finding Etham

Finding Etham

The Israelites second camp was Etham, which was at the edge of the Sinai Wilderness. It was also the place where Israel turned back from an immediate conquest of Canaan to go to Pi Hahiroth. Etham was identified recently by John Shreier as Jabal Haytan الحيطان a mountain pass named for the nearby peaks Mitla and Jabal Haytan at the edge of the sinai wilderness where the road soon divides. The left fork goes to Kadesh Barnea at the Border of Canaan, the right fork goes to Ayla on the Red Sea at the border of Midian.  Pharaoh  expected them to take the left fork northeast to Kadesh Barnea because the Israelites left Egypt armed for war and Moses had told the elders he would lead them from Egypt to Canaan. The LORD however commanded Moses to tell Israel to turn and take the right fork southeast through the wilderness to Pi Hahiroith by the sea. Exodus14:2  This would make Pharoah think the Israelites were confused and wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. Exodus 13:20 Exodus 14:3  As a result he sent his troops to recover his lost slaves. Haytan sounds like Etham but was no doubt named for the Major Eitan who led the paratroopers to take the strategic location which controls access to the Sinai Peninsula in 1956. It meets the criteria of being at the edge of the wilderness, on the Ancient Trade route to the Arabian Peninsula and therefore Midian and explains the turn Israel took at this location from the Route to Kadesh Barnea to the route to Ayla and the Red Sea at the Gulf of Aqaba since they were instructed to go to Midian to mount Horeb before they went to Canaan. Etham means a place of perennial water and since the foot of the mountain range Jebel et Tyh is at Nekhel where there is permanent water and a route north to Kadesh Barnea it also qualifies as the possible turning point for the Israelites.

Google maps Sinai Peninsula Jabal Haytan.