where it is stated that the Israelites, when passing from Egypt, went through the wilderness as far as the Sea of Reeds.
Exodus, 17:1—13, relates how the Israelites went from the wilderness of Sîn to Refîdîm, where there was no water; how Moses obtained water from the rock near Ḥoreb with his rod; how that place was therefore called Massa and Merîba; and how the Amalekites attacked the Israelites there.
According to all our sources of information Ḥoreb was situated in the land of Madian.
The Israelites were thus under the protection of the Madianites there. It is certainly possible that the Amalekites made inroads upon them as far as the land of Madian, but it is not really probable. Nor is it very probable that Moses would have led the Israelites to Mount Ḥoreb if he had known that there was no water close at hand. Moreover, we know from other passages (Num., 20: 13) that Merîba was situated near Ḳadeš eleven days distant from Ḥoreb, where Moses also obtained water from the rock by means of his rod, when the multitude began to murmur. We must therefore identify this miraculous obtaining of water at Ḥoreb with that at Ḳadeš and regard Refîdîm only as a halting place on the march from Êlîm to Mount Ḥoreb. About one hundred kilometers to the south of al-ʻAḳaba (Êlîm ) there is a basin in the mountain range of ar-Rafîd, which I take to be Refîdîm. About twenty kilometers southeast of this is the oasis of al-Bedʻ, or the ancient Madian, to which the Israelites hastened. This tallies with Exodus, 19: 2, according to which they went from Refîdîm to the wilderness of Sinai, where they encamped opposite the mountain. There, according to another source (Ex., 18: 5), Jethro, the priest of Madian, came to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped by the mountain of God and, having conferred with him, returned to his own country (Ex., 18: 27). The main camp of the Israelites was thus not pitched by the settlement in which Jethro dwelt. The latter must be sought, according to the configuration of the ground, to the south of al-Bedʻ, perhaps in the oasis of ʻAjnûna at a distance of fifty kilometers, and the main camp of the Israelites by the šeʻîb of al-Ḫrob, twenty kilometers to the north of ʻAjnûna.
FROM MOUNT SINAI TO THE STREAM ZÂRED
From Mount Sinai, or Ḥoreb, the Israelites wished to proceed to the wilderness of Pârân (Num., 10: 12). They were to be accompanied by Ḥobab, the son of Raʻuêl (Num., 10: 29), a Madianite, as a guide to find out for them the most suitable places for obtaining water and for encamping. According to the Bible, he was to be their ʻajn.
ʻAjn (plural ʻujûn) denotes a scout who rides in front of a tribe on a warlike expedition and searches for safe places where they may encamp and obtain water. Even when a tribe migrates, it also has such a scout, but he is then known as ḳallâṭ. From the name ʻajn, which was to be applied to Ḥobab, it may therefore be supposed that the ancient writers regarded the march of the Israelites from Sinai as a warlike expedition; this certainly agrees with what actually occurred, as they wished to acquire new settlements. The wilderness of Pârân, to which the Israelites proceeded from the wilderness of Sinai, we identify