Shur

A wilderness so called. Here it was that, Hagar found a sweet Bethel: see Gen. 16. throughout, well worth regarding. And how many of God’s dear children have found the same wilderness dispensations laying a foundation for rich enjoyments! I verily believe that the family of Jesus would have lost some of their most precious seasons, had they lost some of their wilderness exercises. It was not without an eye to this that the Lord said, Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her." (Hos. 2: 14.) Indeed, the very word Shur, a wall, carries with it this idea. Reader, do not forget it if at any time Jesus brings you into Shur. He who brings you there will not leave you there, but will manifest himself to you there. Oh, how precious the faith that enables a soul to say, under all wilderness straits and difficulties, Thou God seest me! Oh, for all the family of Jesus to call such wildernesses Beer - lahai - roi - - namely, the well of him that liveth and seeth me!"

Shur, a city on the confines of Egypt and Palestine (Gen 16:7; Gen 20:1; Gen 25:18; 1Sa 15:7; 1Sa 27:8). Josephus makes it the same as Pelusium (Antiq. vi. 7. 3; comp. 1Sa 15:7) but this city bore among the Hebrews the name of Sin. More probably Shur was somewhere in the vicinity of the modern Suez. The desert extending from the borders of Palestine to Shur, is called in Exo 15:22, the ’desert of Shur,’ but in Num 33:8, the ’desert of Etham.’

A city on the northeast border of Egypt, not far from the modern Suez, Gen 16:7 ; 20:1; 25:18; 1Sa 15:7 ; 27:8. It gave its name to the desert between it and Canaan, towards the Mediterranean, Exo 15:22 .\par

Shur. (a wall). A place, just without the eastern border of Egypt. Shur is first mentioned in the narrative of Haggar’s flight from Sarah. Gen 16:7. Abraham, afterward, "dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar." Gen 20:1. It is also called Ethami. The wilderness of Shur was entered by the Israelites, after they had crossed the Red Sea. Exo 15:22-23. It was also called the wilderness of Etham. Num 33:8. Shur may have been a territory town, east of the ancient head of the Red Sea; and from its being spoken of as a limit, it was, probably, the last Arabian town, before entering Egypt. See Etham.

Outside the eastern border of Egypt. ("a wall".) The strip of desert which skirts the wall-like range of jebel er Rahah (E. of Suez, the continuation of the range jebel et Tih northward toward the Mediterranean, still called by the Arabs jebel es Sur) as far S. as wady Gharandel. Hagar fleeing from Abraham, then in southern Palestine, reached a fountain "in the way to Shur" (Gen 16:7). She was probably making for her country Egypt by the inland caravan route, the way by Star over jebel er Rahah as distinguished from the coast road by el Arish. Abraham settled for a time between the two deserts of Kadesh and Shur, and finally sojourned at Gerar (Gen 20:1).

In Gen 25:18 Shur is defined to be "before (i.e. E. of) Egypt." So 1Sa 15:7; 1Sa 27:8; Josephus (Ant. 6:7) makes it Pelusium, near the Nile’s mouth; others the N.E. part of the wilderness of Paran, now al Jifar. Gesenius makes Shur the modern Suez. Israel entered "the wilderness of Shur" when they had crossed the Red Sea (Exo 15:22-23). The wilderness of Shur is the whole district between the N.E. frontier of Egypt and Palestine, Shur being derived from the Egyptian Khar (occurring in a papyrus of the 19th dynasty), Kh and Sh being interchanged. In Num 33:8 the special designation occurs, "the wilderness of Etham" (at the northern extremity of the Bitter Lakes).

Wilderness towards the north east of Egypt; its situation is clearly shown in the various passages. Gen 16:7; Gen 20:1; Gen 25:18; Exo 15:22; 1Sa 15:7; 1Sa 27:8.

SHUR.—A place or district on the N.E. border of Egypt (Gen 16:7; Gen 20:1; Gen 25:18, Exo 15:22, 1Sa 15:7; 1Sa 27:8). The name in Aramaic means ‘wall,’ and, as Egyp. th is regularly rendered by sh in Aramaic, Shur is probably the Egyp. city Thor (the vocalization is uncertain), a fortress near the N.E. frontier, and capital of the 14th nome of Lower Egypt. This Thor lay on a stream or canal named Shi-Hôr (See Shihor), and malefactors were sent thither after having their noses cut off. It is tempting to identify it with Rhinocorura (See Egypt [River of]), but it was on the banks of a fresh-water canal and 10 days’ march from Gaza. Perhaps it is the later Sele, near el-Kantara, on the Suez Canal.

F. Ll. Griffith.

Beheld: rampart (as point of observation)

shûr, shōōr (שׁוּר, shūr; Σούρ, Soūr): The name of a desert East of the Gulf of Suez. The word means a “wall,” and may probably refer to the mountain wall of the Tı̂h plateau as visible from the shore plains. In Gen 16:7 Hagar at Kadesh (‛Ain Ḳadı̂s) (see Gen 16:14) is said to have been “in the way to Shur.” Abraham also lived “between Kadesh and Shur” (Gen 20:1). The position of Shur is defined (Gen 25:18) as being “opposite Egypt on the way to Assyria.” After crossing the Red Sea (Exo 15:4) the Hebrews entered the desert of Shur (Exo 15:22), which extended southward a distance of three days’ journey. It is again noticed (1Sa 15:7) as being opposite Egypt, and (1Sa 27:8) as near Egypt. There is thus no doubt of its situation, on the East of the Red Sea, and of the Bitter Lakes.

Brugsch, however, proposed to regard Shur (“the wall”) as equivalent to the Egyptian anbu (“wall”), the name of a fortification of some kind apparently near Kantarah (see MIGDOL (2)), probably barring the entrance to Egypt on the road from Pelusium to Zoan. The extent of this “wall” is unknown, but Brugsch connects it with the wall mentioned by Diodorus Siculus (i. 4) who wrote about 8 BC, and who attributed it to Sesostris (probably Rameses II) who defended “the east side of Egypt against the irruptions of the Syrians and Arabians, by a wall drawn from Pelusium through the deserts as far as to Heliopolis, for a space of 1,500 furlongs.” Heliopolis lies 90 miles (not 188) Southwest of Pelusium: this wall, if it existed at all, would have run on the edge of the desert which extends North of Wâdy Tumeilât from Ḳanṭarah to Tell el-Kebı̂r; but this line, on the borders of Goshen, is evidently much too far West to have any connection with the desert of Shur East of the Gulf of Suez. See Budge, Hist. Egypt, 90; Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, abridged edition, 320.

Shur was a desert region in the north of the Sinai Peninsular. It was bounded by Egypt on the west (the border being along the line of the present-day Suez Canal), and the Negeb on the east (the border being along the Brook of Egypt) (Gen 20:1; Exo 15:22; 1Sa 15:7; 1Sa 27:8). The main inland route from Egypt to Jerusalem passed through the Wilderness of Shur and the Judean towns of Beersheba and Hebron (Gen 13:1; Gen 13:18; Gen 16:7; Gen 21:14; Gen 46:5). (For further details see PALESTINE, sub-heading ‘Negeb’.)