The Exodus Route ( continued )
The narrative for the second part of
the journey is
found in two books of the Bible, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Since the
location of the Red Sea crossing and the Mount Sinai have been
relocated the rest of the journey must also change considerably. The
Israelites wandering in the wilderness would, in fact, take place on
the eastern side of the Red Sea, rather than in the Sinai Peninsula.
The narrative that covers this part of their journey is found
throughout the book of Numbers and in the beginning of Deuteronomy. I
will try to combine these two narratives and produce a route that takes
place in present day Saudi Arabia.
The Israelites stayed near Mount
Sinai for a little
less than two years. There they received the Ten Commandments, and
built the tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant. Deuteronomy 1:19
says, the Isrealites left Horeb ( Sinai ) and went through the
wilderness and came to Kadesh-barnea, and the mountain of the
Amorites. Numbers calls this place Kadesh, and says that it is in the
wilderness of Paran. From here the Israelites sent out the 12 spies to
spy out the Promised Land. The spies, however, came back with bad news.
Yes they said, it is truely a land flowing with milk and honey, but
there are the Anakims there and we are as grasshoppers compared to
them. The Israelites refused to take the Promised Land and so God sent
them back into the wilderness for 40 years. Numbers 14:25 says "get you
into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea." They did not listen,
attacking
the Amorites living nearby, they lost horribly. They retreated to Seir
and from there to Hormah, going south along the
shore of the Red Sea they continued retreating, and came unto Kadesh in
the
wilderness of Zin.
Where is Kadesh?
The traditional route has
only one Kadesh, which
they place in the northwestern part of the Sinai Peninsula. Now
obviously if the Israelites sent out the spies from one Kadesh and then
left it retreating south along the Red Sea they would not have ended up
in the same Kadesh. Not only that, one Kadesh is in the wilderness of
Zin, and the other is in the wilderness of Paran. So there must be two
Kadeshes, each in a different wilderness, one of which is
called Kadesh-barnea. And the traditional Kadesh, on the Sinai
Peninsula, can be
neither of
these. Kadesh has always been associated with a holy place and there
were many
of them in ancient times;
Jerusalem was called Kadesh, as was Carchemish on the Orontes; there
was a Kadesh in Galilee, Kadesh Naphtali, mentioned a few times in the
Scriptures. The word means “sanctuary” and every venerated place was
called Kadesh. In the Bible, Kadesh is referred to as a city.( Num.
20:16 ) This definitely decreases the number of sites at which the
Israelites could have stayed, for cities among bedouins are few and far
between. Mecca was thought to be a holy city and still is, which
makes it the most reasonable candidate for the Kadesh of the
Israelites'
wanderings. So why is this Kadesh, that the Israelites stayed at
for nearly 40 years, undoubtably Mecca? Well Immanuel Velikovsky found
an old
legend, the Kitab-alaghaniy,
told
by the Arabs of Saudi Arabia, that tells of the Isrealites (see
previous article for quote ) being in
that region. The Kitab-alaghaniy
says that the nomadic tribe continued south and stopped at Mecca. His
article, The
Great and
Terrible Wilderness covers this part of the journey.1
In Mecca too, the plagues of Egypt were felt, and
its inhabitants or recent conquerors, the Amalekites, fled from the
city leaving it rather empty. The fugitive Israelites, defeated
by the hostile Amalekites at Kadesh-barnea, in southern Canaan, had no
other choice but to return to Egypt or to move south by way of
the Red Sea. They were strangers in this
land and they begged the Midianites to give them a guide to show the
way
through the desert. After many troubles they finally reached Kadesh.
After a stay of "many days" at Kadesh the Israelites
asked the king of the nearby kingdom of Edom if they could travel
through his country by way of the highway. The King of Edom refused,
and instead came out and fought with the Israelites. The Israelites
then turned away from Edom and went through a great and terrible
wilderness and came to Mount Seir where they rested for a while. (
Deut.2:1 ) The people in this region were descendants Esau, and were
friendly and helpful.( Deut. 2:4 ) God then told Israel to turn
northwards toward the Promised Land, once again by way of the Red Sea.
Along the way the Israelites came to Mount Hor where Aaron died. They
continued north, around the land of Moab and came
to the land of the Amorites. The Israelites asked Sihon, King of the
Amorites, if they could travel on the King's highway that went through
his land, west of the Dead Sea.(Num. 21:22 ) He too refused. This
time the Israelites
fought, taking his land and continued their journey up the highway to
the Jordan River, where the conquest of the Promised Land began.
Notes:
1.
Immanuel Velikovsky
thought that there was only one Kadesh, which was Mecca. The problems
with this theory have already been discussed above, in "Where is
Kadesh". However, the short
synopsis of the Israelites' route found in Numbers 33 mentions only one
Kadesh. In the narrative though it does say the Israelites stopped at
Hazeroth,(verse 18) which was
the last stop before Kadesh-barnea, (Num. 12:16) This narrative also
leaves out the journey
to Mount Seir. I used Velikovsky's
work, "The Great and Terrible Wilderness" for my identification of
Kadesh
with Mecca, and for the quotes from the Kitab-alaghaniy. Nevertheless the
rest of this article was taken solely from the Bible, to my knowledge
this part of the route has never been detailed before. All other
narratives stop short at Mount Sinai, and do not mention the wandering
in the wilderness, except the fictional accounts made by Bible scholars
that have the Israelits wander for forty years in the Sinai Peninsula.
2.
Another problem arose
when I tried to locate where Aaron, Moses' brother, died. Numbers says
it was Mount Hor.(Num. 20:23) Deuteronomy, however, says that it was
Mosera.(Deut.10:6) Deuteronomy says that they traveled from Beer-oth of
the people of Jaakan to Mosera where Aaron died. In the synopsis of the
Israelites journey, found
in Numbers 33, I found a place called Moseroth which would correspond
to Mosera. Numbers continues with the Israelites traveling from Mosera
to
Benejaakan. So the Beer-oth and people of Jaakan mentioned
in Deuteronomy is the Benejaakan of Numbers. This results in Benejaakan
being paralleled by Beer-oth and the people of Jaakan, and Moseroth is
Mosera. However, the narrative is backwards, Deuteronomy has
the Israelites come to Benejaakan right before Mosera, while Numbers
has the Israelites arrive at Mosera(Moseroth) first and then next stop,
Benejaakan. Later on in the Numbers synopsis Mt. Hor is mentioned as
part of the route from Kadesh(Mecca) north. So the explanation is that
the Israelites passed Benejaakan on their way south, which resulted in
the name turning up in the Numbers narrative, and then went to Mosera,
as stated in Numbers. On the way back up north, they would have come to
Benejaakan first and then Mosera alias Mt. Hor, resulting in the
Deuteronomy version. Thus they passed over the same route twice and
recorded each in part.
3.
Another irregularity
arises from the Numbers 33 narrative. If the Israelites really went
north to Kadesh-barnea to send out the spies, then the route detailed
in verses 18 through 36 of Numbers 33 would cover their retreat after
their defeat by the Amorites near Kadesh-barnea. Verses 18-36 would
then be the journey from Kadesh-barnea to Ezion-Geber, which is on the
tip of the Gulf of Aquaba. Between the verses 18 and 36, there are 17
places where they stopped to rest. Yet from Ezion-Geber to
Kadesh(Mecca) there are no stopping places mentioned in Numbers 33,
though it is over 10 times the distance. For this there are three
possible explanations.
One is that from Ezion-geber to Kadesh(Mecca) there are fewer watering
holes, and hence fewer places for a large tribe with cattle to stop and
rest.
Two is that there were fewer cities in this part of the route and so if
the Israelites did stop somewhere it would probably not have a name,
and if it did have a name there was really no way to find out what the
name was. However, when they stopped at cities as they did from
Kadesh-barnea to Ezion-geber it would be quite simple to find out the
name of the city- ask the villagers.
Three is that the route from Kadesh-barnea to Ezion-geber was familiar
territory, for the Israelites have owned that portion of palestine
since King Saul until today. Therefore they would know the names of the
cities much better having conquered and lived in them.
Note: Kadesh(Mecca) is used to designate the southern Kadesh, since
there are two of Kadeshes.
References:
The Great and
Terrible Wilderness, Immanuel Velikovsky
Kitab-alaghaniy, cited by Immanuel Velikovsky, ibid
Bible, King James Version