Station list

The Station list of the 42 stations of the Exodus gets a lot of attention in the first five books of the Bible. Essentially the Pentateuch stands as Israel's deed to the property giving first the precedents or common law that can be cited as case law, then its right to the inheritance as well as possible counterclaims and their resolution in the Story of Abraham, and secondly as it walks the metes and bounds of Edom in the Book of Exodus it gives a sense of what it is about that property the people care about. In Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy the list is repeated as if in the form of a contract bound with its various blessings and curses, covenants and conditions, offers, acceptance, and list of the interested parties and beneficiaries, as if the deed were being recorded in some eternal registry of deeds and then finally in the book of Judges and in Joshuah it adds on a little bit more besides that might fall under the category of quieting the title and incorporating the easements in the way of a competent administrator administering a trust. 
Perhaps its worth noting that the people of the Exodus come from Egypt and are essentially Egyptian, not just the Sons of Israel who have lived there half a millennia, but those who accompany them as well. They are used to living the life in Ma'at and doing what is right and proper for an Egyptian to do, especially as regards their worship. In leaving Egypt to follow Moses they are in effect creating a new religion based on the only model they know.
They carve an image of their new god in the Egyptian manner, house it in an ark and place the ark in a sanctuary, all in the Egyptian manner. They count and categorize in the Egyptian manner. Numbers, Deuteronomy and Leviticus go to some lengths to define a covenant to be law abiding with a census of all the congregation of some 625 elef including fighting men, priests and administrators, a total voting population of perhaps 630 elef or 5,040 men committing to agree to the 630 some odd norms, mores, laws, rules, and conventions of that covenant and to place under the ban as outlaw those who don't agree. 
According to rabbinic tradition, the Torah contains 613 mitzvot (מצוות, "commandments"), which are divided into 365 restrictions and 248 positive commands, plus the ten commandments and seven covenants.
== Ramesses ==
Ramesses the first station of the Exodus was located at Thebes (, Thēbai, , Ṭībah)the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile () and as the capital of Egypt during the 18th Dynasty the place where meetings with Egypt's pharaohs occurred. 
Thebes was an important Egyptian city from around 3200 BC because of its mortuary trade across the Red Sea to provide Frankincense, Myhr, Natron, bitumen, linen and other mummification needs to the Temple of Karnak.http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/egyptkarnak.htm It was the eponymous capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian nome. Thebes was first made the capital of Egypt during part of the 11th Dynasty (Middle Kingdom) and was again capital of Egypt in the 18th Dynasty (New Kingdom), when Hatshepsut built a Red Sea fleet to facilitate trade between Thebes Red Sea port of Elim, modern Quasir, and Elat at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Traders bought frankincense, myrrh, bitumen, natron, fine woven linen, juniper oil and copper amulets for the mortuary industry at Karnak with Nubian gold. In the 19th Dynasty a palace of Ramesses II built in the Delta facilitated his campaigning in the Djadi. The archaeological remains of Thebes offer a striking testimony to Egyptian civilization at its height. The Greek poet Homer extolled the wealth of Thebes in the Iliad, Book 9 (c. 8th Century BC): "... in Egyptian Thebes the heaps of precious ingots gleam, the hundred-gated Thebes." 
The name Thebai is the Greek designation of the ancient Egyptian opet "The Karnak Temple" (from coptic ta-pe, Ta-opet, (Ta =land pe = mouth; land of the spokesman) became Thebai). At the seat of the Theban triad of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu, Thebes was known in the Egyptian language from the end of the New Kingdom as niwt-imn, "The City of Amun." This found its way into the Hebrew Bible as נא אמון nōˀ ˀāmôn (Nahum 3:8),"no" in Hebrew meaning city with "no amon" or "City of Amon" referring to the Egyptian deity Amon-Ra, most likely it is also the same as נא ("No") (Ezekiel 30:14). In Greek this name was rendered Diospolis, "City of Zeus", as Zeus was the god whom the Greeks identified with Amun, see interpretatio graeca. The Greeks surnamed the city megale, "the Great", to differentiate it from numerous other cities called Diospolis. The Romans rendered the name Diospolis Magna.
In modern usage, the mortuary temples and tombs on the west bank of the river Nile are generally thought of as part of Thebes.
Two towns at or near two important temples on the outskirts of Thebes are now called Luxor (Arabic: الأقصر, Al-Uqṣur, "The palaces") and al-Karnak (الكرنك).
			
== Sukkoth ==
== Etham ==
Etham is the third station of the the Exodus. 
 
Evidence for the location of Etham ([[Egyptian Language] t3hm land of slaves, kings, priests and ignorance), comes from the Book of Exodus in the Pentateuch of the Bible and is reinforced by Near Eastern (McNeil and Sedlar), Egyptological (Gardiner, "Egyptian Grammar" hm U36 p581, p584,p 599 t3) archaeological, linguistic (Loprieno, Faulkner) , classical (Herodotus, Ptolomy), historical, mathematical (Gardiner, p 199 Gillings citing same, itrw = 10.5 km ~= 7 miles), and (Herodotus) other mensurational sources. 
According to the story the Israelites left Egypt after talking to the Pharaoh at Ramesses, then go to Succoth and from there to Etham.
Exodus Chapter 13
:12:31. And Pharao said: Arise and go forth from among my people, you and the children of Israel: go
:12:32. Your sheep and herds take along with you, as you demanded 
:12:35. ...and they asked of the Egyptians vessels of silver and gold, and very much raiment.
:12:36. ...and they stripped the Egyptians.
:12:37. And the children of Israel set forward from Ramesse to Succoth, being about six hundred elef on foot, beside children.
:12:38. And a mixed multitude, without number, went up also with them, sheep and herds, and beasts of divers kinds, exceeding many.
:12:40. And the abode of the children of Israel that they made in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
According to the story a people including the Sons of Israel and others a group including women, children and the elderly left a place where they had lived 430 years traveling slowly at a pace of no more than 8 miles a day, taking with them women and children, elderly people, sheep and herds, many beasts, gold and silver, lots of clothes and their arms. 
Given that such a group, moving with possessions could cover no more than about 8 miles in a day, Etham, the third station of the Exodus needs to be within a radius of 16 miles of Thebes, Egypt, and another 24 miles of the Red Sea (Gardiner, p 199; Gillings citing same, itrw = 10.5 km ~= 7 miles), and (Herodotus) For a large number of people including women, infants, elderly and herds of animals all moving at a slow place to plausably survive in a wilderness for five days there needed to be water and food at each campsite. Egypt first provided these facilities between the capital Thebes and its port at Elim in the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt 
The story gives a date 430 years before the fourth year of the reign of Solomon. This places the events of the Exodus c 1350 BC, a time in which Thebes was the capital of Egypt. 
:13:4. This day you go forth in the month of new corn... stopped at the edge of the wilderness before proceeding on to pi-hahiroth with the bones of Joseph from Succoth (the place of entering the darkness). 
:13:5. ...into the land of the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, and the Amorrhite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, 
:13:11. And when the Lord shall have brought thee into the land of the Chanaanite, 
:13:17. ...led them not by the way of the land of the Philistines, which is near; ...
:13:18: But he led them about by the way of the desert, which is by the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.
:13:19. And Moses took Joseph’s bones with him: because he had adjured the children of Israel, saying: God shall visit you, carry out my bones from hence with you.
:13:20. And marching from Succoth, they encamped in Etham, in the utmost coasts of the wilderness.
In the story the people who have lived in Egypt for centuries are Egyptian in terms of language and culture. The place names in Egypt are Egyptian, the place names across the Red Sea vary with whose territory they are in. 
Given a time in which Thebes is the capital of Egypt we cannot define the general area of the starting point, a region named ra mes ses as located other than in or about Thebes in adjacency to Succoth (Gardiner, "Egyptian Grammar". m sktt) p592 see p p570) The description of the stations mentioned makes clear that they took the bones of Joseph from succoth which in Egyptian means the place of entering the night. 
In Egyptian myth Succoth is the place of darkness where one enters the underworld. In the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt it was believed to be located across the river from Thebes in the west at the tombs of Karnak. At sunset one entered ones tomb and followed the sun through the tuat to arrive in the east where the dead are reborn at dawn with the sun. 
Exodus Chapter 14
:14:2. Speak to the children of Israel: Let them turn and encamp over against pi-hahiroth, which is between Migdal and the sea over against baal-zephon you shall encamp before it upon the sea.
:14:3. And Pharao will say of the children of Israel: They are straitened in the land, the desert hath shut them in.
:14:9. And when the Egyptians followed the steps of them who were gone before, they found them encamped at the sea side: all Pharao’s horse and chariots and the whole army were in '''
pi-hahiroth, before baal-zephon 
Wadi Hammamat About midway between Quseir and Qena is the legendary Wadi Hammamat. Through this valley runs an ancient road, the shortest from the Red Sea to the Nile. Hundreds of rock inscriptions adorn the wadi's walls. Some drawings, like the ancient Egyptian reed boats, date back to 4000 BC. What made Wadi Hammamat famous during antiquity was the Bekheny stone; a beautiful green ornamental rock that was considered sacred. The stone was actively quarried from Pharaonic until Roman times for the production of bowls, statues and sarcophagi. A large number of Bekheny stone monuments have been found in pyramids, graves and temples of these periods. Today you will not only marvel at the rock drawings of the distant past, but you can also admire the ruins of the quarries, mines, fortresses, watchtowers and wells that lie scattered along this principal route.
 
Myos Hormos Two thousand years ago Myos Hormos was the Roman Empire's principal gateway to India and East Africa. Only recently have archaeologists been able to identify the exact location of this ancient port, just eight kilometers north of Quseir anciently Elim. During its peak period around 20 AD, reportedly 120 ships laden with wines, fine pottery, glass, precious metals and textiles set out each year from Myos Hromos to India. They brought back all kinds of luxury goods, including spices, medicines, silk and pearls. Myos Hormos seems to have been abandoned in the 2nd century AD. During the 14th and 15th centuries however, the site was revived into a thriving port for Mecca pilgrims and a rejuvenated India trade. At Myos Hormos you can see foundations of ancient port structures and numerous remnants of empty Roman storage jars (amphorae). Pottery shards are strewn all over the area, evidence of thriving economic activity. 
On the link below chose the clickable street map and pan or zoom to various stations of the Exodus
== Pi-Hahiroth ==
Pi-hahiroth,(Egyptian Pr Hr wth Phoenician (Pi hahiroth or "house of Hathor,Colin Humphreys(Asherah)" Greek Philoteras "love of wonders (ateras)" Hebrew (Pi ha athiroth "mouth of the gorges,")Kenneth Kitchen is the fourth station of the Exodus. 
In "The Real story of the Exodus" Colin Humpreys,a popular writer rather than an archaeologist, historian, linguist or Bibal scholar has addressed the issue of the route of the Exodus by attempting to walk its assumed route on the ground like those who have come before him. A similar approach in the 1940's gave us the book "Rivers in the Desert" by Nelson Glueck . Both authors use a methodology of walking the route and taking pictures, talking to the local bedouins to find out what they call the places around them find what's there and compare it to the story provides an important frame of reference. The success of attempting to link a Bible story to an historical period where it can be referred to historical accounts and compared to the evidence of archaeological sites depends on how well the period and location to search can be deduced from a reading of the text. 
The fourth station of the Exodus, Pi-hahiroth has textual, historical and archaeological artifacts which link it to the worship of El's consort Hathor. Near the area Colin Humpreys searches artifacts of Hathor and or Asherah have been foundThe Proto-Sinaitic script is known from carved graffiti in Canaan (Palestine) and the Sinai peninsula, most famously from a turquoise-mining area of the Sinai called Serabit el-Khadim (sarābītu l-ḫādimi). These mines were worked by prisoners of war from southwest Asia who presumably spoke a West Semitic language, such as the Canaanite that was ancestral to Phoenician and Hebrew. The Serabit el-Khadim inscriptions were found in a temple of Hathor (ḥatḥor), and appear to be votive texts. Despite a century of study, researchers can agree on the decipherment of only a single phrase, cracked in 1916 by Alan Gardiner: לבעלת l bʿlt (to the Lady) [baʿlat (Lady) being a title of Hathor and the feminine of the title Baʿal (Lord) given to the Semitic god], although the word m’hb (loved) is frequently cited as a second word. Nearby Bael Zephon has also been linked to Asherah by Budge.Zapuna "She is further entitled "The lady protector of Zapuna"3 a seaport city which is usually identified with the Zephon by the sea (Baal Zephon) of the Hebrew old Testament account of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to the Sinai desert, but this name usually translated Zapuna, reads in full on the Egyptian hieroglyphic texts ZAPUNAQ (m) and the appears to mean the sailings of the Punaqs,(ie; of the Phoenicians)(see fig.18 for the hieroglyphics of her name and title), But the more important and presumably original city and district of Za-puna(q) with its temple to its protective tutelary of which the Suez one appears to be only a transplanted namesake was situated significantly in northern Phoenica. This Phoenician place is also mentioned by an Assyrian king about 950 BC under the title of Bi-i-li Za-Bu-na (or Zapina)designating it as under the protection of the lady of Bil or Bel." Footnote 3 Budge op cite 2 p 281 spells it Tchapuna by transliterating the letter Z as Tch and omitting the last hieroglyph which has the value of Q or Qm This latter sign was used in later times a s a determinative (or signs to fix the meaning of a word)for foreign tribes and cities but in the old kingdom its use as a determinative was very limited and when so used was not normally used by itself as here but is followed by the sign of the foreign tribe or people neither of which occurs here. Yet even if it be treated as this foreign tribal afix to the name Puna the later may still represent the Egyptian Pa ag or Fenkha or Phoenician because the Egyptians were in the habit of dropping out the final G or Q or Qm or Kh of this name as seen in their Bennu for Phoenix."The meaning of Pi-hahiroth is uncertain but scholars have made various suggestions. One is that it means "House of the Goddess Hathor". The Egyptians built a temple to Hathor at Timna 15 miles north of the Gulf of Aqaba, so Hathor was certainly worshipped near here and perhaps there was a shrine to Hathor near the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Another possibility is that Pi-hiharoth meant "the mouth of the canal" if this interpretation is correct then possibly it would have been applied to the head of the Gulf of Aqaba which might have been thought of as the mouth of the Gulf (Asherah). Its also important because as a station of the Exodus it is located by the story near the start of the route of the Exodus. Its located in a place where consideral archaeological excavation has been done and where there are Egyptian accounts of a passage of the Red Sea which the archaeology bears out. Its general areas as described in the story is a place where the adjaceny of several different peoples, from opposite sides of the Red Sea are linked together rather than separated by its waters. The Egyptians, the Nabateans, the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Arab Traders to mention just a few have left artifacts as well as linguistic traces in the areas toponyms on both Sides of the Red Sea. In particular the description of Pi-hahiroth addresses many of the characteristics of Asherah worship as the consort of Yahwah, Baal or El.
===Pi-hahiroth in the Book of Exodus===
The Book of Exodus refers to Pi-hahiroth as the place where the Israelites encamped between Migdol and the Sea facing Baal Zephon while awaiting an attack by Pharaoh, prior to crossing the Red Sea. Pi-hahiroth is between Baal-zephon and Migdol. The Book of Exodus records that the Israelites went to Pi-hahiroth, and encamped in front of Baal-zephon, between Migdol and the sea. Modern Egyptologists place Pi-hahiroth on the eastern shore of Egypt just south of the Gulf of Aqaba, near Thebes port of Elim.
Elim is described as having seventy trees.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance: Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary: "842. asherah ... Asherah (or Astarte) a Phoenician goddess; also an image of the same: —grove." 
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: "ASHERAH ... mistranslated 'grove' in the Authorized [King James] Version.... Was the name of a goddess whose worship was widely spread throughout Syria and Canaan; plural, Asherim.... It is probable that it was originally an epithet of Istar (Ashtoreth) of Ninevah.... Asherah was the goddess of fertility." Catholic Encyclopedia "Asherah [is] wrongly interpreted grove in our Bibles." ("Baal" article) 
 This corresponds to religious beliefs about Asherah the consort of Yahwah. El and his wife Asherah produced a family of seventy Elim, gods and goddesses, best known of whom was Baal. The reference to Pi-Hahiroth being between Migdol or high place and the sea facing Baal Zephon along with the association with trees and a reference to seventy palms at Elim is a strong reference to Asherah The nominal head of the Canaanite pantheon was El, a “remote, high god,” who interfered little in the affairs of the world. The consort of El in the Ugaritic texts was named Asherat, “Lady of the Sea.” In the form Asherah, the name appears about forty times in the Old Testament. When not the name of a goddess, the term Asherah, and its plural, Asherim, (or Terabithaim) denote the wooden poles which stood at Canaanite places of worship. In the Authorized Version of the Bible the word is regularly translated “grove.” The terms “sacred tree” or “Asherah image” would better convey the thought of the original. The Asherah is thought to have been the trunk of a tree with the branches chopped off. It was erected beside the altar of Baal in the fertility cult which was scathingly denounced by the Israelite prophets. El and his wife Asherah produced a family of seventy Elim, gods and goddesses, best known of whom was Baal. Baal was the god of fertility responsible for the germination and growth of crops, the increase of flocks and herds, and the fecundity of human families. Baal worship was the most degrading aspect of Canaanite civilization. Devotees brought wine, oil, first fruits, and firstlings of the flocks to the “high places.” Near the rock altar was a mazzebah [ hb*X@m^ massevah ] or sacred pillar which represented the male element in the fertility cult, corresponding to the Asherah, or female element. The Period and location of Pi-hahiroth are established by the story. The story of Exodus self-referentially dates itself to c 1450 BC. Its 430 years since Abraham first arrived and 480 years befor Solomon builds the temple c 970 BC. That time frame places the story in the [[Eighteenth dynaty of Egypt when its capital was at Thebes. The details of the story place Moses at the court of Pharoah. Pharoah calls Moses into his presence immediately before allowing the people to leave so the first three stations, Ramesses, Succoth and Etham are all near the court of Pharaoh at Thebes and no more than a days march apart. Ramesses the first station, doesn't exist as a name in the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt except as a reference to Thebes itself as the city of Amon Ra. Succoth is the place where the people pick up the bones of Joseph from his place of darkness in his tomb at Karnak.Etham, as the edge of the wilderness, refers to the Wadi Hammamat connecting Thebes with its Red Sea ports.Exodus 14:2 Pi-hahiroth is given as between Migdol and the Sea facing Baal Zephon.
the Phoenicians had trading emporia in many Delta towns during the late second / early first millennium (Montet 1928; Chehab 1968: 8; Leclant 1968: 10). Thebes had three Red Sea ports nearby, and was linked to one farther away. 
===Philoterus in the Periplus of the Erythrian Sea===
The Greek Periplus of the Erythrian Sea discusses Thebes as Coptos 
The northernmost port of Thebes was Myos Hormos located almost directly across the Red Sea from the tip of the Sinai peninsula. A second port was Philoteras located near Mersa Gawasis between Myos Hormos and Phoenican Elim, which was later called Leukos Limen by the Greeks. Philoteras is Greek. Pi-hahiroth is not. site reference to Baal, and a Migdol or high place indicates its a place for the Worship of Asherah (Ashiroth).hamminim are here images of the sun-god pn bs2, which is well known from the Phcenician monnments,' 'ashSrim (for which we find, though more rarely, 'ashiroth) apparently signifies images of the moon- goddess. And the combination of " Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven" in 2 Kings xxiii. 4, as well as the samame "queen of heaven" in Jer. vii. 18, xliv. 18, 19, appears to require this (Knobel). Like nearby Leukos Limen or Elim Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard have shown the Eastern Desert was used as a through route from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea, as it was in most other periods. archaeologists Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard have shown that official expeditions transported pre-fabricated but unassembled boats from Koptos to the Red Sea port of Mersa Gawasis, via the Wadi Hammamat. At the port, the boats were assembled and the expeditions proceeded by sea. have established One of the commonly recorded destinations was Punt (Kitchen 2005) nearby Philoteras The port of Marsa Gawasis, discovered in the 1970s and recently re-examined by Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard between 2001 and 2004, has provided firm evidence for its use as a port during Middle Kingdom, with two periods of occupation - in the 12th and 13th Dynasties. had both Egyptian During the First Intermediate period or the very late Old Kingdom. Fattovich states that both the archaeology and epigraphy support an “indisputably” maritime function for this site (2005, p.19). and Phoenician. Elim has the same cultic references along with a history of Phoenician and Egyptian names. Kenneth Kitchen has speculated that it has meaning in Hebrew. Others have slightly different readinds, but there seems to be agreement on its having come into both Greek and Hebrew from the Phoenician semitic root. Philoterus and Elim were the site of Asherah worship when the Phoenicians built their fleet for Neco I. The archaeology and the history of Egypt have found Phoenician artifacts widely distributed in the Third Intermediate c 1070- 712BC Baines and Ma'lik p 36 king lists and Late periods c 712-332 BC Baines and Ma'lik p 37 king lists.During his Memphis excavation Petrie found a faience or pottery mould of which he said '...the elements of this are all Egyptian; but the combination of these, and the workmanship, are un-Egyptian, and probably due to a Phoenician in Egypt, like the silver bowls with mock-Egyptian subjects" (1909: 16, and plate XXVI, 11).Segall believed that Phoenician jewellers were operating in Egypt during the Hellenistic period but saw it as part of an older tradition (1946: 97-107), verified in part by the discovery of Aramaic-Phoenician texts found in Saqqara (Segal 1983).Material traces of Phoenician settlement in Egypt have also been found at Migdol in the Sinai (Oren 1984), at Tell el Herr, and Tell el Retabeh, on the routes through to Egypt, while Phoenician amphorae have been found in quantity in Egypt (Gubel 1992: 346). This indicates that the Phoenicians were not only masters of the sea route south to the Delta but also using the land routes through the Sinai and along the Wadi Tumilat. and gives its ports Greek names but they are still recognizable because of the inscriptions archaeologists find at them describing various maritime expeditions in the reign of different Pharaohs and peoples.Neco I c 600 BC hired the Phoenicians to build a fleet here and sail it down the Red Sea in an attempt to circumnavigate Libya and return from the Atlantic through the pillars of Hercules which they accomplished after a voyage of three years. antecedants The port was located here for a number of reasons. It had a natural harbour, was easily accessible from the sea via a chanel cut into the coral reef, and provided a good natural shelter for ships. Wadi Gawasis 1km to the north provided a direct route to the Nile Valley. Playa lakes appear to have been formed which would have provided fresh water, and local raw materials could be employed for copper smelting and pottery manufacture whilst local half plant wre used for making rope (Fattovich 2005)The settlement has produced evidence to suggest how different parts of Marsa Gawasis were used. Components include storage rooms which held both cargo and the materials needed for shipping expeditions, temporary shelters, some with hearths, ceremonial monuments and tumuli, functional areas for metal working and pottery manufacture, and workshop where limestone anchors were made and lithic tools were manufactured. The ports have memoirs of naval expeditions recorded on small stele found nearby,The anchors seem to have had both practical and ceremonial purposes: “In particular, the anchors were placed in front of the entry of the shrines, and broken anchors were buried inside them, most likely as a votive deposit, suggesting that the shrines and possibly some of the tumuli were memoirs of naval expeditions, which were recorded in the small stelae usually associated with these structures” (Fattovich 2005, p.19). and evidence of boat building with Lebanese cedar.Boat building and operational materials included Lebanese cedar for manufacturing sea-worthy boats, and halfa leaves used to make rope. On the basis of inscriptions on stelae and ostraca, Sayed identified the site at Marsa Gawasis as the Pharaonic port S3ww, from which expeditions were sent to Punt. The same port used by the Phoenicians had been in continuous use since the Fourth dynasty of Egypt and artifacts have been found there dating back to the time of Senwosret I.The stela of Antefoker dating to the reigns of Senusret I records 3756 men sent to the port fore an expedition to Punt. Elim.recent excavations of Thebes ports include one at ancient Philoteras(Baines and Ma'lik see entry under Qus p 111) The fifth and sixth stations Marah and Elim Thebes Red Sea Port, are located on the Red Sea. Pi-hahiroth was a place in Ancient Egypt between Etham and Marah.Herodotus referred to Tyrians in Memphis (Herodotus, Book II: 170, S?lincourt transl 1972), while Redford refers to this as a situation already in existence for a thousand years (1992: 228). Tell Dafana (Daphnae) has evidence of Phoenician/Cypriot occupation and the ongoing excavations by the Egyptian Antiquities Department continue to yield Phoenician material (Gubel 1992: 347).
===Linguistic references===
Pi-hahiroth,(Egyptian Pr Hr wth (To go forth, to face flight, fleeing abroad)(Phoenician (Pi ha athiroth or "house of Asherah") Hebrew (Pi ha athiroth "mouth of the gorges,") clearly indicates that there may be some etymology preserved in its name. Those positing a Hebrew name have speculated "Pi-hahiroth" might mean "mouth of the gorges," descriptive of its location, where the mouths of two bodies of water such as the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aquaba combine at the point of entry into the sea.Another translation is "the Bay of Hiroth."A Greek etymology is supportive of the Phoenican because Philo means love and Asherah is one of the goddesses associated with sacred prostitutes. philo-, phil-, -phile, -philia, -philic, -philous, -phily, -philiac, -philist, -philism (Greek: love, loving, friendly to, fondness for, attraction to, strong tendency toward, affinity for). Teras wonderous portent, miracle.As soon as El saw her, he opened his mouth and laughed;he raised his voice and shouted:"Why has Lady Asherah-of-the-Sea arrived?why has the Mother of the Gods come?"(Coogan 1978:100) Both ElatAlthough texts from the ancient Syrian city Ugarit do not explicitly name Asherah as consort of the supreme male deity, she was arguably his female counterpart, for she was Elat, "Goddess," to his El, "God" (Hadley 2000:38). Indeed, Asherah and El function as "supreme couple," and their offspring include "all the other deities in the first generation" (Olmo Lete 1999:47). Like El, Asherah was primarily a figure of authority, but only that authority which a patriarchal culture accords the feminine. Alone of Ugaritic goddesses, Asherah carried a spindle, which marked her as feminine and domestic (Coogan 1978:97; Hadley 2000:39). and Elim are strongly connected by their linguistic references. Elat is a reference to the goddess Asherah, the consort of Yahwah. Elim
The nominal head of the Canaanite pantheon was El, a “remote, high god,” who interfered little in the affairs of the world. The consort of El in the Ugaritic texts was named Asherat, “Lady of the Sea.” In the form Asherah, the name appears about forty times in the Old Testament.When not the name of a goddess, the term Asherah, and its plural, Asherim, denote the wooden poles which stood at Canaanite places of worship. In the Authorized Version of the Bible the word is regularly translated “grove.” The terms “sacred tree” or “Asherah image” would better convey the thought of the original. The Asherah is thought to have been the trunk of a tree with the branches chopped off. It was erected beside the altar of Baal in the fertility cult which was scathingly denounced by the Israelite prophets. El and his wife Asherah produced a family of seventy Elim, gods and goddesses, best known of whom was Baal. Baal was the god of fertility responsible for the germination and growth of crops, the increase of flocks and herds, and the fecundity of human families. Baal worship was the most degrading aspect of Canaanite civilization. Devotees brought wine, oil, first fruits, and firstlings of the flocks to the “high places.” Near the rock altar was a mazzebah [ hb*X@m^ massevah ] or sacred pillar which represented the male element in the fertility cult, corresponding to the Asherah, or female element.
The Phoenician words Elim and Elath are coupled plurals of the word El meaning power. The Phoenicians used the word to refer to the high and mighty Terabitham treesThe chief female deity at Ugarit was also revered in other parts of the Levant, and a good deal of evidence suggests that Asherah may have had an especially close relationship with trees. Such a relationship would not be surprising since, generally in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean, goddesses and what scholars call "sacred trees" seem to go together. Excavated in the Late Bronze Age Canaanite city of Lachish (Tubb 1998:79-80), the Lachish Ewer is usually understood as Canaanite and dated to "the late thirteenth century B.C.E." (Hestrin 1987:212). Its decoration "consists of a row of animals and trees," above which there is an inscription: "Mattan. An offering to my Lady `Elat" (Hestrin 1987:211,214). A person named Mattan presented the ewer and probably its contents to the temple of the goddess Elat ((Hadley 2000:159). which they used for asherah poles and for masts. many western semitic peoples worshipped the goddess Asherah as a consort of Yahwah. 
The story of Exodus refers to a people whose ancestors have lived in Egypt for half a millennium in a time frame that's centuries before Hebrew exists as a language. As Egyptians the sons of Israel would refer to place names in Egypt in Egyptian. Looking at Egyptian Grammar's <ref(Gardiners "Egyptian Grammar")</ref>, Faulkner's Middle Egyptian or Loprieno's Ancient Egyptian we find the following phrases and words written in Egyptian.
 
: O1 Pr to go forth (pr r h3 means to go forth abroad Gardiner p 580)
: D2 Hr face (Gardiner p 582)
: G43 X1:Aa1 D56 D54 P2 Wth flight (Gardine p 562)(in Egyptian hr wth means face flight)
: Pi-hiharoth" to go forth abroad, to face flight
: in Egyptian Pi-hahiroth is transliterated Pr Hr wth
: O1 D2:D21 G43 X1:Aa1 D56 D54 P2
: To go forth, to face flight, fleeing abroad
== Marah ==
Marah (Hebrew: מָרָה) is one of the stations of the Exodus.Marah means to live, dwell, build, and comes from the semitic root ENTRY: cmr. 
DEFINITION: Central Semitic, to live, dwell, build; noun *cumr-, life. 1. Omri (king of Israel), from Hebrew comrî, probably short for *comrîyh, my life (is) Yahweh, from comrî, my life, from *cmer (< *cumr-), life. 2a. Omar, from Arabic cumar, probably akin to cumr, life; b. imaret, from Arabic cimra, building. Both a and b from Arabic cmara, to live, dwell, build. . 
===Events===
The narrative concerning Marah in the Book of Exodus states that the Israelites had been wandering in the desert for three days without water; according to the narrative, Marah had water, but it was undrinkably bitter, hence the name, which means bitterness. In the text, when the Israelites reach Marah they complain about the undrinkability, so Moses complains to Yahweh, and Yahweh responds by showing Moses a certain piece of wood, which Moses then throws into the water, making it sweet and fit to drink. There is nothing necessarily miraculous about the sweetening of the water, since there is a type of barberry which grows in the desert and has the herbal property of sweetening brackish waterPeake's commentary on the Bible. Biblical scholars see the narrative about Marah as having originated as an aetiological myth seeking to justify its name. see also a map of the Exodus route 
===Location===
According to the Bible the Exodus takes place at a time during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt when the capital of Egypt is at Thebes. 
According to the Book of Exodus, the Israelites reached Marah after travelling in the Wilderness of Shur, while according to the stations list in the Book of Numbers, the Israelites had reached Marah after travelling in the Wilderness of Etham; both biblical sources state that the Israelites were at Marah before reaching Elim. 
Textual scholars regard the geographic information as deriving from two different versions of the same independent list of stations, one version being the list which takes up a chapter of the Book of Numbers, and the other version being slotted around the Marah narrative and around other narratives in the Book of Exodus and Book of Numbers, as appropriateRichard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible?; according to this view, the latter version of this list would originally have read ...and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water, then they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, ..., without mentioning Marahibid. Elim is identified as Thebes Red Sea Port. 
the identification of these locations has been heavily dependent on the identification of the Biblical Mount Sinai. Traditionally, Sinai was equated with one of the mountains at the south of the Sinai Peninsula leading to the identification of Marah as Ain Hawarah, a salty spring roughly 47 miles southeast from SuezPeake's commentary on the Bible. 
The sequence of the stations and the rate of travel are now viewed as more important indicators.
The majority of both scholars and religious authorities believe that this traditional identification of Sinai is inaccurate. Most now recognize that during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt the capital of Egypt is at Thebes. 
Suggested alternatives to traveling across the Sinai peninsula begin with the starting point Ra mes ses being correctly located at Thebes, thence traveling East across Etham down the wadi Ham Ma3t to Thebes Red Sea port of Elim, crossing the Red Sea to Elat and thence following the kings highway around Edom to touch on Kadesh Barnea, Gaza, Petra (Mt Hor) in the north eastern Arabah and finally Moab's Dibon and Mt Nebo.
===Religious theories===
The text goes on to state that in this location, a decree and a law were made by Yahweh for the Israelites, and that Yahweh tested them. However, according to textual scholars the narrative concerning the bitter water comes from the Jahwist account, while the mention of law and testing is actually part of the Elohist account; textual scholars view this as the Elohist version of the naming of Massah, since the triconsonantal root of the Hebrew word used for tested here (נסה) is very similar to that for Massah (מסה), and the later explanation of Massah connects the name to the same root (נסה)Peake's commentary on the Bible. The Talmud argues that the text is referring to three additional laws being added to the Noahide laws, namely that tribunals should be created, children should obey parents, and that the Sabbath should be observedSukkah, 56b. In the biblical text, Yahweh also states that he would not bring any diseases upon the Israelites if they obey Yahweh's decrees; biblical scholars regard this as a redactional addition, and appears to be an attempt to distract the reader from the implication in the previous verse that laws were given by Yahweh before Sinai was reachedPeake's commentary on the Bible. 
== Elim ==
Elim, Thebes Red Sea port where Hatsheset kept her fleet, was involved in trade across the Red Sea from pre dynastic times. The majority of the items traded, Frankincense from Punt, Myhrr from Ethiophir, Bitumen and Naptha from the Dead Sea, Kohl or Antimoney from Libnah, Copper from Tmnah, woven linen, juniper oil, and processed papyrus for scrolls were obtained at Elat in return for Nub or gold from Nubia. All these goods were associated with Thebes mortuary industry across the Nile river at Karnak. a map of the Exodus route 
This is the was one of the places where the Israelites camped following their Exodus from Egypt. It is referenced in Exodus 15 and 16 and Numbers 33.
According to Exodus and Numbers, Elim is located near the eastern shore of the Red Sea. It was possibly south of the Israelites' crossing point, and west of the Sin Wilderness. Exodus and Numbers both record that at Elim "there were twelve wells of water, and seventy date palms," and that the Israelites "camped there near the water."
The Book of Exodus also records that after leaving Elim, on the forty-fifth day since leaving Egypt, the Israelites arrived at the Sin Wilderness adjacent to Mt Horab and Elat at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba
== Red Sea ==
The Red Sea is more than just the seventh station of the Exodus. The Book of Exodus 14:1-4 records that the children of Israel following their stay at Elim encamped before Pi- Hihiroth, between Migdol and the Red Sea, opposite Bael Zephon, but in the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Elim was the port of the city of Thebes, Egypt. It was this Red Sea Port Elim where Hatshepsutkept the fleet she used to cross the Red Sea and voyage to Punt. 
The Red Sea port of Thebes was primarily engaged in furnishing Karnak with the goods which serviced its mortuary industry, Linen, Bitumen, Naptha, Frankincense, Myrrh, spices, Kkohl, Lapis lazuli,Carnelian and other carved stone amulets coming from the port of Elat(Dr. Muhammed Abdul Nayeem, "Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arabian Peninsula") at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba.
The passage of the Red Sea is first mentioned in Egyptian Literature in the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt Tale of the shipwrecked sailor. 
As Hatshepsut re-established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, the wealth of Thebes increased. most of Thebes trade from the 11th Dynasty onward was across the Red Sea to Elat. 
The wealth of the Eighteenth Dynasty included the Nub or gold of Nubia which it traded for the Bitumen, Copper, Naptha, Frankincense, Myhr and Juniper oil that were used in the mortuary temples of Karnak. Thebes abundance of gold was made legendary by the discovery of the burial of one of her descendants, Tutankhamun. 
Hatshepsut oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh, which is said to have been Hatshepsut's favorite fragrance. Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing 31 live frankincense trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahari mortuary temple complex. She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which also is famous for its unflattering depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia.
Although many Egyptologists have claimed that her foreign policy was mainly peaceful,Tyldesley pp. 137-144 (see below: References). there is evidence that Hatshepsut led successful military campaigns in Nubia, the Levant, and Syria early in her career.
== Sin Wilderness ==
The Wilderness of Sin/Desert of Sin (Hebrew: מִדְבַּר סִין, Midbar Sin) is a geographic area mentioned by the Bible as lying between Elim and Mount Sinai. Sin does not refer to sinfulness, but is an untranslated word which would translate as the moon; biblical scholars suspect that the name Sin here refers to the semitic moon-deity SinCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia BiblicaJewish EncyclopediaPeake's commentary on the Bible, who was worshipped widely around the entire periphery of pre-Islamic Arabia, the Levant, and Mesopotamia.
The location that the bible refers to is unknown, as its determination relies heavily on the location of Mount Sinai. The traditional identification of Mount Sinai as Jabal Musa, one of the peaks at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, would imply that the wilderness of Sin was probably the narrow plain of el-Markha, which stretches along the eastern shore of the Red Sea for several miles toward the promontory of Ras Mohammed; however most scholars have since rejected these traditional identifications. The more popular identification among modern scholars, of Sinai as Mount Horab at Elat and the territory north through the Arabah to al-Madhbah at Petra, would imply that the wilderness of Sin was roughly equatable with the central Arabah.
The wilderness of Sin is mentioned by the Bible as being one of the places that the Israelites wandered during their Exodus; the similarly named wilderness of Zin is also mentioned by the Bible as having been a location through which the Israelites travelled. The bible identifies Kadesh-Barnea as having been located within the wilderness of Zin, and most scholars, as well as traditional sources, consequently identify this wilderness as being part of the ArabahCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica; it is thus eminently possible that the wilderness of Sin and the wilderness of Zin are actually the same place.
The biblical narrative states that on reaching the wilderness of Sin, the Israelites began to raise objections over the lack of food, as they had already consumed all the corn they had brought with them from Egypt; the account neglects any mention of the livestock that elsewhere the Israelites are described as taking with them, or of the animal and dairy produce subsequently available, until many chapters later in the narrative. According to the account, Yahweh heard their murmurings, and so provided them with abundant manna and quail; according to biblical scholars there is nothing miraculous about this, as the manna was an ordinary natural product found in the regionCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia BiblicaPeake's commentary on the Bible, and quail travel over the Sinai and Arabah in large flocks, just a few feet off the ground, and are easily caughtCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica. 
== Dophkah ==
Dophkah is one of the places the Israelites camped at during their exodus from Egypt. Dophkah,("Dophkah" from the semitic root for Adonis) was a Phoenician emporia at Elat engaged in the trade in Frankincense, and Myrrh, from Punt and Bitumen and juniper oil from Canaan that were used in Egypts mortuary trade at Karnak in return for Nubian gold shipped across the Red Sea from Elim the port of Thebes the capital of Egypt during Egypts 18th dynasty
== Alush ==
Alush the station of the Exodus where water flowed from the rock on the slopes of Mt Horab(Gardiner "Egyptian Grammar")
Exodus CHAP. XVII. 8-13. 77 ... Moses caused water to flow out of the hard dry rock,(Nelson Glueck, "Rivers in the Desert", modern Arabs still use similar technigues to disclose ancient lava tubes in the rock where there may be underground springs) when he struck it with his staff, ... near the summit of Horeb, ... The want of water had only just been provided for, when Israel had to engage in a conflict with the Amalekites, who had fallen upon their rear and smitten it (Deut. xxv. 18). The Amalekites ... a leading branches of the Edomites, ... The Rephidim and Amalekites are among the shashu Bedouin, referred to in Joshua and Judges as giants.
Arabs leave the lower districts at the beginning of summer, and congregate in the mountain regions of the Arabian peninsula, viz. because the grass is dried up in the former
== Rephidim ==
Rephidim Rephidim is the plain at the base of Mt Horab.(Gardiners "Egyptian Grammar" p 582 hr(y)-ib middle § 178 in the midst of a number of people) It is one of the places (or "stations") visited by the Israelitein the story of exodus from Egypt. 
At Rephidim the Amalekites, the "first of the nations" to make war against Israel (Numbers 24:20), attacked the Israelites while they were encamped around the mountain. The Amalakites were defeated (Exodus 17:8-16). as Moses directed the battle. Seated on top of Mt Horab he raised his hands to encourage his warriors but as the conflict with the Amalakites wore on Moses grew weary and required support to keep them in the air. 
Horab is also the place where earlier in the story Moses tends the flocks of his father in law Jethro who visits him when he returns to Horab. 
The mountain is identified (Nelson Glueck, "Rivers in the Desert") as located at Elat where the Arabah reaches the head of the Gulf of Aqaba between Midian, and Edom.
Halfway down the slopes of Mt Horab, at Alush, the Israelites found no water to drink, Moses struck a "rock on Horeb," which caused a stream to flow from it, providing enough water for all of the people.
== Sinai Wilderness ==
The Wilderness of Sin/Desert of Sin (Hebrew: מִדְבַּר סִין, Midbar Sin) is a geographic area mentioned by the Bible as lying between Elim and Mount Sinai. Sin does not refer to sinfulness, but is an untranslated word which would translate as the moon; biblical scholars suspect that the name Sin here refers to the semitic moon-deity SinCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia BiblicaJewish EncyclopediaPeake's commentary on the Bible, who was worshipped widely around the entire periphery of pre-Islamic Arabia, the Levant, and Mesopotamia.
The location that the bible refers to is unknown, as its determination relies heavily on the location of Mount Sinai. The traditional identification of Mount Sinai as Jabal Musa, one of the peaks at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, would imply that the wilderness of Sin was probably the narrow plain of el-Markha, which stretches along the eastern shore of the Red Sea for several miles toward the promontory of Ras Mohammed; however most scholars have since rejected these traditional identifications. The more popular identification among modern scholars, of Sinai as Mount Horab at Elat and the territory north through the Arabah to al-Madhbah at Petra, would imply that the wilderness of Sin was roughly equatable with the central Arabah.
The wilderness of Sin is mentioned by the Bible as being one of the places that the Israelites wandered during their Exodus; the similarly named wilderness of Zin is also mentioned by the Bible as having been a location through which the Israelites travelled. The bible identifies Kadesh-Barnea as having been located within the wilderness of Zin, and most scholars, as well as traditional sources, consequently identify this wilderness as being part of the ArabahCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica; it is thus eminently possible that the wilderness of Sin and the wilderness of Zin are actually the same place.
The biblical narrative states that on reaching the wilderness of Sin, the Israelites began to raise objections over the lack of food, as they had already consumed all the corn they had brought with them from Egypt; the account neglects any mention of the livestock that elsewhere the Israelites are described as taking with them, or of the animal and dairy produce subsequently available, until many chapters later in the narrative. According to the account, Yahweh heard their murmurings, and so provided them with abundant manna and quail; according to biblical scholars there is nothing miraculous about this, as the manna was an ordinary natural product found in the regionCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia BiblicaPeake's commentary on the Bible, and quail travel over the Sinai and Arabah in large flocks, just a few feet off the ground, and are easily caughtCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica. 
== Kibroth-Hattaavah ==
Kibroth-hattaavah () is one of the locations at which, according to the Book of Numbers, the Israelites passed through during their Exodus journey. It was at this place, according to the biblical narrative, that the Israelites loudly complained about constantly eating only manna, and that they had had a much more varied diet, of fish, vegetables, fruit, and meat, 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 indicate that quails were brought by the winds to the Israelite encampment, which the people gathered, but Yahweh sent a plague as they were chewing the meat; the text had previously stated that the Israelites would have been able to consume quail for a month.
The biblical narrative argues that name of Kibroth-hattaavah, which appears to mean graves of lust, derives from these events, since the plague killed the people who lusted after meat, who were then buried there. According to biblical scholars, this is merely an aetiological myth to theologically justify a pre-existing place namePeake's commentary on the Bible; a number of biblical scholars have proposed that the graves (kibroth) in the name kibroth-hattaavah actually refers to a stone circle or cairnsCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica, or to recently discovered Chalcolithic (~4th Millennium BC) megalithic burial sites known as nawamis, meaning mosquitos, which are unique to the central Sinai Peninsula and southern Negev.
According to textual scholars, the account concerning Kibroth-hattaavah is part of the Jahwist text, and occurs at the same point in the Exodus narrative as the account of Taberah in the Elohist textPeake's commentary on the BibleCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica; indeed, one or both of Tabarah (תבערה) and Hattavah (התאוה) may be phonological and typographical corruptions of the same original wordCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica. Taberah is not listed in the full stations list later in the Book of Numbers, with the people going straight from Mount Sinai to Kibroth-hattavah, and there is no hint that the Israelites had to travel from Taberah to Kibroth-hattaavah, implying that they were the same locationJewish Encyclopedia; nevertheless, Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah are listed as different places by a passage in Deuteronomy, which textual scholars ascribe to the deuteronomist, and consequently date to over two centuries later than the Jahwist and Elohist, and also later than the combined JE textRichard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible?.
Taberah is described by the Torah as being three days journey from Mount Sinai, and therefore its modern identification relies heavily on the identification of Mount Sinai. The traditional identification of Mount Sinai as one of the mountains at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula would imply that Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah was/were probably in the Wadi Murrah, about 30 miles north-east of the southern tip, and exactly a day's journey from 'Ain Hudherah; in this area, at the Erweis el-Ebeirig, an ancient encampment has been found,E.H. Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus: Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the Forty Years' Wanderings (1872) but it dates to the Early Bronze Age (the early 3rd century BC).Itzhaq Beit-Arieh, Archaeology of Sinai, The Ophir Expedition, Tel Aviv University (2003) The traditional location of Mount Sinai has been rejected by the majority of scholars, as well as theologians, who favour a location at Mount SeirDitlef Nielsen, The Site of the Biblical Mount Sinai – A Claim for Petra (1927) or in north western Saudi Arabia,Charles Beke, Mount Sinai, a Volcano (1873)Jean Koenig, Le site de Al-Jaw dans l'ancien pays de Madian and others views propose locations in the Negev,Emmanuel Anati, The riddle of Mount Sinai : archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom (2001) or the central or northern Sinai desert.Menashe Har-El, The Sinai Journeys: The Route of the Exodus
==Hazeroth==
Hazeroth () is one of the locations (or "stations") that the Israelites stopped at during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. It is referenced in the Torah in Numbers, chapters 11, 12 and 33, as well as in Deuteronomy, chapter 1. "Hazeroth" means yards.
At Hazeroth, Miriam was afflicted with tzaraath. For more details, see Snow-white Miriam.
Hazeroth is somewhere north of Mount Sinai and may be at the place now known as Ain el-Hudhera.
== Rithmah ==
Rithmah () is one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus. 
The name may mean wild broom, the broom valley, or valley of broombushes.
==Rimmon Perez==
Rimmon Perez or Rimmon-Parez () is one of the stations of the Israelites in the wilderness during the Exodus.
The name means a pomegranate breach, or Rimmon of the breach.
It may be the modern place Makhtesh-Ramon; Arabic: Wadi er Rummun, which lies in the midst of a great "breach" in the earth, an erosion crater. 
This is near Ain el Qadeis, which is identified by some as Kadesh Barnea
==Libnah==
Libnah, is a name which has turned up in Egyptian records, and been translated into Canaanite as "Libnah." Robert Smith notes that the name Libnah is derived from the Semitic and Indo-European root meaning "light," or "shining", and even "white." The Hebrew root lbn gives us Hebrew terms such as lebonah and olibanum which is Frankincense (Lev. 2:1 which was "white" of color according to Pliny HN, 12:14, Greek libanos, libanwtos, Arabic, lub'anun). 
:This was also applied to a town name El Lubban. Labanah is the moon. Lebanon, is connected with the snow covered Antilibanus and Mount Hermon, and with the Valley of Lebanon, which appears in the Greek form Libanos and includes the entire Mountain Range. Nibley further notes that Smith identified the jackal headed as Libnah, the correct designation for the WEST. 
:And the Egyptians connected it with the white land, which is the meaning of the name!(Nibley, "Fac. No. 1 By the Figures," "IE", Sept. 1969).And Anubis, is the God of the West, the White land of the Westerners, and is associated with the moon! The Egyptologist Hermann Kees noted that the epithet, "Lord of the White Land" (nb ta djesr) is derived from the idea of "Lord of the shining, sanctified (prachtigen, geheiligten) Land. That is a euphism for the necropolis itself, which everyone knows is in the WEST. 
:That would make him Lord of the Westerners! This is Kees conclusion.(Nibley, Sept. 1969, p. 144). The Egyptologist Brusch noted that the four canonical colors of Egypt always has WHITE as the color of the WEST. 
:Also the Libyans to the WEST of Egypt were noted for their white skin and blue eyes. The facts of this Canopic Jar are:
:1. Libnah does mean White Land
:2. The idolatrous god of Libnah does have the mask of Anubis
:3. The jackal-headed canopic figure does stand for the West
:4. Anubis is the Lord of the West
:5. Anubis is also Lord of the White land
:6. White is the ritual color of the west.
:Libnah, then, appears to be a very appropriate name to use if you want to divide up the world into four regions or races according to the Egyptian practice.
:The town of Libnah revolted during the reign of King Jehoram of Judah, according to II Chronicles (21:10), because he "had abandoned [the] God of his fathers."
Josiah, King of Judah, married Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah (1 Chronicles 3:15; 2 Kings 23:31-32;2 Kings 24:17-18; Jeremiah 22:11). Two of their sons, Jehoahaz and Zedekiah also became Kings of Judah.
"Libnah" means whiteness. Snow, salt, tin, naptha, milk, 
"Libnah, (Hebrew: לִבְנָה) was a town in the Kingdom of Judah.
==Rissah==
 Rissah is one of the places or stations of the Exodus. These are the places the Sons of Israel or Israelites stopped at during the Exodus presented in a sequence which gives the route. 
Rissah is (Arabic for a well stopped up with stones) comes after Libnah, the white land in the west. Libna was a Libyan emporia on the coast of Palestine north of Gaza. 
A related semitic language meaning is Rissah (Hebrew: רִסָּה) heap of ruins, In context this would refer to one of the fortified wells along what was known as the Kings highway, a sequence of fortified wells guarding the route from Egypt through Gaza to Canaan.
== Kehelathah ==
Kehelathah ke-he-la'-tha, ke-hel'-a-tha (qehlathah), the place of gathering antimony. A desert camp of the Israelites between Rissah and Mt. Shepher (Numbers 33:22-23).(Bartletts semitic roots([[ENTRY: kl. DEFINITION: Common Semitic noun *kul-, (powder of) antimony. kohl; alcohol, from Arabic (al-)kul, (the) powder of antimony, antimony. )
==Mount Shapher==
Mount Shapher The place of departure.(Bartletts semitic roots ENTRY: Ŝpr. DEFINITION: To send a message, send on a journey. safari, from Arabic safarya, journey, from safar, departure, journey, akin to the denominative verb sfara, to travel.) Mt Shapher is one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus. Mt Shapher may also have had a beacon fire to mark the border. 
==Haradah==
Haradah is one of the stops of the Israelites during the Exodus. It was a place of fear on the way between Mount Shapher the place of departure and Makheloth.Bartlets semitc roots From charad, khaw-rad', a primitive root; to shudder with terror; hence, to fear; also to hasten (with anxiety):--be (make) afraid, be careful, discomfit, fray (away), quake, tremble. (Hebrew: חֲרָדָה) Its name means fright or fearful.
==Makheloth==
The Canaanite name Makheloth or Mkl refers to a station of the Exodus near Moab. It has a variety of possible meanings most of which center around Maq'arah which means a burning or blackening. The god of Beth-shean is called "Mkl'a", the great god. The first element in his name, Mkl is Canaanite and means ruler.Canaanite Moloch: Mlk The story of Abraham combines both burning and blackening.(In the land of abimelech, the father of Moab, a sacrifice of lamb or beef was burned, barbecued or shishkabobed in the fire.)(The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that while the Sons of Israel wandered in the desert along the borders of Moab, the Moabites regularly made offerings of small cattle or lambs to Moloch the god of Moab.)(Bartelbys semitic roots ENTRY: mlk. DEFINITION: West Semitic, to rule, dominate, possess, own; Common Semitic noun *malk-, ruler, king.Melkite, from Aramaic malkye, plural of malky, royal, royalist, from malk, king.) Melchizedek, from.(Hebrew malkî-edeq, my king (is) righteousness, from malk, presuffixal form of melek, king + -î, my. ) Moloch, from Hebrew mlek, from Canaanite *mulk, perhaps variant of Canaanite *malk, *milk, king. 4. Mameluke, from Arabic mamlk, owned, slave, Mameluke, passive participle of malaka, to own, possess.(Bartlets semitic roots. The semitic root kl: ENTRY: kl. DEFINITION: Common Semitic noun *kul-(powder of) antimony. kohl)) Kohl used by the Egyptians as black eye shadow alcohol,(from Arabic (al-)kul,) (the) powder of antimony, antimony. References to the gods of the land itself:( Egyptian Akr: The canopic name Mai-m-akr-ah means Akr is great! Akr being the earth god who gives the land to the people) In that sense we have the assemblies or divisions of land between the tribes and also ashes to ashes and dust to dust in reference to burials.(upper Egypt was anciently "kmt", which means the black land. Lower Egypt was "dsrt" the Red land bordering the Red Sea whose capital was at Thebes. Makheloth bordered the black land.)(M*a*hr*b33l meaning from Ba'al, the Canaanite god. Mhr-Anat which means "champion, or upholder of the goddess Anat whose territory is in the north around Manassah.)(The ape headed Mahmackrah is the third of four Egyptian canopic jars. The Egyptians placed this ape or bulls head in the north associated with the plains of Medeba or Moab and its cattle ranching. M ah m ackr ah
==Tahath==
Tahath is one of the stations of the Exodus located between Makheloth and Terah.(Gardiners "Egyptian Grammar" From Egyptian Ta = land and Hayt = a measure of fields equivalent to a cord. Tahath means the land of garden plots.) on the borders of Moab and Edom. It is referenced in Numbers 33: 26, 27. It is referenced in (1 Chronicles 6:24 as the son of Assir and the father of Uriel. Also a descendant of Ephraim in 1 Chronicles 7:20)Tahath From Egyptian Ta = land and Hayt = a measure of fields equivalent to a cord. Tahath means the land of garden plots. It is located between Makheloth and Terah on the borders of Moab and Edom. It is referenced in Numbers 33: 26, 27. It is also a character reference in 1 Chronicles 6:24 as the son of Assir and the father of Uriel. Also a descendant of Ephraim in 1 Chronicles 7:20 
==Ta ra==
Ta ra is a station of the Exodus (Gardiner "Egyptian Grammar" t3 means land)(Gardiner "Egyptian Grammar" ra means sun) located in the land of the sun
==Mithcah==
Mithcah is a station of the Exodus located between Tara and Hashmonah.(Greek for a town on the island of Lesbos associated with Petra.)(Mycenean Greek settlers from Lesbos had a number of emporia on the coast of Palestine.)(Located near Petra Mithcah was a major center of operations for the Sons of Israel during the Exodus.) 
Its name means sweetness.
==Hashmonah==
Hashmonah is one of the stations of the Exodus.(Bartleby's semitic roots Ha Ŝmn ah ENTRY: Ŝmn. 
DEFINITION: Common Semitic noun *amn-, oil, fat. 1. Gethsemane, from Greek Gethsmani, from Hebrew gat emen, oil press, from emen, oil (gat, press; see wgn). 2. sesame, sesamoid, from Greek ssam, ssamon, sesame, from a Semitic source akin to Ugaritic mn, Phoenician mn, Aramaic umm, Arabic simsim, all meaning “sesame” and all probably from Akkadian amaamm, sesame, from aman, bound form of amnu, oil (it is possible that the Akkadian form represents a folk etymology for an original form amamu, from a root *mm). 
)
==Moseroth==
Moseroth () is one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus. It may be the same as Moserah. Its name means bonds.(Exodus The place at the foot of Mt Hor (Horab) where Aaron died and was buried)
==Bene Jaakan==
Bene Jaakan (Hebrew: בְּנֵי יַעֲקָן, B'nei Ya'akan) also known as Be'eroth or Be'eroth Bene-Jaakan, is one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus. 
Bene means good and jaakan means labor. Moseroth south to Beeroth was a line of Nabatean wells and irrigation projects at the southern edge of Moab near the Dead Sea. (see upper right hand corner of the map. The good labor of Bene Jaakan was continuing the irrigation project down the Arabah south to Hor Haggidad the cleft in the mountain known today as Petra.
==Hor Haggidgad==
Hor Haggidgad (Hebrew: חֹר הַגִּדְגָּד, Ḥōr Hag-Giḏgāḏ, 'cave of the Gidgad') is one of the stops of the Israelites on the Exodus journey. It is mentioned in Book of Numbers 33:32-33 as a place where the Israelites stopped during the Exodus, probably meaning 'cave of GidGad/GudGod'.Craige, Peter C., The Book of Deuteronomy Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1976 ISBN 9780802825247 p.200 it is called Gudgodah in Deuteronomy 10:7.Freedman, David Noel; Allen C. Myers; Astrid B. Beck Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible
 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000 ISBN 9780802824004 p.200 Its location is uncertain but has been identified as possible near Wadi HadahidCraige, Peter C., The Book of Deuteronomy Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1976 ISBN 9780802825247 p.200 p. 200 or Wadi Ghadhaghedh in the Eastern SinaiFreedman, David Noel; Allen C. Myers; Astrid B. Beck Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible
 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000 ISBN 9780802824004 p.607 although some see this as etymologically impossible.Bromiley, Geoffrey W. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995 p.756 ISBN 978-0-8028-3782-0
Hor Haggidgad In Deuteronomy 10:7 it is called Gudgodah. the gid or hollow of gad could be the cleft in the rock of the mountain entering Petra At the time of the Exodus it was a city, in the land of Edom but probably not yet a major city.
In subsequent years it dominated the caravan trade up and down the Arabah from the Sead Sea to Elat at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba and became the fortress of the land of the Nabateans. Most of its rock cut tombs date from that period. Famed for their good works Bene Jaakan they built aqueducts,water channels, lines of wells, cisterns and other very sophisticated means of keeping the desert habitable
Petra is also mentioned in Egyptian campaign accounts and in the Amarna letters as the place of the Apiru brigands and raiders who engaged in a war of conquest against the Egyptian govenors of Caanan.
==Jotbathah==
Jotbathah is one of the stations of the the Exodus journey. Located between Hor Haggidad and Abronah It is spelled Yotvatah on the map that serves as a frontspiece in the book "Rivers in the Desert by Nelson Glueck and is located in an area with an early Iron Age fortress Ain Ghadyan. 
Midianite potteryMidianite pottery, also known as “Qurayya ware”, generally dated to the 13th-12th centuries BCE, is a ware type found at 13 sites around Har Timna in the Hejaz (northwestern Saudi Arabia). 
Similar pottery with slightly later dates is found along the borders of Edom and Moab in southern and central Jordan. Similar pottery with even later dates is found in southern Israel and the northern Negev "Dr. Muhammed Abdul Nayeem, (1990). Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arabian Peninsula. Hyderabad.It was discovered during the 1930s by Nelson Glueck in his surveys in southern Jordan and his excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh in the southern Arabah valley.Glueck identified these wares as Iron Age II Edomite pottery.[1]During his surveys and excavations in the Arabah in the late 1950s and 1960s, Beno Rothenberg found similar decorated wares; and after the discovery at Timna valley of the several Egyptian findings belonging to the 19th and 20th Dynasties, Rothenberg dated this pottery to the 13th-12th centuries BC.Petrographic studies carried out on some of the Timna wares led to the conclusion that they originated in the Hejaz, most probably in the site of Qurayya.[2]Midianite bowls bear some resemblance in form with the Iron Age Negevite pottery bowls. and copper workings. Nearby water and acacia trees provided wood for charcoal for the miners at Har Timna.
Semitic root ENTRY: yd. DEFINITION: Common Semitic noun *yad-, hand. 1a. iota, jot, from Greek ita, iota; b. yodh, from Hebrew yd, yodh. Both a and b from Phoenician *yd, hand, tenth letter of the Phoenician alphabet. 2. Betelgeuse, ultimately from Arabic yad al-jawz, hand of Gemini, from yad, hand.
==Abronah==
Abronah means passage and is the passage from the mountains down to the sea overlooking Ezion Geber. 
thumb|right|250px|A glimpse of blue waters from the Darb el Hajj - today Ovda - approach to Eilat
In the book "Rivers in the Desert" Nelson Glueck reported it as Elats industrial city. The discovery of copper smelters dating back to the 13th century BC were linked with finds of water works, worker housing, temples to Hathor, copper and gold. 
In the book "the Pre and Protohistory of the Arabian Penninsula" Mohhamed Nayim reported archaeologists linking it with the copper mines at Timnah and finds of Egyptian faience pottery. 
Modern archaeologists like Juris Zahrins have linked it with a number of trade routes coming down to Elat from the Mountains of Lebanon and the [[[Dead Sea]]] bringing cedar wood, finely woven linen, bitumen, natron or salt, ben jamin or juniper oil from Lebanon, and coming up from Punt bringing frankincense and myrrh; all to be used in Egyptian mummification rituals at Karnack in return for the nub or Egyptian gold brought from Thebes by Hatshepsuts fleet. 
Abronah was a station of the Exodus.
==Ezion-Geber==
Ezion-Geber or Asiongaber (Classical Hebrew: עֶצְיֹן גֶּבֶר, pronounced "Etzyón-Gaver") was a city of Idumea, a biblical seaport on the northern extremity of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the area of modern Aqaba and Eilat. 
Ezion-Geber is mentioned six times in the Tanach(Numbers, xxxiii, 35; Deut., ii, 8; III K. (Vulgate), ix, 26; xxii, 49; II Par. (Chron.), viii, 17; xx, 36. The general site of Asiongaber is indicated in III K., ix, 26 (I K.) Ruins at Tell el-Kheleifeh were identified with Ezion-Geber by the German explorer F. Frank and later excavavated by Nelson Gluck who thought he had confirmed the identification, but a later re-evaluation dates them to a period between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE with occupation continuing possibly into the 4th century BCE.Pratico, Gary D. "Nelson Glueck's 1938-1940 Excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh: A Reappraisal" Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 259 (Summer, 1985), pp.1-32 According to the Book of Numbers Ezion-Geber was one of the first places where the Israelites camped after the Exodus from Egypt.(Numbers 33:35) 
The ships of Solomon and Hiram started from this port on their voyage to Ophir. It was the main port for Israel's commerce with the countries bordering on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. According to Book of II Chronicles, Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, joined with Ochozias, the King of Israel, to make ships in Asiongaber; but God disapproved the alliance, and the ships were broken in the port.2 Chronicles 20:37) 
In I Kings 9:26-29 (King James Version) says:
:And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.
:And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
:And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
"Ezion Geber" resembles "the giant's backbone", perhaps named after a rock formation, but according to the Targum Jonathan, it means city of the rooster. (כְּרַך תַּרְנְגוֹלָא)
==Kadesh==
Kadesh (), also known as Kadesh-Barnea (קָדֵשׁ בַּרְנֵעַ), was a place in the south of Ancient Israel. The name "Kodesh" means holy. The name "Barnea" may mean desert of wandering. 
It was an important site in Israelite history.*Gen 14:7 And they returned and came to Enmishpat, which [is] Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dweltin Hazezontamar. 
*Gen 16:14 Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, [it is] between Kadesh and Bered. 
*Gen 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. 
*Num 13:26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran , to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation , and shewed them the fruit of the land. 
*Num 20:1 Then came the children of Israel, [even] the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. 
*Num 20:14 And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us 
*Num 20:16 And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt and, behold, we [are] in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border 
*Num 20:22 And the children of Israel, [even] the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, and came unto mount Hor. 
*Num 27:14 For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes that [is] the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. 
*Num 33:36 And they removed from Eziongaber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which [is] Kadesh. 
*Num 33:37 And they removed from Kadesh, and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom. 
*Deu 1:46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode [there]. 
*Deu 32:51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh , in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. 
*Jdg 11:16 But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea , and came to Kadesh; 
*Jdg 11:17 Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying , Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land but the king of Edom would not hearken [thereto]. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab but he would not [consent]: and Israel abode in Kadesh. 
*Psa 29:8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. 
*Eze 47:19 And the south side southward, from Tamar [even] to the waters of strife [in] Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And [this is] the south side southward. 
*Eze 48:28 And by the border of Gad , at the south side southward , the border shall be even from Tamar [unto] the waters of strife [in] Kadesh, [and] to the river toward the great sea. Miriam, the sister of Moses, died there (Nu. 20:1), and Moses disobediently struck the rock that brought forth water at this location (Nu. 20:11).
Moses subsequently sent envoys to the King of Edom from Kadesh (), asking for permission to let the Israelites pass through his terrain. The Edomite king denied this request.
Since 1905 modern Ain el-Qudeirat in the Wadi el-Ain of the northern Sinai has been widely accepted as the location of biblical Kadesh Barnea. Several Iron Age fortresses have been excavated there. the oldest, a small, elliptical structure dates to the tenth century B.C. but was evidently abandoned for some time after the first fort's destruction. A second fort constructed during the eighth century B.C. (probably during the reign of Uzziah) was destroyed during the seventh century B.C., most likely during Manasseh's reign. Significantly, two ostraca engraved in Hebrew have been recovered there, suggesting the Israelites did indeed occupy this site."Kadesh Barnea" pg. 214 in the NIV Archaeological Study Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005
Kadesh-Barnea is 11 days march by way of Mt Seir from Horab.
==Mount Hor==
Mount Hor (Hebrew: הֹר הָהָר, Hor Ha-Har) is the name given in the Old Testament to two distinct mountains. One is in the Land of Edom on the East shore of the Dead Sea (currently, Jordan), the other by the Mediterranean Sea at the Northern border of the Land of Israel.
===Mount Hor in Edom===
right|thumb|Mt. Harun
This Mount Hor is situated "in the edge of the land of Edom" (Numbers 33:37). It is the scene of Aaron's death. Since Josephus it has been identified with the Jebel Nebi Harun ("Mountain of the Prophet Aaron" in Arabic), a twin-peaked mountain 4780 feet above sea-level (6072 feet above the Dead Sea) in the Edomite Mountains on the east side of the Jordan-Arabah valley. On the summit is a shrine said to cover the grave of Aaron. 
Some investigators at the turn of the 20th century dissented from this identification: H Clay Trumbull preferred the Jebel Madara, a peak northwest of 'Ain Kadis.
==Zalmonah==
Zalmonah was one of the stations of the the Exodus (Hebrew: צַלְמֹנָה)(Numbers 33:41,42). Zalmonah contains a textual artifact al mon = manna
==Punon==
Punon (Hebrew: פּוּנֹן) is an ancient city in the Arava, Jordan. It was a center of Copper and Iron mining from the early Chalcolithic c 4th millennium BC to biblical times and was exploited for copper nuggets (precious stones)The name means precious stone probably the malachite associated with the copper minining. in the Neolithic back as early as the 7th millennium BC. Some of the earliest smelters in history have been found in this region. There is a fortress on the wadi Guwair Today it is called Feinan. Punon was one of the places (or "stations") visited by the Israelites during the Exodus."They traveled from Tzalmonah, and encamped in Punon." (Numbers 33:42) Its the place where the story of the Exodus says the Isrealites grumbled about lack of bread and water and were attacked by snakes.Near Punon is a place with many cobra snakes called Nachas, which means snakes in Arabic. Techinnah the father of Ir-Nachash" 1Ch,4:12. to call out a prayer 
==Oboth==
Oboth (Hebrew: אֹבֹת) is one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus.[Hebrew: 'obot--the Greek eggastrimuthoi...Michaelis (Suppl., p. 39.) gives a different meaning and etymology to [Hebrew: 'obot]. He derives it from the Arabic, which signifies (1) _rediit_, (2) _occidit_ sol, (3) _noctu venit_ or _noctu aliquid fecit_. The first and third of these meanings will make it applicable to the [Greek: nekromanteia] (of which the witch of Endor was a practitioner), which was carried on at night. See Hor._Sat._ I. ix.
Its name may mean bottles.
==Iye Abarim==
Iye Abarim () was one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus.
The name means Ruins of Abarim.
It is also called Ije-abarim, Iyim. It is "in the wilderness which is opposite Moab toward the sunrise."
==Dhiban==
Dhiban (Egyptian deben) is a modern town located adjacent to an ancient site which was on the Kings Highway and served as the capital of Moab. Now located in Madaba Governorate in Jordan, approximately 70 kilometers south of Amman and east of the Dead Sea, anciently dhiban was the souk or trading place of a primarily nomadic pastorialist Bronze Age community. The town was modernized in the 1950s and today, Dhiban is approximately 15,000 members strong, with many working in the army, government agencies, or in seasonal agricultural production. A number of young people study in nearby universities in Karak, Madaba, and Amman. Most inhabitants practice Islam.
===Settlement at Dhibon===
Anciently Dibon was in Moab and the Moabites were friendly with the Egyptians, having kinship ties with them through Joseph. The principal shrine in Moab was Beyt-baal-me’on, which means “house/shrine of the baal/master/god of On.” The ancient settlement lies adjacent to the modern town. Excavations have revealed that the site was occupied intermittently over the past 5,000 years, its earliest occupation occurring in the Early Bronze Age in the third millennium BCE. The site's extensive settlement history is in part due to its location on the King's Highway, a major commercial route in antiquity. The majority of evidence for this population is concentrated in a 15 hectare tall. The release of the Mesha Inscription in 1868 led to an upsurge in visitors to the town (including tourists and scholars) due to its ostensible confirmation of biblical passages. Excavations began at the site in the mid-20th century with the American Schools of Oriental Research's project in 1950-53 and continued with seasons in 1955, 1956, 1965, the 1990s, an excavation and restoration program from Jordan's Department of Antiquities, and the ongoing Dhiban Excavation and Development Project, which began in 2004.
===Bronze Age===
The first substantial settlement at Dhiban's tall was during the Early Bronze Age. Archaeological evidence for a habitation of the tall between the Early Bronze Age and Iron Age has not yet been found. However, the disturbed archaeological context at the site means that this might not be definitive. Dhiban might correspond with the town “Tpn” or “Tbn” found in Egyptian texts from the reigns of Thutmoses III, Amenhotep III, and Rameses II. According to the Wikipedia article on deben the measure, in the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt four deben of copper and a kite of silver was the price of a slave girl.
===Dhiban and the Israelites===
The Israelites stopped at Dhiban during the Exodus. The Bible mentions "Dibon" (), and the Torah "Divon Gad" (דִּיבֹן גָּד) because the city was said to have been occupied by the Gad. The name in the Moabite in which it was originally founded refers to a deben, the hand measure of Egypt and Moab (egual to 13.6 g of gold and 37.2 g of copper) and references its function as a souk or market. The name in Biblical Hebrew means wasting or pining and may be a reference to Joseph being sold into slavery in Egypt at Dibon. According to the Mesha Stele found at the site, Mesha, a Moabite king, expelled the Israelites and established ancient Dhiban as an important settlement in the kingdom of Moab.
===Mesha and the Iron Age Moabite Kingdom===
The Mesha Inscription connected Dhiban with the biblical “Dibon” as well as implying that it was the capital of Mesha, a prominent Moabite king from the 9th century BCE, though it's role in Mesha's reign has not been confirmed. In the Iron IIb period Dhiban underwent at least three large building projects. The tall was artificially enlarged during this period and included several new architectural features, including retaining walls, towers, and a monumental city wall. The building dates of these features have not been confirmed, but might be somewhere between the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. These large buildings appear to have been abandoned in the Iron IIc period. The site also featured a large necropolis to the northeast of the tall. This contained multi-generational burials with corresponding funerary offerings, and one had a clay coffin with an anthropomorphic lid. The necropolis appears to be contemporary with these building projects.
==Almon Diblathaim==
Almon Diblathaim () was one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus. The name means Almon of the double cake of figs. 
Almon Diblathaim Arabic (al mon = manna) The Phillistine town in Moab between Dibon of Gad and the mountains of Abarim before Nebo.Nelson Gluck "Rivers in the Desert" p 141 (the Cherethites and the Pelethites were undoubtedly part of the sea peoples to whom the Phillistines belonged) (Athaim) where the manna was delivered by Dibl) Baal Zephon Zephyrus the god of the west wind; Greek equivalent of Yahwah.)(Semitic Root, ENTRY: dbb. DEFINITION: Common Semitic noun *ibb-, *ubb-, *ubb-, fly. Beelzebub, from Hebrew bacal zbûb, lord (of the) fly, from zbûb, fly pejorative alteration of bacal zbûl, lord prince, name of a Philistine god; see bcl and zbl) one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus. It is located in Moab.
Numbers 33: 46-47 And they removed from Dibongad, and encamped in Almondiblathaim. And they removed from Almondiblathaim, and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.
 
It was possibly the same place as Beth-diblathaim of Jeremiah 48:22, mentioned in the oracle against Moab. Also called Diblath.
==Abarim==
Abarim (Hebrew: הָרֵי הָעֲבָרִים, Har Ha-'Abarim, Harei Ha-'Abarim; Septuagint to oros to Abarim, en to peran tou Iordanou, mountain Abarim, mountains of Abarim) is a mountain range across Jordan, to the east and south-east of the Dead Sea, extending from Mount Nebo in the north, perhaps to the Arabian desert in the south. The Vulgate (Deuteronomy 32:49) gives its etymological meaning as passages. Its northern part was called Phasga (or Pisgah), and the highest peak of Phasga was Mount Nebo (Numbers 23:14; 27:12; 21:20; 32:47; Deuteronomy 3:27; 34:1; 32:49). From "the top of Pisgah," i.e., Mount Nebo, an area which belonged to Moab, Moses surveyed the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 3:27; 32:49), and there he died (34:1,5). Balaam blessed Israel the second time from the top of Mount Phasga (Numbers 23:14); and here Jeremias hid the ark (II Maccabees 2:4-5). The Israelites had one of their encampments in the mountains of Abarim (Num. 33:47,48) after crossing the Arnon. Jeremiah couples it with Bashan and Lebanon as locations from which the people cry in vain to God for rescue (Jeremiah 22:20).
==Moab==
== References ==
== Footnotes ==
== See also ==
Stations of the Exodus