in Egypt, Arabia Petr^ea ^c, ^^^ 



Jofephus gives us a further Teftimony, that the Land of7>^° Hebrews 

 Gojijen had this Situation, by placing the firft Settlement ofHei^opoiisf^ 

 the Hehreivs at Heliopolis' or On\ as the Scriptures call it. 

 The Ruins of this City are known at prefent by the Name of 

 j^5,3.u<] Matta-reah, from a Fountain, we have there, of excel- 

 lent Water \ lying about three Miles to the Eaftward of the 

 Nile, and five to the N. E. of Kairo. But, in Proportion as 

 the Hehrews increafed, it may be prefumed, that they fpread 

 themfelves further towards Bifibefi (the antient Buhaft'ts) 

 and Kairo, along the Arabian Banks of the Nile. For we are 

 inftructed, (Ex.i.ii.) that the IJraelites hiiilt Tithom, (the 

 Tatumiis probably , which Herodotus ^ placeth in the Neigh- 

 bourhood of Buhaftis) and, in Confequence thereof, they mav 

 be fuppofed to have inhabited, at leaft to have lived in the 

 Neighbourhood of It. As their Departure likewife was from La- 

 topolis[ox Babylon ' as it was afterwards called)it may be prefumed, 

 thatThis was aPortion of theLand, which they were permitted to 

 inhabit. Gojhen then was that Part of the Heliopolitan Nomos or ndr Dep^r- 

 Land o^Ramefes, which lay in theNeighbourhood Q^Kairo,Mat-tlho1 ^'""" 

 ta-reah and BiflobeJIj ; as the former of thefe Cities might be Ra- 

 mefes, the Capital of the Diftri6: of that Name, where the 

 Ifraelites had their Rendez^vous, before they departed out of 

 Egvpt. 



Now, left perad'venture when the Hebrews faw war, they Two Msto 

 fjould recent and return to Egypt, God did not lead them ' 

 through the way of the Land of the Philiftines, {viz. by Bijlj- 

 hejh, Tineh, and, fo along the Sea Coaft, towards Gaza and 

 yifcalon ) although that was the neareft : but He led them 

 about through the way of the Wilder nefs of the Red Sea. Ex.ig.17^ 

 There are accordingly two Roads whereby the Ifraelites might 

 have been conduced, through the Way of ThisWildernefs, from 

 Kairo (or Ramefes as it is fuppofed to have been,) to Tihahhi- 

 roth, upon the Banks of the Red Sea. The one is continued 



I $«tfa<i '*"■ cwJr^}n<iii MtiZ /^letxoio) ^Lul /wj! ■^ TUYuv Iv HAIOTflOAEI. yof. Antiq. 1. 2. cap. 4. 

 2 On [The Fuefi of ). Gen. 41. 4<5. and jo, is rendred by the LXXII HKin'TriMas , ^ The 

 Nubian Geographer feems to call the City, from the Fountain, Ahi (Semes) Shims, The Foun- 

 tain of the SiiH, placing it to the Northward of Fojlat : ad plagam Foltat fcptentrionakmlJrbs 

 Ain Semes (iiff^. p. 98. Quod etiam C(;«/?<!Kr<«/« L'Empereur ad TudeUnfeui p. 224.. con- 

 firmat,quia peregrinator ille locum, quern Ifraelitiz habitandum acceperint, vocet DDt^'^N f*J7 

 fontem Salts. Cellar. Geogr. Antiq. 1. 4. p. 3^. What the Vvo^lictjerenuah (^i. 13.) calls 

 (^D'i^rVJ) BethJlKmeJh, i.e. The Hottfc of the Siin, the LXXII interpret Ha/b^a/c 4 Uy.iax 

 ^ JtstTOfSfSt om't-ov 3£i<nQ<r -jfiUtx s>'^ XlAvs^a)/ r ApoSim' woAor. Herod. Put. ^. 1^8. c Vid. Not. 

 6. p. 340. 



R r r r 1 throu2;h 



