Map of Exodus: Out of Egypt to the Promised Land
Out of Egypt to the Promised Land
Exodus Map
Exodus map of Moses and Hebrews leaving Egypt. The map shows a possible route Moses took when he led the Hebrews to freedom. Many Bibles say Moses and the Hebrews crossed the “Red Sea.” But the Hebrew words are yam suph, “sea reeds.” Later in the story, Moses and the Hebrew refugees will escape through a path God makes in this body of water. Scholars usually track Moses and the Hebrews escaping Egypt by walking southeast, out of the Nile Delta fields. That's toward the Red Sea and the Sinai Peninsula. They would have passed through lake regions along what is now the Suez Canal. This connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. These lakes and ponds reportedly had reeds growing along the banks, like the ones the Bible says grew along the Nile River and helped anchor Baby Moses in a basket (Exodus 2:3). Compare with other Bible versions at Bible Gateway.Mount Sinai
Horeb is a Hebrew word that can mean “dry,” “desolate,” or “desert.” But here, it reads more like a name. Most Bible scholars say it’s an alternate name for Mount Sinai—much like “Zion” is another name for “Jerusalem.” Some say the mountain is in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Others say it’s in what is now Saudi Arabia, where the people of Midian lived.Sinai, Land of God
Two Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions from about the 1400s BC, around the time some scholars say Moses lived, said the mountainous territory of the Sinai was the “land of the Shasu of Yahweh.” “Shasu” was what Egyptians called the nomads and herders from what is now the areas of Israel, Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Jordan. Yahweh, translated “LORD” in all capital letters, was God’s name (3:14). The inscription might mean the Sinai was the land of nomads who worshipped God or who were known by the name of God—perhaps as “the people of God.” These inscriptions are the two oldest references outside the Bible to anyone worshiping Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, who were ancestors of today’s Jewish people.Map to Promised Land
Map to Promised Land
Exodus here
Map to Promised Land
After 40 years in the desert wasteland, a new generation of Israelites breaks camp and restarts their invasion of the Promised Land.
Diplomacy thumbs down
They try to sweettalk nations in their way, asking for peaceful access to the road through those nations. Didn't work.
Edom refuses, forcing the Israelites on a long and dangerous bypass around them. Many died of snakebites on that trip (Numbers 21).
Everyone else refused, too, and there weren't anymore bypasses. So the Israelites, now young again, fought their way through the enemies. Then they took the land, the livestock, and the kitchen sink. They took it all.
Israel east of the Jordan
Two tribes and half of another didn't go any further to make their home. The tribes of Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh settled east of the Jordan River, in what is now the Arab country of Jordan.
They had a lot of livestock, and they fell in love with the green pastures. Who wouldn't, after living 40 years in the desert?
They helped the other tribes conquer some of the land west of the Jordan River, since those tribes had helped East Israel conquer the Moabites, Ammonites, and others in the area.
Centuries later, the Jews got pushed off the eastern land. But the same thing happened to Jews west of the River, too. They disobeyed God and God allowed invaders to conquer them and exile the survivors to what is now Iraq along with parts of Iran.
Read the story in the Bible book of Numbers.
Compare other Bible versions with Bible Gateway.
For overview of the Bible, see Stephen M. Miller's Complete Guide to the Bible.