climate, and a soil capable of supporting animal and vegetable nature,
was the part of the peninsula best adapted to [p.xiv]the residence of
near a year, during which the Israelites were numbered and received
their laws.

About the beginning of May, in the fourteenth month from the time of
their departure from Egypt, the children of Israel quitted the vicinity
of Mount Horeb, and under the guidance of Hohab, the Midianite, brother-
in-law of Moses, marched to Kadesh, a place on the frontiers of Canaan,
of Edom, and of the desert of Paran or Zin.[Numbers, c.x. et seq. and
c.33. Deuter. c.i.] Not long after their arrival, "at the time of the
'first ripe grapes,'" or about the beginning of August, spies were sent
into every part of the cultivated country, as far north as
Hamah.[Numbers, c.xiii. Deuter. c.i.] The report which they brought back
was no less favourable to the fertility of the land, than it was
discouraging by its description of the warlike spirit and preparation of
the inhabitants, and of the strength of the fortified places; and the
Israelites having in consequence refused to follow their leaders into
Canaan, were punished by that long wandering in the deserts lying
between Egypt, Judaea, and Mount Sinai, of which the sacred historian
has not left us any details, but the tradition of which is still
preserved in the name of El Tyh, annexed to the whole country; both to
the desert plains, and to the mountains lying between them and Mount
Sinai.

In the course of their residence in the neighbourhood of Kadesh, the
Israelites obtained some advantages over the neighbouring
Canaanites,[Numbers, c.xxi.] but giving up at length all hope of
penetrating by the frontier, which lies between Gaza and the Dead Sea,
they turned to the eastward, with a view of making a circuit through the