El-paran
El-paran is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Negev in modern-day Israel. Known today as Aqaba. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
El-paran appears in a single, enigmatic verse in Genesis 14:6, in the account of the campaign of the four kings against the five. This coalition swept through Transjordan, defeating the Horites "in their mountain of Seir, as far as El-paran, which is by the wilderness." El-paran, meaning approximately "the great tree" or "terebinth of Paran", apparently marked the southernmost extent of this ancient military expedition, placing it near the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern tip of the Red Sea. This passage, one of Scripture's most geographically precise ancient narratives, sets the stage for the battle in the Valley of Siddim and the capture of Lot, which then prompted Abraham's bold rescue mission (Genesis 14:14–16). Though El-paran appears only here, its inclusion in this detailed itinerary lends the account historical credibility and anchors it in real geography. The association with Aqaba connects this site to the Wilderness of Paran, where Israel would later wander during the Exodus, and to the Arabah through which later trade routes ran, making the region strategically and economically significant across multiple biblical eras.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
El-paran is commonly identified with the region of modern Aqaba at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, where Jordan and Israel meet today. Ancient Aqaba (classical Aila) has been excavated and found to contain occupation from the Chalcolithic period through the Islamic era, confirming long-term habitation at this strategic maritime and caravan crossroads. Nabataean, Roman, and Byzantine remains are particularly well documented. The broader Arabah valley north of Aqaba has been surveyed, revealing copper-mining installations at Timna and Faynan that were active from the Chalcolithic through the Iron Age. The identification of El-paran specifically with a tree or settlement near Aqaba remains tentative, resting on geographical inference rather than inscriptional evidence.
Verse Appearances (1)
Gen
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]