, 278 /., 1^ ff. ; god of the, 420; of the
wanderings. See also, Teeh, Desert ct.
Dhahareeyah: Debir identified at, 104, 163 ; considered a frontier town,
104 /. ; inhabitants of, 315.
Dhaygat el-Amureen, 66.
Dhoheriyeh, Edh. See Dhahareeyah.
Discovery of Rowlands, the, 211 ff. ; Ger man scholars concerning, 216 /.,
222 /. ; English scholars concerning, 223; American scholars concerning,
223 /.; its truth established, 274/.
TOPICAL INDEX.
467
Distances, Oriental method of calculating 71 ff.
Dowars, 281.
Dragoman: Eowlands s 221, 232 /.; meaning of the term, 243 ; duties of the,
243 /.; help from a notable, 260 ff.
Dromedary : and camel, difference be tween, 253 /. ; run-away of the drag
oman s; 275: seized by the Azazi- meh, 296.
Dyke, the Old Woman s. See Gisr el- Agoos.
EBAL, Mount, stone enclosures on, 281.
Eboda, ite proposed location atEl- Aujeh, 87 /.
Edom : messengers sent to the king of, 23, 317 /.; the mountains of, 23;
ancient reach of, 28, 84 ff., 101 ; Ka- desh in the border of, 67, 82 ff. ,
its relation to Seir, 84 ff. ; not limited to Mount Seir, 85; modern errors
concerning the boundaries of, 85 ff. ; earliest mention of, 89 ; meaning of
the word, 89 ; part of the Azazimeh mountain tract in, 93 ; Bible indica
tions of its location, 100 ; historical indications of its location, 100 /.
Effendi, use of the term, 262.
Egypt : Shur before, 44; significance of its ancient name, 56 /. ; the Land
of Bondage, 59 ff., 188; the world s treasury of food, 339 ; River of, or,
Torrent of. See Wady el- Areesh.
Egyptian : kings, their boastfulness, 52 ; language, sign of the plural in,
329 ; records, mention of more than one road in, 372 ; mythology, gods of
the, 409 ff.
Egyptians : spoils of the, 389 ; their de struction in the Red Sea, 427 /.
Eighteenth Century attempts to identify Kadesh 203 /.
El, meaning of the word, 36.
Elam, 32 /. ; location of, 31 ; road from, to Syria, 35.
Elephantine, 365 /.
Eleven days course, an, 71 ff.
El-Paran : meaning of the name, 36 ; Castle Xakhl probably the site of,
36/., 243.
Elusa, 58, 63, 181; a proposed site of Kadesh, 227 ; a center of Pagan wor
ship, 166 ; See, also, Khaloos, El.
Embasch, proposed location of Kadesh at, 206, 3U3.
Empire, Old, Middle, and New, Egyp tian, 46 /.
Encounter, a bloodless, 275 ff.
" Entangled," Hebrew word translated, 399 /.
En-gedi, 38, 40, 306.
English scholars concerning Rowlands a discovery, 223.
En-mishpat, 37, 41 /., 67, 153 ; a name of Kadesh, 17; origin of the name,
43 ; located in Gerar by Eusebius and Jerome, 180. See, also, Fountain of
Judgment.
Erways el-Ebayrig, suggested as the site of Kibroth-hattaavah, 142, 144,
314.
Esau, meaning of the word, 89.
Etham: as a substitute for Shur, 327 ; a name of the wall of Egypt, 328 ff.
; its identity with Khetam, 328; Sep- tuagint rendering of the word, 336.
Et^Teeh. See Teeh, Desert et.
Euphrates, Kedor-la omer s route along the, 35.
Exodus : Kadesh in the d ays of the, 65 ff. ; route of the, 325 ff. ; an
old time theory of the, 333; "preconceived theories" of the, 356, 374;
prepara tion for the, 3S6_/f. ; alleged difficul ties in announcing the
start upon the, 390 /. See, also, Route of the Israel ites.
Ezion-gaber: location of, 146 ; proposed location of Kadesh near, 303.
FAILURES to refind Rowlands s site,
229 ff.
Favoring circumstances at Nakhl, 247 ff. Fat hat. See Quran, first chapter
of. Father, an Oriental, honored by having
sons, 90 /.
Father s injunction, a, 253. Fayran, its connection with Paran, 69. Field
enclosures. See Hazeroth. "Field," Hebrew word translated, 99. Fortified
Land. See Walled Land. Fortresses, Anboo designates a line of,
468
TOPICAL INDEX.
Fountain : of Judgment : Kadesh becom ing, 17; a second time becoming, 23.
See, also, En-mishpat.
of Miriam, a name of the Rock
of Kadesh, 172, 177. on the Shur Road, 44.
Frontier "Wall. See Wall of Egypt.
GAILU, or Garu, proposed identification of, 332.
Gar- imirisv, 60.
Gaza : road to, 42 ; a sweep to, 102 ff.
Gebel Atiiqah, 423.
Gebel e- Tayr, remains of the Wall at, 50.
Gehimsour, possible meaning of the term, oof.
Geneffeh, heights of, 343
Geographical Studies : lack of, 186 ; revi val of, 195.
Gerar, 44 ; sojourn of Abraham at, 60 ; and , Bered, 61 ff.; proposed
identifica- ! tions of, 62 ff. ; well in the valley of, 62 ; located by
Eusebius, 180 ; its pro bable identification at El- Aujeh, 295.
Gerrhou, or Gerrha, Greek translation of Anboo, 48.
Gerrhon horion, the Boundary-Wall, 55
German scholars concerning Rowlands s discovery, 216 /., 222 /.
Ghor, Arabah a continuation of the, 69 /.
Ghubbet-el-bus, 355.
Gifts : Oriental custom of demanding, 386 ff.; the Israelites instructed to
ask for, 386 /., 389.
Gilgal, 392.
Gisr : meaning and use of the word, 50, I 339, 341 /. ; El-Qantarah
distinguish ed from, 339.
El : plateau of 341 /. ; its ancient
level, 346 ff., 361 /. el-Agoos, 50.
Goshen, Land of: assigned to the Israel ites, 380 /. ; at some distance
from Pharaoh s capital city, 381 /. ; its probable identification with Wady
Toomilat, 382 /. ; its shape, 383, 394.
Grain-magazine, a, 270.
Grave of Miriam, possible identification of, 278.
Guides: Terabeen, 242; Tawarah, 239, 244 ; Teeyahah, 244, 295.
" Guisr-el-Qantharah," 362.
HAGAE S WELL: its importance, 44; proposed locations of: 64, 213.
"Ilugges," caravan of the, 398.
Ilahiroth. See Pi-hahiroth.
Hajj : meaning of the word, 386 /.
road, traversed by Kedor-la orner, 36. See, also, Road, Red Sea.
Ilalak, Mount, 28 ; meaning of the name, 94 ; identified, 95 ff. ; its name
pre served in Es-Sufah, 96.
Ilaloujah, identified with Elusa, 57 /.
Halting-place, a strategic, 42.
Ilamdh, the young shaykh, 251 ff., 262.
Hanein, or Hanayn. See Wady Ilanayn.
Hawwadeh, meaning of the word, 192. See, also, Chawatha.
Haywat and Ilivite, correspondence of the names, 315 /. See, also, Bed -
ween, Haywat.
Hazar, use of the word, 281. See also, Hezrou.
Hazerim. See Ilazeroth.
Hazeroth : Israelites second encampment at, 148, 314; "Field Enclosures,"
2S1 /. ; location of, 314^ .
Hazezon-tamar, 38, 306.
Hebron : roads to, 42 ; captured by Josh ua, 102 ; mountain ascent to, 276
; difficulties of the route to, 251, 297 /.
Heroopolis, location of, 340, 340.
llezron, finding the ruins of, 280 /.
Highlanders. See Amorites.
Ilivites. See Haywat and Bed ween, Haywat.
Holy Land. See Canaan.
Hor-hagidad, 138.
Hor ha-IIor. See Hor, Mount.
Ilor, Mount, 28, 305 ; a descriptive title, 127 ; its traditional site
unreason able, 129 ff., 208 ; its probable site at Jebel Madurah, 132 ff. ;
death of Aaron at, 317.
Horeb, distance of Kadesh-barnea from, 71.
Horites, dwellers in caves, 88.
Horse, its introduction into Egypt, 39 /.
Horns, an Egyptian sun-god, 409 ff.
Ilorus-Set, 414.
Hykshos, the, 39, 40 /. ; the Wall levelled by, 52 ; Ba al-worship
introduced into Egypt by, 407 ff., 413.
TOPICAL INDEX.
4G9
IBRAIIEEM, the young shaykh, 251.
Iduraea. See Edom.
" In," Hebrew word translated, 396.
Inscriptions: in Wady Umm A sheen, 277 f.; in Wady el-Mukatteb, 277; at
Karnak. See Karnak.
Interpreter. See dragoman.
Isis, 409.
Isma ileeya, ancient, 341 ; road toward, 349 /.
Israelites: their rebellion at Kadesh, 17 /. ; their encouragement from the
story of Abraham, 5^ ff. ; their most natural course Caiiaanward, 82 ;
their organization at Sinai, 140 /., 310 ; their start, 383 ff., 390 ;
their first encampment, at Kibroth-hat- taavah, 313; their second encamp
ment, at Hazeroth, 314 ; their third encampment, at Wady Qadees. 316 ;
their advance into Canaan, 317 ff. ; the barrier to their passage, 325 ff.
; commanded to take the Ked Sea Road, 361 ; their location in Egypt, 380 ;
their starting-point, 380 ff., 396 ; their rendezvous at Succoth, 384, 392
; time of their departure, 385 ff. ; commanded to turn southward, 398 ;
their last camp within the Wall, 405 ff. ; their fear of the Egyptians, 424
/. ; their passage of the Red Sea, 426 /. ; their song of rejoicing, 428 ;
route of. See Route of the Israel ites.
JEBEL : Anaygeh, 264.
Araeef en-Naqah, 38, 42, 81, 318 ;
Kadesh north of, 67 ; southwest of the Azazimeh mountain tract, 138, 254.
Hawwadeh, " Mountains of the
Cisterns," 264, 270 /. el-IIelal, 42, 255.
"el-Kudeis," 230.
Ikhrimm, 254.
- Madurah, 113, 312, 317; identifi cation of Mount Hor at, 132 ff.; de
scribed and located, 133 ff. ; tradi tions concerning, 136 ; proposed
location of Kadesh at, 303.
Mawweeqa, or Miawaykah, 269.
" Meraifig," 264.
Jebel : Moosa, 77.
Mu arrb, or Muarib, 269. Mugharah, location of, 350.
Muqrah, 38, 83 ; proposed loca tion of Kadesh near, 227, 304. - Muwayleh,
42, 66, 255, /.
Xeby Haroon, traditional site of
Mount Hor at, 131 /., 146 /. Qadees, 269, 319.
er-Rahah: proposed location of
Shur in, 45 ; not before Egypt, 46.
"es-Sur,"45.
et-Teeh, 45. Yeleq, 255, 349.
! Jeroor, equivalent of Gerar, 255.
Jifar, Desert el, 58.
Jisr. See Gisr.
Jordan, Valley of the, 34.
Jorf, meaning of the word, 96.
Journey : a " three days, " 142 ff. ; a first day s," 143 ff., 254 ; Hebrew
word for commencing a, 381 /.
" Journeying," Hebrew term for, 145 .
Judah s southern boundary. See Ca naan s southern boundary .
KADESH: meaning of the word, 16, 24/., 64, ISO/., 275 ; wrongly
distinguished from Kadesh-barnea, ISO /., 189, 200 /.; theerrorof counting
a second, 189, 200 ff.; this error disproved, 200 ff. See, also,
Kadesh-barnea.
Desert of, 181, 197.
mountain before. See Mountain
before Kadesh.
Naphtali. See Kedesh-Xaphtali.
of the Araorites, 125, 160 /.; iden tified with Kedesh-Naphtali, 162 jf. ;
not Kadesh-barnea, 164 /. - of the Hittites, 125, 159 /.
on the Orontes. See Kadesh of
the Hittites.
palm, 197.
Wilderness of, its proposed loca tion and extent, 180.
Kadesh-barnea : a strategic stronghold, 15, 84, 325; importance of, 15, 22
ff., 27 /. ; in story and prophecy, 15 ff. ; names of, 150 /. ; meaning of
the name, 16, 25; origin of the name, 24; history at, 17; spies sent from,
17, 316; becoming En-
470
TOPICAL INDEX.
mishpat, 17, 23, 153; a rallying point, 19 ; halt of the Israelites at, 19
ff.; events at, 22 ff.; typical character of the halt at, 2 2 messen gers
sent from, 23 ; becoming Meri- bah, 23, 153, 169; the linking* of, 24; its
first mention in the Bible, 31 ; its first appearance in history, 35, 43;
approached by Kedor -la - omcr, 37; location of, 41, 43, 117; not the
original name, 43, 150, 153 ; over against Bered and Shur, 44; and Shur,
Abraham s sojourn be tween, 58 ff. ; typical significance of, 61 ; readied
by the Israelites, 65; in the Amorite hill-country, 60; in the Azazimeh
mountain tract, 71 ; not a city, 84; modern errors in locating, 86 ff. ; in
the march of Joshua, 102, 106 ; in the western border of Edom, 102 ; as a
boundary landmark, 106 /.; as the Rock, 124 /.; in the list of stations,
147 /. ; in the Wilderness of raran, 148 /.; identified with Rithmah, 150
ff.; Bible aids to its locating, 155; in the Egyptian re cords, 159 jf.;
Kadesh of the Amor- ites not, 164 /. ; in the Apocrypha, 164 ff. ; in the
rabbinical writings, 167 . ; in the early Christian name lists, 178 ff.;
and Petra, confounded by Jerome, 179 /.; Eusebius s location 180, 1S6, 193;
why it dropped from notice, 1S5/. ; mediaeval errors in lo cating, 188 ff.;
and Kadesh, first dis tinction between, made by "Rashi," 1S9 ; Maimonides s
location, 189 ; Marino Sanuto s location, 190; Van Ilamelsveld s location,
204; "Ra- shi s " location, 189 ; Breydenbach ! and Fabri s location, 191
ff. ; located j by maps in early editions of the : printed Bible, 193 /.;
located in early maps of Palestine, 194 ff. ; Ziegler s location, 195 ;
Adrichomi- us s location, 196 /. ; Miinster s loca tion, 196; Ortelius s
location, 196; Bunting s location, 197/. ; Montano s location, 199, 303 ;
Raleigh s location, 199; Quaresmius s location, 199; Blacu s location, 19!)
; Dapper s lo cation, 199; Ileidmann s location,
199; Homann s location, 199; San- son s location, 199; Spanheim s lo
cation, 199; Rogers s location, 199; Antonio of Castile s location, 199 ;
Fii- rer s location, 200 ; Schweigger s loca tion, 200 ; Lightfoot s
location, 200 /. ; Shaw s location, 203 /. ; Pocoeke s location, 204 ;
Seetzen s location, 204^.; Burckhardt s location, 205 ; Laborde s location,
206 ; Von Rau- mer s location, 206 /. ; Stephens s lo cation, 207 ; Lord
Lindsay s location, 207 ; Bertou s location, 207 ; Robin son s location,
208 ff. ; Rowlands s location, 211 ff., 303; Tuch s loca tion, 216 /.;
Wilson s location, 217 ; Ewald s location, 222 Ritter s loca tion, 222;
Schwarz s location, 222; Fries s location, 222 ; /. ; Wm. Smith s location,
225 /. ; Conder s lo cation, 227 /. ; Unruh s location, 227; Reuss s
location, 227; Berg- haus s location, 227 ; Buddeus s location, 227 ;
Basslcr s location, 227; Von Gerlach s location, 227, 303; Stanley s
location, 223; lo cated at Chawatha, 192 /., 303; west of the Arabali, 194,
196 f., 200, 202 ; near Castle Nakhl, 203 /. ; 303; near Mount Sinai, 204,
303; in the Arabah, 199, 205 J., 217 /., 303; at Embasch, 206, 303 ; at Ayn
Ilasb, 206 /., 303 ; near Jebcl Madurah, 207, 303 ; at Ayn el-Waybeh, 209
ff., 303; at Ayn*Qadees, 213 ff., 216 ff., 303; at Wady Gayan, 222, 303; at
Ayn csh-Shchabeh, 225, 303; at El-Khaloos, 227, 303; at Wady Ghuwayr,
227,303; near Jebel Muq- rah, 227; near Ezion-gaber, 227 /., 303; at Wady
Feqreh, 228, 303; its Arab guardians, 237 ff. ; departure of the Israelites
from, 318.
Kadessa, 207.
Kaina, Lake of, 332.
Kana an, identifying the fortress of, 331 /.
Kanal von ITeroopolis, 333.
Karkaa : meaning of the word, 289 /. ; located, 290.
Karnak : geographical lists in the Temple of, 62 /. ; mention of Kadesh in
TOPICAL INDEX.
471
ruins at, ICO ; temple ruins at, 160, 330, 332 /., 351, 368, 375.
Kedar-el-Ahmar, 32.
" Kdeis," name of Qadees heard by Seet- zen.
Kedes. See Kedesh-Naphtali.
Kedesh-Naphtali, 125 ; identified with Kadesh of the Amorites, 162 ff.
Kedor-la omer : his campaign on an un precedented scale, 32 /. / his cam
paign, objects, of 33 ff. ; his sway, revolt against, 35 ; his route, 35
ff., 74, 83, 305, 360.
Kedor-nakhunta, 31 /.
Kerek, 174, 176.
Kerm, connected with Ruqeem, 174.
Khabour, 35.
Khagra, derivation of the word, 57.
Khalaq. See Halak, Mount.
Khaloos, El, proposed location of Kadesh at, 227, 303.
" Khan el-IIawadi," meaning of the name, 193.
Khashm Usdum, 110.
Khetam: identical with Etham, 327/., 335 J. ; various references to it as
Wall of Egypt, 328 ff. ; Egyptian name for a fortress, 328 ; not a single
fortress, 334 ; meaning of the word, 335, 337 ; in Egyptian and Semitic
languages, 335 ff. ; rejection of the initial Khe, 335 ; its relation to
the Philistia Road, 361.
of Meneptah, 329.
of Thukoo, 329.
of Zor, 328 /., 331 ; proposed loca tion of, 332 /.
Khetamoo, plural of Khetam, 328 ff.
Khetamu. See Khetamoo.
Kibroth-hattaavah : encampment of the Israelites at, 142, 313 ; proposed
iden tification of, 142.
Koran. See Quran :
Kudur, meaning of the word, 32.
Kudur-mabuq, or mabuk, 32.
Kurnub, proposed location of Thamar at, 122.
LAKES, Bitter, 346. See, also, Red Sea. Land of Bondage. See Egypt. of
Promise, or of Rest. See Ca naan.
Land of Training. See Arabia.
the bottom. See Karka a.
the fortified. See Egypt.
Lands, three typical, 187 f.
Languages, mingling of Egyptian and
Semitic, 335 /. Laomer or Laganiar, 32. Lisan, El. See Dead Sea, Tongue of.
Locusts, the plague of, 357 /. Lowlanders. See Cauaanites. Luxor, ruins at,
368.
MAALEII, meaning of the word, 126.
Mualeh-acrabbim. See Akrabbim, As cent of.
Mackati, 193.
" Maderah " and " Adar," suggested correspondence between, 228.
Madurah, meaning of the word, 135.
Magdala, name of various places, 372.
Magdolon, 375.
Magdolum, 365, 375.
Makhdal and Maqtaleh, 378.
Maktal, El, probable site of a Migdol at, 377 /.
Makthal and Migdol, 364.
Makthel. See Makthal.
Map-making, development of, 193 Jf.
Map of Palestine: attributed to Maimon- ides, 189 /. ; Marino Sanuto s, 190
/. ; the earliest, 190, 193^".; in Pto lemy s Geography, 194 /., 345.
Maon, "Wilderness of, 68.
Maqtaleh, its correspondence with Makh dal, 378.
Marble-shaft in Wady Qadees, 270 /.
Maschtul, 374.
Matsor. See Mizraim.
Mazayriat, " little plantations," 271.
Mazor : Land of, 57 ; border-barrier of, 328 ; Great Wall of, 329. See,
also, Mitzraim.
Mazur, Assyrian name for Egypt, 57.
Medeenet Aboo, 373 ; ruins at, 368.
Mediaeval writers, their mistakes con cerning Kadesh, 188jf.
Mediterranean, no ancient connection be tween Red Sea and, 343 ff.
Mejdel, 377.
Memphis, gates of, 326.
Meribah: meaning of the word ; Kadesh becoming, 23, 153, 169.
472
TOPICAL INDEX.
Meshtol, 374.
Mesjid, Ibraheem, .205.
Meskinoth, meaning of the word, 379.
Meter abu Sofieh, 245.
Menzaleh, Lake, 357.
Midianites, 332, 389.
Migdol : the theory of one at Tell cs- Sa- inoot, 3G3 ff.; 37 /. ; a Hebrew
name, 364 /. ; alleged correspondence of Samhud with, 366 /. ; meaning and
use of the word, 367 /., 377 ; no one city of the name, 370, 378 ; at the
Shur Road, at Bir Makhdal, 374 /. ; probable existence of one at Tell Et
Heer, 375 /. ; at the Red Sea Eoad, 376 ; probable site at Mukhala, 406,
422.
of Babel, 373.
of King Setee Mencptah, 48, 363,
371, 373.
of Rameses Haq-On, 371, 373.
Migdols : of the Great Wall, 326 ; the
many, 364.^.
Mizraim: ancient name of Egypt, 56 /. ; the two Matsors, 57.
Moab, 36 ; the mountains of, 23 ; messen gers sent to the king of, 23, 317
; plains of, 318.
Moiiahi, or Moilahhi, 64, 213.
Montala, 377.
Mosera, 135.
Moserah, plain of, 817.
Moseroth. See Mosera.
Mountain northward from Kadesh: its pro posed identification near Ayn el-
Waybeh, 219 /. ; identified near Ayn Qadees, 276 /.
Mountain : of the Cisterns. See Jebel Hawwadeh.
that goeth up to Seir. See Seir.
the mountain. See llor, Mount.
the Smooth, 94. Move : northward, 9, 253.
the first united, 395 ff. Muhammad Ahmad, "8 Silk Bazar, Al exandria,"
260^"., 284.
Muhammad, the waiter, 263. Mukhafeh, El, 377. Muktala, El, 377, 406.
Muntala, El, 377. Muntar, 377. Muntarah, 377.
Muntula, El, 406. Mutallah, 377.
NAKHL, Castle: its probable identification with El-Paran, 37, 343;
suggested meanings of the name, 37, 117 ; pro posed location of Kadesh at,
203 /., 303 ; as a new caravan starting-point, 243 /., 393 ; favoring
circumstances at, 247 ff.
Name lists, Kadesh-barnea in the early Christian, 17 tiff.
Naqb : Fahadeh, 254. Hawy, 276.
es-Sufah, 227 : proposed location
of Kadesh-barnea, near 304.
Negeb: 28, 67, 295; a proper noun, 18; entered by the Israelites, 18; ex
plored by Palmer, 231 ; Abraham s approach to, 69.
Night, a restless, 259 ; Eastern custom of travelling by, 397 /.; march of
the Israelites, 427.
Night s journey, reckoning distances by a, 397.
Nile : Pelusiac arm of the, 332 ; ancient position of its mouths, 345 ;
identified as the Egyptian Sea, 348 /.
Nubti. See Set.
" Nukb es-Sufa." See Naqb es-Sufah.
Occupancy, traces of old-time, 269 ff.
Omar, other forms of the word, 246.
Ombos, 413.
Onomasticon, its value, 178 /.
Osiris, an Egyptian sun-god, 409 ff.
O thorn, 336.
Owdy, the guide, 251 ff.
PADAN-aram, 92.
Palestine : Christian supremacy lost in,
188; the Land of Rest, 59 ff., 188;
earliest maps of, 189.$:; See, also,
Canaan. Papyrus, Harris, 371.
- Berlin Hieratic, No. I., 46, 326.
First Sallier, 326, 408, 415.
Third Sallier, 416 /.
Papyri, Anastasi, 47, 326, 329 /., 363,
397. Paran. See Paran, Wilderness of.
TOPICAL INDEX.
473
Paran : palm grove of, 37.
Wilderness of, 28, 37 /., 41, 378
and Kadesh spoken of interchange ably, 17 ; in the song of Moses, 22;
Kadesh in, 67 ; its varied extent, 67 ff. ; and Zin, 67 ff. ; earlier name
of the Desert et-Teeh, 68 ; main road across, 81 ; spies sent from, 148.
Pass es-Sufah. See Sufah, Pass es.
of the Winds, 276. Pelusium to Heliopolis, extent of the
Wall from, 49 /., 51. Pentapolis, kings of the, 40. Petra : its relation to
Reqem, 167 ff., 173 ;
its relation to Kadesh, 169 /., 173 ;
more than one, 173.
of Edom, 175; not the Sel a 6f
the Amoritish boundary, 125 / ; its ruins discovered, 205 /.; proposed
location of Kadesh at, 228 /., 304.
of Moab, 175.
Pharaonic Road, the great easterly, 361.
Philistines, land of: in the time of the patriarchs, 62; Way of the. See
Road, Philistia.
Phi-yom-en-Shari, 355.
Phcenicians, 65 /.
Pi-hahiroth : an order to encamp before, 399 ; encampment at, 402 ; a
faulty ! location of, 405 ; its probable iden tification at Ajrood, 406 /.,
422.
Pilgrimage : places of, indicated by Sina- itic inscriptions, 277 ; Umm A
sheen, a place of, 277 /. ; the yearly Mek- keh, 386 ; the method of
travelling on a, 397.
Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, me diaeval, 191 ff.
Pilgrims, discoveries of, 191 ff.
Pillar of eloud and fire, 285, 397 /.
Pithom, 332 ; its probable identification with Pi-tum, 394; its probable
loca tion at Tell el-Maskhootah, 395.
Pi-tum. See Pithom.
Place of enclosure. See Ilezron.
Plagues of Egypt, 381 /., 389.
Plain, cities of the, 35, 38 ; their location, 40.
Points now made clear, 429 /.
Protest, an Azazimeh, 298 /.
Promised Land. See Canaan.
Pursuit, unlooked-for, 423 ff.
QADAYRlT, connection of the name with Hazar and Ilezron, 280 /., 290.
Qadees, Arabic equivalent for Hebrew Kadesh, 275. See, also, Ayn Qa dees.
Qadhesh, 16.
Qadoos, 205.
Qala at Ajrood, 377.
Qantarah, El : translations of the term, 339 ; not the same meaning as
Gisr, 339 ; ancient level of its region, 347, 361 /.
Qasaymeh : Azmon identified in the name. 289 /. ; meaning of the name, 291.
See, also, Ayn Qasaymeh.
Qaysam, or Qesam. See Qasaymeh.
Qodesh. See Kadesh.
Qosem, the chief city of Goshen, 395.
Quds, El, 16.
Quran : name Ruqeem in the, 170 ; recit ing the first chapter of the, 252 ;
Arab pledge of faith on the, 258.
RA, an Egyptian sun-god, 409 ff.
Raamses and Rameses, alleged identity of, 30/.
Rabbinical writings, Kadesh-barnea in the, 167 ff.
Ragam, root meaning of the word, 171 /. ; its relation to Reqam, 171 /.
Rahah, Er, 276.
Rainfall, Arab superstition concerning the influence of Christians over,
294.
Rakim, 174, 176.
Rameses : a district, not a city, 379 /., 382 ; probable site of, 379 ff. ;
its alleged identity with Raamses, 380 /.; land of, 380 /
Rameseum, ruins of the, 368.
Ras Amir, 66.
Fasooah, 269.
Rashi," pseudonym of Solomon ben Isaac, 151.
Rebellion : of the Israelites, at Kadesh, 17 ff., Ttl ; of Korah s company,
22.
Recem Superbam, 171.
Red Sea : origin of the name, 89 ; no an cient connection with the Mediter
ranean, 342 ^ / Hebrew name for the, 352 ff. ; marine growths at bot tom of
the, 354 /. ; vegetation along its shores, 356 ; Israelites crossing of
474
TOPICAL INDEX.
the, 391, 426 ; place of the Israelites crossing, 402 /.; its identity with
the Bible Yam Sooph,402 ; the Egyptians swallowed up by the, 427 /. See,
also Yam Sooph.
Red Sea : Way of the. See Road.
Reeds, Sea of, 3.55, 300.
Rehoboth, its supposed identification, 63, 293.
Rekam. See Reqam.
Rekem, as a name of Petra, 171 /.
Reqam: a rabbinical name of Kadesh- barnea, 167 ff. ; suggested origin of
the name, 167 ff. ; a second, probably identified with the Petra of
Josephus and Eusebius, IQSff. ; the name ap plicable to both Kadesh-barnea
and Petra, 169 ff. ; two-fold use of the name, 168, 171, 173 ; Arabic
deriva tion of the name, 170 /.
de-Geeah, or Giah, or elcgaia,
167 /., 171; a natural designation of Kadesh, 173.
of the Plain. See Reqam de-
Geeah.
- of the Mountains, 170 /., 173. Research concerning site of Kadesh-
barnea: beginnings of fuller,
need of still further, 320 /. Retem: Arabic equivalent of rothem,
" a broom," 150/. ; place of, 154. Retemat, continuance of word Rithmah
in the name, 154 /., 319. Rethem. See Retem. Rhinocoroura. See Areesh, El.
Rikham, or rukham, meaning of the
word, 170; its relation to reqam,
J70/. Rithmah: in the list of stations, 150, 153/.;
the original name of Kadesh, 150,
153 /., 316.#". ; meaning of the word,
150 /. ; survival of the name in
Aboo Retemat, 154, 319. Road : the Hebrew word for, 73^., 338.
- across the Azaziineh mountain tract, 39.
- the Amorite TTill -Country, 16, 65, 75/., 315 /.; identification of,
80^.; most natural one for the Israelites; 82.
- the Arabah, 75, 146, 305, 309,
318.
of the Athareem. See Road of
Road : Edom Royal, 75.
Ilajj. See Road, Red Sea.
Mount Seir, 42, 75, 306; its iden tification, 74 ff. ; easternmost of the
roads from Sinai, Canaaaward, 76, 79.
Pbilistia, 75, 310, 351 /., 396, 398 ; its course, 338 /.; its passage of
the Wall, 339; probable traces of a Mig- dol at, 375/.
- Red Sea, 75, 81, 134, 305,309, 318, 352 ; route taken by Kedor-la omer,
360; route taken by the Israelites, 360/. ; its modern prominence, 361 ; u,
Migdol at, 376 /.
of the Spies, 75, 278, 3d ; journey ing along the, 287.
Shur, 74 /., 81 ; fountain at the,
44 ; its course, 340 ff. ; its passage of the Wall, 341 ; theories
concerning its course, 346^7". / modern traces of the, 349 ff., 361 ;
return of Setee I. by the, 351 ; a Migdol at the-, 374 /.
Moab Wilderness, 75.
Wall. See Road, Shur. Zahi. See Road, Philistia.
Roads : natural, 74 /.
in the Bible records, 75 ; from
Egypt eastward, indications of three, 337", 361 ff.
Rock : rikham the Arabic term for a, 170, 172 /. ; Hebrew words meaning a,
124 /., 176.
of Kadesh : struck by Moses, 23,
317; name Rikham applied to 171 /. ; application of name Reqam to, 176 ;
Jewish traditions concern ing, 176 ff. ; called the Fountain of Miriam, 177
/. ; seen and describ ed, 214 ff., 273 /., 319. See, also, Sel a.
City. See Petra.
Roman Wall, remains of a, 50 /.
Rothem: meaning of the word, 150; its relation to Rithmah, 150.
Route: from Cabtle Nakhl to Hebron, 229 ; its dangers, 251.
of the Israelites : a discussion of
the, 74 ff. ; modern theories of the, 76 ff. ; untenable theories of the,
78, 86 f., 361, 402 ff.; Ayn el-Waybeh not on the, 306 /. ; Ayn Qadees on
the Spies.
TOPICAL INDEX.
475
the, 312; no cities on the, 379 ff.; a
study of the, 325 ff. Routes into Canaan, the choice of, 38. Ruqeem :
meaning of the word, 170 ff. ;
in the Quran and the Arabic Bible,
170 /. ; mentioned by Abulfeda,
173 /.
SAKTI, frontier wall against the, 47.
Salt, Owdy s use of, 293 ff,
Samhoot. See Samhud and Tell es- Samoot.
Samhud, an Egyptian name, 364 /.; its alleged correspondence with Migdol,
364, 366 /. ; its location, 365 ; a name applied to many different places,
365.
San, city of, 380.
Saneha, story of, 47, 89, 326, 333.
Saqqarah, step-pyramid of, 264.
Satan, possible origin of the name, 421 /.
Sayl, a rainfall, 294, 297.
Scorpions, Ascent of. See Akrabbim, Ascent of.
Scribes pursuit of the slaves, story of the Egyptian, 47/., 363, 372 /.,
395.
Sea, Egyptian : tongue of, 348 /. ; not the Gulf of Suez, 348 /. ;
identified as the Nile, 348 /.
Sea-weed, sooph a name of, 354.
Seer, Es : identified with the Seir of the Exodus, 93^.; its location, 94
/.
Seil. See Sayl.
Seir: meaning of the word, 89, 94; con tinuance of the name in Es-Seer, 95.
a name of Esau, 84 /., 89 /. ; de scent of the Ilorites from, 88 /.
land of, its boundaries, 28 ; its re lation to Edom, 84 ff. ; distinguished
from Mount Seir, 85, 99 ; inhabited by Esau, 91 ; "the mountain that goeth
up to," described, 95 ff., 110. Mount : in the song of Moses, 22 ;
in Kedor-la omer s campaign, 35 /.; the Israelites forbidden to approach,
79 /. ; located in Edom, 85 ; the earliest mention of, 88 ; Esau s re moval
to, 92.
"Sekhet,"394.
Sel a : " The Rock," 124 ff. ; a name of Kadesh -barnea, 124 /. ,
contrasted with tsoor, 124 /., 176 ; described, 214 ff., 273 ; what the
word indicates, i
319; no traces of, at Ayn el-Way- beh, 210 ; found at Ayn Qadees, 214, 273.
See, also, Rock of Kadesh.
Semitic languages, change of consonants in, 113, 135, 173 /., 290, 336.
Septuagint : reference to Sliur in the, 55 /. ; name Yam Sooph in the, 352.
Serbal, Mount, 277.
Serbonis, Lake, 48, 357 ff., 403.
Set : associated with Ha al, 408 ; his place in Egyptian mythology,
408-421; representative of darkness and con flict, 410 /.; god of the
north, 412 /.
Set-Nubti, 413.
Seyal tree in Wady Ayn el-Qadayrat, 282.
Shaloof, heights of, 342 /.
Shari, an old Egyptian word, 355; Sooph the Hebrew representative of, 355.
Shasoo : an ancient name of the Bed ween, 331 ; invasions of the, 329, 393
; ter ritory of the, 331, 372.
Shaybh : an escorting, powerless beyond his tribal lines, 244 ; el-Belad,
head shaykhofatribe, 238.
Shaykh: Abimelech, 255.
Hussan, imprisonment of, 248 ff.
Husayn ibn-Egid, 248.
Moosa, described, 247.
Musleh, described, 244 /.; treach
ery of, 244 ff., 250. Selim, 212.
Sulayman Ibn Amir: described,
246 ; Bartlett misled by, 232.
Shetem, 336.
Shephelah, the Lowland, 62, 126.
Shora, its growth by the Red Sea, 355.
Shur : Kadesh over against, 44; before Egypt, 44, 55 ; meaning of the word,
45, 55 ; its proposed location at Jebel er-Rahah,45/.; wrongly understood
to mean a town, 46 ; indicates the Wall of Egypt. 46, 325; a Hebrew
translation of the Egyptian Anboo, 48; known to Josephus as the Wall, 55;
talmudical translations of the word, 57 /. ; important results of
identifying it as the Wall, 58 ; Etham as a substitute for, 327. Wilderness
of, 57, 327.
Shushan, 31.
Siddim, Vale of, 38 ; its location, 40.
476
TOPICAL INDEX.
Signals for marching, Oriental, 397.
Sin, or Shin, Mount, 278.
Sinai, Mount : over against Kadesh-bar nea, 16 ; Israelites march to
Kadesh- barnea, from, 16; time of the jour ney, IS/.; in the song of Moses,
22; roads to Gaza, from, 42, 79 ; distance of Kadesh-barnea from, 71, 73 /.
; roads north from, 76 ; Survey Expe dition, 77 ; proposed location of Ka
desh-barnea near, 203 /., 303. Wilderness of, 68.
Sineh. See Saneha.
Site of Kadesh-barnea, refinding the 272^.
Sites of Kadesh-bamea : confusion con cerning the proposed, 216 ff.; two
representative, 304 ff.
Smooth Mountain, the, 94, 211 ; described, 96. See, also, Halak, Mount.
Soutli Country. See Negeb.
Sooph : meaning of the word, 352 ff. ; applied to marine growths, 353 ff.,
356 /. See, also, Yam Sooph.
Spies : sent from Kadesh-barnea, 17, 316; the word Athareem wrongly trans,
lated, 316 ; Way of the. See Road.
Starting point, Castle Nakhl a mid-des ert, 243 .Jf.
Stations of the Israelites : Bible mention only of the more important, 20,
145 /. ; more than one day apart, 139 ff., 146 /.; Kadesh in the list of,
147 ff. ; Rithmah in the list of, ISO/., 153.
Stone heaps and stone enclosures. See Cairns.
Succoth : not a city, 379 ; rendezvous of the Israelites at, 384 /., 392
ff. ; meaning of the word, 392, 394; pro posed identifications of, 392 ff.
Suez: Canal 34.
Gulf of: no ancient connection
between the Bitter Lakes and, 342 /. ; its alleged shortening, 348 ; not
the Egyptian Sea, "48 /.
Isthmus of : diagram of a section
through the, 341 ; its ancient config uration, 342 ff.; its ancient width,
344.7T., 348 ; its summit level, 362 /. Sufah, Pass es: synonym of
Hnlak,96; described, 96 /. ; proposed identifica tion of the Ascent of
Akrabbim at,
111 ; suggested identity of the Hebrew name Zephath with, 211, 305, 308.
Sufey, Es. See Sufah, Pass es.
Sufi, 353.
Sura, an equivalent of Shur, 49.
Susiana. See Elam.
Sutekh. See Set
TABERNACLE : circuits of the, 20 ; wag ons for the service of the, 78 ; its
removal to Kadesh-barnea, 316.
Taberah, 142.
Tabor. See Dapur.
Mount : described, 163 ; fortress of
Kana an on, 163, 332.
Talmud : Shur in the, 57 ; Edom in the, 101 ; names for Kadesh in the, 167
; a double Reqam in the, 189.
Tamar. See Thamar.
Tanis, citadel of, 332 ; city of, 380 /.
Tapura. See Dapur.
Tar, an Egyptian word for fortress, 58.
Targums : Shur in the, 57 ; names for Kadesh in the, 167 ; Azmon in the,
289 ; passage of the Red Sea in the, 426.
Ta-Tenat, "the cutting," a name of the Great Canal, 333.
Tawarah. See Bed ween, Tawarah.
Teeh, Et : meaning and use of the name, 67 /. ; antiquity of the name, 68.
Desert et: its location, 67 /. ; its
extent, 68; route of the Israelites in ascending to, 78; the "great and
terrible wilderness " of the Israelites* 208 /., 306.
Teeyahah. See Bed ween, Teeyahah.
Tell : meaning of the word, 364. el-Milh, 228.
es-Samoot : proposed identification
of Migdol at, 364 ff., 370 /., 373 ; ob jections to it as a site of Migdol,
376.
el-IIeer : probable location of an
ancient Migdol at, 375 /. ; said to be the Ilau ar of the Egyptian texts,
375 f.
el-Maskhootah, 395.
Teman : meaning of the word, 118; desig nates a portion of Edom, 118 ; a
trace of the word in the name Pass el. Yemen, 118 /.; a point in Canaan a
southern boundary, 117 /.
TOPICAL INDEX.
477
Terabeen. See Bed ween, Terabeen. Thamar, a landmark in Canaan s south ern
boundary, 119 /.; attempts to
identify, 120 ff. Thebes, gates of, 326. Themail, " cistern-dregs," 232.
Thufi, 353. See, also, Sooph. Thukoo : meaning of the word, 394 ; its
proposed correspondence with Suc-
coth, 394.
Timsah, Lake, 333, 341, 347, 395. Thuku. See Thukoo. Toor, its suggested
connection with Shur,
58 ; meaning of the word, 238. Tower: the word migdol means a, 3C7,
369, 377, 379; bekhen, or bekhon,
means a, 368; Arabic words meaning
a, 377 ; of the watchman, 368, 377.
See, also, Migdol.
of the Well. See Well of the
Tower. Towers for the defense of the Great Wall,
326.
Track, off from the main, 263 /. " Tracks," correct translation of word
Athareem, 316. Traditions of the Jews concerning the
Rock of Kadesh, 176 ff. Training-place, a typical, 58 ff. Treasure-cities
of Egypt, 339, 379 ff. Truth, Arab contempt for the, 293 /. Tsaphon, or
Tsephon, meaning of the
word, 419 /. Tsoor, distinction in meaning between
Sel a and, 124 /., 176. Tur. See Toor. Tiirfer-Rukn, 206. " Turn, 1 sense
of the Hebrew word
translated, 37, 399.
a sharp, 396.
Typhon, 408^ .
Typical lands, three great, 59.
UMM EL-JERRAR, 63.
" Upon," the Hebrew word translated, 37. VALLEY OF GERAR. See Wady Gerar.
Vendetta, effect of the, 267. Village, an ancient, 280 ff.
" WADI EL-KDEIS," discovered by Seet-
zen, 205. " Wadi er-Rakib." See Yemen, Pass el.
Wady : meaning of the term, 19.
Abyad. See Wady Gayn.
Aboo Retemat, 42, 154 /.
el- Arabah, 38.
el- Areesh : the River or Torrent of
Egypt, 115 ff., 166 /., 254, 290/.; the western point of Canaan s southern
boundary, 116 /., 120, 123 / 312.
el- Ateeyeh, 78.
el- Ayn, 78, 313.
Ayn el-Qadayrat, 78, 204, 222,
232,285; visited, 278 /.
Beerayn, 222, 294 /.
Fayrau, 69, 247, 273, 278, 378.
Feiran. See Wady Fayran.
Feqreh, 110, 133, 312; its location,
94 /. ; correspondence of its slope with the side of Mount Halak, 95, 97 ;
proposed location of Kadesh- barnea at, 228, 304.
"Gaian." See Wady Gayan.
Gayan, or Abyad, proposed loca tion of Kadesh-barnea at, 222, 303.
" el-Ghudyan," 146.
el-Ghuwayr : meaning of the
name, 134; proposed location of Ka desh-barnea at, 227, 303.
Ilafeer. See Wady Hanayn.
Hanayn : visited, 294 ; Arab su
perstition concerning, 294. Hanjoorat, 133.
el-Jayb, 209.
Jerafeh, 209, 303.
Jeroor, 63/., 254 /., 263.
Madurah, 133, 317.
Mayeen, 2B4.
el-Mukattcb, 77 ; inscriptions at,
277.
Hurrah, 95, 133, 317.
Murreh. See Wady Murrah.
of the Writings. See Wady el-
Mukatteb.
Qadees, 289 ; visited, 264 /. ; des- cribed, 269^".; an encircled moun tain
fastness, 319.
Qarayyeh, 254.
Qasaymeh : visited, 287^: ; des cribed, 290 /. ; valley, connecting Wady
Ayn el-Qadaynlt and, 290.
- Rahhabeh, or Rayhobeh, 292.
Ruhaybeh, 293.
478
TOPICAL INDEX.
Wady Sabh, or Sabhah, 287, 293. - Sa eedeh, 264.
Sa eedat, 94.
Samrah, 264.
Sasab, 264.
es-Seram, 42, 293 ; camping in,
esh-Sherayf, 254 /.
Toomilat, Land of Goslien in eluded, 382 /.
Umni A sheen, 277. - Wajat, 264.
Werdan, 356.
Zelleger. See Wady ez-Zulaqah. ez-Zulaqah, 77.
Wall of Egypt: its earliest mention, 46 ff.; Sliur indicates the, 40, 325
/. ; passed by Saneha, 47 ; its existence estab lished, 49, 54 ; opinions
concerning its extent, 4 Jff.; period of its building, 49, 52 ; Egyptian
legends regarding 50 ; its probable location, 51 ; its builder not
identified, 52 ff. ; its northern terminus, 52, 54 ; known by various
names, 54 |
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