Elim (Hastings' Dictionary)

One of the stations in the wander- ings of the children of Israel (Ex 15-'', Nu 33') ; apparently the fourth station after the pa-ssage of the Ked Sea, and the first place where the Israelites met with fresh water. It was also marked by an abundant growth of pahn trees (cf. Ex 15", twelve wells and seventy palms). If the traditional site of Mt.

Sinai be correct, the likeliest place for Elim is the Wady Ghuruiidel, where there is a good deal of vegetation, especially stunted palms, and a number of water-holes in the sand ; but some travellers have pushed the site of Elim farther on, and placed it almost a day's journey nearer to Sinai, in the Wady Tayibeh, where there are again palm trees and a scanty sui)ply of brackish water.

The Greek monks who have located Elim at T6r were probably guide<l thereto by the luxuriant palms and a special taste for the extravagant in miracle. The biblical account takes the Israelites from Elim to a camp by the sea ; and this accords very well with the experience of travellers who go to Mt. Sinai by the SMUthern route, camping one night in the N\ acly (ihurundel, and the next night by the shore of the Ked Sea.

It should be remembered, however, that grave doubts have been cast upon the poptilar identifica- tion of Mt. Sinai (see SlNAl); and as these doubts turn, in part, upon the identification of Elim and of the encampment by the sea, we must be careful not to fall into a toi)ogra|)hical reasoning in a circle, so as to identify Sinai by means of Elim, and then Elim by means of Sinai. It has been suggested that the Elim of Ex 16.

Nu 33, is only a variant form of the jilural name Eloth which we find in 1 K G-*, 2 Ch S", a place which was certainly situated near the head of the gulf of Akabah, and whose name still survives in the Arabic Aileh (cf. the suggestive doublet of Hazeroth, Nu 1I», and Hazerim, Dt 22^). If this be so, then the camp by the sea is to be sought for in the neighbourhood of Akabah, the position of Mt.

Sinai is unknown, and the earlier stages of the journey of the children of Israel are to be sought in the line of the present Haj routo from Egypt to Mecca. See Beke, Origines Biblicre, 1839 ; Baker Greene, The Hebrew Migration from Egypt, 1879; Sayce, HCM, 1894; and the art. ExoDCTS (Route). J. Rendel Harris.