Exodus 8

Some historians maintain the army of the Egyptian Empire prevented the Israelites from taking any cities in Canaan. That is why God told Moses not to go along the Way of the Philistines. The cities of that region had to swear loyalty to Egypt and pay tribute. They would then receive protection from Egypt. It is a little hard to explain there being Hittites in the area of the Sea of Galilee when the Egyptian border was suppose to be somewhere in Lebanon.

Other historians say that there was a period of some 30-50 years the Egyptians just pulled back from their territories to just the Nile delta region and left the cities in Canaan to their own devices. This was caused by plagues or political or religious strife. Whatever the case, there was a power vacuum in the Canaan region. So I removed the Egyptian garrisoned regions for the Conquest map.

Numbers 11:28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide since youth,

This tribute may have been written at a later year and was a reflection because in Numbers 11 they just came out of Egypt some 30-40 days prior and had not known each other before then. Joshua is said to be 40 for the spy mission but in Nu. 11 a year before he is a youth. Was he was once a summer intern goat herding for Moses in Midian?

Speaking of goat herding:

Numbers 10:11 On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law. 12 Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran. So traveling year two.

Numbers 10:29 Now Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are setting out for the place about which the Lord said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel."

30 He answered, "No, I will not go; I am going back to my own land and my own people."

31 But Moses said, "Please do not leave us. You know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes. 32 If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the Lord gives us."

Numbers 10:33 So they set out from the mountain of the Lord and traveled for three days.

The sequence of events is muddled. Did Hobab go with Moses after going from place to place then go back to his home? Or, did he decline to go when they were at Horeb? How is he more familiar of the Wilderness of Paran if he lived in Midian like Moses? Later we find that the Moabites and some Midianites are conspiring against Israel in Moab. So there are Midianites scattered among the nations of the trans-Jordan region. Hobab may be from a region closer to Paran than Midian. Hobad may be from Qurayyah in Midian where Midian pottery was made. Those are his people. In fact that town may be Jethro's orignal home as well. Maybe later he moved to al Bad'.

Volcano Sinai

A theory that was presented by Colin Humphreys, a scientist, in 2003 that the Holy mountain was Hala-'l Badr [27.253° N, 37.242° E] a volcano in Saudi Arabia. It was to explain the light by night and cloud by day verses. This was not possible as it was much too far to walk to Kadesh in 11 days from there. Coincidentally, a straight line can be drawn from the Etham camp of scenario #1 [30.6256° N, 32.36° E] to Hala-'l Badr which goes exactly through Jebel Maqla peak (Mt. Hoeb). The volcano is 400 miles from Goshen and behind Jabal Maqla. I suppose the smoke could be seen from that distance if the wind was from the south-east like it is in the scenarios.

Store cities of Pi-Rameses and Pi-Thom

I guess because they are mentioned in the Bible people are interested with locating these cities. There probably are many store cities but these two get all the attention. Pi-Rameses being the residence of the Pharaoh I can understand that, but why anyone cares where Pi-Thom is a little puzzling. Nevertheless archaeological expeditions have tried to locate it. They apparently believe that it was one of two sites in Wadi Tumilat. Actually some think it was at one site and then was moved to another nearby site in the wadi. The wadi would seem to be an inconvenient place to store grain. It is not in prime farm land though the wadi is arable thanks to the canal. Distribution of grain would be problematic as boats would have to go up and down the canal to get to the cities in the delta. It is near the border of Egypt so it can be a target of any invader coming from the east. It would not be good if the Egyptian stores were captured right off. One possible reason it is where it is is because it can supply the border forts with grain. Maybe the grain is closer to Canaan so it could be sold to them? No, it still doesn't make sense.

Conclusions

I not going to try to explain the Egyptian plagues or pillars of smoke and fire. This section is just on finding a plausible itinerary solution.

If it is true that the Egyptians suffered some internal problems that caused them to pull back from their empire borders after 40 years of the Exodus might lead one to ask was it worth it? The Israelites might have been better off if they just waited in Egypt 40 years. They could of stayed and eaten their fish, meat, leeks, melons and garlic all those many years. Sure they would be slaves but they would be alive. They would not have to sleep in the desert and endure the snakes and scorpions. After 40 years they could of gone directly along the Way of the Philistines.

Exodus 13:11 They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 13:12 Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" This guy must have been a prophet as that is what happened.

There is the Numbers 33 list of camps. It is sometimes incomplete and does not show the length of time at each spot. Also, even though the Israelites visited some campsites more than once every name is only listed once. This may have been a problem in determining the Exodus route.

One interesting stop is at Ezion-Geber. Apparently at some point Moses was no longer on the most wanted list. They may have been able to update their armory. They could of learned that the Egyptians were no longer interested in Canaan. Cities and towns that once counted on Egyptian military support were on their own. (There records of Canaan city mayors pleading to Egypt for help in defending from Hebrew attacks.) These are the Amarna letters 1391 - 1353 BC. Sometimes the Egyptians sent troops but in many cases did not.

Deuteronomy, and is usually dated around 621 B.C. P riestly - this encompasses writings scattered from Gen 1 through the notice of Moses' death at the end of Deuteronomy. P source

The Jahwist, or Yahwist, often abbreviated J, is one of the most widely recognized sources of the Pentateuch (Torah). J source

One last point on the manna and quail.

The manna is explained on being the secretions of a mealy scale beetle that feeds on the desert tamarisk tree. link It was supposedly ground and pounded into cakes by the Israelites but is described as a soft substance like honey. When exposed to air it dries and becomes hard. In Persia it is called gaz and is made into confections. Link It is mixed with nuts or spices. The Israelites are commanded to eat unleavened bread at different occasions. It isn't mentioned where they are getting the wheat for this. Maybe the manna is being mixed with wheat and that is what is being pounded into cakes.

Walter Mattfled has a lot of data on the quail event. link

It seems unusual but the quail event proves a lot of Bible story is true. It would seem unlikely that if the Exodus story was made up by Hebrews in Iraq in 585 BC they would know that during the Spring vast flocks of quail would fly up the Red Sea to land in the coast shore around Eilat. Still more unlikely that from Iraq they would know that those quail could be poisonous to eat. But, quail caught along the North Sinai coast on the south bound journey in the Fall would not.

I wouldn't say this is a sterling reflection on Jehovah providing poisonous quail. Ether a cruel act or he is ignorant.

References and Tools

Bible Gateway link

Google Earth link

Mapcarta link

I'm not a Bible scholar nor am I trying to sell a book or movie on the Exodus. I'm a retired computer analyst with a background in mathematics. Currently I work on computer games developing software, art and reducing WWII military reports into scenarios. I thought I could apply this technique to something that no one has ever resolved from Bible History.

It does seem that every fool that can make a video makes one of the Exodus Route. Most these days have some Nuweiba Beach rubbish in it.