Taberah

Taberah (Hebrew: תבערה) is one of the locations at which, according to the Book of Numbers, the Israelites passed through during their Exodus journey [] ; the text states that the fire first combusted the people at the outer edges of the Israelite group [] , and there is no hint that the Israelites had to travel from Taberah to Kibroth-hattaavah, implying that they were the same location ["Jewish Encyclopedia"] ; nevertheless, Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah are listed as different places by a passage in Deuteronomy [] , and therefore its modern identification relies heavily on the identification of Mount Sinai. The traditional identification of Mount Sinai as one of the mountains at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula would imply that Taberah and "Kibroth-hattaavah" was/were probably in the Wadi Murrah, about 30 miles north-east of the southern tip, and exactly a day's journey from 'Ain Hudherah; in this area, at the Erweis el-Ebeirig, an ancient encampment has been found [E.H. Palmer, "The Desert of the Exodus: Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the Forty Years' Wanderings" (1872)] , but it dates to the Early Bronze Age (the early 3rd century BC) [Itzhaq Beit-Arieh, "Archaeology of Sinai, The Ophir Expedition", Tel Aviv University (2003)] . The traditional location of Mount Sinai has been rejected by the majority of scholars, as well as theologians, who favour a location at Mount Seir ["Jewish Encyclopedia"] [Ditlef Nielsen, "The Site of the Biblical Mount Sinai – A Claim for Petra" (1927)] or in north western Saudi Arabia [Charles Beke, "Mount Sinai, a Volcano" (1873)] [Jean Koenig, "Le site de Al-Jaw dans l'ancien pays de Madian"] , and others views propose locations in the Negev [Emmanuel Anati, "The riddle of Mount Sinai : archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom" (2001)] , or the central or northern Sinai desert [Menashe Har-El, "The Sinai Journeys: The Route of the Exodus"] .

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