Elim

E´lim, one of the stations of the Israelites in the route to Mount Sinai [SINAI].

A station of the Israelites, on their way to mount Sinai, Exo 15:27 ; 16:1; Num 33:9, generally taken to be the present Wady Ghurundel, a broad valley running southwest of Suez. Here are fountains and a brook, many bushes and shrubs, and a few tamarisks and palms.\par

E’lim. (strong trees). Exo 15:27; Num 33:9. The second station, where the Israelites encamped, after crossing the Red Sea. It is distinguished as having had "twelve wells (rather ’fountains’) of water, and three-score and ten palm trees." It is generally identified, by the best authorities, with Wady Garundel, about halfway down the shore of the Gulf of Suez. A few palm trees still remain, and the water is excellent.

("strong trees".) Probably the lovely valley of Gharandel. In the rainy season a torrent flows through to the Red Sea. The water is in most seasons good, and even the best on the journey from Cairo to Sinai. Israel found at Elim 12 wells (i.e. "natural springs") and 70 palmtrees, and encamped by the waters; their stage next after Marah, now Huwara. A few palms still remain, dwarfs and trunkless, gnarled tamarisks and acacias, the sole relics of the grove that once flourished on this oasis of the W. side of the peninsula. Israel stayed here a long time; for they did not reach the wilderness until two and a half months after leaving Suez, finding water and pasture abundant in the intermediate district. Laborde makes wady Useit to be Elim, the second wady which Israel going from N.W. to S.E. along the coast would reach after Gharandel. Lepsius makes the fourth wady, reached by Israel, namely, wady Shubeikeh, in its lower part Taiyibeh, to be Elim (Exo 15:27; Num 33:9.)

(Hebrews Eylim’, אֵילִים, trees [so called from their strength; SEE OAK ]; perh. here palm-trees; Sept. Αἰλείμ), a place mentioned in Exo 15:27; Num 33:9, as the second station where the Israelites encamped after crossing the Red Sea. (See Huldrich or Ulrich, De fontibus in Elim repertis, Brem. 1728). SEE BEER-ELIM. It is distinguished as having had "twelve wells (rather "fountains," ינוֹת) of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees." Laborde (Geographical Commentary on Exo 15:27) supposed wady Useit to be Elim, the second of four wadys lying between 29° 7’ and 29° 20’, which descend from the range of et- Tih (here nearly parallel with the shore) towards the sea. The route of the Israelites, however, cannot well be mistaken at this part. It evidently lay along the desert plain on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. Elim must consequently have been in this plain, and not more than about fifty miles from the place of passage. With these data, and in a country where fountains are of such rare occurrence, it is not difficult to identify Elim. Near the south-eastern end of this plain, and not far from the base of Jebel Hummam, the outpost of the great Sinai mountain-group, a charming vale, called wady Ghurundel, intersects the line of route. It is the first of the four wadys noticed above, and is, in fact, the most noted valley of that region, and the only one in the vicinity containing water (Robinson, Researches, 1:100, 105). In the dry season it contains no stream, but in the rainy season it becomes the channel of a broad and powerful mountain current, being bounded by high ridges, and extending far into the interior. It has no soil, but drifting sand, which has left but one of the "wells" remaining, the others anciently existing being doubtless filled up. This principal fountain springs out at the foot of a sandstone rock, forming a pool of sparkling water, and sending out a tiny but perennial stream. This, in fact, is one of the chief watering places in the peninsula of Sinai (Bartlett, Forty Days in the Desert, page 33 sq.). There are no palm-trees at present here, but the place is fringed with trees and shrubbery, stunted palms, with their hairy trunks and dishevelled branches; tamarisks, their feathery leaves dripping with what the Arabs call manna; and the acacia, with its gray foliage and white blossoms (Stanley, Palestine, page 68). These supply the only verdure, which, however, in contrast with the naked desert, is quite refreshing (Olin’s Travels, 1:362). Well might such a wady, in the midst of a bare and treeless waste, be called emphatically Elim, "the trees." Lepsius takes another view, that Ghurundel is Mara, by others identified with Howara (2 hours N.W. from Ghurundel, and reached by the Israelites, therefore, before it), and that Elim is to be found in the last of the four above named, wady Shubeikeh (Travels, Berlin, 1845, page 27 sq.). SEE EXODE.

[E’lim]

The second encampment of the Israelites after passing the Red Sea: it had twelve fountains of water and seventy palm trees. Exo 15:27; Exo 16:1; Num 33:9-10. Identified by some with Wady Ghurundel, 29° 20’ N, 33° E.

ELIM.—One of the stations in the wanderings of the children of Israel (Exo 15:27, Num 33:9); apparently the fourth station after the passage of the Red Sea, and the first place where the Israelites met with fresh water. It was also marked by an abundant growth of palm trees (cf. Exo 15:27, twelve wells and seventy palms). If the traditional site of Mt. Sinai be correct, the likeliest place for Elim is the Wady Gharandel, 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 supply of brackish water.

ē´lim (אילם, ’ēlı̄m, “terebinths”; Αἰλείμ, Aileı́m): The second encampment of the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea. It was a contrast to the previous camp called “Marah” because of the bitterness of the waters, for there “were twelve springs of water, and threescore and ten palm trees” (Exo 15:27; Exo 16:1; Num 33:9 f). The traditional site is an oasis in Wādy Ghurundel, circa 63 miles from Suez. See EXODUS; WANDERINGS OF ISRAEL.