Chapter II

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SINAI AND THE DESERT.

=1. It is necessary= that we should obtain a general knowledge of the country over which the Israelites were now to travel. The land of Goshen, where the great majority of the Israelites were stationed, was included, probably, in the greater district of Rameses, as we have said. They left some general rendezvous early in the morning for Succoth, which was twenty or twenty-five miles southeast of the district of Goshen. The treasure city Pithom, mentioned with Rameses in the first chapter of Exodus (verse 11), was in Succoth, as a recent discovery has shown. The west arm of the Red Sea was about sixty miles farther south. The triangular district of the country between the two northern arms of the Red Sea, to which they were going, is a mountainous tract gradually ascending from the Gulf of Suez, or western arm, to the mountainous region of Horeb, of which Sinai was a chief mountain.[65] These mountains are entirely of granite. The large plain at the base of Sinai is 400 feet above the sea. The Sinai mountain seems to rise directly up from this plain to the height of from 1,200 to 1,500 feet, and in some parts, at its base, the rock is for a long distance almost perpendicular, like a high bluff above the level soil. Parts of the rocky heights are 2,000 feet above the plain.

=2. North of this region=, about 50 miles, a sandy stretch of country comes abruptly to a general rise of sandstone cliffs, which extend many miles east and west, and the granite rocks disappear, having been left behind in Horeb.

It is 200 miles, a little east of north, from Mt. Sinai to the south end of the Dead Sea and to the lower limits of the land of Canaan, whither the Israelites were journeying. Mt. Sinai is about 35 miles from the western and about 25 from the eastern arm of the Red Sea.

THE ISRAELITES IN THE DESERT.

=3. The recent discovery of Succoth= and the treasure city Pithom fixes this place as that of the first encampment of the Israelites at the Exodus. One inscription calls the place Petum (the “abode” of Tum) in the city of Thuku, or “Pithom in the city of Succoth.”

The great desert now begins, stretching eastward from Succoth for about 200 miles, a very desolate and barren region, to the country of Edom and the great valley of Arabah, which valley runs northward directly from the eastern arm of the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, a distance of 115 miles. The chief divine object in directing the course of the Israelites southeast from Egypt to the region of Horeb and then around by the Gulf of Akabah, rather than by the short course to Canaan by the coast, is expressed in the Scripture, and was one of discipline, Exod. 13:17, and preparation for the new life they were destined to live.

=4. Many misapprehensions= of the real difficulty of this long travel have resulted from a failure to comprehend the largeness of the company. It must be remembered that so large a number as 2,000,000 people, with their herds and flocks, their tents, the Tabernacle, and other baggage, must have covered a much larger space than is sometimes allowed by some readers of this history. Thus in crossing the Red Sea and stopping at stations and fording the Jordan on their arrival at Canaan, and in settling upon plains, before and after, it must be always kept in mind that no narrow line or small surface less than several square miles would in any way represent that necessary area over which the moving body travelled, or rested when it came to a halt. In its course at evening the advanced officers would soon lay out upon the area to be occupied the plan for encampment, and in a short time that space of land, which an hour before was the prowling-ground for a few wild beasts of the desert, would become the site of a city of 2,000,000 inhabitants, with long streets and squares lighted with the magnificent and mysterious flame which accompanied them during all their wanderings.

=5. The habits of eating and drinking= in that day were very different from anything now customary in our midst. The plainest food, and frequently only one meal a day and one draught of water in 24 hours, is sufficient for the Bedouin of the desert. We are therefore wrong in comparing the habits of the times of the Exodus with those of the present day.

=6. Very few of the stations= named after crossing the Red Sea can be certainly located. But after leaving Mt. Sinai, at three days’ journey Prof. Palmer discovered the evidences of an ancient camp, surrounded by an immense number of graves, and this place is generally supposed to mark the site of a station called Kibroth-hattaavah, or “the graves of gluttony,” the history of which is found in Num. 11:31‒35. A day’s journey north of this the same explorer discovered other extensive remains of stone heaps and circles covering the hillsides in every direction. As the next station of the Israelites is called Hazeroth, which means “the circles,” and as the Arabs still call this place the “look-outs of Hazeroth,” it seems that the site of another station is known.

=7.= After this it is difficult to trace their course until they reached =Kadesh=, which is 140 miles due east of their first camping-ground in Egypt, namely, Succoth, and at present seems identical with the spot called Ain Gadis, or the spring of Kadesh, 170 miles north by east from Sinai, and 65 miles southwest of the Dead Sea.

There is evidence that anciently a great population was scattered over this region of Ain Gadis, and considerable verdure exists even at present. This appears to have been the general camping-ground of the Israelites for a large part of the thirty-seven years before they finally started to enter the promised land. The sad history of the event which brought this long delay is recorded in Num. 14.