Simon, a Jew, who rebelled against the Emperor Vespasian a century and a half later, and took the name of Bar-cochab, or Son of the Star, may thus have meant to style himself a descendant of the Maccabee princes.

NUMBERS, XXXIII. 10.

"And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea."

Mr. Bartlett's view, looking northwards, of the headlands which come down to the coast, on the east side of the Red Sea, in lat. 29° 12′ N., and make it necessary for the traveller in this part of his journey to walk upon the sands, even below high-water mark. Dr. Lepsius, also, in his travels, mentions this interesting spot in the route from Egypt to Sinai. (Bartlett's Forty Days in the Desert, p. 39.)

NUMBERS, XXXIII. 12.

"And they took their journey out of the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah."

Dophkah may be translated the "Crushing-place,' perhaps because the copper ore was there broken to pieces to separate it from the rock. Above is a sculpture from the copper mines in Wady Maghara, representing the Egyptian king conquering the Arabs of the neighbourhood. His name, which is written in the oval above him, is known among the kings of Lower Egypt, but is not one to which we can give a date. In Note on Exod. xvii. 1, we have given a list of the better-known kings in whose reigns these mines were worked. Behind the king is written the name of this country, which is Ta-land, or hill country, now called the Tih mountains, and by the Hebrew writer called Taavah. (See the next note.) The hawk before the king represents the word Pharaoh.

These were, probably, the mines with which the writer

of the Book of Job was familiar, who, in chap. xxviii., describes the skill of the miner, but adds, that by digging he cannot find wisdom.

NUMBERS, XXXIII. 16.

"And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibroth-hattaavah," [or, the Burialplace of Taavah].

One of the tombstones of the Egyptian miners in the above-mentioned burial-ground near Sarbout el Khadem,

E

on the road between Mount Serbal and the temple described in the Note on Exod. xvii. 15. It is from a drawing by David Roberts, R.A. At the head is the winged sun, as the god covering the vault of heaven. Beneath are two men, each worshipping a goddess. They are known to be kings by the sacred asp tied to the forehead, but one only wears the Egyptian crown. The other may be his son. Towards the bottom of the tablet is the figure of the man for whom the tombstone was erected, with a long hieroglyphical inscription between the lines in front of him.

66

NUMBERS, XXXIII. 17.

And they departed from Kibroth-hattaavah, and encamped at Hazeroth," [or, the Village].

A view of Mount Serbal from the north, looking

across the fertile oasis of Wady Feiran, with the ruins of the village of Feiran, or Paran, in the foreground.From Bartlett's Forty Days in the Desert.

The wide desert between Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine, received its general name from this its most important village, though it also had a separate name on each side; as the Desert of Shur, or Pelusium, of Sin, of Sinai, of Zin, of Beersheba.

The next four stations at which the Israelites encamped are all distinguished by names describing the fertility of the valley, while the fifth tells us that it was the place where the Israelites received the law :—

Verse 18. Rithmah, or the Broom Bushes.

19. Rimmon-parez, or the Pomegranate Gap.

22. Kehelathah, or the Assemblies.

This valley is the spot where Jethro, Moses' fatherin-law, lived. (See Exod. xviii.)

NUMBERS, XXXIII. 23.

"And they went from Kehelathah [or, the Place of Assemblies] and pitched in Mount Shapher," [or, the Written Mountain].

The writings upon the rocks-of which some are given in Note on Mount Sephar, in Gen. x. 30— mark the traveller's route through Wady Mocatteb, or the