The Northern Ḥeǧâz/Appendix 6
APPENDIX VI
THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS
FROM EGYPT TO MOUNT SINAI, OR ḤOREB
When the Israelites fled from Egypt they endeavored as soon as possible to escape from the reach of Egyptian political influence. They found a refuge in a country which afforded them not only safety but also the necessary food supplies. This country must have had an abundance of water with rich pastures and must have been situated near large transport routes so that they could purchase what they needed from the trade caravans. Moses knew such a country, the land of Madian, where he himself had found a refuge and where, in the person of his father-in-law, the priest of Madian, he had a powerful protector not only for himself but also for his kindred of Israel. He therefore led the Israelites direct from Egypt into Madian to the mountain of God, where Jehovah appeared to him.
The land of Madian, where Moses passed many years as a refugee, is situated, in our judgment, to the southeast of the present settlement of al-ʻAḳaba. This is indicated by the halting places recorded on the march of the Israelites. These camps are scattered in various groups, which unfortunately do not supplement each other; in fact, a connected list of them, such as we read in Numbers, 33, is at variance with several statements made elsewhere.
According to Exodus, 15: 22, the Israelites left Egypt proper by the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds), in which Pharaoh perished, and proceeded through the wilderness of Šûr for three days without finding water, until at last (Ex., 15: 23) the reached Mara’, wher here was water, which, however, was bitter.
If any great tribe today flees from the government and the army of a civilized state, it proceeds rapidly along the most convenient and most direct transport route, if only to escape as soon as possible from the territory and jurisdiction of the military power. Such also was the case in the fifteenth century before Christ, when the Israelites migrated from Egypt. The peninsula of Sinai at that time contained Egyptian garrisons. The tribes living there were more or less dependent upon Egypt and would have received orders to attack the Israelites with their garrisons and thus force them to return. The Israelites were therefore obliged to hasten so as to traverse the peninsula of Sinai before the garrisons were strengthened and the nomads incited against them. For strengthening the garrisons and mustering the nomads at least a month would have been necessary, and in this time the Israelites had to escape from the peninsula of Sinai. On the first day they had to hasten so as to avoid being surrounded by the army dispatched against them from the border places by the Sea of Reeds; on the second and the subsequent days they could proceed slowly. They had to water their cattle and give them time for pasture, supply themselves with water, and wait for flocks of goats and sheep which were always behind. The quickest and most convenient way for them to get away from the sphere of Egyptian authority was upon the transport route leading from Egypt to the northern extremity of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba. Upon this route the leader proceeded with his retinue, while the remainder of the Israelites marched with their flocks to the right and left of the route but parallel with it.
If today a tribe numbering five thousand familʻes migrates with its flocks, it forms a column at least twenty kilometers wide and five kilometers deep. The wider the line is, the more pasture the flocks will find, but the more will they lag behind and run the risk of being cut off on their flanks; the deeper it is, the less pasture will remain for the flocks in the rear, the more confusion and disorder there will be, but all the greater will be the facility of repelling a hostile attack.
If the Israelites migrated from Egypt in the month of March and if there had been an abundance of rain on the peninsula of Sinai that year they would have found rain pools of various sizes in all the cavities and in all the hollows of the various river beds, and they could comfortably have replenished their water bags and watered their flocks. Where they had to depend only on wells or deep cisterns, the filling of the water bags and the watering of the cattle would have occasioned them much labor.
We do not know the location of the spot which, because of its bitter water, the Israelites called Mara’ (Bitter).
From Mara’ they reached Êlîm (Ex., 15: 27), where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees.
If we admit that the Israelites proceeded on the great transport route, we must locate Êlîm in the immediate vicinity of the modern settlement of al-ʻAḳaba, where there are countless springs, where at every spot it is possible to obtain water by digging to a depth of one-half a meter to two meters, and where there are numerous palm trees. I identify this Êlîm with Êl Pârân (Gen., 14: 6) and with the later city of Êlôth or Elath (1 Kings, 9: 26; 2 Kings, 14: 22). It is not necessary to locate the camp of the Israelites in the settlement itself, which at that time certainly stood the same important spot; but, rather, two or three kilometers to the west of the settlement, where even today there are several palm groves and where there used to be a ford across the narrow arm of the sea extending as far as ʻEṣjôngeber (Ṛaḍjân and al-Ǧbêl).
According to Exodus, 16: 1, the Israelites went from Egypt to Êlîm within a month. This, of course, is only an approximate statement, as we do not know how long they were in passing through Egypt proper and how many weeks their march through the peninsula of Sinai lasted. From Êlîm (Ex., 16: 1) they entered the wilderness of Sîn, “which is between Êlîm and Sinai,” Knowing the situation of the land of Madian, in which rises Mount Ḥoreb, we know also the direction in which the Israelites departed from Êlîm. They still remained on the great transport route and moved in a southeasterly direction, at first along the shore itself and later at a distance of twenty-five kilometers from the shore of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba. According to this interpretation Sîn denotes the mountain range to the east of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba. This tallies with Judges, 11: 16, where it is stated that the Israelites, when passing from Egypt, went through the wilderness as far as the Sea of Reeds.
Exodus, 17:1—13, relates how the Israelites went from the wilderness of Sîn to Refîdîm, where there was no water; how Moses obtained water from the rock near Ḥoreb with his rod; how that place was therefore called Massa and Merîba; and how the Amalekites attacked the Israelites there.
According to all our sources of information Ḥoreb was situated in the land of Madian.
The Israelites were thus under the protection of the Madianites there. It is certainly possible that the Amalekites made inroads upon them as far as the land of Madian, but it is not really probable. Nor is it very probable that Moses would have led the Israelites to Mount Ḥoreb if he had known that there was no water close at hand. Moreover, we know from other passages (Num., 20: 13) that Merîba was situated near Ḳadeš eleven days distant from Ḥoreb, where Moses also obtained water from the rock by means of his rod, when the multitude began to murmur. We must therefore identify this miraculous obtaining of water at Ḥoreb with that at Ḳadeš and regard Refîdîm only as a halting place on the march from Êlîm to Mount Ḥoreb. About one hundred kilometers to the south of al-ʻAḳaba (Êlîm) there is a basin in the mountain range of ar-Rafîd, which I take to be Refîdîm. About twenty kilometers southeast of this is the oasis of al-Bedʻ, or the ancient Madian, to which the Israelites hastened. This tallies with Exodus, 19: 2, according to which they went from Refîdîm to the wilderness of Sinai, where they encamped opposite the mountain. There, according to another source (Ex., 18: 5), Jethro, the priest of Madian, came to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped by the mountain of God and, having conferred with him, returned to his own country (Ex., 18: 27). The main camp of the Israelites was thus not pitched by the settlement in which Jethro dwelt. The latter must be sought, according to the configuration of the ground, to the south of al-Bedʻ, perhaps in the oasis of ʻAjnûna at a distance of fifty kilometers, and the main camp of the Israelites by the šeʻîb of al-Ḫrob, twenty kilometers to the north of ʻAjnûna.
FROM MOUNT SINAI TO THE STREAM ZÂRED
From Mount Sinai, or Ḥoreb, the Israelites wished to proceed to the wilderness of Pârân (Num., 10: 12). They were to be accompanied by Ḥobab, the son of Raʻuêl (Num., 10: 29), a Madianite, as a guide to find out for them the most suitable places for obtaining water and for encamping. According to the Bible, he was to be their ʻajn.
ʻAjn (plural ʻujûn) denotes a scout who rides in front of a tribe on a warlike expedition and searches for safe places where they may encamp and obtain water. Even when a tribe migrates, it also has such a scout, but he is then known as ḳallâṭ. From the name ʻajn, which was to be applied to Ḥobab, it may therefore be supposed that the ancient writers regarded the march of the Israelites from Sinai as a warlike expedition; this certainly agrees with what actually occurred, as they wished to acquire new settlements. The wilderness of Pârân, to which the Israelites proceeded from the wilderness of Sinai, we identify with the southern half of the rift valley of al-ʻAraba and its immediate mountainous neighborhood. The Israelites therefore went from Sinai in a north-northwesterly direction.
Whether the Israelites took the same road as the one upon which they reached Sinai, or whether they chose another road, cannot be exactly determined from the account given in Numbers, but it seems as if the description there refers to another road, because there is no mention of Êlîm, and it is stated (Num., 10: 33) that after three marches from the mountain of God the Israelites fared ill. We may suppose that at the head of the al-Abjaẓ valley they reached the present shrine of Samʻûl, where the broken country begins. The people murmured, the camp was set on fire, and they therefore called the place Tabʻêra (burnt-out encampment) (Num., 11: 3).
They continued their march, and many perished as a punishment for having consumed meat; they therefore called that place Ḳibrôt hat-Ta’awâ (dust graves) (Num., 11: 34). Thence they passed to Ḥaṣêrôt (Num., 11:35). I look for this halting place near the ruins of al-Ḥomejma, where there is a small šeʻîb called al-Ḥaẓra. They then reached the wilderness of Pârân (Num., 12:16), which they entered near the ruins of Ḥammad, about seventy kilometers north-northeast of al-ʻAḳaba, where the rocks forming the eastern border of al-ʻAraba approach the foot of aš-Šera’. The spies sent from Pârân to the Promised Land (Num, 13:3), after having inspected the whole country, returned to the wilderness of Pârân (i. e. Ḳadeš). From this it is clear that Ḳadeš must be located in the wilderness of Pârân and thus near al-ʻAraba, not far from the real frontier of the Promised Land.
The account given in Deuteronomy, 1: 2, fixes the distance from Ḥoreb to Ḳadeš Barneʻa by way of Mount Seîr at eleven days’ march. For our purposes there is a more important fact than the fixing of this distance that is that the journey from Ḥoreb to Ḳadeš was made by the road of Mount Seʻîr. The account thus refers to the transport route which leads to Mount Seʻîr but does not pass through it. The same route is indicated in Deuteronomy, 1: 19, where it is stated that the Israelites, after departing from Ḥoreb, passed, by the road of the mountain of the Amorites, through a “great and terrible wilderness.” The road of Mount Seʻîr and the road to the mountain of the Amorites may be the same, for the mountain of the Amorites rises to the northwest of Seʻîr, so that the road leading to it is only a continuation of the road leading to Seʻîr. This road passes through a great and terrible wilderness; but Mount Seʻîr was cultivated and inhabited, and it must therefore be supposed that the road in question passed along its western foot on the border between Seʻîr and Pârân. In that district there is actually an ancient transport route leading from Madian through the valley of al-Abjaẓ past Mount Iram (Ramm) and the ruins of al-Ḥomejma northward to the ruins of Petra, then farther through the convenient an-Namala pass to the rift valley of al-ʻAraba, and in a northwesterly direction to Hebron or in a west-northwesterly direction to Gaza. This road, upon which in the Nabataean period the main import trade from the south to Petra and Gaza was concentrated, may thus be identified with the road to Mount Seʻîr and the road to the mountain of the Amorites. If the Israelites passed along it, then they reached the actual wilderness of Pârân via the modern ruins of al-Ḥomejma. We must therefore seek Ḳadeš in the neighborhood of Petra. From there could be seen the mountain of the Amorites and the Promised Land, a circumstance which explains why the spies were sent out to report as to the manner in which the Israelites could obtain possession of the latter. (See above, pp. 263—264.)
From Pârân (i. e. Ḳadeš) the warriors departed to conquer the land, against the will of Moses (Num., 14: 44).
According to Numbers, 21: 1, the king of Arad learnt that the Israelites were approaching on the road ha-Atarîm and marched against them. I consider ha-Atarîm to be an incorrect transcription of ha-Amorîm, the road of the Amorites (Deut., 1: 19). The king of Arad allied himself with the Canaanites and Amalekites, defeated the Israelites, and scattered them as far as Ḥorma.
Numbers, 20: 1, records that the Israelites came to the wilderness of Ṣin and encamped at Ḳadeš, where Miriam died.—From this it follows that Ḳadeš must be located on the border of the wildernesses of Pârân and Ṣin. If the headquarters of the Israelites with the sanctuary continued to be at Ḳadeš, the remainder could encamp round about, especially to the west and northwest of Ḳadeš in al-ʻAraba, the northern half of which bordered on the wilderness of Ṣin and perhaps even formed part of it.
Having ascertained that they could not enter the Promised Land in a northwesterly direction because both the Amalekites and the Canaanites were making preparations against them there, the Israelites wished to penetrate north of the Dead Sea. They therefore sent messengers to the king of Edom (Num., 20: 16), asking him to let them march through his land from Ḳadeš, a city on the frontiers of Edom, along the “king’s highway” (Num., 20: 17) or along “the highway” (Num., 20: 19).—From this it may be inferred that Ḳadeš was situated at the junction of important transport routes, or that at least it was possible from there easily to reach the king’s highway which led through the land of Edom northward.
The king’s highway doubtless might have been the name only of that route which passed through the cultivated territory and was convenient, suitable for transit, and artificially constructed. There is only one such road in Seʻîr. It begins at Mount Seʻîr just north of the pass Naḳb aš-Štâr by the ruins of Aba-l-Lesel and leads past the settlements of aṣ-Ṣadaḳa and at-Twâne through the cultivated territory northwards. By the ruins of al-Basṭa two branch roads divide off from it. One leads eastward to the settlement of Maʻân, and the second westward to the ruins of Wâdi Mûsa (Petra), where it joins the road described immediately above (p. 270), which leads to Mount Seʻîr or to the mountain of the Amorites. I identify the road leading from Ab-al-Lesel via aṣ-Ṣadaḳa to at-Twâne with the king’s highway, upon which the Israelites wished to branch off from Ḳadeš. The king of Edom did not permit them to do so, because he was afraid that they might settle in his country. He knew that they were on a warlike expedition and that they were seeking new settlements. Thus, having the hostile Amalekites and Amorites to the northwest, they did not wish to arouse the hostility of the Edomites as well, and consequently they changed their intention and passed round Mount Seʻîr.
Having left Ḳadeš (Num., 20: 22), they reached Mount Hor on the border of Edom, where Aaron died and was buried.—I identify this Mount Hor with the modern Mount Hârûn to the south of the ruins of Petra.
From Mount Hor they proceeded (Num., 21: 4) toward the Sea of Reeds in order to pass round the land of Edom. The same account is given in Deuteronomy, 2: 1, where it is stated that they turned towards the Sea of Reeds and passed round Mount Seʻîr.—
The direction is thus indicated. As far as Ḳadeš they had gone in a north-northwesterly direction from Ḥoreb. Being unable to penetrate the mountains of the Amorites, they had wished to proceed to the north-northeast through the mountains of the Edomites. Refused access this way, they turned in a southerly direction back toward the Sea of Reeds from the direction of which they had started. If we agree that the modern Mount Hârûn is identical with the Biblical Mount Hor, it necessarily follows that they proceeded to the south past Mount Seʻîr along the same road by which they had reached Ḳadeš, until they drew near the northern extremity of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba: that is until they were at no great distance from the Sea of Reeds; then, going into the region of Ḥesma, they turned toward the northeast and proceeded thence through the southern aš-Šera range (the ancient Edom) to Maʻân and farther to the north (Deut., 2: 4).
According to the account given in Deuteronomy, 2: 8, the Israelites passed through the land of the sons of Esau, who dwelt in Seʻîr, along the road of ʻAraba from Elath and ʻEṣjôngeber and then turned aside and proceeded in the direction of the wilderness of Moab.—
The Bible does not state that the Israelites arrived at Elath and ʻEṣjôngeber but only mentions that they passed along the road of ʻAraba leading from Elath and ʻEṣjôngeber through the land of the sons of Esau, who dwelt in Seʻîr. This road starts from the rift valley of al-ʻAraba, in which the harbors of Elath and ʻEṣjôngeber were situated, runs through the valley of al-Jitm to the region of Ḥesma, thence through the pass of aš-Štâr in the aš-Šera’ range, and farther in a northeasterly direction to Maʻân, where it joins with the main transport route passing from south to north. This road was used by the nomads encamping east of Edom when they journeyed to the harbors of Elath and ʻEṣjôngeber. From Maʻân northward this road remains on the border between the settlers and the nomads, between the cultivated land and the wilderness; it therefore could be called the road of ʻAraba, or the road leading along the borders of Arabia, for the Assyrian sources give the name of Arubi, Aribi, partly to the nomads and partly to the wilderness which they frequent. According to Numbers, 21: 10, it was by this road that the Israelites reached Ôbôt and, farther on, ʻIjjê ha-ʻAbârîm in the wilderness which borders with Moab on the east, and, finally (Num., 21: 12), the stream Zâred, which forms the eastern border of Moab. These particulars agree entirely, if we concede that the road of ʻAraba leading from Elath and ʻEṣjôngeber is identical with the modern Pilgrim Route extending along the eastern border of Moab and Edom, a branch of which passes from Maʻân through the valley of al-Jitm to al-ʻAḳaba, the ancient Elath.