WHERE IS MOUNT SIMAl ? 40 



lecture were so small, or T would have sent sonic models of Mount 

 Serbfil and others for the inspection of the meeting. I think: 

 anyone looking at the models will come to the conclusion that 

 Jebel Serbal is in impossible competition with Jebel Mnsa. There 

 is the encamp'nf? ground on which the Israelites conld encamp, 

 but three or four miles off tliere is the roughest mountain country 

 that anyone could wish to travel over. The actual peak of Jebel 

 Musa is, in all particulars, in agreement with the Bible narrative. 

 Wadi er-Rahah is, in one sense, the head of the valley ; its 

 peculiarity is that it slopes down in the form of the seats in a 

 theatre towards the base of this giganiic wall so that the Israelites 

 standing on that Avould be arranged in tiers, so to speak, and in 

 absolute view of what was going- on on the mount. 



The features of Jebel Musa are entirely in accordance with the 

 Bible narrative. 1 think that Moses did not come down by Wadi 

 el Leja, as Professor Hull suggests, but there is another valley in 

 which a small stream rises, and it is separated from Wadi el Leja 

 by a spur. The name of that valley is Wadi Feiran, and a stream, 

 in which I believe fragments of the golden calf were thrown, rises 

 in that valley. There is a very easy ascent to the mountain, and 

 consequently an easy descent by which Moses and Aai'on may 

 have come down. 



The question of the route by which the Israelites left Mount 

 Sinai is rather a difficult one. My ov/n view is that the Israelites 

 went down by the Wadies Zelagali and Elain, and did not turn 

 down to the gulf of Akabah. I think if they had turned down 

 and camj)ed by the water, we should have had a mention of it. I 

 believe they went to Kadesh, invaded it, and being repulsed they 

 went to Ezion Geber after. 



Rev. Canon R. B. Girdlestone, M.A. — May I mention that 

 Major H. Spencer Palmer, in his Sinai, deals with some 

 objections raised by doubters of the traditional view.* One 

 point has not been touched on to-day ; Professor Sayce says that 

 in the time of the Exodus the country that has been described 

 was entirely under Egyptian rule ; being held for the sake of the 

 turquoise and the copper mines, by garrisons in places on the 

 western coast of the Red Sea. Bat what could a handful of 

 troops do against 600,000 lighting men marching out of Egypt ? 



Professor Hull. — I feel it is a great satisfaction to me, as I am 



* See also Professor Palmer's Desert of the Exodu><. 2 vols. — Ed. 



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