COMPENDIUM OF WORLD HISTORY

VOLUME 2

A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Ambassador College Graduate
School of Education In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

by Herman L. Hoeh

1963 1966, 1969 Edition

CHAPTER XVI

JOURNEY TO PETRA

Why should the valley through Petra be named after Moses — if Moses was
never there? Could it be that Moses and the children of Israel actually assembled
in Petra before entering the Promised Land?

Why are so many chapters in the Bible devoted to the minute details of the
journey of Israel from Egypt to Palestine? Have these chapters hitherto undisclosed
historical meaning?

AFTER MOUNT SINAI — WHERE?

Today, almost no one supposes Israel ever saw Petra. Yet not more than two
centuries ago it was common knowledge among scholars that Moses, Aaron, Miriam
and the children of Israel journeyed through Petra!

Now notice what really happened when Israel was about to leave Mount Sinai.
It is found in Numbers 10:11-12. ‘And it came to pass on the twentieth day of
the second month, in the second year (after the Exodus), that the cloud was
taken up from off the tabernacle …. And the children took their journeys’
— the original Hebrew reads ‘set forward by stages’ (Jewish translation) —
‘out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.’

From Numbers 9:15 to 23, we learn that the encampments of Israel were determined
by the movement of the cloud above the tabernacle. When the cloud was stationary,
the people abode in their tents. When the cloud ascended and moved forward,
the people followed it. The Eternal — the God of Israel, who later came in
the flesh as Christ — was in that cloud! He was leading Israel. He determined
their movements. Where did He take them? To ‘the wilderness of Paran,’ says
Numbers 10:12.

But where is Paran?

Men assume it may mean the Sinai Peninsula, southwest of Palestine. They
are only guessing! They don’t really know! Where does the Bible say it is?

First, let’s understand what the word ‘Paran’ means. ‘Young’s Concordance’
gives the surprising definition: ‘Full of caverns.’ Paran comes from the Hebrew
root meaning ‘to dig out,’ or ‘to cut out,’ according to the ‘Encyclopaedia
Biblica’; hence, ‘to embellish or decorate’ (‘Strong’s Concordance’).

Here is a wilderness famous for a place in it which is full of caverns or
caves! — embellished or decorated with tombs! Is this place Petra? We shall
see. Certainly no city is more famous for its beautifully carved caves than
Petra!

Notice also that Ishmael — the ancestor of the Arabians — ‘dwelt in the
wilderness of Paran’ (Genesis 21:21). It does not say he dwelt in Sinai. The
scripture reads Paran. And where is the ancestral home of the Arabs? In Arabia,
east of the Sinai Peninsula! That indicates that the wilderness of Paran borders
on Arabia!

Now turn to Numbers 12:16. Note what it says — the children of Israel pitched
their tents ‘in the wilderness of Paran.’ From here Moses sent the twelve men
to spy out the land of Palestine. ‘And Moses sent them from the wilderness of
Paran according to the commandment of the Lord’ (Numbers 13:3).

After forty days ‘they came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation
of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh’ (Numbers
13:26). Kadesh is a city (Numbers 20:16).

WHAT DOES ‘KADESH’ MEAN?

Why was this city called ‘Kadesh’? In Hebrew, the word Kadesh means ‘holy.’
(See ‘Young’s Concordance’.) What made the place holy?

God did! God is holy. God dwelled in the cloud over the tabernacle. The cloud
abode in the wilderness of Paran in Kadesh. God’s presence sanctified the city
and gave the name Kadesh to it.

Kadesh has more than one name. In the book of Numbers, God commanded Israel
to go up and possess the land, beginning from ‘Kadesh’ (Numbers 13:26). But
in Deuteronomy 9:23 we read: ‘Likewise when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea,
saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you’; then ye rebelled
….’ Kadesh-barnea is therefore another name for Kadesh.

Why should the city of Kadesh also be called ‘Kadesh-barnea’? The Hebrew
word ‘barnea’ comes from two Hebrew words, ‘bar’ and ‘nua’. The root meaning
of ‘nua’ (sometimes spelled ‘nuwa’) is ‘to waver or wander.’ It is often translated
in the Old Testament as ‘wanderer,’ ‘vagabond,’ ‘fugitive.’ ‘Bar’ means ‘son.’
It is used in such expressions as Bartimaeus, meaning ‘the son of Timaeus’ (Mark
10:46), ‘Simon Bar-Jona’ — Simon the son of Jona (Matthew 16:17).

It was at Kadesh (Numbers 13:26) that the Israelites wavered in their faith.
They refused to trust God (Numbers 14:1, 11). As a punishment they had to wander
or be fugitives in the wilderness. ‘And the Lord’s anger was kindled against
Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the
generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed’ (Numbers
32:13).

Kadesh was never referred to as Kadesh-barnea until after the Israelites
wavered in their faith and had to wander as a punishment (Numbers 32:8). The
significance of the name barnea, then, is ‘the wandering sons.’

Observe, now, in what mountain range Kadesh is to be found.

LOCATED IN MOUNT SEIR!

‘And we journeyed from Horeb, and went through all that great and dreadful
wilderness which ye saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as
the Lord our God commanded us: and we came to Kadesh-barnea’ (Deuteronomy 1:19).

The ‘hill country of the Amorites’ is defined by Moffatt in Judges 1:36 as
extending ‘from the Scorpion Pass (‘Akrabbim’ in King James Version) to Sela
and beyond it.’ Sela is Petra!

Consider another vital point. To reach Kadesh from Horeb or Sinai (Horeb
is another name for Sinai — Malachi 4:4 and Deuteronomy 4:10-13), the usual
eleven-day route went ‘by the way of Mount Seir’!

Or, in other words, Israel journeyed by the Mount Seir road! But where is
Mount Seir?

Mount Seir is that chain of mountains between Arabia and the Arabah or ‘plain’
mentioned so often in the Bible. It lies east of the Arabah and extends from
the Gulf of Aqaba north to near the Dead Sea.

Most maps in the back of a Bible will have these places located correctly.
These maps, however, misplace Kadesh. The ‘Kadesh’ usually located in the Sinai
Peninsula is not the city Moses describes, but is the ‘Kedesh’ of Joshua 15:23
instead — another place altogether.

Now consider this: if the wilderness of Paran and Kadesh were in the Sinai
Peninsula southwest of Palestine, there would be no reason for traveling by
the way of Mount Seir!

The only reason one would have to travel by the Way of Mount Seir — or by
the Mount Seir Road — is that Paran and Kadesh lay east of the Sinai Peninsula
— in other words, in the vicinity of Petra!

Take another scripture — Deuteronomy 1:6-7: ‘The Lord our God spoke unto
us in Horeb, saying: ‘Ye have dwelt long enough in this mountain; turn you,
and take your journey, and go to the hill-country of the Amorites and unto all
the places nigh thereunto, in the Arabah (in the King James Version it is called
‘the plain’), in the hill-country, in the Lowland, and in the South, and by
the sea-shore of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the
river Euphrates’ ‘ (Jewish translation).

Did you notice that? Israel was to journey to the Amorite hill-country, where
Kadesh was located. From there they were to enter the promised land from the
east, to proceed westward to the shore of the Mediterranean, and then go north
to Lebanon and the Euphrates (verse 21). The first part of the promised land
they would enter was the Arabah — the wilderness just west of Petra in Mount
Seir!

Here is just one more proof that Kadesh and the wilderness of Paran were
east of the Arabah — east of the Sinai Peninsula — in Mount Seir, in the vicinity
of Petra!

ISRAEL WHIPPED IN SEIR

But this is not all the evidence. Notice! When Israel refused to trust God,
He sternly told them: ‘Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto
their fathers, neither shall any of them see it’ (Numbers 14:23). Upon receiving
this rebuke, they imperiously said: ‘Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the
place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, Wherefore
now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord …. Go not up, for the Lord
is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies …. But they presumed
to go up unto the hill top: … Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites
which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah’
(Numbers 14:40-45).

Notice where this disaster befell Israel. The people were defeated even to
Hormah. Where is Hormah?

‘And the Amorites’ — who were Canaanites — ‘came out against you, as bees
do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah’! (Deuteronomy 1:42-45.)

It was in Seir — in the mountain range where Petra is located — that Israel
was handed this severe defeat. This was not somewhere in the Sinai wilderness.
This was in Seir. The Bible says so!

YET ANOTHER PROOF!

Kadesh is also said to be located in ‘the Wilderness of Zin.’ ‘For ye rebelled,’
God told Moses, ‘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’ (Numbers 27:14).

Since Kadesh is located in the wilderness of Paran and in the wilderness
or Zin, it certainly appears that Zin and Paran are two different names for
the same wilderness, doesn’t it? What does ‘Zin’ mean? Here is the answer!

The spies began to search the promised land from the city of Kadesh-barnea.
That is recorded in Deuteronomy 1:19-23. Kadesh was their starting point. It
was an important city on the border of the promised land. It was in fact one
of the promised ‘gates of your enemies’ (Genesis 22:17). But according to Numbers
13:21, we discover that ‘they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness
of Zin 26).

The Wilderness of Zin is mentioned no less than ten times in the Bible. Invariably
the only city associated with it is Kadesh. Kadesh is also the only city associated
with Paran. Remember that Paran means ‘caverns.’ But what does Zin mean?

It comes from the Hebrew root meaning a mountainous crag, as if piercing
the sky! (See ‘Strong’s Concordance’.) Here is what the ‘Encyclopaedia Biblica’
says: Zin ‘may mean the ‘wall’ of rock within which the wilderness of Zin lies’!

What better description could we find for the region of Petra than this!
Petra is famous for its stupendous crags jutting high into the sky. Is it a
coincidence that Petra — with its rocky crags and its caves — is the only
city in the region of Arabia from which the words Paran and Zin can both be
derived?

Some have been confused between the ‘Wilderness of Zin’ and the ‘Wilderness
of Sin.’ They are not the same. They are spelled differently in Hebrew. The
Wilderness of Sin was reached by Israel before they even came to Sinai (Exodus
16:1). The wilderness of Zin was reached after Israel departed from Sinai. Sin
was northwest of Sinai.

Zin was far to the northeast of Mount Sinai.

WHERE WAS THE ‘WILDERNESS OF WANDERING’?

The epoch-making night following the return of the twelve spies, ‘all the
congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept’ (Numbers
14:1). Their anger rose to rebellion next day. They hurled the accusation ‘Would
God we had died in this wilderness’ (verse 2).

When God heard it, He ordered Moses to tell the people: ‘Tomorrow turn you,
and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea’ (verse 25, last half).

Remember, Israel was already in the wilderness of Zin or Paran.

Now God orders them to leave Kadesh and go into the wilderness by the Way
of the Red Sea — that is, by the Red Sea Road. They reached Kadesh by the Mount
Seir Road. Now they are to leave by another route for an area called ‘the wilderness.’

After their crushing defeat that morning at Hormah, Moses reported: ‘And
ye returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to your
voice, nor give ear unto you. So you abode in Kadesh many days’ — how long?
‘According unto the days (the forty days of anxious waiting for the spies’ return)
that you abode there’ (Deuteronomy 1:45-46).

God would not let them remain in Kadesh any longer. He was determined that
they were to leave that day for the wilderness, rather than enter Palestine.
They did not deserve the promised land. They despised it. The many days of waiting,
in which they dwelled in Kadesh, comprised over forty long days. When the spies
returned, they rebelled.

Thus, instead of entering the land of Canaan, Moses wrote: ‘Then we turned,
and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the Lord
spake unto me’ (Deuteronomy 2:1).

The children of Israel now move southwest from Kadesh. They take the road
that leads to the Red Sea in order to journey into the wilderness. This is the
wilderness which they had asked to die in (Numbers 14:2) — and in it they were
going to die! Moses called it ‘that great and dreadful wilderness’ — the edge
of which they passed through when journeying from Sinai to Mount Seir (Deuteronomy
1:19).

This wilderness in the Sinai Peninsula has been called throughout history
simply Et Tih — meaning ‘the Wilderness’; or Badiyat et-Tih Beni Israel —
meaning ‘the Wilderness of the Wanderings of the Children of Israel.’ This designation
runs back in the Arabian historians as far back as we have any track of their
name for this desert,’ says Trumbull, on page 67 of ‘Kadesh-barnea’.

Nowhere in all the Bible is this area ever called Zin or Paran! It is entirely
mislabeled on most Bible maps today. Nearly thirty-seven and one-half years
were spent wandering in this desolate, arid region.

No notice is taken of any wilderness encampments during those years.

Only a few major events occurring during the period are recorded in Numbers
15 through 19.

ENCAMPMENTS LISTED IN ORDER

Before we proceed further, let’s consider Numbers 33. This entire chapter
is devoted to the encampments of the children of Israel. This list of seemingly
unimportant encampments may have far more importance for us today than we dream!
Everything is placed in the Bible for a purpose!

Turn now to Numbers 33. Beginning with verse 1: ‘These are the journeys of
the children of Israel …. And Moses wrote their goings out according to their
journeys by the commandment of the Lord.’ Then Moses lists the stopovers to
Sinai (verse 15).

We have read in Deuteronomy 1:2 that the trip could be made from Sinai to
Kadesh in eleven days of normal travel. The Israelites took longer, of course.
Sometimes they remained a week (Numbers 12:15) or a month (Numbers 11:20) in
one location before moving.

In the list in Numbers 33, the name ‘Kadesh’ appears only once as an encampment
(verses 36-37). In this list it appears just before the short journey to Mount
Hor. It is therefore the second time Israel entered Kadesh. Since the children
of Israel were in Kadesh twice, it is hardly likely that the first stop there
should have been omitted in Numbers 33.

Nor indeed is it!

In Numbers 12:16, observe that the camping points between Hazeroth and the
wilderness of Paran are skipped over. In Numbers 33:18-30 you will find them
listed. Mount Shapher (verse 23) is one of the famous mountain peaks in the
Mount Seir range. ‘The Mount Shapher of Moses … is the Jebel Shafeh of the
Arabs, (which gave its name to) the mountain range lying NNE (north-northeast)
of Akabah, and extending from the head of that gulf to the neighborhood of Petra
and Mount Hor,’ wrote Charles Forster in ‘Sinai Photographed,’ page 144. This
one peak gave its name to the entire range of mountains inhabited by the descendants
of Seir.

The remaining stops after Mount Shapher take us east along Mount Seir to
Bene-Jaakan (verse 31).

BENE-JAAKAN IS KADESH!

Notice Numbers 33:37. In the fortieth year of the exodus, Israel journeyed
from Kadesh to Mount Hor where Aaron died. But when Moses related the same movements
orally, he said: ‘And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth
(Beeroth means ‘wells’) of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: where Aaron died’
(Deuteronomy 10:6). This scripture indicates that Mosera is another name applied
to Mount Hor and that Bene-Jaakan is another name for Kadesh. Mogera means ‘chastisement’
in Hebrew (‘Young’s Concordance’). It was at Mount Hor that Aaron died as a
chastisement for disobeying God at Kadesh. It is certainly a fitting name for
the Mount.

Now what does ‘Bene-Jaakan’ mean?

The name ‘Bene-Jaakan’ is merely another way of saying ‘children of Jaskan.’
The usual Hebrew word for child or son is BEN. So the locale designated Bene-Jaakan
is the place where the descendants of Jaakan settled. But who was Jaakan?

Jaakan is spelled Jakan in I Chronicles 1:42 and Akan in Genesis 36:27. Jaakan
was a son of Ezer. Ezer was a son of Seir the Horite (Genesis 36:20-21). The
word Horite came to mean cave-dweller according to many authorities. That makes
the children of Jaakan Horites or cave-dwellers. And what city in Mount Seir
is more famous for its caves than Petra? History tells us that the Horites originally
cut out the gaping caverns in Petra!

Certainly Bene-Jaakan is another name for Petra!

The few children of Jaakan at Kadesh did not resist the Israelites when Israel
came to Kadesh the first time, or else they would not have been there to meet
the Israelites nearly forty years later! It appears also that a few of the Kenites
dwelt around Petra and dominated the region. The Kenites had their strong dwelling
place ‘in a rock’ — ‘in Sela’ according to the original Hebrew (Numbers 24:21).
Sela is Petra.

Moses’ father-in-law — a priest himself — was a Kenite (Judges 1:16) probably
from Sela, where the children of Jaakan also dwelt.

And is not this also an indication that Moses’ experiences in the wilderness
for forty years prior to the exodus were to train him to lead the nation Israel
through Sinai to the safety of Kadesh on the borders of Canaan?

But to return to Numbers 33 . After leaving Kadesh the first time, the children
of Israel did not need to stop at Mount Hor. They proceeded southwest into the
Arabah and came to Horhagidgad, then to Jotbathah, then to Ebronah (verses 32-34),
This took them into the Sinaitic wilderness where no further encampments are
recorded for about thirty-seven years!

God saw no need to take out time with the route of their miserable wanderings.

The account in Numbers 33 next picks up the journey of Israel from Eziongeber
to Kadesh again (verses 35, 36) about the beginning of the fortieth year after
the exodus.

THE RETURN TO KADESH

Thirty-nine years have now elapsed since the Exodus from Egypt.

‘Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, to the desert
of Zin in the first month (of the fortieth year, according to Josephus): and
the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam (the sister of Moses) died there, and
was buried there’ (Numbers 20:1).

The Bible records that Miriam was buried in Kadesh. In William Whiston’s
footnote in Josephus’ ‘Antiquities of the Jews,’ Book IV, Chapter IV, Section
7, we read that ‘her sepulchre is still extant near Petra, the old capital city
of Arabia Petraea, at this day; as also that of Aaron, not far off’!

Now notice what happened next. ‘And there was no water for the congregation:
and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron …. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly
together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their
eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them
water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts
to drink.’

Then ‘Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock,
and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this
rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice:
and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts
also.’

‘And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron. Because ye believed Me not, to
sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel’ — God had ordered Moses
to speak to the rock, not to strike it, to show that it was God alone who could
produce the water at the precise moment — ‘therefore ye shall not bring this
congregation into the land which I have given them’ (Numbers 20:2, 7-8, 10-12).

What rock is it that Moses struck?

It is SELA in Hebrew!

‘SELA’ ANOTHER NAME FOR PETRA

There are two Hebrew words commonly rendered rock. One is ‘sela,’ the other
is ‘tsur.’ The word ‘tsur’ may mean ‘a cliff, a rock, a boulder.’

When Moses struck ‘the rock in Horeb,’ thirty-nine years before, he did not
strike Sela or Petra. He struck ‘tsur’! Observe: ‘Behold, I,’ spoke God to Moses,
‘I will stand before thee there upon the rock (tsur) in Horeb; and thou shalt
smite the rock (tsur), and there shall come water out of it …. And he called
the name of the place Massah (meaning ‘temptation’), and Meribah (meaning ‘strife’),
because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the
Lord saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?’ (Exodus 17:6-7).

This rock — ‘tsur’ — is referred to spiritually in I Corinthians 10:4:
‘And they did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual
Rock that followed them (a better translation is ‘went with them’): and that
Rock was Christ.’

The waters which sprang from the two different rocks, nearly thirty-nine
years apart, were both called ‘Meribah’ (Exodus 17:7; Numbers 20:13, 24). That
has led some to confuse the events. Meribah means ‘strife.’ In both instances
the children of Israel strove with God. To distinguish between the two, Moses
was inspired to use the expression ‘Meribah in Kadesh’ (Numbers 27:14), or ‘Meribah-Kadesh’
(Deuteronomy 32:51), for the later strife over water at Sela.

About four months have now elapsed since Israel came to Kadesh the second
time. ‘And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from
Kadesh, and came unto Mount Hor. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in
Mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall be gathered
unto his people’ (Numbers 20:22-24).

WHERE DID AARON DIE?

The same event is recorded in Numbers 33:37-38.

A little to the southwest of Petra is a 4800 foot mountain called Jebel Nebi
Harun by the Arabs. It means Mount of the Prophet Aaron. It is the traditional
site of the death of Aaron.

Josephus, the Jewish historian in the time of the apostles, tells us that
Aaron died on one of the ‘high mountains’ which encompasses ‘Petra’! Mount Hor
is by Petra! — ‘by the coast of the land of Edom’ (Numbers 20:23).

If you will scrutinize modern Bible maps you will see that some scholars
speculate that Mount Hor might have been Mount Madurah in the Negeb, in the
South of Palestine. But this area was well within the promised land. God never
gave it to Edom. It is far to the west of Edom’s borders. It is not where Aaron
died. Aaron died on the southern border of Edom in Seir.

From Petra — called Kadesh or Kadesh-Barnea in the account of the Exodus
— Moses expected to lead Israel into Palestine. The direct route from Petra
to east of Jordan was by the King’s Highway. Now we pick up the story of the
Exodus with Moses’ request to journey on this important road-link with Eastern
Palestine.

WHERE WAS THE KING’S HIGHWAY?

When Moses and the Israelites were at Kadesh they sent messengers to the
king of Edom asking permission to ‘go by the king’s highway’ (Numbers 20:17)
. Edom refused passage.

‘And the children of Israel said unto him, ‘We will go by the highway: and
if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it’.’ In response
to this second request we read: ‘And he said’ — this is Edom’s reply — ‘Thou
shalt not go through.’ They refused again.

‘And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel
turned away from him’ (Numbers 20:19-21).

Israel was not permitted to go through Edom by the King’s Highway.

Where was this highway?

Part of it may still be seen today. It lay east of the Dead Sea and east
of Mount Seir. It is nearly identical with today’s main-traveled road from Amman
to the Gulf of Aqaba. All of us who have visited Petra have had to travel the
same general route of this ancient highway! It is the only highway in the region!

This route east of Palestine and Mount Seir has always been known in history
as the King’s Highway.

What was Israel going to do, now that Edom refused them passage by this route?

JOURNEY NORTHWARD IN THE ARABAH

After Israel had moved from Eziongeber to Kadesh the second time, God said
to Moses: ‘Ye have compassed this mountain long enough; turn northward. And
command thou the people, saying: ‘Ye are to pass through the border of your
brethren the children of Esau, that dwell in Seir

After Kadesh was reached and the King’s Highway closed to them, Moses summarizes
the next few months by saying: ‘So we passed by from our brethren the children
of Esau, that dwell in Seir, through the way of the Arabah (the King James Version
has ‘plain’), from Elath and from Eziongaber’ (Deuteronomy 2:8).

Since Edom refused passage, Israel had to turn back, pass by Mount Hor, and
continue northward through the Arabah to by-pass the territory of Edom.

Most Bible maps would have the children of Israel going southward around
Mount Seir and then taking the King’s Highway in order to by-pass Edom! It shows
how little most scholars read their Bibles.

Israel had to go west of Edom through the Arabah in order to avoid cutting
through the border of Edom.

Upon leaving Mount Hor, Israel journeyed to Gudgodah and to Jotbath (Deuteronomy
10:7). These two places on the road from Petra to the Arabah Road are probably
spelling variants of the two locations — Hor-hagidgad and Jotbathah — which
Israel stopped at about thirty-eight years earlier when leaving Kadesh the first
time (Numbers 33:33).

This clearly proofs that the Eternal was leading the children of Israel into
the Arabah from Kadesh both times — the first time southward by the Red Sea
Road into the wilderness; the second time by the same Red Sea Road northward
to compass the land of Edom (Numbers 21:4). This road is called the ‘Arabah
Road’ in Deuteronomy 2:8, because it ran the length of the Arabah, north and
south of Petra.

When the Canaanites heard that Israel was proceeding northward (Deuteronomy
2:3, 8), ‘by the way of the spies’ (Numbers 21:1) — that is, by the way which
the spies used to enter Palestine when they searched the land forty days —
then the Canaanites fought Israel and were this time defeated (Numbers 21:3).

These verses show that Israel proceeded northward, not southward, on the
Arabah Way — the ‘Way of the Plain,’ sometimes called the ‘Way of the Red Sea.’
To go the Way of the Red Sea does not mean one has to go to the Red Sea. It
would, of course, be the route leading to the Red Sea, but one may be going
in the opposite direction on the road — just as Israel did! This Arabah road
stretched from the Gulf of Aqaba northward to near the Dead Sea.

En route north, they came to Punon (Numbers 33:42). The settlement of Punon
is north of Petra and in the Arabah. It is an area of extensive copper mines.
(See Kelleres ‘The Bible as History,’ page 143.) Its modern Arabic name is Phenan.

The stop at Punon immediately preceded the stop at Oboth (Numbers 33:43).
Now compare this with Numbers 21:9 and 10. Notice that at Punon — the stop
just before Oboth — Moses made a ‘serpent of brass’ — an alloy of copper.
Certainly there is no mistaking where Punon is!

The very next encampment is on ‘the border of Moab’ (Numbers 33:44).

Not until they reached the northern border of Edom did Israel cut eastward
between Moab and Edom along the brook Zered (Deuteronomy 2:8, last part, and
13). This was thirty-eight years after they left Kadesh the first time (Deuteronomy
2:14).

They had to journey eastward because Israel had rejected the direct route
into Palestine from the south nearly forty years earlier!

PETRA OCCUPIED BY ISRAEL

Next, let us skip over to the time Israel under Joshua took the promised
land. Remember that Kadesh rightfully belonged to Israel (Deuteronomy 1:19-20).

Observe what Joshua did: ‘And Joshua smote them from Kadesh-barnea even unto
Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon’ (Joshua 10:41). Here
the easternmost limit of southern Palestine is the city Kadesh-barnea. Compare
this with Joshua 15:1-3:

‘This then was the lot of the tribe of Judah … even to the border of Edom
the wilderness of Zin southward …. And their south border was from the shore
of the salt sea … and passed along to Zin, and ascended up on the south side
unto Kadesh-barnea.’

And again: ‘So Joshua took all that land … and the Arabah (‘the plain’
in King James Version) … even unto the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir’
(Joshua 11:16-17). ‘Mount Halak’ is not quite a clear translation of the original
Hebrew. The word ‘Halak’ means smooth, bare. ‘Smith’s Bible Dictionary’ indicates
it is ‘the mountain range on the east side of the ‘Arabah, or one of the bare
mountain summits in that range.’ ‘Hastings’ Bible Dictionary’ declares: ‘ The
Arabah Valley gradually rises toward the summit level, which it reaches immediately
in front of Mount Hor on the borders of Seir; and to this line of elevation
the term ‘smooth’ would not be inapplicable, while at the same time it would
be on the line of communication between southern Palestine and Petra, the capital
of Seir.’

Observe that all these verses point out that Israel occupied the Arabah just
west of Mount Seir even to the barren mountain region of Petra. Yet we found
(Joshua 10:41) the easternmost border city is Kadesh-barnea.

Surely Petra and Kadesh are the same from these verses!

Years later Judah had to recapture Petra after the Edomites rebelled (II
Kings 8:20; 14:7). Petra belonged to Israel. The capital of Edom was not Petra,
but Bozrah (Amos 1:12; Jeremiah 49:13, 22).

Petra was the gate by which Israel controlled their Edomite enemies.

Consider another important fact. Josephus, Eusebius and Jerome wrote that
the Aramaic, Assyrian and Arabic name for Petra was Rekem (‘Antiquities’, Book
IV, Chapter VII, Section 1). Rekem comes from the Arabic word for ‘rock.’ ‘But
in the Aramaic versions Rekem is the name of Kadesh,’ according to the ‘Encyclopaedia
Britannica’! This authority, under article ‘Petra,’ further states: ‘Sometimes
the Aramaic versions give the form Rekem-Geya (for Kadesh), which recalls the
name of the village El-ji, southeast of Petra.’

So Petra is mentioned literally dozens of places in Scripture after all!