Paran

PA'RAN (place of caverns), a wilderness or desert region west of the Elanitic Gulf, and within the Sinaitic peninsula. It was bounded on the north by the wilderness of Shur and the land of Canaan; on the east by the great valley of the Arabah - which separated it from the mountains of Moab - and the Gulf of Akabah; on the south by a great sand-belt, separating it from the granitic mountains of Sinai; and on the west by the wilderness of Etham, which separated it from the Gulf of Suez and from Egypt. A range of mountains sweeps around this wilderness on all sides except the north. It is a high limestone plateau, crossed by low ranges of hills and intersected by few watercourses, always dry except in the rainy season. In this blanched and dreary waste of chalk, covered with coarse gravel, black flint, and drifting sand, upon which a slight coating of vegetation struggles for existence, the Israelites spent thirty eight years after leaving Sinai. Num 10:12. The modern name, Badiet et Tih , or "desert of the wandering," commemorates this historic fact. Across this desert lay the road from Canaan to Egypt which was travelled by Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. The north-east corner of the wilderness is a hilly plateau, the home and pasture-ground of the patriarchs, the Negeb, or "south country," of Scripture. Scripture History. - Paran is first mentioned in connection with the conquest of the confederate kings, when it appears to have been the home of the Horites. Gen 14:6. Hagar and Ishmael, after being driven away by Abraham, went into the wilderness of Paran, Gen 21:21; the Israelites entered it soon after leaving Sinai, Num 10:12, 1 Sam 15:33; Josh 11:3, Num 11:34-35; Neh 12:16; the spies were sent up to Canaan and returned from this region:and eighteen stations of the Israelites' journev are noted in this wilderness. Num 13:3, Acts 11:26; Num 33:17-36; comp. Deut 1:1. Probably, during their thirty eight years of sojourn in the wilderness, the people were scattered over a wide extent of territory, like the modern Bedouin tribes. David found refuge in this wilderness, 1 Sam 26:1, and Hadad passed through it when escaping to Egypt. 1 Kgs 11:18.