A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine, Book 5 · Part 1 · Chapter 21
CHAP. XXII. Objections against the Wilderness of Paran answered.
Philol.
IN your Map of Simeon and Iudah, you make that the River of Egypt, which runs nigh Rinocolura into the Mediterranean sea. And here you call both that brook that runs into the Syrbon Lake, as also the easternmost stream of Nilus by the name of the River of Egypt. How comes this triplication? Where the Scripture presents but one, you multiply three Rivers of Egypt.
Aleth.
You put me in minde of a passage Bishop Latimer confesseth of himself, whilest as yet a young Priest, and zealous Papist. He, being enjoined by the Rubrick to mingle water with the wine in the Ch…lice at Mass, was soaSee the preface of M. Mason de Ministeri… A…glic. scrupulous to doe it effectually, that he powred in water so much, and so often, that he almost diluted all into water. Such is the … of my caution herein, who have Egypt-rivered this Map to purpose, willing to please all without displeasing of the truth. You know who saith,bRom. 12. 18. If it be possible, as much as in you lyeth have peace with all men, as herein I have endevoured. For,
1 The Rivolet south of Simeon, by generall consent
2 That running into the Syrbon-lake, by Mr. More
3 The easternmost stream of Nile, by Bochartus
is made the River of Egypt.
Thus each opinion having learned men to patronize it, we equally tender them all to the Readers discretion, to reject, or accept which of them he shall conclude most probable.
Philol.
You make Sinai (where the Law was given) a different, and distinct mountain from mount Horeb. Whereas in Scripture it plainly appears, that Horeb was the same with Sinai, two names for one and the same mount. For, that the Law was given in Sinai, all agree, and the same is attributed to Horeb also. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in cDeut. 5. 2. & 4.Horeb.—The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst the fire.
Aleth.
SomedSir Walter Raleigh conceive this mountain (as Moses is erroneously fancied with hornes) to rise up Parnassus-like, with a double top; whereof the one is called Horeb, the other Sinai. Or else the former, like the Alpes, is a genericall name to many, whilest Sinai, like mount Senis amongst the Alpes, is more eminent and conspicuous then the rest, for the height thereof.
Philol.
Seeing the Spies were sent fromaNum. 32. 8. & Deut. 1. 19. Kadesh-Barnea to discover the Land, a City afterwards assigned tobJosh. 15. 6. Iudah, how come you to make the Israelites to incamp so many miles south of the same place?
Aleth.
None can be so wild as to conceive that the Israelites during their journeying in the wilderness, ever came within the walls of any City, but always pitched in the open desert. This premised, when they are said to becJosh. 14. 6. in Kadesh-Barnea, we understand thereby a Countrey, not City, so named, which began southwardly about Rithmah (the fifteenth station of the Israelities, whence they sent their spies) and extended northwardly to Kadesh-Barnea properly so called, (probably a City) certainly a limitary place belonging afterwards to the Tribe of Iudah.
Philol.
You term their provocation of God in this placedDescription of Paran §38. as yet the last and greatest temptation, which seems to me not of so hainous a nature.
Aleth.
So many and great were their Rebellions, it is hard to define which was their highest offence. Their carriage for forty years is styled by God aePsal. 95. 8. day of temptation, whose transgressions were so frequent and came so fast, that they all compleated but one intire, constant, and continued temptation. But to the point, that this their despising of the fPsal. 106. 24.pleasant land was a paramount impietie, appears not onelyonly by the exclusion of that whole generation from entering the same, but by the confession of modern Iews: Manasseh Ben Israel (the Hebrew Divine at this day in Amsterdam) observes the ninth day of the monethmonth Ab, whereon saith he gIn his book called Spes Isra…lis, Sect. 28. pa. 86.Exploratores flebant sinecau…a, The spies sent to discover the land [and all the congregation occasioned by their false reports]hNum. 14. 1. wept without cause, hath ever since been unfortunate to their nation, their first, and second Temple being burnt on the same day, and many dysasters have since befallen them thereon. Thus the Iews travell far off in their inquiries, fetching the cause of their misfortunes from their forefathers in the wilderness more then three thousand years agoe, which with more ease might take up their lodging nearer hand, and finde the same in their crucifying of Christ, as their highest sin, and the cause of their deepest suffering.
Philol.
Think you that Rithmah (the fifteenth stage of the Israelites) was the particular place, whither the spies returned bringing the report of Canaan?
Aleth.
Though many conceive so, under favour I take it more probable, that the next mansion, Rimmon-parez by name, was the proper scene of that action. For, it signifieth in Hebrew the Division of Pomegranates, so called (as I conceive) not from any growing there (too barren a place for such beautifull fruit) but brought thither by the Spies (iNum. 13. 23. Pomegranates being specified amongst the fruits of the land) which here were divided, and shared among the people of Israel, to show them a sample of the fruitfullness of Canaan.
Philol.
What a blank and vacuity have you left betwixt Ezion-Gaber the thirty second, and Kadesh-Zin the thirty third station of the Israelites (sixty miles at least) without any stage interposed? It is not probable that they travelled so far, without resting themselves betwixt them.
Aleth.
Surely they had intermediate Mansions where they took their nightly repose, though not named by Moses, because not making any considerable abode therein. I conceive, that after their departure from Ezion-Gaber, God quickned the Israelites (who truanted before in their slow, and snail-like proceedings) making them mend their pace, probably travelling every day will they came to Kadesh, which their young men might the better endure, the old generation being almost worn out.
Philol.
How comes Aaron to be buried in mountkNum. 20. 27, 28. Hor, whom elsewhere the Scripture affirmeth to be interred inlDeut. 10. 6. Mosera?
Aleth.
It is no news to have severall names for the same place. The forest of Black-more, and the forest ofmC…md. Brit. in. Dorset-shire. White-Hart (though black and white be contrary colours) signifie the self same tract of ground in Dorset-shire. Hor wasnSir Walter Ra…eigh book 2. part 1. pa. 254. the east part, and Mosera the west part of this mountain. This Mosera had formerly been theoNum. 33. 31. twenty seventh Mansion of the Israelites in their passage to Ezion-Gaber, near which afterwards they made their thirty fourth station (when Aaron was buried there) which sufficiently argues the crookedness of their journying, crossing those parts again where they had been before.
Philol.
I commend your cunning that hath slipt over in silence, four of the hardest names contained all in one verse Deut. 1. 1. These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel, on this side Iordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red-sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Luban, and Hazer…th, and Dizahab, Direct us to the position of these places.
Aleth.
Some*Vide Tremel. in locum. conceive thepSee our description of Reuben.§23. plains of Moab (wherein Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy) described thereby with the eminent bounds (though at some distance) round about it, in manner following.
Others refuse this interpretation, as an obscure, and far fetch'd bounding of those plains, preferring our English translation (reading it Red-sea, in stead of Zuph, or Sedgie-land) and so making these severall places the signall stages of the children of Israel in their passage out of Egypt. Whereof the Red-sea, and Paran are sufficiently known, Laban the same with Libna… theirqNum. 33. 20. See Ainsworth thereon. seventeenth station;rNum. 11. 35. & 12. 1. Hazeroth the place where Miriam was punished with leprosie; Dizahab, which the Greek renders golden mines, and the Chaldee refers to the place where the goldensExod. 32. 20. Calfe was made, and stamped to powder, whilest Tophel (not mentioned again in Scripture) is conceived some station in Paran. Thus Deuteronomy is a repetition of the law, and of the memorable actions which occurred at these severall places.
Philol.
I object nothing against the draught of the Tabernacle, because the authority of Arias Montanus (whence you confess it taken) will pass it without exception. But I question the exactness of severall places in your Map of Egypt.
Aleth.
You minde me of a Gentlemans finding a Picture in the shop of a Country-Painter, whom he mistook for the maker thereof, and thereupon fell a finding many faults therein. But being informed that the same was drawn by one of the rarest Masters in Italy, he instantly turned his cavilling at, into commending thereof. Such a convent your judgment will quickly be when I shall tell you that the Map of Egypt is of Ortelius his making, save onelyonly that the southern part thereof (uselesse for our history) is cut off, and such places onelyonly inserted herein as appears in Scripture. The same I plead for the Habits, and Idols of the Iews; the former taken all out of Scripture, the latter out of such Authors as are severally cited in our description. OnelyOnly I could wish, that in the Picture of Moloch out of Benjamins Itinerarie the three statues had been presented …itting according to ourtSee our description of Chemosh. directions. And by the Altar to the unknown God we mean not that erected in Athens (to a Grecian, no Iewish Deity) but onelyonly we intend the same for a reserve for those many Iewish Idols, whose names, and severall worships are unknown unto us. But, it is time to break off, lest one grand objection be made against all our Objections and Answers, that they swell the volume into tediousness.