Exodus 4

get at Kadesh. Num 20:13 These were the waters of Meribah, Jabal al-Madhbah south of Petra (Kadesh).

Numbers 20:17 "Now we are here at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. 17 Please let us pass through your country. We will not go through any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the King's Highway and not turn to the right or to the left until we have passed through your territory."

Numbers 20:18 But Edom answered:

"You may not pass through here; if you try, we will march out and attack you with the sword."

Numbers 20:19 The Israelites replied:

"We will go along the main road, and if we or our livestock drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We only want to pass through on foot--nothing else."

Numbers 20:20 Again they answered:

"You may not pass through."

Then Edom came out against them with a large and powerful army. 21 Since Edom refused to let them go through their territory, Israel turned away from them.

So case closed. Off you go. Don't let the tent flap slap you on the backside. The Edomite territory seems to extend south of Kadesh, even to the springs near Kibroth Hattaavah or to the end of the plateau at Ras en-Naqab. This may have changed in the 38 years since Moses and the Israelites first traveled to Kadesh via the King's Highway without resistance. They might like to extend the border down to Ezion-Geber but then there are Egyptians. Kadesh and Hazeroth would be in their territory as would be the part of the King's Highway that runs to them from Ezion-Geber. I'm just speculating but the pagan pilgrims and all the traffic that goes to Kadesh or camps around it is allowed to pass un-molested because of some religious safe zone. Besides, it probably is very profitable to the Edomites.

I've revised this theory based on more information.

Back to the timeline of getting through Edom.

Numbers 21:4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"

Forty years and they are still complaining about the food. Doesn't an army travel on its stomach?

6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.

Not so fast. It looks like a bargain was had.

Deuteronomy 2:4 Give the people these orders: 'You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. 5 Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. 6 You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.'

Deuteronomy 2:8 "So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and traveled along the desert road of Moab."

On the Desert Road? From the Arabah Road? So not on the fine King's Highway through the center of Edom but the dry, dusty second class road along the edge of the country. Maybe they paid a lower price for permission to travel that way. The information gleaned from this is that they used the Arabah Road (Wadi Arabah referred to as the Arabah, the Jordan Rift Valley that ran from Eilat to the Sea of Galilee) as they passed Edom but then turned to the Desert Road once at Moab territory. That means they had to cross at the Zered Valley.

Deuteronomy 2:13 And the Lord said, "Now get up and cross the Zered Valley." So we crossed the valley."

Nu 21:10 The Israelites moved on and camped at Oboth. 11 Then they set out from Oboth and camped in Iye Abarim, in the wilderness that faces Moab toward the sunrise. 12 From there they moved on and camped in the Zered Valley. 13 They set out from there and camped alongside the Arnon, which is in the wilderness extending into Amorite territory. The Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

So it looks like they got a similar deal from Moab. They had to skirt the center of the country by going along roads at their periphery.

Numbers 21:16 From there they continued on to Beer, the well where the Lord said to Moses, "Gather the people together and I will give them water." There is only one spring along the desert road near Moab so I'm just guessing at it being Beer.

The route out of Kadesh and around Edom. They took the back door out of Kadesh, the same route they took 38 years before to launch spies on Canaan. It looks like Punon was the second camp and not Ma'an as I had originally thought. The Arabah road goes up from Elat past Wadi Faynan, Copper Mine and then on to Zoar then turns to the east to climb to top of the plateau to join The King's Highway. The mining site was named Phaino by the Romans. They had to cross the wadi to use the streams coming down the hills in the time of year. Also, who was controlling the mine at the time? Was it Egyptians or did the Edomites take it over? The archaeology said both Egyptian and Moabites occupied it in the past. Maybe it was a joint operation with Moab supplying wood from their hills and Egyptians the slave labor.

If the desert road was not taken to go around Edon, it must then have been taken to go around Moab. That isn't clear in the story but it is what we are left to conclude. The desert road then led past Moab.

Deuteronomy 2:26 From the Desert of Kedemoth I sent messengers to Sihon king of Heshbon offering peace and saying, 27 "Let us pass through your country. We will stay on the main road; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left. 28 Sell us food to eat and water to drink for their price in silver. Only let us pass through on foot-- 29 as the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, did for us.

DT 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has now done.

DT 2:31 The Lord said to me, "See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land."

It looks like it is game on. These guys don't get a shirt-tail relative 'get out of war' card. So the Israelites are unleashed.

The Israealites defeat Sihon and his army and take Heshbon. DT 2:32 When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, 33 the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. 34 At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them--men, women and children. We left no survivors.

DT 2:18 "Today you are to pass by the region of Moab at Ar. 19 When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot."

The Ammonites seem to be on the other side of the Amorites. Was there some kind of payment made to them as well? Did Moses go through them to get to Bashan of did they go around? Who is telling this story at this point?

DT 3:1 Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

DT 3:3 So the Lord our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. 4 At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them--the whole region of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan.

So Edrei is located by many at least 75 miles from Heshbon. That is a many day operation. It is almost off the edge of my map. It seems out of the way if the Israelites are headed for Canaan. On the other hand it is an Amorite then it is best not to leave an enemy to ones rear.

So this is as far as I've gotten with my Conquest map. It needs some cities and encampments placed as well as any minor battles. Plus I need to confirm where Edrei is.

Then all hell broke out. Moses went wild and had the Armorites slaughtered. Killing all males and non-virgin females. And taking of the girls as sex slaves. The cycle of life. The kind of slaughter of males that made him. It looks like the Moabites and Midianites invaded as well. Acting as if it was their victory. Celebrating and all sorts of carrying on. The Moabite women seem to have been overly amorous to Israelite men. Now, Moses said that they caused Israelite men to worship their gods but come on they aren't thinking about worshiping gods at the time. More likely this was caused by jealous Israelite women demanding Moses do something. Was the promise of God to the Moabites forgotten? Technically no. Israel did not take any Moabite land nor food nor harm anyone in Moab. The horde of squatters that flooded the freshly conquered territory are another matter. They had no immunity. So they entered a free fire zone and the Moabites and Midianites there were slaughtered. The reason for this was supposedly the Moabite and Midianite elders were saying bad things about Israelites. Unless Moses had a spy in their midst he would not know. Mostly post hoc excuses of shameful acts.

The criterion of embarrassment is a type of critical analysis in which an account likely to be embarrassing to its author is presumed to be true as the author would have no reason to invent an account which might embarrass him or her. Certain Biblical scholars have used this as a metric for assessing whether something really happened. This may be one such case.

Some Inconsistencies;

Nu 33:31 "They left Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan." But in DT 10:6 "The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried..."

One says they went from Moseroth to Bene Jaakan but the other says they went from Bene Jaakan to Moserah. (That is the same place spelled differently.) Thus that is a contradiction.

Nu 33:32 "They left Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Haggidgad." Du 10:7 "From there (Moserah) they traveled to Gudgodah. " There does seem that the name spelling has variability. Did Moses know how to write Hebrew? Was he writing this down or was he dictating it to someone else? Or did he write it in Egyptian and someone else translate it to Hebrew? If Aaron was doing the writing it might explain why the names of places are different after he died. Everyone had a different name and different spelling for these locations.

The ages of these people seem to be extraordinary and maybe a bit exaggerated. It does seem odd that Moses stayed in Midian for 40 years and then ventures back to Egypt at the age of 80. He has two sons which must be adults in their 30s at the time. Yet his wife, who would be 55-65 years of age and both adult sons ride the same donkey. Later Moses' wife circumcises one of her sons. I mean what adult male is going to let his mother come at his junk with a knife? It would make more sense if the sons were toddlers or children.

Scorpion Ascent. Ascent of Akrabbim. This is a winding ascent from the Arabah depression to the top of the plateau. David Rohl and Steven Rudd and a few others think it is the eastern pass from the Arabah to Topel and Sela. But, I think it is only on the west of the Arabah. The reason is Numbers 34: 3 "your southern border will extend from the wilderness of Zin along the Edomite border, and your southern border will run eastward to the extremity of the Salt Sea, and then the border will turn from the south to the Scorpion Ascent, continue to Zin, and then its direction will be from the south to Kadesh Barnea." 1. It will run along the Edomite border, not through it. Thus it will not include Kadesh Barnea but will be to the west of it. 2. Moses could never enter the Promised Land. Going to Kadesh-Barnea [Petra] or traveling along the Arabah road to the reed sea/Red Sea would put Moses in the Promised Land. 3. The border will turn to the west past Kadesh-Barnea [Petra]. (In this case it would further prove that Kadesh-Barnea is not located in the Negev Desert at Ain Qudesh because the border would enclose a place Moses can never go.)