THE MARCH TO MOAB.

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during the rest of the forty years, less is known. Gudgodah is probably the present Ghadaghit-a valley some twenty miles west of Mount Hor. Jotbath, a place where there were "torrents of water," appears to be the present Et Tâbah a ruined site in the Arabah some twenty miles south of Gudgodah. The streams are here abundant, flowing towards the Gulf of Akabah. The site of Ezion Geber near Elath is fixed at 'Ain Ghudhian, north of Jotbah; and these identifications agree with the general limits of the scene of wanderings mentioned in the first verses of Deuteronomy.

The stations between Kadesh and Moab are little known; but Iim is possibly the present Aimeh - a ruin sixteen miles south of the brook Zered, which was the next camp. From Dibon in Moab to Mount Nebo the various stations coincide with well-watered valleys, and five marches covered sixty miles. There is thus throughout the itinerary nothing which causes any difficulty, either as regards distance or as regards the water-supply of the camp. Critical scholars assert that this list of stations, attributed in the Bible to Moses when he "wrote their places of departure according to their journeys" (Num. xxxiii. 2), was really written down by a Jewish priest during or after the Captivity, who either drew on his imagination or was singularly well informed on the subject. How it became possible for a priest in Babylon to gain such accurate knowledge of the distances and routes in the desert of Sinai- -a region then unvisited by either Jews or Chaldeans-it is not easy to under

D

stand. The writer represents Edom as peopled by a rude tribe akin to the Hebrews, but with admixture of Hittite and Ishmaelite (or half-Egyptian) blood. In the days when Judah languished in Babylon, the region round Petra was held by Nabathean Arabs, who came up from the Nejed; for Gilead and Moab and Edom. had been crushed much earlier by Assyria, when Tiglath Pileser III. took captive the sons of Gad and Reuben. The topography of the Exodus is an actual topography, easily followed on the ground; and the chronology of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament agrees, from Abraham's time downwards, with monumental dates. There would be nothing strange in the preservation of an original list of stations written by Moses, among a people to whom. the art of writing was already known, and it may in time come to be recognised that the words of the Pentateuch form a better foundation for history than the fragments of Manetho, or the baseless theories of those who set aside its dates and its geography as fabrications of a later priesthood.

NUMERALS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

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NOTES TO CHAPTER III.

Egyptian Dates.—The reign of Thothmes III., beginning about 1600 B.C., was fixed by Dr Brugsch from the notice of the rising of the star Sothis on the 28th Epiphi, or (at that period) 20th July, during his time ('Hist. Egypt,' vol. i. p. 395), checked by certain observations of the moon. The dates of the earlier dynasties are still uncertain, and the chronology of Manetho is still accepted as a rough guide, but the average of thirty years for a king's reign appears to be much too high. The early kings of Babylon (like our Saxon kings) ruled on an average only eight years. The Turin Papyrus disagrees with Manetho as to the reigns of the fourth and fifth dynasties, Suphis ruling six years (Manetho, 66), Mencheres twenty-four (Manetho, 63), and Tatcheres twenty-eight (Manetho, 44): the average for seven reigns of the fourth dynasty is only sixteen years. If the Table of Abydos is correct in giving sixty-five kings between Mena and Ahmes (or before about 1700 B.C.), an average of sixteen years' reign would bring Menes down to about 2800 B.C. The Turin Papyrus, however, gives an average of twenty-seven years for eight reigns of the twelfth dynasty, and this dynasty would have begun about 2400 B.C. The thirteenth Theban dynasty consisted of forty-seven kings according to the Turin Papyrus, but Manetho says sixty kings. The Theban and Hyksos kings were contemporary, and some of the earliest dynasties were probably rulers of only part of Egypt. The early chronology is therefore at present very imperfectly known (see 'Brugsch, 'Hist. Egypt,' vol. i. pp. 33, 67, 120, 188). The average reign of the Theban kings (thirteenth dynasty) was only seven years.

Numerals in the Old Testament.-The fact that the numerals were very liable to be miscopied is clearly shown by comparison of the versions. In addition to the changes made in the Samaritan and the Septuagint respecting the lives of the earliest patriarchs, where the corrections seem to

be deliberate, there are many other instances, some of which appear to have no motive for alteration, and merely indicate a different text. Thus, for instance, in 1 Sam. xiii. 5 the Peshitto Syriac reads 3000 for 30,000 chariots, whereas in 1 Kings v. 11 the Septuagint gives 20,000 for 20 measures of oil. In 2 Kings i. 17 the Septuagint reads eighteenth for second year of Jehoram. In 2 Chron. iii. 4 the Septuagint makes the Temple 20 cubits instead of 120 in height. These are only specimens showing the alterations noticeable throughout the Bible. The early monuments make use of numeral signs instead of writing numerals in full, and to the miscopying of such signs the variations are probably due in many

cases.

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Kadesh and Kadesh Barnea.-The discovery by Rowlands of a fine spring called 'Ain Kadis, in the Tih desert, has led to a controversy as to the site of Kadesh Barnea. The new site agreed well with the account of the Kadesh to which Hagar fled (Gen. xv. 14) on the way to Shur, near Egypt (verse 7, compare Gen. xx. 1). There was a Kedesh in this region (Josh. xv. 23) near Adadah ('Ad'adeh), but in neither case is this site stated to be the same as Kadesh Barnea or the 'Holy place of the desert of Wandering." The latter is called a "city" on the extreme border of Edom (Num. xx. 16), near Mount Hor (verse 22, see xxxiii. 36, 37). It is probably the Kadesh attacked by Amraphel (Gen. xiv. 5) near Mount Seir and Paran (see Num. xiii. 26), and at the south-east corner of the Hebrew territory (Num. xxxiv. 4), eleven days' journey from Horeb "by the way of Mount Seir" (Deut. i. 2, 19); and it marks the east limit of conquest as compared with Gaza on the west (Josh. x. 41). It was east of Hezron (Jebel Hadireh), and near the Dead Sea (Josh. xv. 3), and Ezekiel points (xlvii. 19) to the same situation. There is no reason for discrediting the Jewish tradition, preserved in the Talmud and by Josephus, which places Kadesh Barnea at Petra close to the traditional site of Mount Hor; and this indeed is the only place-except Elath-in the desert where a "city" has ever existed.

HAVING thus followed the thread of history over the whole period covered by the Pentateuch story, it is necessary to consider, before treating of critical opinion, questions relating to language, writing, civilisation, natural history, and religion, which are illustrated by monumental records, and which are of the highest importance in forming an unbiassed opinion as to the character and age of the five books which formed the Torah or "Law" of Israel.

Language is one of the surest marks of date in writing. When we compare modern English with that used in the Bible three centuries ago, or again with the Anglo-Saxon whence it mainly springs, we mark the slow and constant change of speech from age to age. This change is less rapid among peoples whose literature preserves a written standard than among savage races. The Semitic languages were slow to move, and the Aramaic of Hammurapaltu differs little from that of Nebuchadnezzar. But the language of various parts of the Bible offers to our study very remarkable changes at different periods.