THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 23T 



xs, Ieail the people fhould rife againll them, and deilroy 

 them. 



There was another way which led fouth^-weft, upon Beer- 

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

 the Mediterranean. This was the direction in which Abra- 

 ham, Lot, and Jacob, are ftrppofed to have reach edEgypt. But 

 there was neither food nor water there to fuflain 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 eaft into Arabia, pretty-much; 

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

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

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

 the Dead Sea, and palled Jordan in the plain oppoiite 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 anlwer 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 Badeah, where their courfe was near- 

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

 fiderable mountains, called Gewoube on thefouth; andjibbel 

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



country 



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



