4:27b). Therefore, we would expect the Mountain of God (= Mt. Sinai/Horeb) to be located somewhere along the Trans-Sinai Highway.Based on the travel t

inary assessment is that the mountain fits the
Biblical requirements very well: 1. It is located at the eastern end of the Trans-Sinai Highway (Exod. 4:20, 27). 2. It is located near Midian. Moses pastured the flock of Jethro at Sinai (Exod. 3:1) and Jethro and Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, both visited Moses while he was at Mt. Sinai with the Israelites (Exod. 18:5; Num. 10:29–30). 3. It is in the right location­approximately two month’s journey from Rameses (Exod. 19:1; Num. 33:3), and 11 day’s journey from Kadesh Barnea (Deut. 1:2). 4. It is in the territory of Edom (Deut. 33:2, Judges 5:4; Hab. 3:3). In addition to meeting these Biblical requirements, Gebel Khashm et-Tarif is a low mountain (2,870 ft.), in accordance with Jewish tradition. Israeli investigator Uzi Avner located 33 rectangular "open air sanctuaries"east and south of the mountain (1984: 120–21). Each one is ca. 25 x 50 ft.in size and comprised of a single row of stones. Religious shrines do not normally appear in such large numbers in a single location. They are typically individual structures with cultic material inside. No cultic material was found in association with the buildings at Gebel Khashm et-Tarif. A far more reasonable hypothesis is that the structures are domestic in nature, perhaps stones placed around the periphery of tents. Gebel Khashm Et-Tarif: Could this be Mount Sinai?During the brief visit of the ABR team in March 2007 we discovered five similar buildings south of the mountain, suggesting there are many more such structures in the vicinity. Are the buildings the remains of an ancient campsite? In order to postulate a connection between the buildings and the Israelites, it is necessary to demonstrate that they date to the time of the Exodus. Dating the buildings at Gebel Khashm et-Tarif will be a major objective of future ABR research.Bibliography Avner, Uzi1984 Ancient Cult Sites in the Negev and Sinai Deserts. Tel Aviv 11: 115–31, Pls. 13–24.Crew, Bruce R.2002 Did Edom's Original Territories Extend West of the 'Wadi Arabah? Bible and Spade 15: 2–10.Wood, Bryant G.2000 Beneath the Surface: An Editorial Comment. Bible and Spade 13: 98–99. Recommended Resources for Further Study NIV ArchaeologicalStudy Bible Bible and SpadeCD ROM Archaeology and the Old Testament Please help ABR continue to post these freearticles by making a donation of any size today. Donate



Nahum, Nineveh and Those Nasty Assyrians
Tags: nahum, nineveh, assyria, iraq, ashurbanipal, nabopolassar, british museum, thebes--> This article was first published in the Fall 2003 issue of Bible and Spade.If I mentioned the city Nineveh, what would come to your mind? Most likely you would say Jonah. We have all heard the story about Jonah being swallowed by the great fish and then going to Nineveh to preach against the city. His message was short and to the point, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jon 3:4, all Scripture quotes are from the NKJV). The city, from the king to the dogcatcher, repented. Have you ever wondered what happened to Nineveh after that? The short prophetic book of Nahum tells us “the rest of the story.”The Date of the Book of NahumScholars have long debated the date of the book of Nahum. A wide range of dates has been suggested, from the eighth century BC (Feinberg 1951:126, 148) to the Maccabean period, early second century BC (Haupt 1907). Yet, the book gives us internal chronological parameters to date the book. Nahum describes the conquest of Thebes (No-Amon) by Ashurbanipal II in 663 BC as a past event, thus the book could not have been written before that date. The entire book is a prediction of the fall of the city of Nineveh in 612 BC. Thus, the book was written somewhere between 663 and 612 BC.A case can be made for the proclamation of the message, and writing of the book, about 650 BC. If this is the correct date, the Spirit of God used this book to put King Manasseh into a position where he could come to faith and bring Judah back to the LORD. Up until this point in the reign of King Manasseh, the kingdom, led by the king, was “more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel” (2 Chr 33:9). The LORD sent seers (prophets) to speak to the nation, but the nation would not listen to the Word of God (33:10, 18). While not named, one of the seers was probably Nahum. His vision concerning the total destruction of Nineveh would be seen by the Assyrian overlords as fomenting rebellion and insurrection, and possibly seen as support for Shamash-shum-ukin, the king of Babylon, in his current civil war with his brother Ashurbanipal II. If a copy of the book of Nahum fell into the hands of the Assyrian intelligence community stationed at the Assyrian administrative centers of Samaria, Dor, Megiddo or Hazor, King Manasseh would have had to give account for this book. The Biblical record states,the LORD brought upon them [Judah] the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon (2 Chr 33:11).Relief of Elamites being tortured during the time of Ashurbanipal. From the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, now in the British Museum. The two Elamites shown on this portion of the relief are being skinned alive.This event would have transpired in 648 BC, the year that Ashurbanipal II temporarily ruled Babylon after he eliminated his brother as a result of the four-year civil war (Rainey 1993:160).Dragging someone off with hooks in their nose would be in keeping with Ashurbanipal’s character. In the excavations of Sam’al (Zincirli, in southern Turkey) a stela was found depicting Esarhaddon holding two leashes attached to the nose-rings of Baal of Tyre and Usanahuru, a crown prince of Egypt (see front cover). Flanking the stela, watching intently, is Esarhaddon’s son Ashurbanipal on the left and his brother Samas-sumu-ukin on the right. Ashurbanipal observed his father’s brutality and followed his example (Parpola and Watanabe 1988:20, 21).During Manasseh’s interrogation by Ashurbanipal II (and it must have been a brutal one—the text used the word “afflicted”).He implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God (2 Chr 33:12&ndashRosetta Stone Japanese