THE ISRAELITES IN SINAI II.
HAVING reached the goal of their pilgrimage, the Israelites encamped
near the Mount of God, Har-ha-elohim (Exod. xviii. 5), a word which
can also be read as height of the priests. If we identify this goal as
Serabit, it follows that they encamped near the outlet of one of the
gorges on the northern side of the plateau in the direction of the Wadi
Suweig, probably near the outlet of the Wadi Dhaba. This was the side
from which there was direct access to the cave of Sopd, and the side on
which the Semitic inscriptions were found in the mines.
The physical features of the place are in closest agreement with the
requirements of Scripture. For here is “a mountain with a wilderness
at its foot, rising so sharply that its base could be fenced in while
yet it was easily ascended, and its summit could be seen by a multitude
from below.”[103]
If we go from the sanctuary down in the direction of the Wadi Dhaba and
turning back, look up, we see the temple ruins standing against the
skyline, with the square cutting, where the holocaust at this period
presumably took place, just below it to the right.
When the Israelites were encamped, Moses was sought by Jethro, the
priest, who carried out the choice of an animal and “took a burnt
offering and sacrifices for God” (Exod. xviii. 12). Moses himself
ascended the Mount, and after his return sanctified the people,
who were now called upon to practise abstinence during three days,
avoiding their wives, and washing their clothes against the third day,
when “the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon
Mount Sinai” (Exod. xix. 11). This arrangement was apparently part
of a widespread Semitic usage, for in the Koran we read of similar
restrictions for the three days preceding the appearance of the new
moon (Koran, ii. 193).
On the third day there were “thunders and lightnings,” or rather,
“voices and flashes,” and the sound of a trumpet (Exod. xix. 16),
and the people were led out by Moses and stood on the nether part
of the Mount from where they witnessed the theophany. Fire appeared
first, then smoke (Deut. v. 23), which shows that they were out before
daybreak. “And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord
descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke
of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly” (Exod. xix. 18). The
voice of the trumpet waxing louder, Moses spoke and God answered him by
a voice (Exod. xix. 19), whereupon he went up and was charged to set
bounds about the Mount. On his return he declared to the people the
statutes and judgments (Deut. v. 1; Exod. xx. 1), which were vouchsafed
to him.
The ceremony points to a well-established ritual which has its roots
deep down in Semitic usage. For a trumpet of horn was sounded on
special occasions among the Hebrews long before the Exodus. “Blow up
the trumpet (_shophar_) in the new moon in the time appointed, on our
solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel and a law of the
God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he
went out through the land of Egypt, where I heard a language that I
understood not” (Psa. lxxxi. 3-5).
In the Moslim world, nowadays, it falls to the _mu-ezzin_ to call the
announcement or prayer (the _azan_) from the tower of the mosque in the
early morning, when a man of piety may respond.[104]
The theophany on high bearing witness to the presence of the Divinity,
Moses prepared for the tribal sacrifice below by erecting an altar and
setting up twelve pillars (_mazzeboth_). The young men slew the oxen,
and Moses sprinkled the blood on the pillars and the people. Then,
taking with him three priests and seventy elders, he went up into the
mountain. “And they saw the God of Israel, and there was under His
feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone and as it were the very
heaven for clearness” (Exod. xxiv. 10, 11). And they ate and they drank
there.
We read that Moses’ second stay in the Mount lasted forty days and
forty nights, during which he fasted (Exod. xxxiv. 28). The Moslim
identified this fast as Ramadan, which, before Mohammad interfered
with its date, happened during the heat of summer.[105] The Israelites
at the foot of the mountain, probably observed the same fast, since
Aaron’s reason for making the calf was that “to-morrow shall be a feast
of the Lord,” _i.e._ at the conclusion of the fast, there was feasting,
drinking, throwing off of clothes, dancing and much noise (Exod. xxxii.
6, 17, 25). In this case it was a question of a full moon festival,
for, on a later occasion, Jeroboam made two calves of gold, one of
which he set up in Bethel and one in Dan, and ordained a feast on the
15th day (1 Kings xii. 28, 32).
In the Mount, Moses was directed to make a portable sanctuary on the
model of actual arrangements which he was shown. “And let them make
me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I
show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the
instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Exod. xxv. 8, 9). “And
thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof
which was showed thee in the Mount” (Exod. xxvi. 30). “Hollow with
boards shalt thou make it; as it was showed thee in the mount, so shall
they make it” (Exod. xxvii. 8). The furniture included an ark or chest,
which contained a vase and two stones, _i.e._ the standards of capacity
and weight, and the “mercy seat” which was upon the ark (Exod. xxv.
17). There was also a standard of length, perhaps the rod of Aaron.
The strict adherence to these standards was henceforth a matter of
religious duty with the Israelites. “Ye shall do no unrighteousness
in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances,
just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have” (Lev. xix.
35, 36). These standards were of Babylonian origin, and confirm the
presence in the Mount of strong Semitic influence.
The ark further contained the two tables of testimony, which were cut
in stone, but which were so brittle that they easily broke, whereupon
Moses engaged to provide others (Exod. xxiv. 12; xxxii. 19; xxxiv. 1;
Deut. x. 1). The commandments which they contained consisted, for the
most part, of a prohibition that was followed by a precept. In this
they resemble the commandments that have come out of Babylonia, which
contain precepts such as these, “Thou shalt not slander, speak what is
pure. Thou shalt not speak evil, speak kindly.”[106]
The tablets were in the “writing of God” (Exod. xxxii. 16), which
raises the question as to the language and script that were used.
Moses, as we know, was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians”
(Acts vii. 22). He was certainly familiar with hieroglyphs, and the
fact that the commandments were preserved in two texts that differ
(Exod. xx; Deut. v.), suggests that they were written in a language
that was not Hebrew. But the discovery of a primitive Semitic script at
Serabit itself, puts a different complexion on the matter. The “writing
of God” was possibly a Semitic script.
Over and above the commandments, Moses received a collection of written
customs for the guidance of those who were henceforth to decide
in inter-tribal disputes. They are known as judgments (Exod. xxi.
1), which is in keeping with their being given out at a sanctuary,
where Yahveh was accepted as Supreme Judge. In the Yahveh cult the
pronouncements were no longer subject to the decisions at local
centres. They were set down in writing and associated with the holy
tent, and it was by accepting the local Baals and Ashtoreths that the
Hebrews fell from the covenant and lapsed into an earlier barbarism.
The discovery of the Code of Khammurabi and the points of likeness
between its ordinances and those of the code accepted under the name
of Moses, further corroborate the Semitic or Arabian influence of the
religious centres where the ordinances were received.
Moses had many communings in the Mount, and a year had gone by when the
tabernacle was set up “on the first day of the first month,” in order
to celebrate the Passover (Exod. xl. 2; Num. ix. 1). On the twentieth
day of the second month in the second year the fires were extinguished
and the Israelites moved out of the wilderness of Sinai while a cloud
lay on Paran (Num. x. 11-12). They were led by Hobab, the Kenite. Hobab
is described in one passage as “the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses’
father-in-law” (Num. x. 29), in another as “the father-in-law of Moses”
(Judg. iv. 11). The Septuagint renders the term in both passages as
“brother-in-law” (_i.e._ γαμβρός) of Moses. The terms of relationship
are difficult to fix, but if Raguel be accepted as the tribal father,
as already suggested, Jethro and Hobab may be looked upon as younger
members of the tribe, perhaps his sons.
The first station was called Taberah because of the “Burning.” Here
manna was again plentiful (Num. xi. 8), which shows that the district
was wooded. The next place was called Kibroth-Hata-avah, _i.e._ burial
place of Ta-avah, because of those who died of the plague and were
buried. Here again quails were plentiful, which the wind brought up
from the sea (Num. xi. 31). The next stopping place was Hazeroth (Num.
xi. 35), the last station before they entered the wilderness of Paran
(Num. xii. 16).
Robinson located Hazeroth at Ain Hudhera.[107] But if the original goal
of the Israelites was Serabit, they would be moving in a northerly or
north-easterly direction. In the opening lines of Deuteronomy occur
the words Hazeroth and Dizahab (Deut. i, 1), for which the Septuagint
substitutes Aulon, rich in gold (Αὐλὼν or Αὐλὸν καὶ καταχρύσεα).[108]
The word Aulon signifies ravine, which suggests that Hazeroth must be
sought somewhere along the escarpment of the Badiet Tîh, or “plain of
wandering.” The map of Sinai in a north-easterly direction shows Wadi
Hafera, which has some likeness to Hazeroth. The Bir Shaweis and the
Bir Themed are perennial wells which the people would strike if they
moved in a north-north-easterly direction.
The next stopping place was “in the wilderness of Paran” (Num. xii. 16).
According to the Bible, in the first month (_i.e._ eleven months after
leaving the Holy Mount), the Israelites abode in Kadesh, where Miriam
died and was buried (Num. xx. 1). Moses once more struck water from the
rock, the water as before was Meribah (Num. xx. 13), hence the name of
the place Meribath-Kadesh (Ezek. xlviii. 28). The name Kadesh itself
suggests a sanctuary, and Moses here again had communings with Yahveh
(Num. xx. 7).
Kadesh appears as Cades in the life of Hilarion († 307), which was
written by Jerome. The saint went there to see a disciple passing by
Elusa (modern Khalasa).[109] There is Ain Kadeis or Gadeis marked on
the modern map. Robinson, however, sought Kadesh of the Israelites near
Mount Hor, at the present Ain el Waiba.[110]
Kadesh lay “in the uttermost borders of Edom,” and the Israelites would
now have marched through Edom, “keeping along the king’s highway.”
Perhaps the road along the Mediterranean is meant. “But Edom refused”
(Num. xx. 21). They were therefore obliged to seek an entry into Canaan
by compassing the land of Edom, which meant turning in an easterly
direction towards Mount Hor, and then in a southerly direction to the
Gulf of Akaba, the so-called “Red Sea” (Num. xiv. 25). An intercalated
passage in Deuteronomy states that “the children of Israel took their
journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera; there Aaron
died” (Deut. x. 6). The wells must therefore be sought close to Mount
Hor, and may be the so-called Wells of Moses, which are named as such
by the mediæval pilgrims. The modern map mentions Wadi Musa, which
joins the Arabah coming from Petra. The Book of Numbers located the
death of Aaron in “Mount Hor, by the” (border, not) “coast of the land
of Edom” (Num. xx. 23). Here the Lord once more spoke to Moses, which
suggests the existence of a sanctuary.
Eusebius (_c._ 320) wrote, “Mount Hor, in which Aaron died, a hill near
the city Petra.”[111] Mount Hor is the modern Gebel Haroun or Mount of
Aaron, a few miles north-west of the classical Petra. The district at
the time was apparently in the possession of the Kenites, since the
prophet Balaam, called upon by King Balak of the Moabites, to curse the
Israelites, foretold the fall of the Amalekites, and, looking towards
the Kenites, declared “Strong is thy dwelling place, and thou puttest
thy nest in a rock” (Num. xxiv. 21). This rock, a term which the
Septuagint rendered as Petra, was probably the Ha-sela (Arabic _sila_,
a mountain cleft) of the Bible, a name changed to Joktheel after its
capture by Amaziah (_c._ B.C. 800, 2 Kings xiv. 7).
At Kadesh the Israelites had been told to “get you into the wilderness
by the way of the Red Sea” (Num. xiv. 25), _i.e._ they moved south
from Mount Hor. The intercalated passage further named “Gadgodah and
Jotbath, a land of brooks and water” (Deut. x. 7; LXX, Etebatha). The
modern map mentions Et Taba in the depression between the Red Sea and
the Dead Sea, where Romans perpetuated the existence of a sanctuary
in the name Ad Dianam, later Ghadiana. This movement brought the
Israelites into conflict with the Amalekites and the Canaanites, with
whom they fought and were discomfited even unto Hormah (Num. xiv. 45;
LXX, Herman), perhaps the present El Hameima.
According to Arab tradition, Joshua fought against Samida ben Hagbar
ben Malek, the Amalekite king of Syria in the land of Aila and killed
him. Also Moses, after the death of Aaron, entered the land of the
people El Eiss, called El Serah, and advanced to the desert Bab. There
was then near Aila an important city called Asabaum or Aszyoun.[112]
This Aszyoun was “Eziongeber beside Eloth (_i.e._ Alia) on the shore of
the Red Sea in the land of Edom” (1 Kings ix. 26). It was the port on
the Gulf of Akaba which was used by King Solomon. By way of this the
Israelites passed into the plains of Moab. “And when we passed by from
our brethren the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir, through the way
of the plain from Elath, and from Eziongeber, we turned and passed by
the way of the wilderness of Moab” (Deut. ii. 8).
A list of stations with further names stands in Numbers (xxx. 12,
13, 17-30), which affords no guide and confuses the issues. It is
now looked upon as a post-exilic collection of caravan routes which
the scribe who compiled the Book of Numbers incorporated into his
account, perhaps because the number of stations named in it was
forty, corresponding to the forty years’ wandering. Along some routes
it mentions the stations that appear in the narrative in Exodus and
Deuteronomy, but even here with deviations.
Having passed by the depression near the Red Sea, the Israelites were
in districts that were occupied by the allied Moabites and Midianites.
They entered into friendly relations with the Midianites; later they
waged a cruel war against them.
The frontiers of Midian were always vague. According to the Bible Moses
met Jethro in the “land of Midian,” which suggests that the peninsula
of Sinai was included in Midian at the time. Midian is called Madian in
the Septuagint and by the Arab writers. Antoninus Martyr (_c._ _a.d._
530) held that the city Pharan, situated between the convent and Egypt,
was in “the land of Midian” with its inhabitants descended from Jethro
(c. 40).
Makrizi († 1441) described Madian as of wide extent including many
cities, chief among which were El Khalasa and El Sanuto. “On the side
of the sea of Kalzouna (_i.e._ Suez) and El Tor the cities of Madian
are Faran, El Ragah (_i.e._ Raithou), Kolzoum, Aila and Madian. In the
town of Madian there are still to-day wonderful ruins and gigantic
columns.”[113]
In modern parlance the term Midian is applied to the eastern shore of
the Gulf of Arabia, between Akaba and Muweileh, which has made some
writers believe that Moses went into this part of Arabia, and further
led to the identification of Jethro of Scripture with Shoeib, a prophet
of the land of Midian.
Sir Richard Burton in 1877 visited the ruins of the city of Midian,
the position of which agreed with that of Madiama mentioned by
Ptolemy.[114] The valleys which here cut into the high plain of Nedched
contained the remains of silver, copper and gold mines, and near the
city were great loculi cut into the rock which were known as the
Mughair (caves of) Shoeib.
Shoeib was one of the prophets of the Arab past. In the Koran we read,
“And we sent to Madian, their brother Shoeib. He said, O my people,
worship God, no other God have you than He: give not short weight and
measure: I see indeed that you revel in good things, but I fear with
you the punishment of the all encompassing day.... And when our decree
came to pass, we delivered Shoeib and his companions in faith, and a
violent tempest overtook the wicked, and in the morning they were found
prostrate in their houses as if they had never dwelt in them. Was not
Madian swept off even as Themoud was swept off?” (xi. 89). According to
other passages, an earthquake put an end to the dwellers in Al Ayka,
the forest of Madian, who treated their apostles as liars (vii. 90,
xxix. 30).
The name of Shoeib now attaches to the valley in Sinai in which lies
the great convent, and tradition identified Shoeib of the forest
of Midian with Jethro, the priest of Midian of the Bible. Their
identification is said by Sir Richard Burton to go back to the Arab
writer El Farga of about A.D. 800.
It was endorsed by Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria (935-940),
who stated that Moses fled to the Hadjaz and dwelt in the city of
Madyan, where Jethro (whom the Arabs call Shoeib) was priest of the
temple.[115] But Masudi († 951), while accepting that the daughter
of Shoeib married Moses, pointed out that this Shoeib, chief of the
Midianites, was a very different person from Shoeib the prophet, who
was mentioned in the Koran. “There are centuries between these two
Shoeibs.”[116]
The identification of Jethro with the prophet Shoeib may be due, in
the first instance, to the claims which these prophets made on their
people. Moses, who was in contact with Jethro, received the standards
of weight and capacity in the Mount, the strict adherence to which was
henceforth a matter of religious observance to the people. Shoeib,
according to the Koran, impressed upon the people of the forest the
need to give measure and weight in fairness, and the disregard to his
command was the cause of their destruction (Koran, lxxi. 88, xxvi.
178).