nothing of the events which led toward it, but mentions the fact of it incidentally, in giving the record of an attempt by the Canaanites to throw off the yoke of vassalage, and of the part performed by Abraham in aiding his kinsman Lot1 against the power of the oppressor, when the latter came westward to re-forge the chains of bondage.2

An immediate gain of Kedor-la'omer's then unparalleled scheme of conquest was the control of the one great highway of travel and

conquerors who from time to time have built up vast empires in Asia out of heterogeneous materials, which have in a larger or a shorter space successively crumbled to decay. At a time when the kings of Egypt had never ventured beyond their borders, unless it were for a foray in Ethiopia, and when in Asia no monarch had held dominion over more than a few petty tribes, and a few hundred miles of terri tory, he conceived the magnificent notion of binding into one the manifold nations inhabiting the vast tract which lies between the Zagros mountain-range and the Mediterranean. Lord by inheritance (as we may presume) of Elam and Chaldea or Babylonia, he was not content with these ample tracts, but, coveting more, proceeded boldly on a career of conquest up the Euphrates valley, and through Syria, into Palestine. Successful here, he governed, for twelve years, dominions extending near a thousand miles from east to west, and from north to south probably not much short of five hundred." (Rawlinson's Five Great Mon., I., 177.)

1 Gen. 14: 12-16. "It is indeed true that affection for Lot may have been the motive, and his deliverance from captivity the object, of Abram's expedition. But both this and his victory had a higher meaning when viewed objectively and in their bearing upon history. It is not the purpose of the narrative to exalt Abram, but to show the wonderful leadings of God towards his elect, by which everything is brought into immediate relation to the divine plan." (Kurtz's Hist. of Old Cov., I., 217.)

2 "The imperial power of Asia had already extended as far as Canaan, and had subdued the valley of the Jordan, no doubt with the intention of holding the Jordan valley as the high-road to Egypt. We have here a prelude of the future assault of the worldly power upon the kingdom of God established in Canaan; and the importance of this event to sacred history consists in the fact, that the kings of the valley of the Jordan submitted to the worldly power, whilst Abram, on the contrary, with his home-born servants, smote the conquerors and rescued their booty--a prophetic sign that in the conflict with the power of the world the seed of Abram would not only not be subdued, but would be able to rescue from destruction those who appealed to it for aid." (Keil and Delitzsch's Bib. Com. at Gen. 14: 1–12.)

commerce between the East and the West.1 In the very nature of things, from the formation of the earth's surface, that little belt of land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, hedged in by mountain and desert and sea, was, and must continue to be, the one passable isthmus between Asia and Africa and Europe. From the earliest dispersion of the families of men, the Land of Canaan has been in a sense a geographical centre of the world's interest; and rival forces have never ceased to contend for the possession of the great thoroughfare which the immediate region of that land practically controls. The building of the Suez Canal, in our own day, is but an effort to secure in another way what Kedor-la'omer sought by the subjugation of the peoples and tribes on either side of the Jordan.2

And the keeping open of that highway-continuing its control by his subjects and tributaries-was vital to the supremacy of the great Eastern conqueror. When, therefore, after twelve years,

1 The reference in Joshua 7: 21 to the "goodly Babylonish garment”—“ a choice robe of Shinar"-among the spoils of Jericho, is an indication of the traffic in that day between Shinar and Canaan.

...

2"The true reason [of Kedor-laʼomer's campaign] cannot be doubtful, when we remember of what importance that extensive valley [of the Jordan] was at all times, in regard to the intercourse of tribes with one another. It always formed (comp. Strabo XVI. 4, 18 ƒ.) the road marked out by nature itself, which, from the Elantic gulf, divides the boundless wilderness watered by the Nile and Euphrates; the medium of intercourse between Arabia and Damascus. . . . To have dominion over the whole of this important locality must have appeared of the greatest consequence. . . . By this occupation Arabia in particular, with its choice productions (comp. Ezek. 27: 19 f.), was completely enclosed; and all commerce with the southern coast, and the bazaars in Western and Eastern Asia, came into the hands of one and the same power; which was a sufficient reason for procuring these advantages by conquest, and for maintaining them against revolt, by the putting forth of force." (Tuch's "Remarks on Gen. XIV.," in Jour. of Sac. Lit., July, 1848, p. 82.)

"In fact they [of the Pentapolis] commanded the great route of Arabian coinmerce, and enriched themselves with the wealth which the Egyptians, the Phonicians, the Babylonians and Elamites valued so highly. Doubtless many a rich caravan of ‘Midianite merchantmen,' with 'spicery and balm and myrrh' [Gen.

there was a general revolt against Kedor-la'omer's authority by the dwellers in the five Cities of the Plain, it became necessary for him to make a personal campaign for their re-subjugation and punishment. It is in this campaign that Kadesh first appears in history.

2. KEDOR-LA'OMER'S ROUTE.

It is probable, indeed it may be said to be certain, that the route of Kedor-la'omer toward Canaan was up along the eastern bank of the Euphrates to Syria, and thence down by Damascus; for this was the only practicable military road from Elam to Syria. The great Arabian desert was, and ever has been, impassable for such an army as his.1 From Damascus he moved down on the east of the Jordan and of the great mountain range east of the Dead Sea. And he and his allies, as they went along this route, "smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in the plain of Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-Paran, which is by the wilderness.” 2

37: 25], many a long train of Amu with their bales of rich clothing, and cosmetics, and metals, would pass within reach of those Canaanite lords, who must not be allowed to levy their blackmail for their own independent profit." (Tomkins's Times of Abraham, p. 182.)

1 A careful study of the route of Kedor-la'omer was first made, in modern times, by Prof. Tuch, of Leipzig. It was published under the title "Bemerkungen zu Genesis XIV.," in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, and an English translation of it, by Dr. Samuel Davidson, appeared in Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature for July, 1848. A more recent and an admirable study of the same subject, in the light of later discoveries, is to be found in the Rev. Henry George Tomkins's Studies in the Times of Abraham.

2 Gen. 14: 5, 6. "Drawing together the contingents of the different states in Babylonia, Kedor-la'omer would pass up the Euphrates, cross the Khabour, perhaps at Arban (ancient Sidikan), the Belîk near Kharran, the Euphrates at Carchemish, and so [onward], . . . passing Aleppo, Hamath, and Emesa (where, perhaps, already the sons of Kheth were entrenched in their lake fortress). The further march is indicated in the biblical narrative, if we take for granted (which we may well do) that

This description covers the regions of Bashan and Moab and Edom, and the entrance between the lower mountains of Seir and the Elanitic Gulf, or Gulf of 'Aqabah, into the Wilderness of Paran, or the central desert of the Sinaitic Peninsula.'

It has been common to suppose that "El-Paran, which is by the wilderness," was Aileh, or "Eloth, on the shore [or, 'the lip'] of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom;"" because just there was a gateway of the great route between Arabia and Egypt and Syria.3 But it would seem more probable, that this plantation, or grove,

the army returned over the same ground, excepting where the contrary is stated; Kedor-la'omer then doubtless received the homage and tribute of the ruler of Damascus; but instead of pouring down the valley of the Jordan in a direct course to the revolted cities, he first cut off their supports, and completely cleared his flanks by an extended campaign; for, sweeping all the highland plateau to the east of Jordan, and following the great ancient course of commerce where now the Hadj road goes down into Arabia, he chastised and disabled the old world tribes who had evidently shared in the rebellion." (Tomkins's Studies, as above, p. 185.)

1 For added facts and suggestions as to this route, and as to various proposed identifications along its course, see Davidson's translation of Tuch, and Tomkins's Studies, as above; Rawlinson's Five Great Mon., I., 177; Keil and Delitzsch's Bib. Com. at Gen. 14: 1-12; Schaff-Lange Com., Speaker's Com., and Murphy's Com. in loco; also Wetzstein's Reisebericht über Hauran u. d. Trachonen, pp. 108-113; Porter's Giant Cities, pp. 43, 68, 84 f.; Merrill's East of Jordan, pp. 328-330; Oliphant's Land of Gilead, pp. 94-100.

21 Kings 9: 26, and "margin.”

3“The more surely we must understand with the Septuagint and Peshitto el (as in Gen. 35: 4 and Judges 6: 11, 19) to be a plantation of terebinth, the more easily can we consider ourselves justified in referring that name to an oasis situated, on any view of the subject, to the west of the Edomite mountains. . . . On closer examination, it cannot admit of a doubt that El-Paran is identical with Elath-Aileh, 'on the shore of the Red Sea' (1 Kings 9: 26), manifestly at the extreme end of Wadi Arabah." (Tuch, as above, p. 85.)

But Wilton (The Negeb p. 196) has shown that el, meaning "the strong," applies to the strong tree of the particular region, whether palm, terebinth, tamarisk, or oak. Hence it is fair to consider “El-Paran" as the grove, or oasis, which was the exhibit and type of the strength of the wilderness.

See Burton and Drake's Unexplored Syria (note at p. 68, Vol. I.), as to the use of "alah (eloth and elath)" for the terebinth tree or groves. Forster (Geog. of Arabia,

or oasis, of Paran, "which is upon' the wilderness," was the one oasis which is in mid-desert on the great highway across the Wilderness of Paran; known in later times as "Qala'at Nukhl," or "Callah Nahhar," or "Bathn-Nakhl," or, more commonly, "Castle Nakhl." It is there that the great desert roads centre; and it is at that point that a turn northward would naturally be made; that indeed a turn northward must be made in following the road Canaanward.

And from the Wilderness of Paran "they returned;"5 that is, they went back northward; but clearly not by the way they had come, for their work in Canaan was yet to be done. They "came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country [the field] of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that dwelt in

p. 34), with his wonted fancifulness, would find in Elana a vestige of "Elon the Hittite," whose daughter was a wife of Esau.

1 The Hebrew word here is 'al (y), "upon." They were not upon the Wilderness of Paran until they ascended westward from the 'Arabah.

2 See Thevenot's Reisen, Part I., Book II., Chap. 17; Burckhardt's Trav. in Syria, p. 450; Map in Lepsius's Denkmäler, Abth. I.; Stewart's Tent and Khan, p. 173 f.; Palmer's Des. of Exod., II., 287, 327 ff., and Map; etc.

3 See Shaw's Travels, p. 477.

See quotation from Hajj Chalfa's Itinerary, in Ritter's Geog. of Pal., I., 42. Bonar (Desert of Sinai, p. 383) calls attention to this designation of Chalfa's, as repeated by Wellsted (Travels, II., 458), and suggests that Butm may have been intended here, instead of Batn. Butm is shown by Robinson (Bib. Res., III., 15, first edition) to have been the terebinth.

By a comparison of the authorities here quoted, it will be seen that this oasis of Nakhl has been variously understood as meaning the Castle of Palms, the Valley of Palms, the Castle of the Wady, and the Terebinth-Vale; yet without any purpose, on the part of any traveler, of identifying its site with the Palm Grove, or Terebinth Plantation of Paran. Any looking for traces of the ancient name in the later one is, however, quite apart from, or the geographical probabilities in favor of the oasis of Nakhl being the site of the oasis which was upon the Wilderness of Paran, and which was the southwesternmost stretch of the march of Kedor-la'omer.

5 Gen. 14: 7. The Hebrew word used here indicates an abrupt turn in another direction; not necessarily a return. The word is treated in a note farther on. See Index, 8. v. "Turn."