THE SOURCE OE TEIE NILE. 231 



is, leaft the people mould rife againfl them, and deftroy 

 them. 



There was another way which led fouth-weft, upon Becr- 

 lheba and Hebron, in the middle, between the Dead Sea and 

 the Mediterranean. This was the direetiqn in which Abra- 

 ham, Lot, and Jacob, are fuppofed to have reached Egypt. But 

 there was neither food nor water there to fuftain the Ifrael- 

 ites. When Abraham and Lot returned out of Egypt, they 

 were obliged to feparate by confent, becaufe Abraham faid 

 to his brother, "The land will not bear us both*." 



The third way was ftraight eail into Arabia, pretty much 

 the road by which the Pilgrims go at this day to Mecca, 

 and the caravans from Suez to Cairo. In this track they 

 would have gone round by the mountains of Moab, eail of 

 the Dead Sea, and patted Jordan in the plain oppofite to Jeri- 

 cho, as they did forty years afterwards. But it is plain from 

 fcripture, that God's counfels were to make Pharaoh and 

 his Egyptians an example of his vengeance ; and, as none 

 of thefe roads led to the fea, they did not aniwer the Divine 

 intention. 



About twelve leagues from the fea, there was a narrow 

 road which turned to the right, between the mountains, 

 through a valley called Badeab, where their courfe was near- 

 ly fouth-eaft ; this valley ended in a pafs, between two con- 

 fiderable mountains, called Geivoube on the fouth; andjibbel 

 Attakah on the north, and opened into the low ftripe of 



country 



* Gen. chap. xiiLvor. 6ch, Exod. chap. xiii. ver. 1 7th, 



