of the deserts, through which they had formerly travelled, till they found the banks of the Red sea again; in which retreat, before they came back to pass over Jordan, there were consumed thirty-eight years: and the whole number of the six hundredth and odd thousand, which came out of Egypt, (Moses, Joshua, and Caleb excepted,) were dead in the wilderness, the stubborn and careless generations were wholly worn out, and the promised land bestowed on their children; which were increased to 600,000, and more. For besides the double fault, both of refusing to enter the land upon the return of the discoverers, and the presumption then to attempt it, when they were countermanded; it seemeth that they had committed that horrible idolatry of worshipping Moloch and the host of heaven. For although Moses doth not mention it, yet * Amos doth, and so doth the martyr Stephen; as also that the Israelites worshipped the sun and moon in aftertimes, it is proved out of sundry other places.

Now after the broken companies were returned to the camp at Kades, Moses, according to the commandment received from God, departed towards the south from whence he came, to recover the shores of the Red sea. And so from Kades or Rithma he removed to Remmonparez, so called of abundance of pomegranates there found and divided among them. From thence he went on to Libnah, taking that name of the frankincense there found. From y Libnah he crossed the valley, and sat down at Ressa near the foot of the mountain. And after he had rested there, he bended towards the west, and encamped at Ceelata; where one of the Hebrews, for gathering broken wood on the sabbath, was stoned to death. After which, Moses always keeping the valley, between two great ledges of mountains, (those which bound the desert of Zin, and those of Pharan,) crossed the same from Ceelata, and marched eastward to the mountain of Sapher, or Sepher; this making the twentieth mansion. From thence he passed on to Ha

* Amos v. 25. Acts vii. 42. 2 Kings xvii. 16. and xxi. 3. and xxiii. 4, 5, 11.

2 Chron. xxxiii. 3. Jer. xix 13, &c.

y Numb. xxxiii. 21.

rada, then to Maceloth, and then to Thahah, and so to Thara or Thare, the four and twentieth mansion. Where, while Moses rested, the people began that insolent and dangerous mutiny of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; who, for their contempt of God and his ministers, were some of them swallowed up alive, and by the earth opening her mouth devoured; others, even 250 which offered incense with Korah, were consumed with fire from heaven; and 14,700 of their party, which murmured against Moses, stricken dead with a sudden pestilence: one of the greatest marvels and judgments of God that hath been shewed in all the time of Moses's government, or before. For among so great a multitude, those laymen, who would have usurped ecclesiastical authority, were suddenly swallowed up alive into the earth with their families and goods, even while they sought to overthrow the order, discipline, and power of the church, and to make all men alike therein, rebelliously contending against the high priest and magistrate, to whom God had committed the government both of his church and commonweal of his people. And the better to assure the people, and out of his great mercy to confirm them, it pleased him in this place also to approve by miracle the former election of his servant Aaron, by the twelve rods given in by the heads of the twelve tribes, of which Moses received one of every head and prince of his tribe; which being all withered and dry wands, and on every rod the name of the prince of the tribe written, and Aaron's on that of Levi; it pleased God, that the rod of Aaron received by his power a vegetable spirit, and having lain in the tabernacle of the congregation before the ark one night, had on it both buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds.

From Tharah the whole army removed to Methra, and thence to Esmona, and thence to Moseroth, (or Masurit, after St. Jerome,) and from Moseroth to Benejacan, and so to Gadgad, which Jerome calleth Gadgada, thence to Jetabata, the thirtieth mansion; where from certain fountains of water gathered in one, Adrichomius maketh a river, which falleth into the Red sea, between Madian and Ezion-gaber.

Now although it be very probable, that at Ezion-gaber, where Solomon furnished his fleets for the East Indies, there was store of fresh water; and though Herodotus, 1. 3. maketh mention of a great river in Arabia the Stony, which he calleth Corys, from whence, saith he, the inhabitants convey water in pipes of leather to other places, by which device the king of Arabia relieved the army of Cambyses; yet is Adrichomius greatly deceived, as many times he is, in finding these springs at Gadgad, or Jetabata, being the nine and twentieth or thirtieth mansion. For it was at Punon that those springs are spoken of, which in Deut. x. 7. is also called Jetabata, or Jotbath, a land of running waters, and which by all probability fall into the river Zared, the next adjoining. And that these springs should fall into the Red sea at Ezion-gaber, or Eloth, I cannot believe, for the way thither is very long. And this I find in Belonius, that there are divers torrents of fresh water in those sandy parts of Arabia; which, though they continue their course for a few miles, yet they are drunk up by the hot and thirsty sand, before they can recover the banks of the Red

sea.

From Jetabata Moses directed his journey towards the Red sea, and encamped at Hebrona; and from thence to Ezion-gaber; which city in Josephus's time had the name of Berenice, and in Jerome's, Essia. From thence keeping the sea and Eloth on his right hand, he turned towards the north, as he was by God commanded; z Ezion-gaber being the furthest place towards the south-east that Moses travelled in that passage.

It seemeth that Ezion-gaber, or Azion-gaber, Eloth, and Madian, were not at this time in the possession of the kings of Edom. For it is said, a That the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the mount Hor, near the coast of the land of Edom; so as the mount Hor was at this time in the south border of Idumæa. And if Ezion-gaber, and the other places near the Red sea, had at this present been subject to the Idumeans, Moses would also have demanded a free passage through

z Deut. ii.

a Numb. xx. 23.

them. It is true, that in the future the Idumeans obtained these places; for it is said, b And they arose out of Midian, and came to Paran, and took men with them; which were those companies that followed young Hadad of Idumæa into Egypt, when he fled from Joab. Likewise it is said of Solomon, that he made a navy of ships in Ezion-gaber besides Eloth, in the land of Edom.

SECT. V.

Of Moses's arrival at Zin Kades; and the accidents while they abode there.

FROM Ezion-gaber he turned again towards the north, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh; or in Beroth, of the children of Jacan, where they sat down in the first month of the fortieth year after they left Egypt. For at the next mansion Aaron died in the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year; the nine and thirtieth year taking end at Ezion-gaber. And at this city of Kades, (for so it was thought to be,) or near it, died Miriam, or Mary, Moses's sister, whose sepulchre was to be seen in St. Jerome's time, as himself avoweth. From hence, ere they departed to the mountain Hor, d all the people murmured most violently against Moses, by reason of the scarcity of water. For neither the punishments by fire from heaven, by being devoured and swallowed up by the earth, by the sudden pestilence which often seized them, nor any miracle formerly shewing either the love or wrath of God, could prevail with this nation any longer than while they were full fed and satisfied in every of their appetites; but instead of seeking for help and relief at God's hands, when they suffered hunger, thirst, or any other want, they murmured, repined, and rebelled, repenting them of their changed estates, and casting ungratefully on Moses all their misadventures; yea, though they well knew that their own fathers had left their bodies in the deserts, and that they were now entered into the fortieth year, wherein all their miseries were to take end. And being as it were in sight of the land promised, they 1 Kings xi. 18.

b

e Numb. xx. 1.

RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. II.

M

d Numb. xx. 3.

again as obstinately tempted God as in former times, and neither trusted his promises nor feared his indignation. But as the will and purposes of God are without beginning, so his mercies being without end, he commanded Moses to strike a rock adjoining with his rod, and the waters issued out in a great abundance, with which both themselves and their cattle were satisfied. Nevertheless, because God perceived a kind of diffidence both in Moses and Aaron at this place, therefore he permitted neither of them to enter the land promised, whereto perchance their worldly desires might invite them. But it pleased him to end the travels of Aaron at the mountain Hor, being the next and thirtyfourth station. At which mountain of Hor Aaron was despoiled of the garments of his priesthood, and the same put on Eleazar his son, as God had commanded. Which done, Moses and Eleazar descended the mountain, but God received Aaron on the top thereof, and he was no more seen.

Of this mountain, called Hor, otherwise Mosera, as in Deut. x. 6. those Horites took name, which the Idumeans had formerly vanquished. Some there are which make Mosera, which was the twenty-seventh mansion, and Mosera which they write Moseroth for difference, which was the thirty-fourth mansion, and is also called Hor, to be two distinct places; because Moses, in passing from Cadesbarne towards Esion-gaber, encamped at Mosera, after he departed from Hesmona, and before he came to Benjaacan. And this Mosera, which is also called Hor, he came unto after he left Cades, where f Miriam, Moses's sister, died; the first being the twenty-seventh, and the second being the thirtyfourth mansion. But for Hor, which is also called Mosera, it should have been written, Hor juxta Mosera, "Hor near "Mosera ;" for it is but one root of a mountain, divided into divers tops, as Sinai and Horeb are; whereof the west part Moses calleth Mosera, and the east part Horeb. By the west part Moses encamped as he passed towards the Red sea, on his left hand; by the east part, as he went back