Alush
Having departed from Dophkah, the Israelites next encamp at a place called Alush. This, the Tenth Station of the Exodus, is included in the list of forty-two stations in the Book of Numbers, but as we have already seen, neither it nor Dophkah is mentioned in the Book of Exodus:
And they took their journey out of the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah. And they departed from Dophkah, and encamped in Alush. (Numbers 33:12-13)
In the parallel narrative in the Book of Exodus, the Israelites pass directly from the Eighth Station, the Wilderness of Sin, to the Eleventh Station, Rephidim:
And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. (Exodus 17:1)
In the preceding article in this series, we came to the tentative conclusion that the Ninth Station of the Exodus, Dophkah, referred to an encampment somewhere in the narrow ravine of the Wadi Useit, which runs down from the Tih Plateau in the interior of the Sinai Peninsula, reaching the Gulf of Suez just north of Pharaoh’s Bath and the precipitous coastal bluffs of Jabal Hammam Fir’awn (Jebel Hammam Far’im, or the Mountain of Pharaoh’s Bath).
Up to this point, we have been assuming that the Israelites were capable of covering around 20-30 km per day (Hoffmeier 120). It stands to reason, however, that their pace would have slowed once they began to ascend the steep and narrow Wadi Useit, where they would have been hemmed in by the walls of the ravine and impeded by the sudden incline that led up to the Tih Plateau (Stewart 76-77). Alush, therefore, might lie considerably less than 20 km beyond Dophkah, while Dophkah itself is probably to be sought in the lower reaches of the wadi.
Etymology of Alush
Alush is James Strong’s Number 442, Âlûwsh, a word of uncertain etymology (Strong 12). The Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament is of no more help, simply defining Alush as a station of Israel in the wilderness (Brown, Robinson & Gesenius 47). This vagueness is repeated in most commentaries and dictionaries of the Old Testament. In The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, however, we have the following glimmer of light:
None of the five camps on this section of the route is certainly known. Dophkah apparently means “overdriving” of flocks, and Alush (according to the rabbis) “crowding,” thus indicating the difficulties of the march. (Orr 3067)
In The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature we are given a few more details:
Aʹlush (Hebrew A lushʹ, אָלוּשׁ; perhaps desolation, according to the Talmud, a crowd of men; Sept[uagint] Αἰλούς), the eleventh [sic] place at which the Hebrew rested on their way to Mount Sinai (Nu 33:13). It was between Dophkah and Rephidim, and was probably situated on the shore of the Red Sea, just south of Ras Jehan ... The Jewish chronology (Seder Olam, ch. 5, p. 27) makes it twelve miles [19 km] from the former and eight [13 km] from the latter station. The Targum of Jonathan calls it “a strong fort;” and it is alleged (upon an interpretation of Ex 16:30) that in Alush the Sabbath was instituted, and the first Sabbath kept. Eusebius (Onomast[icon] s.v. Α᾿λλούδ) has only this notice, “a region of leaders (?) in what is now Gebalene, near the city Petra.” (McClintock & Strong 185)
The Seder Olam claims that Alush was another name for the Wilderness of Sin, making the Eighth and Tenth Stations of the Exodus identical:
Israel only camped near water, so they left Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin also called Alush. (Johnson 991-992)
There is nothing in Ken Johnson’s translation of the Seder Olam about Alush being twelve miles from Dophkah and eight from Rephidim. Moreover, Alush was the tenth, not the eleventh, station.
Eusebius’s interpretation probably refers to Alvah in Genesis 36:40 rather than Alush (Eusebius).
If the encampment of Alush was located in the ravine of Wadi Useit, then this rabbinical explanation of the name as crowding would make perfect sense, though the actual phrase attributed to the Talmud is a crowd of men, which is suspiciously precise and not such a good fit.
In his Homilies on Numbers, the 3rd-century Christian scholar Origen of Alexandria interpreted Alush as meaning toils, or labores in the Latin translation by Tyrannius Rufinus, which also makes sense in the context of a difficult ascent:
Well then, “they set out from Raphaca [ie Dophkah] and come to Halus [ie Alush].” Halus translates as “toils”. (Origen 179, Migne 794)
Raphaca is probably a corruption of Dophkah, the Hebrew letters daleth [ד] and resh [ר] being easily confused.
An altogether different interpretation that one also comes across would connect Alush with the Hebrew verb to knead, לוש, (Strong 59) . There seems to be an assumed link with manna—some sources even state blatantly that the Israelites first gathered manna at Alush. This is not supported by the Scriptures, but as this episode is described in Exodus, which does not mention Dophkah or Alush, it is not altogether out of the question. It occurs after the Israelites reach the Wilderness of Sin but before they arrive at Rephidim.
Alfred Jones, in The Proper Names of the Old Testament Scriptures Expounded and Illustrated suggests that the Hebrew verb to knead also means to be strong, firm, which overlaps in meaning with an Arabic term that may lie behind Alush: a crowd of men gathered from various tribes strongly bound together in one troop (Jones 24-25).
Charles Forster
All of these interpretations may simply be later attempts to explain a perplexing name. Charles Forster linked Alush with the Arabic el-Hesueh, which he describes as:
a copious spring and stream between Wadys Dughade and Firân, the latter being, according to all the ancient authorities, the site of Rephidim, the next station to Alush. (Forster 273)
His account of how this Arabic name found its way into Scripture is worth quoting at length:
In the preceding Table, going on the ground that Mount Serbal was the true Mount Sinai, I had identified one of the most obscure of the Israelite stations between the Red Sea and Rephidim, namely Alush, with el-Hesueh, the Arab name of a water-spring, about a half-day’s journey, or from six to seven miles [9-11 km], from Firân, the assumed Rephidim, at the foot of the Serbâl; the approximate identity of the names being my only guide. Since the Table was drawn up, I observed in Gesenius for the first time, the following notice and definition of the name Alush : אלוש (sec. Talmud, turba hominum [according to the Talmud, a crowd of men]). The Talmudic definition suggested the thought of testing my previous identification of Alush with el-Hesueh by trying whether the two words, in Hebrew and Arabic, had any corresponding sense with that in this Jewish tradition. I looked, accordingly, for the Arabic root هؤش haush, and found under it the approximate form البواشة Turba hominum; being one and the same with the Rabbinical definition of Alush. Freytag and Richardson add the reduplicate phrase ... al-haush al-haish, as expressing a vast multitude, multitudo ingens.
Moses, it follows with moral certainty, has preserved to us the then existing Arabic name al-Hesueh, Turba hominum, in the Hebrew form אלוש Al-ush. For the Hebrew ה, he, substitutes the Arabic ال [al]; and thus demonstrates the existence of the Arabic definite article at the distance of more than three thousand three hundred years. For a single proof, a higher one cannot be given or conceived as to the primeval antiquity of the Arabic idiom, which Bishop Walton justly traces up to the age of the confusion of tongues. The name Al-ush, with other indications, would seem to show that the Israelite stations were often called by the Arabic appellations Hebraized, a circumstance which may materially aid in effecting future verification.
But the form Alush, or el-Hesueh, suggests a thought of high historic interest. It is a witness, at this point, to the history of the Exode; for we are here on the eve of the great battle of Rephidim, and within six or seven miles of the field. And what more likely than that its Mosaic name was then first given by the Amalekites, when they beheld the vast host of Israel halted on this scene, ere they advanced to take position upon the hill of Rephidim, on whose summit Moses stood, with Aaron and Hur, to survey the battle? What more natural than that the Amalekites, when they saw three millions of souls assembled at El-Hesueh, should exclaim, in Bedouin fashion,—אלוש (Alush or El-Hesueh)—‘What a crowd of men!’ Such was the exclamation of Balaam, when ‘he lifted up his eyes, and saw Israel abiding in his tents, according to their tribes—Who can count the dust of Jacob, or the number of the fourth part of Israel?’ (Forster 287-289)
Forster identifies Wadi Dughade with Dophkah. El-Hesueh lies about 75 km southeast of where I would like to locate Alush. It is 10-12 km from the foot of Gebel Serbal, which Forster identified as the Mountain of God. According to the Wikipedia article, Wadi Feiran, El Hesweh is the former name of the Feiran Oasis.
Gebel al-Usayla
If the Israelites ascended Wadi Useit and then proceeded in a southeasterly direction towards the Debbet er-Ramleh (Plain of Sand), they would have passed a prominent mountain that today bears the name Gebel al-Usayla. Could al-Usayla be an echo of Alush? In Classical Arabic, al-‘usayla means honey, which could preserve an allusion to manna. On the other hand, Gebel al-Usayla lies about 20 km from Wadi Useit. Perhaps Alush should be located in the Debbet er-Ramleh.
Keeping an open mind, all I am willing to surmise is that Alush lay somewhere between the mouth of Wadi Useit and Serabit el-Khadim. The former, I have suggested, was close to previous station Dophkah, while the latter I am tentatively identifying with the Mount of God (after Lina Eckenstein).
The fact that the toponym Alush has no obvious meaning or etymology in Hebrew is further evidence that the list of the 42 Stations of the Exodus in the Book of Numbers is not a piece of fiction concocted by Jewish scholars during the rabbinical era, as some modern researchers claim.
To be continued ...
References
- Francis Brown, Edward Robinson, William Gesenius, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1906)
- Lina Eckenstein, A History of Sinai, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London (1921)
- John Wesley Etheridge, The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch : With the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum from the Chaldee, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green, London (1865)
- Charles Forster, Israel in the Wilderness: or, Gleanings from the Scenes of the Wanderings, Richard Bentley, London (1865)
- James K Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2005)
- Alfred Jones, The Proper Names of the Old Testament Scriptures Expounded and Illustrated, Samuel Bagster and Sons, London (1856)
- Ferdinand Larsow, Gustav Parthey, Eusebii Pamphili Episcopi Caesariensis Onomasticon Urbium et Locorum Sacrae Scripturae, Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin (1862)
- Charlton T Lewis, Charles Short, A New Latin Dictionary, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York (1891)
- John McClintock, James Strong, The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Harper & Brothers, New York(1880)
- Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Volume 12, Origen, Imprimerie Catholique, Paris (1862)
- Origen, Ancient Christian Texts: Homilies on Numbers, Thomas P Scheck (translator), Christopher A Hall (editor), InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove Il (2009)
- James Orr (General Editor), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume 5, The Howard-Severance Company, Chicago (1915)
- Robert Walter Stewart, The Tent and the Khan: A Journey to Sinai and Palestine, William Oliphant and Sons, Edinburgh (1857)
- James Strong, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary, in The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Eaton & Mains, New York (1890)
Image Credits
- Western Sinai (Detail): University of Texas Libraries, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Aqaba, Suez, D Survey, Great Britain War Office and Air Ministry (1960), Public Domain
- El-Hesueh (Feiran Oasis): James Webster, Travels through the Crimea, Turkey and Egypt, Volume 2, p 210, British Library HMNTS 1046.k.23, Public Domain
- El-Hesueh and Environs: Karl Baedeker, Palestine and Syria : With Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia : Handbook for Travellers, pp 194-195, Leipzig (1912)
- Gebel al-Usayla: © 2019 Google Maps, Fair Use
