This page was last updated on 13 June, 2017.
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Around the spot marked ‘Etham’ and especially the most northern quarter of the route going south; lots of bronze age artifacts were found. That’s an strong indication it was a good place to live which obviously means it had good access.
Exod 13:17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:
Exod 13:18 But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.
The road of the Philistines is an west to east road leading of the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba.
That rules out the often suggested mt. Sinai in the south of Sinai Peninsula. In that case Moses would have taken an other route, a north-
It can be (falsely) argued the road to the south was avoiding the road to the east. That’s true, but it doesn’t change the fact the ‘target location’ is in the east
Exod 14:2 Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall you encamp by the sea.
No matter if they arrived over the trading route, by the wadis, or otherwise, at Etham they had two choices. Following the road or wadi south to Nuweiba Beach. So several combinations of routes are possible.
So the Hebrews went out of Egypt, while the Egyptians wept, and repented that they had treated them so hardly. -
Jewish Antiquities book 2, chapter 15, section 1
It took them just 3 days to arrive at the Red Sea. That’s 67 miles/day as the crow flies. I would say that’s impossible…