Let us now turn immediately to the principal point, which, for those who keep the general circumstances of the passage of the Israelites before them, must be the most conclusive. It is not to be denied that when Moses determined to lead this great multitude into the peninsula, the first problem he had to solve by his wisdom and knowledge of the land, was the means of supporting them. For at whatever number we may reckon the wanderers, who, according to Robinson, amounted to two millions, (which, according to Lane, is the present population of all Egypt,) they were most undoubtedly an immense multitude, who suddenly and without any provision of food, were to be sustained in the desert. How is it then possible to suppose, that Moses would not have immediately fixed upon the most fertile, best watered, and shortest road, instead of a distant mountain-corner, which would have been impossible even for (I mention a large number purposely) 2,000 wanderers, with what belonged to them, to provide with food and water. Moses would have done wrong to have depended on miracles from God, as these happen only when human wisdom and human thought are at an end. On reflection upon this undeniable proof against the hitherto supposed situation of Sinai, it appears to me that the idea will be changed, and that every close historical examination of these wonderful events must destroy it, even if grounds should also be brought forward against our acceptation of it. We will now continue the narrative. From Elim Moses reached Raphidîm in three days’ journey. The new school are generally agreed that the caravan from Abu Zelîmeh did not again return to the eastern sand-plain E’Raml, through the same Wadi Shebêkeh, or Saibeh, by which they descended, but took the usual caravan road which leads to Wadi Firân. How then would Moses have chosen the dry and much longer upper way, or even the great and still more dry round-about way along the sea-coast, by Tôr and Wadi Hebrân, instead of immediately turning into the valleys of the primitive rocks, both less dry, and rich with manna. He must also come to Wadi Firân--no third way was possible. This is the cogent reason why (with the exception of Robinson)[127] almost all without a dissentient voice, have placed Raphidîm after Firân. It seems impossible that this oasis, if it had been traversed, should not once have been named. Already Josephus,[128] Eusebius, Jerome,[129] and, as it appears, every other author and traveller[130] place Raphidîm after the city Pharan. No spot in the whole country could have been of so much value, as these fruitful gardens of Pharan, to the native races, threatened by Moses. It is then very easy to be conceived that Moses, just here in Raphidîm, should have been attacked by the Amalekites, who would lose their most valuable possessions. He drove them back, and then only could Moses say that he had possession of the peninsula. His first goal was attained. What could tempt him to go further?