The Exodus

Let’s look at the path they took. If you have a map of the region, particularly maps of the region at that time which can be found in many bibles, you may want to take it out.

Rameses was a large city in Egypt named for the Pharaoh who built it. It is likely that the name did not exist when the record was originally made because that region of the country was possessed by the Israelites and Rameses II (Rameses the Great) probably came after the Exodus. Among other evidence is the idea of a king coming who did not know Joseph. This indicates the possibility that these events occurred in the Hyksos period. This is when the land of Egypt was occupied and ruled by people from the area around what would become Israel. Scribes copying the history later would have had to change the name to match maps of the time period they were in. As these documents were meant to provide an understandable history it makes sense that they would mention things in relation to current locations. You can see that this was done in regard to Eden as well. Most of the locations and landmarks from before the flood had changed but, the description of it’s location is described in terms of the terrain after the flood. In fact this description was clear enough that the remains of the city of Eden was discovered by archaeologists many years ago.

The land of Goshen was on a flood plain which would have been difficult to make use of by the early Egyptians but would make ideal grazing land for the Israelites who were primarily cattleman and sheepherders. Since Egyptians couldn’t use the land and considered it uncouth to be around animal herders, the land of Goshen would have been left entirely in the hands of the Israelites without interference until they left Egypt. The City of Rameses would have been built later as the Egyptian Empire regained strength after it’s failures with Israel. The city was positioned as a base of operations for military actions. The name of the city came after it had been built up for this purpose but, it had gone by the name Rowaty prior to that when it was simply an unfortified rural settlement. the Hyksos rule ended with the death of Tuthmosis the Second in 1450 BC. This timeline agrees with many other historic records and fits the timeline of the Exodus. Later references to Egypt as, again, becoming an ally of Israel in various pursuits, implies ruler ship by those who respected Israel's position. The Egyptian kings of old held no animosity towards Israel and were said to respect Jehovah. The fact that the same is said of later kings implies that the kings at the time of the Israelites persecution were of a different type.

That’s a lot of information to point out that the Exodus from Egypt begat at Rameses. The moved to Succoth where they established camp. Succoth appears to coincide with the Egyptian store city of Pithom. built by the Hyksos regime this city was probably built over one of the Earliest Jewish settlements and is believed to be where Joseph’s body was kept until the Exodus. From there they go to Etham which, from the description of the location is probably another name for Khetam, a fortress along the great wall of Egypt and providing a military outpost on the edge of Egyptian territory. This would seem to be a dead end as they Israelites were boxed in by the mountains.

They turned back to Pi Hahiroth east of Baal Zephon and camped near Migdol which is a military watch tower. This description makes it impossible for the crossing of the sea to occur anywhere but at the straits of Tiran. This is the only place that matches the description. Having crossed the sea they traveled into the Wilderness of Etham which is actually the wilderness of Shur. A very close spelling correlation results in this being called the wilderness of Etham and the continuation of the journey makes clear where this is located.

Suggestions that the crossing was at the bitter lakes or port of Suez miss facts. 1) there is no place for the wilderness to close them in. 2)the doubled back to the point where they crossed. Doing that at either point means they already passed the sea and didn’t need to cross it. 3) the bible says they crossed a wilderness before coming to the sea. The wilderness of Egypt comes after those locations.

http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-route-etham.htm this site has maps showing the location of the landmarks mentioned and describing the crossing with detail.

Traveling 3 days to Marah brings them to the foot of the mountains and the closest point to midan which was the hometown of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. The bitter water may have refered to saltwater which is common in the flood plains along the sea. Despite being many miles inland they were still near sea level. The moved on to Elim. Traditional maps place these towns along the sea but that makes no sense when the next stop is to camp by the sea. this route goies into the wildernes(inland) to the mountains, turns south and makes camp halfway to the sea at an oasis of sorts with springs of water and palm trees. From there to the sea and then east into the wilderness of Sin brings them around the mountains in lower lands easier for transit. The eventual destination is Mt Sinai and this route comes there by the broad and easy route rather than traveling through the mountains.

From the wilderness of Sin the Israelites moved to a noarrow and difficult passage using Dophkah and Alush as staging areas for the difficult trek that led to a rather easy transit to Rephidim. coming out of this difficult pass they were attacked by the Amalakites who struck at the stragglers in the rear of the group. From here they move to the wilderness of Sinai. This brought them near Mt Sinai where they recieved the law. From this point there are a lot of locations mentioned. Many of them are names only useful to the Hebrew travelers. For example, the first is Kibroth Hattaavah. The name means graves of craving and refers to those who died after eating from the over abundant quail after they complained to God about not having enough meat. The names refer to events or landmarks of interest to the travelers but not associated with other societies or cities.

Wandering through the wilderness they came to Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor on the boundary of Edom. Remember that the Edomites were the children of Esau and were considered family by Israel. God forbid them from interfering with these people. The most likely location for this site is at or near Petra. (If you saw the ancient city in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, then you have seen Petra. It is the city built into the rock by the people of Israel as a stronghold. They came here and Aaron died here 40 years after leaving Egypt. Aaron was 123 years old at the time.

From there they traveled through several more camps until reaching Mt Nebo then to the plains of Moab by the Jordon River and across from the city of Jericho.

They were ordered to drive out the inhabitants of the promised land and destroy all their places of worship and religious Items. I often get strange looks when I praise the Taliban for destroying the Giant Buddhas in the side of the mountain. If Christians followed biblical law they would destroy Idols rather than building museums around them to glorify the “Art”. Appreciating a culture does not require us to study and worship their religious Icons.

From here the final borders of the Promised land are given. You can find a mapping of it on the site I mentioned earlier. This is not all the land of Israel but all the promised land. The Tribes that set up their home on the other side of the Jordan river expanded the territory and Solomon gained control of vast territories beyond the promised borders.