Paran

Paran is the wilderness south of Canaan and the mountain associated with it, the country through which Israel passes on the way from Sinai to the land of promise. The name marks both a stretch of desert that the wandering generation crosses and a height from which Yahweh is said to shine forth. It also reappears in later narratives as a refuge — for the cast-out son of Abraham, for David in flight, and for Hadad of Edom on his way to Egypt.

The Wilderness Where Ishmael Settles

The first appearance of Paran in the narrative is the place where Hagar and Ishmael make their home after they are sent from Abraham's household: "And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. And his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt" (Gen 21:21). The wilderness is positioned in relation to Egypt — Ishmael's mother goes there to find him a wife — fixing Paran in the southern desert reaches between Canaan and Egypt.

On the March from Sinai

Paran is the next staging-ground for Israel after Sinai. When the cloud lifts the people forward, the wilderness of Paran is the country it leads them into: "And the sons of Israel set forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud stayed in the wilderness of Paran" (Num 10:12). After the episode at Hazeroth they encamp there again — "And afterward the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran" (Num 12:16).

It is from this wilderness that the spies are dispatched into Canaan: "And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the mouth of Yahweh: all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel" (Num 13:3). And it is to this wilderness — to Kadesh within it — that they return with their report: "And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land" (Num 13:26). Paran thus frames the spy episode at both ends; Kadesh stands inside it.

Moses' opening word in Deuteronomy locates the same generation in the same country: "These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah across from Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab" (Deut 1:1).

Mount Paran in the Theophanies

Paran also appears as a mountain — paired with Sinai, Seir, and Teman — in poetic descriptions of Yahweh's coming. Moses' blessing opens: "And he said, [The Speech of] Yahweh came from Sinai, And rose from Seir to them; He shined forth from mount Paran, And with him [were some] from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them" (Deut 33:2). Habakkuk takes up the same geography: "God came from Teman, And the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His grandeur covered the heavens, And the earth was full of his praise" (Hab 3:3). In both passages Paran is one of the southern heights from which the divine advent is said to break.

Paran as Refuge

After Sinai and the conquest narratives, Paran resurfaces as a place of withdrawal. When Samuel dies, David moves out into it: "And Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran" (1 Sam 25:1).

Paran serves the same function in the flight of Hadad of Edom on his way to Egypt: "that Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father's slaves with him, to go into Egypt, Hadad being yet a small lad. And they arose out of Midian, and came to Paran; and they took men with them out of Paran, and they came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, and appointed him victuals, and gave him land" (1 Kgs 11:17-18). Paran lies on the road from Midian to Egypt, a country with people in it from whom a refugee party can pick up companions, and a corridor through which exiles pass on their way out and on their way back.