At Ghurundel the plain ends and the mountains begin. The peaks are still distant, but their rugged roots from the right and left interlap, leaving be tween them wild ravines. On the right rises Jebel Hammam, dark and desolate, deriving its name from a warm spring, or natural bath' at its base. Six miles from Ghurundel is Wady Useit, which some suppose to be Elim ; but, though it has fountains and palm groves, it is not so well suited for a large encampment as its rival. Below the fountain it contracts into a wild ravine, serpent ining between two towering walls of limestone, many hundred feet high, of the most dazzling whiteness, which occasionally meeting beneath, scarcely admitted a difficult passage through its terrific jaws' (Bartlett, Forty, Days in the Desert, p. 36).
The ridge of Rahah now shuts in the path on the left, while the precipitous sides of Hammam bar all progress along the shore. Between them lies the only path to Sinai. On advancing four hours' march from Useit, there is an open arca where two glens unite and form Wady Taiyibeh,' which bends sharply to the south, and winds be tween dark lofty cliffs for five miles, and then opens upon a narrow plain, bordering on the Red Sea. The route of the Israelites cannot be mistaken here. We read, 'they removed from Elim and encamped by the Red Sea.' The plain at the mouth of Wady Taiyibeh must be the place of the en campment ; and a wild lonely spot it is. Here the sublime scenery of the Sinai mountains burst at once upon the view of the Israelites. The glittering granite peaks, the gorgeous colouring of the nearer cliffs, the deep blue sea, and away far beyond it the pale outline of the African coast, form a picture rarely equalled.
The 'wilderness of Sin' was thenext station (Num. xxxiii. II). The narrative in Exodus omits the en campment by the sea (xvi. I). The omission is im portant. It shows that it was not the object of the sacred writer to mention all the stations, only the more remarkable. Nor does he intimate that the journeys were made on consecutive days. A whole month was spent between Rameses and Sin (cf. Num. xxxiii. 3 ; Exod. xvi. t), though only eight stations are named, and only ten days' actual march recorded. Another circumstance is worthy of note : Not a word is yet spoken of the flocks and herds. They were doubtless scattered over the whole country, having been led to the best pastures, and most copious fountains. It has been argued indeed by Colenso and others, that if such had been the case they must have been constantly guarded by armed men. The answer is easy. We are told
that the fear of the Israelites had gone before them, and spread over all Western Asia—fear inspired by the stupendous miracles of the plagues, and by the destruction of Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea. The divine promise is most emphatic :—‘ I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come ; and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee' (Exod. xxiii. 27 ; cf. xv. 14 ; Num, xxii. 2-4 ; Deut. 24, 25, etc.) . Under such circumstances their flocks could feed in perfect security from the borders of Egypt to Canaan, over a region contain ing 15,000 square miles. It is because critics of the Colenso school will shut their eyes to the whole circumstances of the case, and deliberately ignore the divine element, that the Exodus and wilder ness-journey appear to them incredible.
At the mouth of Wady Taiyibeh commences the plain which extends along the whole south-western side of the peninsula. At first narrow, and inter rupted by low spurs from the mountains, it soon expands into an undulating, dreary waste, covered in part with a white gravelly soil, and in part with sand. This is the wilderness of Sin.'* Its des°. late and barren aspect appears to have produced a most depressing effect on the Israelites. Shut in on the one hand by the sea, on the other by wild mountains, exposed to the full blaze of a burning sun, on that bleak plain, the stock of provisions brought from Egypt now exhausted (Joseph. Antiq.
1. 3), we can scarcely wonder that they said to Moses : Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we did eat bread to the full ; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with, hunger' (Exod. xvi. 3).
It was here the quails were sent in answer to the cry of the people for flesh ; and it was on the sur face of this desert the heaven-given manna first appeared, bathed in morning dew. The site of the camp is incidentally indicated by the statement that, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord ap peared in a cloud.' The camp must thus have been at the upper or northern end of the plain, not far distant from Wady Taiyibeh.