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The Exodus road

Numbers 33 lists forty two camps between Egypt and the Jordan. Ten of them can be put on a map. Build the ones that can, and the gaps in the line are the honest shape of what is known.

Unrolling the map…

What is actually known

The itinerary in Numbers 33 is unusual in the Bible: a numbered list of camps, written down, the text says, at the Lord's command. It is complete, careful, and mostly unmappable. Of the 42 stations, 10 can be located with any confidence. The other 32 are names that appear here and nowhere else on earth, with no ruin, no inscription and no later town to anchor them.

That includes the mountain. The traditional Mount Sinai in the south of the peninsula rests on Byzantine monastic tradition from the fourth century onward, not on anything the text says. Readers have proposed the north of the peninsula, and Arabia, and the arguments turn on how you read the route, the distances, and Paul's remark that Sinai is in Arabia. This map uses the traditional site and marks it as disputed rather than choosing for you.

The straight line distance from the delta to the plains of Moab is roughly two hundred and fifty miles. A caravan could do it in a couple of weeks. The text is entirely clear that the forty years were not a navigation problem.

All forty two camps

In the order Numbers gives them. The colour says how firmly each can be placed.

  1. 1Rameses probable Numbers 33The starting point, in the eastern Nile delta. Most identify it with the Ramesside capital at Qantir.
  2. 2Succoth probable Numbers 33The first camp out of Egypt, probably Tell el-Maskhuta on the Wadi Tumilat.
  3. 3Etham not located Numbers 33On the edge of the wilderness. The pillar of cloud and fire begins here.
  4. 4Pi-hahiroth not located Numbers 33Where Israel turned back and camped by the sea, and where Pharaoh's army caught them.
  5. 5Marah not located Numbers 33Bitter water made sweet.
  6. 6Elim not located Numbers 33Twelve springs and seventy palm trees.
  7. 7By the Red Sea not located Numbers 33
  8. 8Wilderness of Sin not located Numbers 33Where the manna and the quail begin.
  9. 9Dophkah not located Numbers 33
  10. 10Alush not located Numbers 33
  11. 11Rephidim not located Numbers 33Water from the rock, and the battle with Amalek. Numbers notes there was no water for the people to drink.
  12. 12Wilderness of Sinai disputed Numbers 33The mountain. The law is given here and Israel stays about a year. The southern location is traditional rather than textual.
  13. 13Kibroth-hattaavah not located Numbers 33The graves of craving, where the people tired of manna and asked for meat.
  14. 14Hazeroth not located Numbers 33Where Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses.
  15. 15Rithmah not located Numbers 33
  16. 16Rimmon-perez not located Numbers 33
  17. 17Libnah not located Numbers 33
  18. 18Rissah not located Numbers 33
  19. 19Kehelathah not located Numbers 33
  20. 20Mount Shepher not located Numbers 33
  21. 21Haradah not located Numbers 33
  22. 22Makheloth not located Numbers 33
  23. 23Tahath not located Numbers 33
  24. 24Terah not located Numbers 33
  25. 25Mithkah not located Numbers 33
  26. 26Hashmonah not located Numbers 33
  27. 27Moseroth not located Numbers 33
  28. 28Bene-jaakan not located Numbers 33
  29. 29Hor-haggidgad not located Numbers 33
  30. 30Jotbathah not located Numbers 33
  31. 31Abronah not located Numbers 33
  32. 32Ezion-geber probable Numbers 33A port at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, later Solomon's shipyard. One of the few wilderness names with a later history.
  33. 33Kadesh probable Numbers 33In the wilderness of Zin. The spies go out from here, the people refuse to go up, and Israel stays a long time. Miriam dies here.
  34. 34Mount Hor disputed Numbers 33Where Aaron died and was stripped of his garments in sight of the people. Traditionally Jebel Harun near Petra, which is a late identification.
  35. 35Zalmonah not located Numbers 33
  36. 36Punon probable Numbers 33Copper mining country at Feinan. Often connected with the bronze serpent, which is set up on this stretch of the road.
  37. 37Oboth not located Numbers 33
  38. 38Iye-abarim not located Numbers 33On the border of Moab.
  39. 39Dibon-gad located Numbers 33Dhiban in Jordan, the town whose later king Mesha left the Moabite Stone, one of the earliest inscriptions naming Israel.
  40. 40Almon-diblathaim not located Numbers 33
  41. 41The mountains of Abarim, before Nebo probable Numbers 33The ridge from which Moses is shown the whole land he will not enter.
  42. 42The plains of Moab by the Jordan probable Numbers 33Opposite Jericho. The last camp, where Numbers and Deuteronomy end and Joshua begins.
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