Stations of the Exodus

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The Stations of the Exodus are the locations visited by the Israelites following their exodus from Egypt, according to the Hebrew Bible. In the itinerary given in Numbers 33, forty-two stations are listed, [1] although this list differs slightly from the narrative account of the journey found in Exodus and Deuteronomy.

Contents

Biblical commentators like St Jerome in his Epistle to Fabiola, [2] Bede (Letter to Acca: "De Mansionibus Filiorum Israhel") and St Peter Damian discussed the Stations according to the Hebrew meanings of their names. [3] Dante modeled the 42 chapters of his Vita Nuova on them. [4]

Sources

According to the documentary hypothesis, the list of the Stations was originally a distinct and separate source text. [5] Proponents of this hypothesis believe that the redactor, in combining the Torah's sources, used parts of the Stations list to fill out awkward joins between the main sources. However, a slightly variant version of the list appears in full at Numbers 33, and several parts of the journey described in the full list (most noticeably the journey from Sinai to Zin) do not appear in the fragmented version.

Both versions of the list contain several brief narrative fragments. For example, Exodus 15:27 reads: "[The Israelites] came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees". [6] It is a matter of some debate as to how much of the narrative is part of the original text of the list, and how much is extra detail added into it by the redactor. Some information may also have been drawn from other sources; Numbers 21 contains both an extract from the lost Book of the Wars of the Lord , [7] and the text of a song about the digging of a well at Beer. [8]

Locating the Stations

Attempting to locate many of the stations of the Israelite Exodus is a difficult task, if not infeasible. Though most scholars concede that the narrative of the Exodus may have a historical basis, [9] [10] [11] the event in question would have borne little resemblance to the mass-emigration and subsequent forty years of desert nomadism described in the biblical account. [10] [12] If a smaller-scale exodus did take place, no trace of it has been found in the archaeological record, [13] so archaeology can give no clues as to the modern-day locations of the stations.

Another factor complicating the issue is that the narrative descriptions of many of the stations lack recognizable distinguishing features, or are very broadly defined. For example, Marah, the fifth station, is described only as a place where the Israelites found the drinking water to be exceptionally bitter. The locations of some stations are given in relative terms, such as the "Wilderness of Sin", which is simply described as the area between Elim and Mount Sinai, which, given the uncertain locations of the numerous stations, cannot be positively determined. Other locations central to the narrative, such as the Sea of Reeds, Mount Sinai, and Raamses, also lack positive identification, making it more difficult to plot a plausible map of the Israelites' journey. As such, proposed identifications of the stations of the Exodus are almost entirely conjectural.

List of the Stations of the Exodus

StationBiblical referenceDescriptionPossible location [lower-alpha 1]
RaamsesEx. 12:37; Nu. 33:3The Raamses district was of the highest quality land in Egypt (Ge. 47:11) Pi-Ramesses [14]
Sukkoth Ex. 12:37, 13:20; Nu. 33:5–6The region of Wadi Tumilat, [15] or a city within the region, such as Tell el-Maskhuta [16]
EthamEx. 13:20; Nu. 33:6–8"On the edge of the wilderness"Unknown, but possibly close to modern Ismailia [17]
Pi-Hahiroth Ex. 14:2; Nu. 33:7–8"Between Migdol and the sea, opposite Ba'al-Zephon"- -
Marah Ex. 15:23; Nu. 33:8–9A place where the water was too bitter to drinkAin Hawarah, fifty miles south of Suez [18]
Elim Ex. 15:27, 16:1; Nu. 33:9–10"Where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees" Wadi Gharandel [19]
By the Red SeaNu. 33:10–11- -- -
Sin Wilderness Ex. 16:1, 17:1; Nu. 33:11–12Between Elim and Mount Sinai; here God supplies quail and manna- -
DophkahNu. 33:12–13- -- -
AlushNu. 33:13–14- -- -
Rephidim Ex. 17:1, 19:2; Nu. 33:14–15Moses brings forth water from the Rock of Horeb; the Israelites battle the Amalekites Wadi Refayid [20]
Sinai WildernessEx. 19:1–2; Nu. 10:12, 33:15–16Near Mount Sinai
Kibroth-Hattaavah Nu. 11:35, 33:16–17- -
HazerothNu. 11:35, 12:16, 33:17–18 Miriam is afflicted with a skin disease- -
RithmahNu. 33:18–19- -- -
Rimmon-PerezNu. 33:19–20- -- -
Libnah Nu. 33:20–21- -- -
RissahNu. 33:21–22- -- -
KehelathahNu. 33:22–23- -- -
Mount ShapherNu. 33:23–24- -- -
HaradahNu. 33:24–25- -- -
MakhelothNu. 33:25–26- -- -
TahathNu. 33:26–27- -- -
TerahNu. 33:27–28- -- -
MithcahNu. 33:28–29- -- -
HashmonahNu. 33:29–30- -- -
MoserothNu. 33:30–31; Dt. 10:6 Aaron's burial place according to Deuteronomy- -
Bene-JaakanNu. 33:31–32- -- -
Hor HaggidgadNu. 33:32–33- -- -
JotbathahNu. 33:33–34- -- -
AbronahNu. 33:34–35- -- -
Ezion-Geber Nu. 33:35–36- - Tell el-Kheleifeh [21]
Kadesh Nu. 20:1,22, 33:36–37Located in the Wilderness of Zin; Miriam's burial place Tell el-Qudeirat [22]
Mount Hor Nu. 20:22, 21:4, 33:37–41On the border of Edom; Aaron's burial place according to Numbers- -
ZalmonahNu. 33:41–42- -- -
PunonNu. 33:42–43- - Khirbat Faynan [23]
ObothNu. 21:10–11, 33:43–44- -- -
Iye AbarimNu. 21:11, 33:44–45On the border of Moab - -
Dibon GadNu. 33:45–46- - Dhiban, Jordan [24]
Almon Diblathaim Nu. 33:46–47- -- -
Abarim Mountains Nu. 33:47–48The Israelites encamped near Mount Nebo - -
Plains of Moab Nu. 22:1, 33:48–50The Israelites encamped along the Jordan River from Beth-jeshimoth to Abel-shittim Lower Jordan Valley, between Sweimeh and Tell el-Hammam, Jordan

Notes

  1. ↑ All proposed locations are speculative, and in many cases there are numerous competing theories. This table includes only those theories which have received wide support from modern scholars.

Related Research Articles

The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history; its final form is possibly due to a Priestly redaction of a Yahwistic source made sometime in the early Persian period. The name of the book comes from the two censuses taken of the Israelites.

The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Bible. It is a narrative of the Exodus, the origin myth of the Israelites leaving slavery in Biblical Egypt through the strength of their deity named Yahweh, who according to the story chose them as his people. The Israelites then journey with the legendary prophet Moses to Mount Sinai, where Yahweh gives the 10 commandments and they enter into a covenant with Yahweh, who promises to make them a "holy nation, and a kingdom of priests" on condition of their faithfulness. He gives them their laws and instructions to build the Tabernacle, the means by which he will come from heaven and dwell with them and lead them in a holy war to conquer Canaan, which has earlier, according to the myth of Genesis, been promised to the "seed" of Abraham, the legendary patriarch of the Israelites.

The Wilderness of Sin or Desert of Sin is a geographic area mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as lying between Elim and Mount Sinai. Sin does not refer to the moral concept of "sin", but comes from the Hebrew word Sîn, the Hebrew name for this region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rephidim</span> One of the places visited by the Israelites in the biblical account of the Exodus

Rephidim or Refidim is one of the places visited by the Israelites in the biblical account of the Exodus from Egypt.

Pi-HaHiroth, is the fourth station of the Exodus mentioned in Exodus 14:2. The fifth and sixth stations Marah and Elim are located on the Red Sea. The biblical books Exodus and Numbers refer to Pi-HaHiroth as the place where the Israelites encamped between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon, while awaiting an attack by Pharaoh, prior to crossing the Red Sea. Reaching Pi-HaHiroth involved turning back from the direction they had been traveling and going south directly opposite of God's preferred proximate destination of Kadesh Barnea at the entrance to the Philistine territory, which was done in order to gain time to boost the morale of the Israelites; their ultimate destination was the Abrahamic city of Hebron, east of the Philistine capital Gaza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crossing the Red Sea</span> Part of the biblical narrative of the Exodus

The Crossing of the Red Sea or Parting of the Red Sea is an episode in the origin myth of The Exodus in the Hebrew Bible.

The historicity of the Bible is the question of the Bible's relationship to history—covering not just the Bible's acceptability as history but also the ability to understand the literary forms of biblical narrative. One can extend biblical historicity to the evaluation of whether or not the Christian New Testament is an accurate record of the historical Jesus and of the Apostolic Age. This tends to vary depending upon the opinion of the scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kadesh (biblical)</span> Placename in the Hebrew Bible

Kadesh or Qadesh or Cades is a place-name that occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible, describing a site or sites located south of, or at the southern border of, Canaan and the Kingdom of Judah in the kingdom of Israel. Many modern academics hold that it was a single site, located at the modern Tel el-Qudeirat, while some academics and rabbinical authorities hold that there were two locations named Kadesh. A related term, either synonymous with Kadesh or referring to one of the two sites, is KadeshBarnea. Various etymologies for Barnea have been proposed, including 'desert of wanderings,' but none have produced widespread agreement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Exodus</span> Founding myth of the Jewish people

The Exodus is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four of the five books of the Pentateuch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marah (Bible)</span>

Marah is one of the locations which the Exodus identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elim (place)</span>

Elim, according to the Hebrew Bible, was one of the places where the Israelites camped following their Exodus from Egypt. It is referred to in Exodus 15:27 and Numbers 33:9 as a place where "there were twelve wells of water and seventy date palms," and that the Israelites "camped there near the waters".

Kibroth Hattaavah or Kibroth-hattaavah is one of the locations which the Israelites passed through during their Exodus journey, recorded in the Book of Numbers. It was at this place, according to the biblical narrative, that the Israelites loudly complained about constantly eating only manna, and that they had enjoyed a much more varied diet, of fish, vegetables, fruit and meat, when they lived in Egypt; the text states that this led Moses, in despair, to cry out to Yahweh, who then promised them so much meat that 'they would vomit it through their nostrils'. The narrative goes on to tell of a huge number of quails brought by the winds to both sides of the Israelite encampment, which the people gathered. Modern translations imply that Yahweh sent the plague as they were chewing the first meat that fell

Massah and Meribah are place names found in the Hebrew Bible. The Israelites are said to have travelled through Massah and Meribah during the Exodus, although the continuous list of visited stations in Numbers 33 does not mention this. In Exodus 17:7, Meribah is mentioned at the same time as Massah, in a context which suggests that Massah is the same location as Meribah, but other biblical mentions of Massah and Meribah, such as that in the Blessing of Moses seem to imply that they are distinct. Massah and Meribah are also referred to in several other places in the Bible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Sinai (Bible)</span> Mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God

Mount Sinai is the mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God, according to the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Deuteronomy, these events are described as having transpired at Mount Horeb. "Sinai" and "Horeb" are generally considered by scholars to refer to the same place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nitzanei Sinai</span> Israeli village in Ramat HaNegev Regional Council

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According to the Book of Numbers, Taberah is one of the locations which the Israelites passed through during their Exodus journey. The biblical narrative states that the place received its name, which means the pӀace of burning, because the fire of the LORD had burned there in anger because of their continued complaints. The text states that the fire first burned at the outskirts of the Israelite camp, killing some of those who lived on the edge of the group, but it was extinguished when Moses prayed on the people's behalf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharaohs in the Bible</span> Pharaohs mentioned in the Bible

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Wadi Gharandel is a wadi in western Sinai, Egypt.

The Exodus is the founding myth of the Israelites. The scholarly consensus is that the Exodus, as described in the Torah, is not historical, even though there may be a historical core behind the Biblical narrative.

Tell el-Qudeirat is an archaeological site in the Sinai, about 5 mi (8.0 km) east of the Egyptian village of Quseima. It is widely considered to be the location of the biblical Kadesh Barnea. Recently, some authors have referred to it as Tel Kadesh-barnea. Moshe Dothan (1965) referred to it as Tel 'Ein el Qudeirat, while in the early twentieth century Woolley and Lawrence used the spelling Tell Ain el Guderat.

References

  1. ↑ Numbers 33
  2. ↑ University, Center for Teaching and Learning at Columbia. "A letter from Jerome (400)". Epistolae.
  3. ↑ Gregory F. LaNave, et al., The Fathers of the Church: Mediaeval Continuation, The Letters of Peter Damian 151-180, Letter 160, pp. 110 ff., The Catholic University of America Press, Washington D.C. (2005)
  4. ↑ Julia Bolton Holloway, Sweet New Style: Brunetto Latino, Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer, Chapter III, (2003)
  5. ↑ Nili S. Fox, in Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler (editors), The Jewish study Bible, Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1999), p. 349: "The literary style of the itinerary, the repetition of campsite names, and the highlighting of events in those places closely resemble extant military records from the ancient Near East, especially from Assyria. Accordingly, the notation in this Priestly source that Moses recorded the starting points of their various marches (v. 2) fits the genre. Some scholars, however, consider ch 33 a composite text extracted from other portions of Numbers, Exodus, and Deuteronomy."
  6. ↑ Exodus 15:27 (NSRV).
  7. ↑ Numbers 21:14–15
  8. ↑ Numbers 21:16b–18a
  9. ↑ Redmount, Carol A. (2001) [1998]. "Bitter Lives: Israel In And Out of Egypt". In Coogan, Michael D. (ed.). The Oxford History of the Biblical World. OUP. p. 87. ISBN   9780199881482.
  10. 1 2 Avraham Faust (2015). Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archaeology, Culture, and Geoscience. Springer. p. 476. ISBN   978-3-319-04768-3.
  11. ↑ Sparks, Kenton L. (2010). "Genre Criticism". In Dozeman, Thomas B. (ed.). Methods for Exodus. Cambridge University Press. p. 73. ISBN   9781139487382.
  12. ↑ William G. Dever (2001). What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?: What Archeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 99. ISBN   978-0-8028-2126-3.
  13. ↑ Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2001). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts . Free Press. pp. 62–3. ISBN   0-684-86912-8.
  14. ↑ van Seters, John (2001). "The Geography of the Exodus". In Dearman, J. A.; Graham, M. P. (eds.). The Land that I Will Show You. Sheffield Academic Press. p. 264. ISBN   1-84127-257-4. Most scholars accept the equation of Rameses with Piramesse, the capital of the 19th Dynasty built by Ramesses II.
  15. ↑ Bietak (28 March 2015). "On the Historicity of the Exodus". In Levy, T. E.; Schneider, T.; Propp, W. H. C. (eds.). Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective. Springer. p. 21. ISBN   9783319047683. Tjeku, the name of the region of Wadi Tumilat, is regarded by many as an Egyptian rendering of the biblical Sukkot.
  16. ↑ Kitchen, K. A. (2003). On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 257–8. ISBN   0-8028-4960-1.
  17. ↑ Kitchen 2003 , p. 259
  18. ↑ Hyatt, J. Philip (1971). Commentary on Exodus . Oliphants. p. 172. ISBN   0-551-00630-7. Marah is often identified with 'Ain Hawarah, about fifty miles S. of the northern end of the Gulf of Suez.
  19. ↑ Kitchen 2003 , p. 269. "It is commonly suggested that the well-watered Wadi Gharandel was Elim."
  20. ↑ Kotter, Wade R. (2019). "Rephidim". In Freedman, D. N. (ed.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. William B. Eerdmans. ISBN   978-1-4674-6046-0. Tradition has long identified Wadi Feiran near Jebul Musa as the location of Rephidim, although more recent scholarship prefers the nearby Wadi Refayid because of the similarity in name.
  21. ↑ Pratico, Gary D. (1993). Nelson Glueck's 1938–1940 Excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh: A Reappraisal . American Schools of Oriental Research. p. 17. ISBN   9781555408831. Nelson Glueck's identification of Tell el-Kheleifeh with biblical Ezion-geber has been generally accepted by the archaeological community.
  22. ↑ de Geus, C. H. J. (1977). "Kadesh Barnea: Some Geographical and Historical Remarks". In Brongers, H. A. (ed.). Instruction and Interpretation: Studies in Hebrew Language, Palestinian Archaeology and Biblical Exegesis. Brill Archive. p. 58. ISBN   90-04-05433-2. Anyone who is familiar with the Exodus-literature will know that Kadesh Barnea is practically always identified with ʿAin el Qudeirat.
  23. ↑ MacDonald, Burton (2015). The Southern Transjordan Edomite Plateau and the Dead Sea Rift Valley. Oxbow Books. p. 79. ISBN   978-1-78297-832-9. Khirbat Faynan ... is almost certainly the location of Phaino/Punon/Pinon.
  24. ↑ Kitchen 2003 , p. 195. "Dibon ... is readily admitted to be located at modern Dhiban."
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