Sinai, Numb. x. 33. and xii. 16. And as tradition has continued down to us the names of Shur, Marah and Sin, so has it also that of Paran; the ruins of the late convent of Paran, built upon those of an ancient city of that name, (which might give denomination to the whole desert), being found about the half way betwixt Sinai and Corondel, which lie at forty leagues distance. This situation of Paran, so far to the S. of Kadesh, will illustrate Gen. xiv. 5, 6. where Chederlaomer, and the kings that were with him, are said to have smote the Horites in their Mount Seir, unto El Paran (i. e. unto the city, as I take it, of that name) which is in, or by the wilderness.

The whole country round about Paran is very mountainous, making part of the mirava ogn of Ptolemy, which he tells us extended from the promontory of Paran as far as Judæa, and would therefore take in the Accaba, which will be hereafter mentioned.

From the more advanced part of the wilderness of Paran, (the same that lay in the road betwixt Midian and Egypt, 1 Kings xi. 18.) Moses sent a man out of every tribe to spy out the land of Canaan, Num. xxiii. 3. who returned to him after forty days, unto the same wilderness, to Kadesh Barnea, Num. xxxii. 8. Deut. i. 10. and ix. 23.

* Το κατα Φαραν ακρωτηρίον επέχει μοίρας Επιχει δε και ή μεν Φαρα κωμη μοίρας

Josh.

xn 5

記司 yo

Διατείνει δε εν τη χώρα, (Arabix Petrææ) τα καλεμένα Μέλανα όρη

απο τα κατα Φαβαν μυχε, ως επι την Ικδαίαν, και από μεν δύσεως των μέων τόπων παρα την Αίγυπτον, ή τι ΣΑΡΑΚΗΝΗ παρήκει. Ptolem. Geogr. 1. v. c. 17.

Josh. xiv. 7. This place or city, which in Gen. xiv. 7. is called Enmishpat, i. e. the fountain of Mishpat, is, in Num. xx. 1. xxvii. 14. xxxiii. 36. called Tzin Kadesh, or simply Kadesh, as in Gen. xvi. 14. and xx. 1. and being equally ascribed to the desert of y Tzin and to the desert of Paran, we may presume that the desert of Tzin and Paran were one and the same. so called from the plants of divers palm grounds upon it.

may be צנים or צן

A late ingenious author has situated Kadesh Barnea, a place of no small consequence in Scripture history, which we are now enquiring after, at eight hours, or twenty miles distance only, from Mount Sinai, which I presume cannot be admitted for various reasons. Because several texts of Scripture insinuate, that Kadesh lay at a much greater distance. Thus, in Deut. i. 9. it

said, they departed from Horeb, through that great and terrible wilderness, (which supposes by far a much greater extent both of time and space), and came to Kadesh Barnea; and in chap. ix. 23. when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea to possess the land; which, Num. xx. 16. is described to be a city in the uttermost part of the border of Edom: the border of the land of Edom, and that of the land of promise being contiguous, and in fact the very same. And further, Deut. i. 2. it is expressly said, that there are eleven days journey from Horeb, by the way of mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea; which, from the context, cannot be otherwise

*Descript. of the East, vol. i. p. 157.

otherwise understood, than of marching along the direct road. For Moses hereby intimates, how soon the Israelites might have entered upon the borders of the land of promise, if they had not been a stubborn and rebellious people. Whereas the number of their stations, betwixt Sinai and Kadesh, as they are particularly enumerated, Numb. xxxiii. (each of which must have been at least one day's journey), appear to be near twice as many, or xx1; in which they are said, with great truth and propriety, Psal. cvii. 4. to have wandered in the wilderness, out of the way; and in Deut. ii. 1. to have compassed Mount Seir, rather than to have travelled directly through it. If then we allow x miles for each of these eleven days journey, (and fewer, I presume, cannot well be insisted upon), the distance of Kadesh from Mount Sinai, will be about cx miles.

That x M. a day (I mean in a direct line, as laid down in the map, without considering the deviations, which are every where, more or less) were equivalent to one day's journey, may be further proved from the history of the spies, who searched the land (Numb. xiii. 21.) from Kadesh to Rehob, as men come to Hamath, and returned in forty days. Rehob then, the furthest point of this expedition to the northward, may well be conceived to have been twenty days journey from Kadesh; and therefore to know the true position of Rehob, will be a material point in this disquisition. Now, it appears from Josh. xix, 29, 30.

VOL. II.

Р

and

and Judges i. 31. that Rehob was one of the ma ritime cities of the tribe of Asher, and lay (in travelling, as we may suppose, by the common or nearest way) along the sea coast; non na, Numb. xiii. 21. (not, as we render it, as men come to Hamath, but) as men go towards Hamath, in going to Hamath, or in the way or road to Hamath. For to have searched the land as far as Hamath, and to have returned to Kadesh in forty days, would have been altogether impossible. Moreover, as the tribe of Asher did not reach beyond Sidon, for that was its northern boundary, Josh. xix. 28. Rehob must have been situated to the southward of Sidon, upon, or (being a derivative perhaps from an, latum esse) below in the plain, under a long chain of mountains that runs E. and W. through the midst of that tribe. And as these mountains, called by some the mountains of Saron, are all along, except in the narrow which I have mentioned, near the sea, very rugged and difficult to pass over, the spies, who could not well take another way, might imagine they would run too great a risque of being discovered in attempting to pass through it. For in these eastern countries, a watchful eye was always, as it is still, kept upon strangers, as we may collect from the history of the two angels at Sodom, Gen. xix. 5. and of the spies at Jericho, Josh. ii. 2. and from other instances. If then we fix Rehob upon the skirts of the plains of Acre, a little to the S. of this narrow road, (the Seala Tyriorum, as it was af terwards

*

terwards named), somewhere near Egdippa, the distance betwixt Kadesh and Rehob will be about ccx M.; whereas, by placing Kadesh twenty miles only from Sinai or Horeb, the distance will be cccxxx; and instead of x miles a day, according to the former computation, the spies must have travelled near xvII, which, for forty days successively, seems to have been too difficult an expedition in this hot, and consequently fatiguing climate; especially as they were on foot, or footpads, as, their appellation in the original, may probably import. These geographical circumstances therefore, thus corresponding with what is actually known of those countries at this time, should induce us to situate Kadesh, as I have already done, cx miles to the northward of Mount Sinai, and XLII M. to the westward of Eloth, near Callah Nahar, i. e. the castle of the river or fountain, (probably the Ain Mishpat), a noted station of the Mahometans, in their pilgrimage to Mecca.

From Kadesh, the Israelites were ordered to turn into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea, Numb. xiv. 25. Deut. i. 40. i. e. they were at this time, in punishment of their murmurings, infidelity and disobedience, to advance no further northward towards the land of Canaan. Now these marches are called, the compassing of Mount Seir, Deut. ii. 1. and the passing by from the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain of Eloth, and Ezion-gaber, ver. 8. The wandering therefore of the children

of