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Selected Verse: Exodus 13:20 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Ex 13:20	Strong Concordance	And they took their journey [05265] from Succoth [05523], and encamped [02583] in Etham [0864], in the edge [07097] of the wilderness [04057].
	King James	And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
encamped in Etham--This place is supposed by the most intelligent travellers to be the modern Ajrud, where is a watering-place, and which is the third stage of the pilgrim-caravans to Mecca. "It is remarkable that either of the different routes eastward from Heliopolis, or southward from Heroopolis, equally admit of Ajrud being Etham. It is twelve miles northwest from Suez, and is literally on the edge of the desert" [Pictorial Bible].

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

encamped in Etham--This place is supposed by the most intelligent travellers to be the modern Ajrud, where is a watering-place, and which is the third stage of the pilgrim-caravans to Mecca. "It is remarkable that either of the different routes eastward from Heliopolis, or southward from Heroopolis, equally admit of Ajrud being Etham. It is twelve miles northwest from Suez, and is literally on the edge of the desert" [Pictorial Bible].

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Etham - The house or "sanctuary of Tum" (the Sun God worshipped especially by that name in Lower Egypt), was in the immediate vicinity of Heliopolis, called by the Egyptians the fortress of Zar, or Zalu (i. e. of foreigners); the frontier city where the Pharaohs of the 18th dynasty reviewed their forces when about to enter upon a campaign on Syria. The name Pithom (see Exo 1:11) has precisely the same meaning with Etham, and may possibly be identified with it.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
From Succoth they went to Etham. With regard to the situation of Succoth (from סכּת huts, probably a shepherd encampment), only so much can be determined, that this place was to the south-east of Ramses, on the way to Etham. Etham was "at the end of the desert," which is called the desert of Etham in Num 33:8, and the desert of Shur (Jifar, see Gen 16:7) in Exo 15:22; so that it was where Egypt ends and the desert of Arabia begins, in a line which curves from the northern extremity of the Gulf of Arabia up to the Birket Temseh, or Crocodile Lake, and then on to Lake Menzalet. According to the more precise statements of travellers, this line is formed from the point of the gulf northwards, by a broad sandy tract of land to the east of Ajrud, which never rises more than about three feet above the water-mark (Robinson, Pal. i. p. 80). It takes in the banks of the old canal, which commence about an hour and a half to the north of Suez, and run northwards for a distance which Seetzen accomplished in 4 hours upon camels (Rob. Pal. i. p. 548; Seetzen, R. iii. p. 151, 152). Then follow the so-called Bitter Lakes, a dry, sometimes swampy basin, or deep white salt plain, the surface of which, according to the measurements of French engineers, is 40 or 50 feet lower than the ordinary water-mark at Suez. On the north this basin is divided from the Birket Temseh by a still higher tract of land, the so-called Isthmus of Arbek. Hence "Etham at the end of the desert" is to be sought for either on the Isthmus of Arbek, in the neighbourhood of the later Serapeum, or at the southern end of the Bitter Lakes. The distance is a conclusive argument against the former, and in favour of the latter; for although Seetzen travelled from Suez to Arbek in 8 hours, yet according to the accounts of the French savan, de Bois Aym, who passed through this basin several times, from the northern extremity of the Bitter Lakes to Suez is 60,000 mtres (16 hours' journey), - a distance so great, that the children of Israel could not possibly have gone from Etham to Hachiroth in a day's march. Hence we must look for Etham at the southern extremity of the basin of the Bitter Lake, (Note: There is no force in the objection to this situation, that according to different geognostic indications, the Gulf of Suez formerly stretched much farther north, and covered the basin of the Bitter Lake; for there is no evidence that it reached as far as this in the time of Moses; and the statements of early writers as to the position of Heroopolis in the inner corner of the Arabian Gulf, and not far to the north of Klysma, furnish no clear evidence of this, as Knobel has already observed.) which Israel might reach in two days from Abu Keishib, and then on the third day arrive at the plain of Suez, between Ajrud and the sea. Succoth, therefore, must be sought on the western border of the Bitter Lake.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

From Succoth they went to Etham. With regard to the situation of Succoth (from סכּת huts, probably a shepherd encampment), only so much can be determined, that this place was to the south-east of Ramses, on the way to Etham. Etham was "at the end of the desert," which is called the desert of Etham in Num 33:8, and the desert of Shur (Jifar, see Gen 16:7) in Exo 15:22; so that it was where Egypt ends and the desert of Arabia begins, in a line which curves from the northern extremity of the Gulf of Arabia up to the Birket Temseh, or Crocodile Lake, and then on to Lake Menzalet. According to the more precise statements of travellers, this line is formed from the point of the gulf northwards, by a broad sandy tract of land to the east of Ajrud, which never rises more than about three feet above the water-mark (Robinson, Pal. i. p. 80). It takes in the banks of the old canal, which commence about an hour and a half to the north of Suez, and run northwards for a distance which Seetzen accomplished in 4 hours upon camels (Rob. Pal. i. p. 548; Seetzen, R. iii. p. 151, 152). Then follow the so-called Bitter Lakes, a dry, sometimes swampy basin, or deep white salt plain, the surface of which, according to the measurements of French engineers, is 40 or 50 feet lower than the ordinary water-mark at Suez. On the north this basin is divided from the Birket Temseh by a still higher tract of land, the so-called Isthmus of Arbek. Hence "Etham at the end of the desert" is to be sought for either on the Isthmus of Arbek, in the neighbourhood of the later Serapeum, or at the southern end of the Bitter Lakes. The distance is a conclusive argument against the former, and in favour of the latter; for although Seetzen travelled from Suez to Arbek in 8 hours, yet according to the accounts of the French savan, de Bois Aym, who passed through this basin several times, from the northern extremity of the Bitter Lakes to Suez is 60,000 mtres (16 hours' journey), - a distance so great, that the children of Israel could not possibly have gone from Etham to Hachiroth in a day's march. Hence we must look for Etham at the southern extremity of the basin of the Bitter Lake,

(Note: There is no force in the objection to this situation, that according to different geognostic indications, the Gulf of Suez formerly stretched much farther north, and covered the basin of the Bitter Lake; for there is no evidence that it reached as far as this in the time of Moses; and the statements of early writers as to the position of Heroopolis in the inner corner of the Arabian Gulf, and not far to the north of Klysma, furnish no clear evidence of this, as Knobel has already observed.)

which Israel might reach in two days from Abu Keishib, and then on the third day arrive at the plain of Suez, between Ajrud and the sea. Succoth, therefore, must be sought on the western border of the Bitter Lake.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Encamped in Etham - As for the reasons assigned on Exo 13:17, God would not lead the Israelites by the way of the Philistines' country, he directed them towards the wilderness of Shur, Exo 15:22, upon the edge or extremity of which, next to Egypt, at the bottom of the Arabian Gulf, lay Etham, which is the second place of encampment mentioned. See the extracts from Dr. Shaw at the end of Exodus. See Clarke's note on Exo 40:38.

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¹¹ Therefore they did set [07760] over them taskmasters [04522] [08269] to afflict [06031] them with their burdens [05450]. And they built [01129] for Pharaoh [06547] treasure [04543] cities [05892], Pithom [06619] and Raamses [07486].

²² So Moses [04872] brought [05265] Israel [03478] from the Red [05488] sea [03220], and they went out [03318] into the wilderness [04057] of Shur [07793]; and they went [03212] three [07969] days [03117] in the wilderness [04057], and found [04672] no water [04325].

⁷ And the angel [04397] of the LORD [03068] found her [04672] by a fountain [05869] of water [04325] in the wilderness [04057], by the fountain [05869] in the way [01870] to Shur [07793].

⁸ And they departed [05265] from before [06440] Pihahiroth [06367], and passed through [05674] the midst [08432] of the sea [03220] into the wilderness [04057], and went [03212] three [07969] days [03117]' journey [01870] in the wilderness [04057] of Etham [0864], and pitched [02583] in Marah [04785].

³⁸ For the cloud [06051] of the LORD [03068] was upon the tabernacle [04908] by day [03119], and fire [0784] was on it by night [03915], in the sight [05869] of all the house [01004] of Israel [03478], throughout all their journeys [04550].

¹⁷ And it came to pass, when Pharaoh [06547] had let the people [05971] go [07971], that God [0430] led [05148] them not through the way [01870] of the land [0776] of the Philistines [06430], although [03588] that was near [07138]; for God [0430] said [0559], Lest peradventure the people [05971] repent [05162] when they see [07200] war [04421], and they return [07725] to Egypt [04714]: