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turned back to Mount Hor, and thence proceeded to the Red Sea.

These circumstances all combine to fix the site of Kadesh at a fountain in the northern part of the great valley; and I have already pointed out the remarkable coincidence of the position of the fountain el-Weibeh, with all these particulars. There the Israelites would have Mount Hor in the S. S. E. towering directly before them; across the 'Arabah is the Wady el-Ghuweir, affording an easy passage through the land of Edom; in the northwest rises the mountain by which they attempted to ascend to Palestine, with the pass still called Sufâh (Zephath); while further north we find also Tell 'Arâd, marking the site of the ancient Arad. To all this comes then the vicinity of the southern bay of the Dead Sea; the line of cliffs or offset separating the Ghôr from the 'Arabah, answering to the ascent of Akrabbim ; and the desert of Zin with a place of the same name between Akrabbim and Kadesh, not improbably at the water of Hasb in the Arabah.'-In this way all becomes easy and natural; and the scriptural account is entirely accordant with the character of the country."

I have thus far assumed that the Israelites were twice at Kadesh; and this appears from a comparison of the various accounts. They broke up from Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month in the second year of their departure out of Egypt, corresponding to the early part of May; they came into the desert of Paran, whence spies were sent up the mountain into Palestine, in "the time of the first ripe grapes ;" and these returned after forty days to the camp at Kadesh. As grapes begin to ripen on the mountains of Judah in July, the return of the spies is to be placed in August or September. The people now murmured at the report of the spies; and received the sentence from Jehovah, that their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, and their children wander in the desert forty years."

1 See above p. 120.

See pp. 119, 177, above. Compare Num. 20, 1..

Mr Rowlands supposes that he found Kadesh at the fountain el-'Ain, in the high western desert; see above, Vol. I. pp. 189, 190. Holy City I. p. 466 sq. That fountain is called also 'Ain el-Kudeirât, from a tribe of Arabs who water there. Out of this name Mr Rowlands, or his Greek dragoman, seems to have made Kudês or Kădês; and on the strength of this blunder, assumed there the site of Kadesh. Against this view the considerations urged above in the text, are conclusive; not one of them applies to el-'Ain. It is not in the uttermost border

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of Edom; there is no great valley passing
up thence through Edom to the eastern
desert, like el-Ghuweir; the host could
not have proceeded thence directly to
Mount Hor, where Aaron dies; there is no
mountain near, by which the spies could
ascend into Palestine; nor by which the
people could go up to Arad, where they
were discomfited. In short, the position
of el-'Ain, is utterly inconsistent with all
the circumstances narrated as having taken
place at Kadesh. See more in Biblioth.
Sacra, 1849, p. 377-381.

Num. 10, 11; comp. 9, 1.
Num. 12, 16. 13, 2. 17. 20. 25. 26.
Num. 14, 29. 32. 33.

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They were ordered to turn back into the desert "by the way the Red Sea;" although it appears that they abode "many days" in Kadesh.1

The next notice of the Israelites is, that in the first month, they came into the desert of Zin and abode again at Kadesh; here Miriam dies; Moses and Aaron bring water from the rock a passage is demanded through the land of Edom, and refused; and they then journey from Kadesh to Mount Hor, where Aaron dies in the fortieth year of the departure from Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month, corresponding to a part of August and September." Here then, between August of the second year and August of the fortieth year, we have an interval of thirty-eight years of wandering in the desert. With this coincides another account. From Mount Hor they proceeded to Elath on the Red Sea, and so around the land of Edom to the brook Zered on the border of Moab; and from the time of their departure from Kadesh, (meaning of course their first departure,) until they thus came to the brook Zered, there is said to have been an interval of thirty-eight years."

In this way, the scriptural account of the journeyings of the Israelites, becomes perfectly harmonious and intelligible. The eighteen stations mentioned only in the general list in the book of Numbers, as preceding the arrival at Kadesh, are then apparently to be referred to this eight and thirty years of wandering, during which the people at last approached Ezion-geber, and afterwards returned northwards a second time to Kadesh, in the hope of passing directly through the land of Edom. wanderings extended doubtless over the western desert; although the stations named are probably only those head-quarters where the tabernacle was pitched, and where Moses and the elders and priests encamped; while the main body of the people was scattered in various directions."

Their

How in these wide deserts, this host of more than two millions of souls, having no traffic nor intercourse with the surrounding hordes, could find supplies of food and water sufficient for their support without a constant miracle, I for one am unable to divine. Yet among them we read only of occasional longings and complaints; while the tribes that now roam over the same regions, although numbering scarcely as many thousands, are exposed to famine and privation of every kind; and, at the best, obtain only a meagre and precarious subsistence."

1 Num. 14, 25. Deut. 1, 40. 46. 'Num. 20, 1-29. 33, 37. 38.

Num. 21, 4. Deut. 2, 8. 13. 14. 18. See the list of all these stations, Num. 33, 18-36.

See above, Vol. I. p. 72 sq. Comp. ib. 52.

"For a synoptical arrangement of the several lists of stations during the wanderings of the Israelites, exhibiting in one view the whole course of their journey, see Note XXXIX, end of the Volume.

Sunday, June 3d. After our fatigues of the preceding two days, we slept soundly until 6 o'clock; and rose congratulating ourselves upon the rest of the Christian Sabbath. But this rest to-day was not to be of long duration. After breakfast, one of the Arabs, Muhammed, went with the camels to the water at the head of the pass Yemen, nearly an hour distant from our tent in the southwest. There, as he said, he met an Arab who had come up the pass during the night, and who reported, that yesterday towards evening he had seen a party of men with horses and dromedaries encamp at the water of Hasb in the 'Arabah, apparently coming this way on a marauding expedition. Our Arabs immediately concluded, that they were of the Sulit or Hejâya coming against the Tiyâhah in retaliation for. the inroads of the latter. Should they ascend by the Sufâh, they would come directly upon us; or if by the Yemen, their scouts would doubtless discover our tent; and as they were at war with the Jehâlîn also, we should of course be exposed to be plundered, if to nothing worse. We had indeed strong suspicions, that this was a story got up by Muhammed, the worthless buffoon, who alone had seen the stranger, in order to induce us to push forward. Yet it might after all be true; and we therefore thought it advisable under the circumstances to go on, and get out of the reach of any danger. This was, however, the only instance, in which we were compelled to violate our principle of not travelling upon the Christian Sabbath.—It was said, the party would not reach the top of the pass until the afternoon. A camel was now despatched with the water-skins to be filled at the water of Yemen. The Arabs seemed to be in no hurry whatever; and it was not until after long delays, that we at length set off. Nor do we know unto the present day, whether the story of the hostile party was true or false.

We at length started at 10 o'clock; the course continuing about N. N. W. We soon came out upon an open and tolerably level tract, called et-Türâibeh; which, although chiefly covered with loose sand, had everywhere many herbs affording pasture for camels. It belongs to the Arabs called Sa'idiyeh. Before us was another long mountain ridge, running from E. N. E. to W. S. W. similar in its general appearance to that we had ascended last night; though not more than half as high. This tract, between the top of one ridge and the bottom of the other, constitutes the second step or offset of the whole ascent between the 'Arabah and Palestine; and is, as we have seen, the continuation in this direction of the broad region of desert hills between the two passes of ez-Zuweirah; the lower ridge being here much higher, and the upper one much lower, than on that road. Further north, it is drained by Wady el-Fâ'iya, a branch

of the Muhauwat, which enters the Dead Sea at the north end of Usdum; but just in this part, the waters are carried off southwards by one of the main heads of Wady el-Yemen, which runs along the base of the next ridge. On this plain, the roads from the three passes, Sufey, Sufâh, and Yemen, all unite; and a branch was also said to come in from the Haudeh."

At 12.25 we crossed the branch of Wady el-Yemen, which commences not far to the right. Here we immediately began to ascend by a low gap in the ridge before us, called el-Muzeikah. The ascent is gradual and easy; at a quarter before one, we were at the top, and came out upon another higher tract of table land, or rather a basin, shut in on the southeast by hills, forming the top of the ridge. They are here comparatively low; but further towards the W. S. W. the ridge becomes higher, and spreads out into a mountainous tract, through which our Arabs knew no road. Yet we were led to suppose, that the pass elGharib, of which we had several times heard, is probably connected with this range of mountains."

We kept on N. N. W. across the basin, around which are gravel hills, and which is bounded on the other side at the distance of about an hour by another low ridge or line of hills, parallel to that we had just ascended. On our right the surface had a gradual descent; and here was the beginning of a Wady running down northeast to Wady el-Fa'iya, and forming one of its heads. On the left we could perceive a shallow Wady called Abu Terâifeh, coming from the north and passing down through the hills of the ridge we had ascended, about half a mile further southwest to Wady el-Yemen. Another road ascends along this Wady, which was taken by some of our Arabs. Just at the head of this latter pass, we could distinctly see the ruins of a town, called Kurnub, covering a low hill near the Wady; our guides said there was here living water in pits (Themâil); and on that account they had been very desirous to reach this spot the evening before. With our telescopes we could distinguish two or three ruined walls, apparently of hewn stones, which seemed to be the remains of churches or other public buildings.

See above, pp. 104, 106.

In 1834, M. Callier travelled from Hebron to "Dariyé" (Dhoheriyeh); thence S. S. W. to Wady "Kalassa" (Khulasah, Kurn, see Vol. I. p. 202) at the foot of the mountains, where he encamped on the third day. On the fourth day he followed up this Wady into the mountains and then descended eastwards along another Wady called "Traybé” (Tŭrâibeh), which brought him near to the Ghor. This would seem to have some reference to the tract we were now crossing, which is about

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See Vol. I. p. 208; also p. 179, above. Lord Lindsay appears to have ascended by the more southern pass, directly to Kurnub; he describes it as the extensive ruins of an ancient walled town, about

This place is marked on Seetzen's map, and would seem most probably to have been the Thamara of Ptolemy and other writers, as well as the Thamar of the Old Testament. The grounds on which this supposition rests, will be better understood in connection with the remarks respecting el-Milh further

on.

In passing over this open tract or basin, we saw traces of grass, now dried up. At 1.20 we crossed obliquely the bed of Wady Abu Terâifeh. Here a path branched off to the right, leading directly to the country of the Jehâlin; while that which we still followed is the Hebron and Gaza road. At 2 o'clock we came out upon the top of the swell or low ridge above mentioned, here called Kubbet el-Baul; and had before us a smaller basin forming the head of Wady 'Ar'ârah, which runs off to Wady esSeba', and so to the Mediterranean. We now had a slight descent into this basin, and kept then along the broad Wady. Here was the first appearance of soil; and along this tract we found at 2.30 traces of ancient walls, probably once dams or terraces connected with tillage. Indeed the vestiges of ancient cultivation began to be everywhere visible. Towards the western part, at 3.05, we passed the foundations of a former village of unhewn stones, now called el-Kuseir (little castle), from a small structure near the foot of the hill, which may have been a tower. This tract belongs to the Dhullâm. We found in it a stray female camel with her foal, which our Arabs at first were inclined to drive off with them. They caught her and examined her marks ; and finding that she belonged to the 'Azâzimeh, let her go. Each tribe has a peculiar mark for its camels; and those of one tribe are in no danger of being taken by any other in time of

peace.

At a quarter past 3 o'clock, another path went off towards the right, leading directly to el-Milh; this is the usual Hebron road. We still kept the Gaza path, which passes to the left of el-Milh. The Wady soon sweeps off more towards the northeast and afterwards northwest. We ascended the low ridge or swell on the left, and from the top at 3 o'clock, had a wide view over the broad, open, undulating region, extending in the northeast to

three hours from the top of the pass esSufah, exhibiting fragments of columns, but no inscriptions; he saw a large vaulted subterranean chamber near a ruined building, and a strong dam in a ravine on the south of the town. Letters etc. II. p. 46. When Schubert passed this way, there was here an Arab encampment; Reise II. p. 449.

Ezek. 47, 19. 48, 28. Reland Palæst. p. 1031.-The question suggests it

self not unnaturally: Whether these ruins may not mark the site of Hormah, the ancient Zephath? But this place would more appropriately be sought further south, nearer to the pass Sufuh (Zephath); if not indeed quite at the foot of the pass around the small fort. It could hardly be expected, that any very distinct ruins should yet remain of a town last mentioned in 1 Sam. 30, 30. See Reland Pal. p. 721.

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