of Mount Seʻîr. But as this range extends from north to south, we know that the road must also go in a southerly and northerly direction, and this likewise brings us to the southeast of al-ʻAḳaba. Here, therefore, we locate Ḥoreb in the land of Madian. The Bible does not say that the road in question led through Mount Seʻîr but that it is the road to Mount Seʻîr; that is, in a direction towards Mount Seʻîr. From other passages we know that the Israelites, when passing along it, proceeded along the very border of Seʻîr, or Edom, but they did not encroach upon its cultivated and inhabited parts. Furthermore, this circumstance entirely tallies with the road leading through the al-Abjaẓ valley, along Mount Iram (Ramm), and by the ruins of al-Ḥomejma to Petra and thence farther to the north-northwest.
According to Deuteronomy, 1: 2, from Ḥoreb to Ḳadeš Barneʻa is eleven days’ march. If we locate Mount Ḥoreb in the vicinity of the šeʻîb of al-Ḫrob, from there to Ḳadeš Barneʻa in the vicinity of Petra is about 240 kilometers, which quite agrees with the eleven days’ march of goods caravans or of migrating nomads.
It was to Mount Ḥoreb that Elijah hastened when he was persecuted (1 Kings, 19: 8). From the neighborhood of the capital city of Samaria he proceeded to Beersheba and thence southward. On the day of his journey from Beersheba he was miraculously supplied with food and drink, and he journeyed for forty days and forty nights to Mount Ḥoreb, where he spent the night in a cave.
The round figure of forty days and forty nights shows that he journeyed for a very long time. The statement that he proceeded from Beersheba southward proves that he traveled in the direction of Elath, or the modern al-ʻAḳaba, and that he thus went to the land of Madian. After he had been strengthened by the Lord, he was to return through the wilderness to Damascus (1 Kings, 19: 15). He accordingly must have proceeded by caravan along the great transport route on the eastern frontiers of Edom and Moab northward, thus along the ʻAraba road, which the migrating Israelites reached near Maʻân (Deut., 2: 8).
These are the only Biblical records from which it is at all possible to determine the position of Ḥoreb, the mountain of God.
From the rock near Ḥoreb Moses obtained water with his rod (Ex., 17: 6) and upon Ḥoreb the Lord gave him the Commandments for the Israelites (Deut., 1: 6; 4: 10; 4: 15; 5: 2; 18: 16; 28: 69; Malachi, 3: 22). Near Ḥoreb the Israelites prepared the Golden Calf (Psalms, 106: 19), and, after they had been punished for that act, they laid aside their ornaments by Mount Ḥoreb (Ex., 33: 6). By Mount Ḥoreb Moses placed the stone tablets of the Covenant in the ark (1 Kings, 8:9). Besides these there is no other historical source referring to Ḥoreb.
It is nowhere stated that Mount Sinai lay in the land of Madian, but, if we locate the halting place of Êlîm (Ex., 16: 1) in Êl Pârân (Elath) or in its vicinity in the oasis of ad-Dejr, we find ourselves with the migrating Israelites at the northern extremity of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba and thus nearly at the frontier of the land of Madian. We must accordingly locate Mount Sinai in the same region.
Exodus, 16: 1, notes that the wilderness of Sîn extends from Êlîm to Sinai, and it was through this wilderness that the Israelites proceeded to Sinai. From Egypt to Êlîm their journey had taken them a whole