Teaching guide
The Exodus Route: Map and Bible References
The Bible traces the Exodus from Rameses in the land of Goshen, in Egypt's eastern Nile Delta, through Succoth and Etham to the sea, then to Mount Sinai and Kadesh-barnea. In the fortieth year after leaving Egypt, Israel went around Edom (Numbers 21:4) to the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho (Numbers 33:38, 48). OTIC dates the departure to 1446 BC, though the exact line of march, the crossing point and the location of Mount Sinai are all debated.
See the proposed Exodus routes on the map in 1446 BC
The route
God did not lead Israel by the coastal road, "the way of the land of the Philistines," but by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea (Exodus 13:17-18). He told Israel to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, "between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon" (Exodus 14:2, 9), and they crossed the sea on dry ground (Exodus 14:21-22). They went through the wilderness of Shur to Marah and Elim (Exodus 15:22-27), and through the wilderness of Sin to Rephidim (Exodus 16-17). They reached Sinai in the third month (Exodus 19:1) and stayed about a year (Numbers 10:11). Their refusal to enter the land at Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 13-14) brought a sentence of forty years in the wilderness (Numbers 14:33-34).
A debated point: where they crossed. "Red Sea" translates the Hebrew yam suph. Suph is the word for the reeds where Moses' basket was placed (Exodus 2:3), so many read "Sea of Reeds" and look for water on Egypt's border. Proposals include the Mediterranean coastal lagoon near Lake Sirbonis, the lakes of the northern Suez isthmus such as the Ballah Lakes, Lake Timsah or the Bitter Lakes, and the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. Others note that yam suph also names the Gulf of Aqaba at Ezion-geber (1 Kings 9:26) and place the crossing there. OTIC maps three proposed route lines and does not choose between them. None of the three shows a Gulf of Aqaba crossing.
Sinai's site is also debated. Jebel Musa in the southern Sinai has been the traditional site since about the 4th century AD. Other proposals lie in the central and northern Sinai and in northwestern Arabia, such as Jebel al-Lawz.
What was happening around it
On the early date OTIC follows, the pharaoh of the Exodus was Amenhotep II, and Egypt held Canaan's city-states as vassals. Edom and Moab already had kings (Numbers 20:14; 22:4), and the Amorite kings Sihon and Og held the land beyond the Jordan from the Arnon to Mount Hermon (Numbers 21:21-35; Deuteronomy 3:8). Scholars who favor a 13th-century Exodus date it later; James Hoffmeier, for one, argues for a date in the mid-thirteenth century BC.
Teaching notes
- Numbers 33:1-49. The stages Moses wrote down "stage by stage" (33:2), from Rameses to the plains of Moab.
- Numbers 20:14-21. Edom refuses passage.
- Deuteronomy 1:2-3. Horeb to Kadesh-barnea is "eleven days' journey," set beside "the fortieth year" in the next verse.
Common questions
- Where did the Israelites cross the Red Sea?
- The site is debated. Proposals include a Mediterranean coastal lagoon, the lakes of the Suez isthmus, the northern end of the Gulf of Suez, and the Gulf of Aqaba.
- How long did the Exodus journey take?
- Forty years in the wilderness (Numbers 14:33-34). On OTIC's chronology that runs from 1446 BC to the Jordan crossing in 1406 BC.
Related pages
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