The making of the golden calf by Aaron, and the offering of strange fire by his sons, before the visible presence of Jehovah on Sinai, afford the strongest possible evidence that Israel was a stiff necked and rebellious people.' It is difficult to account for such blind and reckless infatuation. After the giving of the law, and the construction of the tabernacle, the most remarkable event at Sinai was the second passover. Their cattle must nOW have been brought together, so as to enable them to select the paschal lambs, and also to per mit the shepherds to observe the feast. It was spring time, when the fountains are amply supplied by the winter rains and snow, and when all the valleys are clothed with verdure. There could have been no difficulty either in guarding the flocks, amid these mountain fastnesses, or in supplying them with requisite food and water. The number ing of the people, and the visit of Jethro to Moses, were the only other incidents of importance dtiring the long encampment 'before the mount.' 3. Sinai to Kadesh.—` On the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, the cloud vvas taken up from off the tabernacle of the testi mony. And the children of Israel took their jour neys out of the wilderness of Sinai' (Num. x. t). The order of march was now arranged with great precision. The exact station of every tribe and family was minutely fixed. The tabernacle and sacred vessels were carried along by the priests in solemn procession. But we must not infer that the whole body of the people were grouped together in one dense column. The flocks and herds were still scattered over the desert ; and with them, as we believe, the great bulk of the men and women.
The route followed from Sinai to Kadesh it is more difficult to define, with any approach to accu racy, than that from Egypt to Sinai. Two diffi culties here meet us :—The first arises from the impossibility of identifying.the stations ; the second from the fact that the people were twice at Kadesh (cf. Num. xii. 16 ; xiii. 2, 26, 33 ; xx. 1). The first visit took place during the second year of the journeying, and about three months after their departure from Sinai ; the second, after an interval of thirty-eight years' wandering [KADEsia But, in the general summary of the stations in Num. XXXiii., Kadesh is mentioned only once, and that in the last year of journeyings. Now, in the ex tended narrative of Num. x.-xii., there are but two stations between Sinai and Kadesh—namely, Ta berah and Hazeroth. We read that the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wil derness of Paran' (xii. 16) ; that is at Kadesh, for it is said of the spies who were sent out, that they vvent and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh' (xiii. 26). Turning, hovvever, to Num. xxxiii. 18, we find that the people went from Hazeroth to Rithmah ; and between the latter and Kadesh there are no less than seventeen stations enumerated. The' question thence arises : Were all these visited during the first journey to Kadesh, or do any of them properly belong to the second journey ? The former ap pears more probable. In giving the summary in Num. xxxiii., the sacred writer would scarcely have omitted the first visit to Kadesh, had he been enumerating the stations as well after as before that visit. It is much more natural to suppose, that he gives a full list of the places of encamp ment between Sinai and Kadesh ; and then, omit ting all notice of the thirty-eight years' wandering, as not properly pertaining to the journey to Canaan, he takes up the narrative again at the dose of the second visit.
Adopting this view, and assuming the site of Kadesh to be, as already fixed, at Ain el;Weibeh [KADEsn], we shall attempt to trace the general line of march as far as the sacred record may guide.
On the breaking up of the camp at Sinai the people journeyed for three consecutive days, and finally encamped in the wilderness of Paran (Num.
x. 12), at a place afterwards called Taberah (v. 33 with xi. 3). The direction must have been north east, for Paran was the ancient name of the south eastern section of Et-Tih. They would thus pass down Wady esh-Sheikh for some six miles, and then strike to the right across a dreary region of rugged hills and bleak valleys ; then probably through the ridge of Fera, by the wild ravine called Wady Sal, into the high sandy plain of Debbet er-Ramleh (Handbook, p. 37). The whole country is dreary and desolate, which may explain the murmurs and complaints of the people. The murmurers were punished by a supernatural fire, and hence arose the name Taberah, 'burning.' When this was stayed by the intercession of Aloses, 'the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting, : and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat ?' (xi• 4)• The discontent was now widespread, and Moses feared an open rebellion. But the Lord by a mi raculous wind brought up quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side and as it were a day's journey on the other side' (xi. 3 t). It was a fatal gift, for immediately on eating a plague broke out and com mitted terrible ravages. This gave the place still another name, Kibroth-hattaavak, the graves of lust," because they buried the people that lusted ' (v. 33, 34).
Hazeroth was the next station, and probably not far distant from Taberah (xi. 35 ; xxxiii. 17). It has, with much probability, been identified with Ain Hudhera, a little fountain in the desert, eighteen hours' march from Sinai (Handbook, p. 38; Burck harch, Travels, 495). The place was noted by the foolish attempt of Aaron, at the instigation of his sister Miriam, to excite rebellion against Moses, and by the terrible punishment inflicted upon Miriam (xii. 1-15). Stanley mentions three points which appear to conform the hypothesis that the Israelite route lay through this region. First, The brook of El-Ain is emphatically the watering place' of the country, and must have attracted round it any nomadic settlements, such as are im plied in the name Hazerak, 'enclosures.' Secondly, In their murmurs before arriving at Hazeroth, the sea' is twice mentioned in a manner that may indi cate its proximity. Thirdly, Stanley himself saw here a flight of birds—large red-legged manes— which literally darkened the sky. A similar flight was seen by Schubert near the same spot (S. and P. 82). The determination of this spot is perhaps of more importance than would at first sight ap pear ; for if this position be adopted for Hazeroth it settles the question as to the whole route of the Israelites between Sinai and Kadesh. It shows that they must have followed the route upon which we now are to the sea, and so along the coast to Akabah, and thence probably through the great Wady el-Arabeh to Kadesh' (Robinson, B. R. i. is I). As to the general line of route there can be little doubt that Dr. Robinson is right ; hut it seems natural that a large body of men like the Israelites vvould keep more to the north than Robinson did, and pass down Wady el-Ain, and its continuation Wady Wear, to the shore of the Gulf of Akabah. This was the route followed by Laborde (Aft. Sinai and Tetra, 227), Bartlett (Forty Days in the Desert, 97), and Aliss Mar tineau (Eastern ly'e, 383). It might be supposed, on glancing at a map, that the Israelites could have travelled north and passed up the plateau of Et-Tfh, and thence descended to Kadesh. This, however, was really impracticable, for the eastern side of Et-T1h is so rugged and so deeply furrowed by ravines that they must have passed round as far as Ehcda ere they could have turned down to Kadesh, and that would have led them into the centre of the Amalekites. And besides, Ezion gaber, which lay at the head of the Gulf of Aka bah (1 Kings ix. 26), was one of the stations passed.