The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 104

4 fit Jf II MM ft 'ii i M. liil! Explorations in Palestine Locate the Ai Deuteronomy and Show the Boundari Land the Children of Israel 45' ii A i 1 I o. Ruins of Smelting Furnaces and Heaps of Slag at Klurbet Nqeib Aseimer. Jloses Smites the Rock in Horeb Instead of Speaking to It, as the Lord Had Instructed Him. From Tainting by Raphael in the Vatican.

4 1936, hy American 'Weekly. Inc. Great Britain Rights Resiirved. EW -episodes in the Old Testament are more dramatic than the wandering of the Children of Israel in the desert and the hardships ft' they endured because of God's promise to Moses that he would eventually lead them to the Promised Land "a land flowing with milk and honey." And now the Bible scholars who have been exploring Scriptural sites have traced definitely the wider expanse of the Promised Land. The Old Testament narrative reveals some of the landmarks and characteristics by which the explorers have been able to confirm their discoveries.

In Exodus, Chapter Verse 17, is this state 4i Jt Ancient Quarry at Es-Siker. Moses Viewing the Promised Land From Mount Nebo, square, with walls six and a half feet thick. Inside it are the ruins of several large buildings and a number of furnaces, with heaps of slag between them. The enclosure has the appearance of a huge prison camp. It is possible that the mines and furnaces were worked with forced labor, particularly during the reign of King Solomon, since it is stated in Scripture that he introduced the levying of labor into Israel.

He.may have drafted Edomites into the service at the mines, "And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto Jericho; and the Lord shewed him all the land. "And the Lord said unto him, This is the land wh inc. I will cive it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see Deuteronomy, 34: 1 and 4. That One Solitary Sin in the Desert Had Debarred Rock When the Lord Had Told Him to Speak to the Rock to 1 ment: "And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hit-tites, and the Amorites, and the Perrizzites, and the Hivites, and Jebu-sites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." The following important paragraph appears in Deuteronomy, Chapter 8, Verse 9: "A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." Moses, himself, fell from grace once during those exacting years and he was tremendously punished by the Lord for his little slip.

When the Children of Israel were complaining that they were famished for water, God said to Moses: "Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water -1 -fy: rA vA Careful research has revealed the fact that in only one district in all Western and Eastern Palestine are there copper and iron mines, and when Dr. Nelson Glueck, of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and the other explorers a me upon the remains of ancient iron and copper at Khirbet en-Nahas, they realized at once the significance of what stood revealed before them. They had actually found the "Promised Land" as plainly indicated in that text in Deuteronomy which refers to the iron and brass copper which would be found there. Dr. Glueck states: "These mining sites, which we revisited or discovered, throw new light on the passage in Deuteronomy, Chapter 8, Verse 9, where the Promised Land is described to the Israelites as 4a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig There Fillar of Rock at the Entrance of a Copper Mine at Umm l-'Amad.

This Was Left by the Ancient Miners to Keep the Roof from Falling In. The Veins of Copper Ore Are Still Visible. especially since the art of smelting copper seems to have been known to the Edomites. From the time of David to that of King Jehoshaphat, and from the time of King Uzziah to that of King Ahaz, the Edomites were subjected to Israelite dominion. Living conditions in the southwestern part of the land, known as the 'Arabah, being very arduous, the miners and foundrymen who mined the copper and smelted the ore may well have been held to their tasks by compulsion, no matter whence they were brought.

It is probable, Dr. Glueck suggests, that the mines were worked for only a short period during each year, the Winter months, when a certain amount of water was available. Khirbet en-Nahas is situated near several springs, but some of the other mining centers have no continuous supply of water at present. In I Kings, Chapter 5, we are told how King Solomon "raised a levy out of all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men" (Verse 13), and what he found practical in the building of the great Temple at Jerusalem he probably continued later for working these rich copper and iron mines east of the River Jordan, from which he drew the great wealth that attracted traders from all over the then civilized World. This, though, was long after the great and tragic struggle of the Israelites toward the Promised Land, forty years -f fighting with the Amalekites, who tried to block their progress, and of quarrels within the camp of Israel itself.

It was no easy task that Moses had undertaken that of leading a great mass of people who had been enslaved for centuries towards the Land of Promise, surrounded by the savage Amalekites, and breaking out into endless rebellions. It is a mistake to think that the Israelites were always on the march, for when they found a fertile oasis with pasture for their cattle, they camped there, sometimes for so long as three years at a time, yet knowing that at any time they might be ordered to march on toward the land in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had lived, and from which the Egyptian residence of more than four hundred years had been only exile. Bible scholars hold that the long journey, lasting four decades, was for the purpose of rearing a new generation of free people, who would have been trained for war so that when they did finally reach Canaan they would be able to cope with the expert warriors of the various local tribes or nations. It is interesting that now, at least twenty-two centuries later, an American Israelite, Dr. Glueck, leads the expedition which discovers the details of the difficulties which were encountered when the ancient Israelites approached the land from the East and met with the tremendous obstacle of the Edomites and their well fortified country, through which Moses wanted to lead his people.

It is in the territory of the Edomites that this latest expedition, following the traces of the Exodus, finds one of the camping places of the Israelites mentioned in Scripture as Punon (Numbers, Chapter 33, Verse 42), and now known as Feinan. "About four kilometers (about 2'i miles) in a straight line south of Khirbet en-Nahas," Dr. Glueck reports, "we came to Feinan. It is a tremendous site which was occupied during many periods. The pottery finds indicate occupation about 2200-1800 B.

about 1200-800 B. C. and almost all subsequent periods up to modern times. There are large slag heaps and an abundance of copper ore at Feinan. It is difficult," Dr.

Glueck remarks, "to say in which period or periods copper mining and smelting were carried on at Feinan. The exact similarity of the Early Iron Age pottery fragments, or sherds, found tnere to the Early Iron Age sherds found at other mining camps in this western part of Palestine makes it certain that mining activities were carried on during the Early Iron Age, as at the near-by sites of Khirbet en-Nahas, Khirbet el-Gheweibeh and Khirbet el-Jariyeh. It is possible that copper was mined and smelted there also during the end of the Early Bronze and the beginning of the Middle Bronze periods, to judge from the sherds belonging to these periods which were discovered. If so, it is the only place thus far discovered in Edom where copper was mined in this age." On March 30 the expedition reached Mene'iyyeh, which Dr. Glueck asserts is the largest and richest mining centre in this entire district.

It is about 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of 'Arabah. There is a great acropolis guarding six separate mining camps found within a radius of several miles around it. It also guarded the southern approach to the other mining camps. The acropolis is built on top of a high, flat-topped, isolated hill, which rises sheer about 130 feet above the Wadi Mene'iyyeh, or brook of that name. It measures 1,109 feet by 426 feet, and the ruins of the outer wall can be traced clearly.

There were severs.) slag heaps Within the area of the acropolis, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink." (Numbers, Whether Moses was confused because the Lord handed him a rod or whether he had some lack of faith, he smote the rock instead of speaking to it. The water came out abundantly but the Lord regarded the act as an evidence of lack of faith and because Moses smote the rock instead of speaking to it, he was condemned to this bitter punishment: "And the Lord spake unto Mcses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." (Numbers, And thus it was that when the time had come for the Children of Israel to enter the Promised Land, the Lord took Moses up to the top of Mount Nebo and let him look over into the "land flowing with milk and honey," reminding him, "This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither." (Deuteronomy, Moses was buried in a lonely grave near Mount Nebo, "in a valley in the land of Moab," the Children of Israel passed on into the land the Lord had promised them, and now near the base of Mount Nebo the iron and copper mines have been found which were mentioned in Deuteronomy. is no other region in all Western and Eastern Palestine where copper mines have been found. It is known that King Solomon controlled the port of Ezion Geber on the Gulf of 'Arabah. It seems certain now, in the light of these discoveries, that the copper obtained in the 'Arabah was used not only in Israel and for the Temple, but served as Solomon's main export article and as his merchants' main stock in trade.

Solomon's ships and caravans transported the copper abroad and brought back in exchange for it the products of Ophir and Tarshish." In his official report on the work done here Dr. Glueck states "On March 25 we arrived at Khirbet en-Nahas, which is about seven kilometers miles) in a straight line east-southeast of Khirbet Hamr Ifdan. It is a very large site, where copper ore was extracted and smelted. The area between the hills is packed with ruined houses and small ruined furnaces, and is black with heaps of slag. Rich copper veins protrude above the surface in the immediate vicinity.

Mining it was a simple operation." Here, large quantities of pottery, more or less broken, were found, all dating approximately between 1100 and 800 B. C. Not a single fragment was found which went back to the Early Middle Bronze period as had been erroneously claimed. The expedition found at the northwest end of the mining camp at Khirbet en-Nahas a large enclosure, nearly two hundred aud fifty feet.