<center>_Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah – Part 46_</center>

<center><b>[**Part 1**](https://peakd.com/history/@harlotscurse/making-history)</b></center>

<center>https://i.imgur.com/WJwvDp7.jpg</center>

According to the _Book of Numbers_, the thirty-seventh Station of the Exodus was a place called Oboth:

>And they departed from Punon, and pitched in Oboth. And they departed from Oboth, and pitched in Ijeabarim, in the border of Moab. ([Numbers 33:43-44](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+33&version=KJV))

Unlike Punon, mention of Oboth is not restricted to the Catalogue of Stations in Numbers 33. Oboth is also mentioned in the main Exodus narrative, in Numbers 21:

>And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth. And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ijeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising. ([Numbers 21:9-11](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+21&version=KJV))

_Oboth_ is a Hebrew word, meaning _water-bags_:

<center>https://i.imgur.com/E9MSUEg.png</center><center>**Oboth (Orr 2177)**</center>

Alternative translations include _water-skins_ and _hollow passes_:

<center>https://i.imgur.com/Wr8bucs.png</center><center>**Oboth (McClintock & Strong 283)**</center>

In James Strong’s _Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary_, _Oboth_ is Number 88, the plural of Number 178. It is possibly derived from Number 1:

<center>https://i.imgur.com/W5USsiU.png</center><center>**Strong’s 88, 178, 1**</center>

# Identity #
In the previous article in this series, we identified Punon with Wadi Feynan and the nearby archaeological site of [Khirbet Faynan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khirbat_Faynan). If we assume that the average pace of the Israelites was about 24-32 km per day (Hoffmeier 120) and that they were travelling north along the [Arabah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabah), then Oboth must be sought somewhere in the vicinity of ‘Ain el Jarbāna or ‘Ain Dibā‘a:

<center>https://i.imgur.com/QZ9Tm1A.jpg</center><center>**Oboth**</center>

Some scholars have identified Oboth with another spring, ‘Ain el-Weibeh:

>The site of _Oboth_ is unknown. Many have identified it with ‘Ain el-Weibeh south of the Dead Sea and west of Punon (= Feinan), although this identification is uncertain. (Ashley 409)

This makes no sense to me. The Israelites were travelling north from Punon, not west (Miller 581). ‘Ain el-Weibeh has also been identified with Kadesh Barnea (Wilson 210).

# _The Legends of the Jews_ #
In Louis Ginzberg’s _The Legends of the Jews_, the Israelites pass through Oboth and Iye-abarim after departing from Punon and before crossing the Arnon. The Arnon was a river in Transjordan that flowed into the Dead Sea. It is generally identified today with [Wadi Mujib](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_Mujib):

>The murmurs of the people, on account of which God sent upon them the serpents, took place in Zalmonah, a place where grew only thorns and thistles. Thence they wandered on to Punon, where God’s punishment overtook them. In the following two stations also, in Oboth and Iye-abarim, they continued their hostile actions against God, who for this reason was full of wrath against them, and did not look upon them again with favor until they reached Arnon. (Ginzberg 337)

Numbers 21 places another station—Zared—between Ijeabarim and Arnon:

>And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ijeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising. From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared. From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. ([Numbers 21:11-13](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+21&version=KJV))

<center>https://i.imgur.com/H3Ql10r.jpg</center><center>**Biblical Tamar Park**</center>

# Tamar #
The [Biblical Tamar Park](https://blossomingrose.org/biblical-tamar-park/) is an Israeli archaeological site in an oasis in the Arabah. Discovered in the 1980s, and covering an area of about 22 hectares next to Highway 90, it comprises a fortress—Hatzevah Fortress—which dates back, it is thought, to the Solomonic Period. A kibbutz was established here in 1967 with the name [Ir Ovot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ir_Ovot), which means _City of Oboth_. This name reflects the belief that the Biblical Oboth was located somewhere in this region.

In my opinion, [Tamar Park](https://www.biblewalks.com/biblicaltamar) is too far to the west to be the actual location of Oboth, and the archaeological remains do not date back to the time of the Exodus.

<center>https://i.imgur.com/iexS7pX.jpg</center><center>**Hatzevah Fortress**</center>

# Bozrah #
About 15 km northeast of Khirbet Faynan (Punon) lay the ancient Edomite “capital” of [Bozrah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozrah)—generally identified with the modern Jordanian town of Buseira. Could there be a connection between the toponyms _Bozrah_ and _Oboth_? Might these have been one and the same place?

I have hitherto assumed that the Israelites journeyed north from Punon, along the lowlying Arabah, but perhaps they proceeded in a northeasterly direction, up into the cooler highlands. In historical times, the so-called [King’s Highway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Highway_(ancient)), which ran from Heliopolis in Egypt to Resafa in Syria, followed this line (Aharoni 55). In future articles in this series, we will see that there are very good reasons for believing that the Israelites did indeed leave the lowlying Arabah and ascend into the eastern uplands—referred to as the Land of Seir in [Genesis 36:30](https://classic.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+36&version=KJV)—though where they did this is unknown.

But what of Bozrah? The name means _enclosure_ ([Strong’s 1224](https://archive.org/stream/exhaustiveconcor1890stro#page/n1636/mode/1up)) and comes from a primitive root meaning to be isolated or inaccessible by height or fortification. When the site was excavated by [Crystal-Margaret Bennett](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Bennett) in the 1970s, she discovered a major Edomite settlement dating back to the [Iron Age II](http://www.antiquities.org.il/t/PeriodSub_en.aspx?id=3)—ie 1000-586 BCE in the conventional chronology, or significantly later than the time of the Exodus:

>Busayra was settled from the late eighth century to c. 300/200 BC, with some reuse, perhaps for agricultural purposes, in the Nabataean and Roman periods. It is ideally located on an easily defended, high spur among rich arable lands, providing secure opportunities for agriculture and pastoralism and maximizing proximity to the copper mines of Faynan and to the crossing of the Wadi Arabah used by the Arabian incense trade. Piotr Bienkowski concludes that Busayra was not a capital of a nation state, as it is often described, but the administrative and religious centre of the supratribal authority of the heterarchical state of Edom, recognized and treated as kings by the Assyrians. (Bienkowski [_Abstract_](https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/publications/busayra-excavations-crystal-bennett-1971-1980))

So Bozrah probably did not exist at the time of the Exodus. Nevertheless, if the Israelites proceeded in a northeasterly direction from Punon, their next encampment may have been in the vicinity of the future site of Bozrah (Kitchen 194).

<center>https://i.imgur.com/3ufaNW5.jpg</center><center>**Bozrah**</center>

# Conclusion #
The location of Oboth remains uncertain. As a working hypothesis, I will place it somewhere in the Arabah in the vicinity of ‘Ain el Jarbāna or ‘Ain Dibā‘a, while leaving open the possibility that it lay to the east of the Arabah, in the hilly uplands of the Land of Seir.

To be continued ...

---

## References ##
 * [Yohanan Aharoni, A F Rainey (translator & editor](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Land_of_the_Bible.html?id=AMtoyNxWw0UC&redir_esc=y), _The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography_, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia (1979)
 * [Timothy R Ashley](https://books.google.com/books?id=6hBSceHiuAAC&pg=PA409), _The Book of Numbers_, William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids MI (1993)
 * [Piotr Bienkowski](https://books.google.com/books/about/Busayra_Excavations_by_Crystal_M_Bennett.html?id=eu7jIlZdJ_8C&redir_esc=y), _Busayra: Excavations by Crystal M Bennett 1971-1980_, _**British Academy Monographs in Archaeology**_, Number 13, Oxford University Press, New York (2002)
 * [Louis Ginzberg]( https://archive.org/stream/legendsofjews03ginzuoft#page/336/mode/2up), _The Legends of the Jews_, Volume 3, Translated from the German by Paul Radin, The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia (1911)
 * [James K Hoffmeier](https://books.google.com/books?id=SMZnDgFxiTUC), _Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition_, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2005)
 * [Kenneth A Kitchen]( https://1lib.eu/book/3622415/4f7039), _On the Reliability of the Old Testament_, William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids MI (2003)
 * [John McClintock, James Strong](https://archive.org/details/cyclopaediaofbib07mccl/page/283/mode/1up), _Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature_, Volume 7, Harper & Brothers, New York (1883)
 * [J Maxwell Miller](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3267181), _The Israelite Journey through (around) Moab and Moabite Toponymy_, _**Journal of Biblical Literature**_, Volume 108, Number 4 (Winter, 1989), pp 577-595, The Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, GA (1989)
 * [James Orr (General Editor)](https://archive.org/details/cu31924063472827/page/n80/mode/2up), _The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia_, Volume 4, The Howard-Severance Company, Chicago (1915)
 * [James Strong](https://archive.org/stream/exhaustiveconcor1890stro#page/n1621/mode/1up), _Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary_, in **_The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible_**, Eaton & Mains, New York (1890)
 * [Charles William Wilson (editor)](https://archive.org/details/picturesquepales03wilsuoft/page/209/mode/1up), _Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt_, Volume 3, J S Virtue & Co, Limited, London (1881)

## Image Credits ##
 * [Oboth](http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/world/): University of Texas Libraries, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, [Jerusalem](http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/world/txu-pclmaps-oclc-13163512-jerusalem-447-b.jpg) D Survey, Great Britain War Office and Air Ministry (1960), Public Domain
 * [Biblical Tamar Park](https://blossomingrose.org/biblical-tamar-park/): © [Blossoming Rose](https://blossomingrose.org/), Fair Use
 * [Hatzevah Fortress](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Metsad-Hatseva-347.jpg): © [Bukvoed](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bukvoed), Creative Commons License
 * [Bozrah](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bazra.JPG): © [Uri Juda](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Uri~commonswiki), Creative Commons License

![Kopimi](https://i.imgur.com/7kq532u.png)