I wish to commend to the reader's attention to look at the entire incident of this strange campaign as a reflection of the commander's character and secondly to follow my assumption, that this campaign didn't take forty years, but barely two. Let us first recall the Israelites in Egypt, of whose plight all posterity is called upon to empathize. Out of these people, from the fierce tribe of Levy, a fierce man comes to the fore, who is driven by a vivid feeling for right and wrong. He is worthy of his ferocious ancestors of who the patriarch had decreed: "Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel."

Moses enters the stage. In cold blood, he murders an Egyptian, because he had smitten an Israelite. Yet this patriotic murder was discovered, and Moses had to flee the country. For someone capable of such action, there is no need to inquire in his breeding, since he has presented himself in the state of raw nature. He is said to have been favoured by a princess and to have received an education at court. Nothing of this had any effect on him; he has become a remarkable and strong man, but would remain a savage no matter what the circumstances. And as such we meet him again in exile: curt and introvert, and barely able to communicate. His strong arm earns him the affection of a princely Midianite priest, who welcomes him into his family. Now he learns all about life in the desert, the place of action for his future as commander and chief.

At this point let us look at the Midianites, the hosts of Moses. We must acknowledge them as a great people, who, like all roaming nomads, by the many movements of their different tribes and through active expansion, appear to be even more numerous than they actually are. On the map we find the Midianites at  Mount Horeb, at the western board of the smaler inlet of the Red Sea, and stretch their territory towards Moab and the Arnon. Quite early we hear of them as traders, who move their caravans through Canaan towards Egypt.



This is the culture where Moses is given shelter, albeit still in isolation, as an introvert shepherd. It is the sadest condition in which an excellent man can find himself, who is born to anything but thinking and speculating and who spoils for action; we see Moses roam alone in the dessert, always mindful of his people's  fortunes, always waiting for a sign from the god of his ancestors, anxious, pining away in his banishment from a country, which although it is not the country of his forebears, still is home to his people. He feels his insignificance in the greater scheme of things, realizes that he can’t make a difference with his strong arm alone and remains incapable to design a plan. And, even if he were able, he is too awkward for a coherent verbal delivery or for executing his designs in ways that show his personality in a favorable light. It wouldn't have been a surprise, if under such conditions his strong nature would have destroyed itself.

Perhaps he drew some comfort from the intelligence he received from passing caravans, who kept Moses in touch with his own people. After some tossing and turning he decides to return to become his people’s savior. Aaron, his brother, is coming out to receive him, and now he learns, that the unrest among his people has reached a climax. It is only now, that  the brothers dare to present themselves to the king as their nations's envoys. Yet Pharaoh is less than impressed and will not simply let go such a huge mass of people and have them regain their old independence; people who had settled in his country for centuries and had risen  from the state of nomads to the station of farmers and artisans; people who had intermarried with the native population, and whose forced levy proved its worth in the erection of enormous monuments, and the construction of new cities and fortresses.

The petition is declined and in the face of plague and disaster the ever more urgent demand is declined with ever more stubborness. But, with a prospect to inherit a promised land according to an age-old tradition, and with hopes of independence and self-government, the mutinous Hebrews feel no longer any obligation. Under the pretext of preparing a big festival they cajole their neighbours to provide gold and silver ware, and the very moment when the  Egyptians believed the Israelites to be occupied in harmless convivialities, they fall victim to a kind of retrovert Sicilian Vesper: the foreigner murders the native, the guest his host, and in consequence of a brutal policy in a country where the law of the land favours especially the firstborn, their special task force singles out the firstborn in order to keep the surviving heirs busy with litigations, and so in a hasty escape evade an immediate vengeance. The ploy succeeds, the assassin is getting expelled instead of being punished. Only later, the king assembles his forces, but the horsemen and chariots, which used to be the terror of the footsoldiers, are given battle on swampy ground, and lose the uneven contest against the swift and lightly armed Israelite rear-guard; probably the same determined and courageous task force which had exercised its skills in the general massacre: we shall continue to follow their tracks and shall not fail to recognize the brutal signature of their deeds.

Such gathering of people and warriors, ready for attack as well as for defence, was in a position to choose more than one way towards the promised land; the one following the seaboard through Gaza was not a trade route and might have been dangerous because of the well equipped and warlike nations there; the second route, albeit a longer stretch, seemed to offer more security and other advantages. It followed the Red Sea towards the Sinai; from there one could again take two different directions. The first would negotiate through the territories of the Midianites and the Moabites along the smaller inlet towards Jordan; the alternative route would traverse the desert and aim towards Kades; the first option leaving the land of Edom to the left, the second to the right. In all likelihood Moses intended originally to cross the territories of his allies, but something or somebody made him change his mind, perhaps his shrewd father in law. which seems very possible.



The bright sky at night, burning with an infinite number of stars, which had been pointed out to Abraham by his God, does no longer spread its golden tent above the emigrant’s heads; instead they take cheer from the light in the skies at day, when an uncountable mass of their people is beating a path through the badlands. All encouraging phenomena have disappeared, only blazing fire catches the sight in every place and corner. The Lord, who out of the burning bush had called for Moses, now moves before the travelling columns, shrouded in a dim and smoky  glow, which in the day has the appearance of a pillar of clouds, and in the night of a fiery meteor. From the cloud-capped summit of Sinai, thunder and flashes inspire terror, and for seemingly small offenses the earth is spewing flames which consume the camp's boundaries. Food and water are continually on a premium  and the people's impatient wish to return to Egypt gains ever more urgency the less their leader is able to resolve the situation.

Indeed rather early, long before the migrating host has reached Sinai, and bringing with him his daughter and grand-son, who during the difficult time live in his tent, Jethro comes out to receive his son in law and proves himself as a wise man. A people like the Midianites, who freely follow their destinies and find every opportunity to test their powers, must be a better educated people than folks who used to live under a foreign yoke and in constant quarrel among themselves. How much more advanced must be the Midianite, if compared to the leader of the Israelites, who is a depressed and introvert individual, honest and feeling a calling for leadership, but has been denied by his nature the necessary talents for such dangerous  vocation.

To Moses it was a foreign notion, that a ruler doesn't need to be present in every place at once, and do everything in person; instead he made it for himself and his administration miserable and difficult. Jethro advises him and helps to appoint deputies, which should have occurred to Moses earlier. However, Jethro, as much as he had the best interest of his son in law on his mind, he may also have considered his own and the Midianite's welfare. He found himself facing a man, whom he once had given shelter as a fugitive, then had him employed with his domestics and servants, and now saw him at the head of a huge crowd of migrants, who had left their ancient dwellings in search for new land, and who could become the source of fear and terror on every turn.

So it couldn't remain hidden from this intelligent man, that if the shortest way to the Israelites' destination was leading through the territories of the Mideanites, this wandering host would bump everywhere into the livestock of his people, run into their settlements, and become a danger even for their well established townships. The principles of such move are no secret, they are expressed in the laws of conquest. There is no such move without friction with the locals, they may resent and resist, and in turn every act of resistance is perceived as an injustice: somebody is seen to defend his own, he must be an enemy, and therefore is fair game for annihilation without mercy.

It doesn't require an extraordinary gift of divination to understand the consequences for anybody felling victim to such a cloud of migrating locusts. Which first of all makes it plausible, why Jethro discourages his son in law to take the direct way and instead has talked him into crossing the desert; which is even more probable considering the fact that Hoab doesn't leave his brother in law out of his sight, until he actually sees him following the given advise and even then accompanies him even further to be absolutely sure that the entire host is safely directed away from the dwellings of the Midianites.



Beginning with the departure in Egypt, this migration we just mentioned, happened in the 14th month. On their way, the people named the wilderness of “Sin” a place where they had suffered a great plague because of their sin, then migrated towards Hazeroth and pitched camp in the wilderness of Paran. This route remains unquestioned. They now came near to the end of their journey, only the mountain  ridge which separates Canaan from the desert was still in their  way. They decided to send out a reconnaissance party, and meanwhile move on to Kadesh. That's where the scouting party returns with news of the promised land's opulence but unfortunately also with news of the inhabitant's valor. New disputes and divisions break out and the conflicts between confidence in their mission and the anxieties of doubting again come to a head.

Unfortunately Moses has even less talent as a strategist than as an administrator. Already during the conflict with Amalek he had retreated to a mountain to pray while Joshua ahead of his host eventually wrenched from the enemy's grip the for a long time doubtful victory. Now, in Kadesh, the prospect was again dubious. Joshua and Caleb, the most courageous among the twelve scouts, advise to attack, rouse the people, feel confident to win the land. Meanwhile tall tales of armed giants circulate in the camp and inspire fear and terror; the intimidated warriors refuse to move on. Moses is clueless, first he demands action, then he too feels that an attack from  this point might be dangerous.

He submits to move eastward. At this point then, the better part of the host might have found it unseemly to give up on a plan which had been pursued with so much toil. They crowd together and in all seriousness move up the mountain ranges. Moses however remains in behind, the shrine is not going to move; therefore neither Joshua nor Caleb can afford to take the lead of the more courageous faction. The unsupported and insubordinate avant-garde is beaten and the people become impatient. The often seen discontent and several mutinies, mutinies which even involve Aaron and Miriam, flare up again and testify how little ability Moses has to fill his position. It was a foregone conclusion, but especially Caleb's testimony dispels any doubt, that now not only was the time but the necessity to advance into  Canaan and take possession of Hebron and the plain of Mamre and to conquer the holy grave of Abraham in order to create a bridgehead from which to launch the whole enterprise. What a letdown must it have been for the unfortunate people, when suddenly the plan was to be so dismally abandoned, which so far had followed Jethro's not altogether selfless, yet not entirely traitorous suggestion!

The second year, after the departure from Egypt, was not yet over, and although somewhat belated, they could still have got themselves in possession of the best part of the coveted country; but now the inhabitants take notice and shoot the bolt, so whereto can the Hebrews turn? They had migrated all the way into the north, and now all of a sudden they were to turn east, to pursue the route, which they should have taken in the first place. However it was here in the East where the land of Edom was situated, surrounded by mountains; they ask for permission to pass through, but the streetwise Edomites bluntly refuse. To force passage with an old ally seems not advisable, so they resign themselves to a detour and leave the Edomite mountains on their left, after which the travel proceeds without any upsets, with only a few stops - Oboth  and Jiim - to reach the creek Sared, the first that pours its waters into the Dead Sea, and the final point of arrival at the Arnon. In the meantime Miriam has passed away, incidentally only a short time after she had revolted against Moses.



From the creek Arnon everything progressed with even better luck. For the second time the people find themselves near the desired goal and with only a few obstacles in their way; here they could proceed in large numbers and overwhelm, destroy and drive away the nations who refused to let them pass. Progressing ever further, the Midianites, Moabites, Amorits come under attack in their own heartlands, the Midianites are even brought to extinction, despite of Jethro's perceptive attempts to prevent it. They occupy the left bank of the river Jordan and a few impatient tribes obtain permission to settle on the spot, while in the usual fashion laws are declared, decrees issued and the leadership procrastinates to cross the Jordan. During these events Moses himself disappears, not unlike Aaron, and we should be very mistaken, if not Joshua and Caleb, in order to bring the thing to a conclusion, had decided to end the for a long time insufferable rule of a bigoted mind and dispatch Moses himself to the many unfortunate souls whose untimely demise he had on his conscience, and then, in all earnestness, begin taking possession of the right bank of Jordan and the land behind.

One will generally agree with this exposition here as far as it presents to the mind the progress of an important enterprise; but one will not applaud nor put too much trust in a shedule which the letter of Holy Scriture stretches over many years. There is no better way, than to consider the topography which had been traversed by such a huge number of people and tally their time frame for such undertaking with that needed by every caravan.

Let's forget about the migration from the Red Sea to the Sinai, we also leave alone whatever might have happened in the mountain's vicinity and merely notice, that a huge number of people set out from the foot of Sinai on the 20th day of the 2nd month in the 2nd year of the exodus from Egypt. From there to the desert of Paran they had barely forty miles to go, a stretch a caravan of pack animals easily can cover in five days. Even if we allow enough days for rest and recovery and have the assembly tardy for other reasons, they could easily have arrived in twelve days at their destined place, which is in agreement with the Bible and common reckoning. Here the scouting party is sent ahead, while the majority of the host is moving on only a little further to Kadesh, where after forty days they reunite with their emissaries and after a bungled attempt to conquer immediately, parley with the Edomites. One may allow for as much time as one likes to conclude the negotiations, it should not have taken more than some thirty days. The Edomites  bluntly refuse to give permission for crossing their territory, and for the Hebrews it was anything but advisable to delay in such hazardous situation, because the Israelites would have been in a difficult position, should Canaanites and Edomites come to an agreement and launch a joint attack from their respective mountain positions in the north and the east.






Here too, the narrative proper doesn't pause, and the leadership decides to immediately march around the mountains of Edom. This move around the mountains  - first towards south, then northwards to the river Arnon - barely covers forty miles as well, which again should not take more than five days. Adding to it those forty days of mourning for Aaron's death, still leaves us with just the sixth month of the second year to bring the children of Israel easily to the Jordan, despite the procrastination and indecision in the various movements. So, where do we place the remaining thirty-eight years?

In fact this has troubled the commentators no end: how to account for the forty-one stations of the itinerary, which is recounting fifteen stops, of which the narrative knows nothing, but all the same it is included and causes the geographers a considerable headache. Fortunately the inserted stations, correlate in some fantastic fashion with the supernumerary years and sixteen places, of which nobody knows a thing, and with the thirty-eight years of which we are completely left in the dark. But they provide a splendid opportunity to have the children of Israel losing their bearings in the desert. What should especially get our attention, is the fact, that the narrative immediately leads from Hazeroth to Kadesh, the itinerary on the  other hand after Hazeroth is leaving out Kadesh only to introduce it much later after Eziongaber and thus manages to bring in touch the wilderness of Zin with the smaller inlet of the Arabian sea. This has confused the exegetes very much, misleading some to assume the existence of two different Kadesh, while a majority  holds to the opinion of only one Kadesh which certainly doesn't  leave much space for doubt.

The narrative, which we have carefully purged of all insertions, reports a Kadesh  in Paran, and the next moment speaks of a Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin; from the former the reconnaissance party is dispatched, and from the latter the entire host moves on, after the Edomites have refused to permit passage through their land. This makes it self-evident, that it is one and the same place, because the planned campaign through Edom was a consequence of the failed attempt to penetrate  from this corner into Canaan, and from other passages as well, it becomes clear, that the two so frequently mentioned badlands are adjoined: the wilderness of Zin to the north and Paran in the south, with Kadesh as an oasis and resting place between the two deserts.



One would never have even dreamt of two different Kadesh, if there hadn't been  the inconvenience to occupy the children of Israel long enough with their sojourn in the desert. However one would be even worse off to go by the assumption of only one Kadesh and still wanting to defend the plausibility of forty years of migrating with all the stations in the itinerary. Especially when confronted to present such theories on a map, one cannot help expressing the full absurdity of this position. Surely, the eye is a better judge to see the nonsense, then unaided reasoning. How populous and inhabited must such desert be, where we find every two miles if not places and townships, but at least resting places with a name! What an advantage for the strategist and his host! Yet this abundance of the inner desert soon becomes the geographer's nemesis. From Kadesh to Eziongaber he finds mentioned only five stops, and on the way back to Kadesh unfortunately even not a single one; therefore we see some strange and even to the itinerary unknown places put into the people's way, in the same fashion as the old geographers covered the white spots on their maps with elephants and each stop is just two miles away, a distance which doesn't even suffice, that such immense procession of people could gain the momentum to break camp.

A closer look in this matter makes it extremely probable, that the superfluous  itinerary had been inserted to save the problematic forty years of the sojourn. Because the text, which we follow in our narrative as close as possible, states: that the people on their journey to the Reed-Sea at Eziongaber, after they had been defeated by the Canaanites and were denied passage through the Land of  Edom, went around the Edomite's country. This gave cause to the  error that they indeed had reached the Reed-Sea near Eziongaber which at that time probably didn't exist yet, though the text speaks of following the street around the mountains of Zeir, just as one says the coachman follows the road to Leipzig, without  actually going all the way to Leipzig. Once we have done with the unnecessary stops, we may dismiss the supernumerary years in a similar fashion. We do know, that chronology in the Old Testament is rather artificial and resolves all the periods in certain cycles of forty or so years, so that, in order to bring about these mystical epochs, some historical figures had to be changed. And where would it be easier to insert the missing thirty-six to thirty-eight years from such a cycle, than in such a dark epoch in such remote and unknown spot of unpopulated badland?

Without even remotely going into chronology, the most difficult of all studies, we  may briefly consider that as in other ancient literature, we find in the Bible a variety of round figures, sacrosanct, symbolic, and poetical. The number seven is assigned to creation, productivity and thrift, the number forty however signifies meditation, expectancy and especially separation. The Great Flood, which would separate Noah and his people from the world, rises for forty days, and after the water has remained for a sufficient time it recedes for another forty days during which Noah is keeping the emergency exit under bolt and lock. For two periods of forty days Moses remained on the Sinai, separated from his people; the scouting party remained just as long in Canaan, and so the entire nation is supposed to be kept in laborious separation over such hallowed period. Even the New Testament picks up on the full meaning of this figure: for forty days Jesus remains in the desert, fending off temptation.



If we have succeeded to conclude the children of Israel's journey from Sinai to Jordan in a briefer period, albeit that we had to take into account a more than plausible wavering and procrastinating, and if we have succeeded to rid ourselves of so many useless years and so many fruitless stopovers, then, against our initial reservations, the image of Moses, if not restored to its full glory, will be redeamed, not through his talents or skills but as a man of action; it is the personality on which hinges everything. Talent may seek the company of character, but  character can do without everything - even talent - as long as it has itself. And so we gladly admit, that the personality of Moses, from his first cold-blooded murder through to all the later atrocities before his disappearance, produces the imposing stature of a man who is driven to greatness by his own nature.

But such picture is completely out of the loop if we reconsider how a strong, curt and hotheaded man of action, could needlessly stumble about the desert for four years without sense and directions and with a tremendous host of people. Only by rectifying the schedule in time and space, all the atrocities we mentioned, and all the evil we dared to heap upon him, has fallen in its proper place. So all things considered, destiny had put him in the right place. It is not a bad thing for Holy Scriptures, or for that matter, every other tradition, if we look at it with a critical eye, if we uncover the contradictions and realize how often the initial and sometimes better tradition has been disfigured by additions, insertions and corrections of political convenience; the actual impetus of the beginning may emerge from it only the livelier and purer; and is it not this, to which we should look and try to grasp it and lift our spirits with it, while the rest is better dropped or simply left alone?


Translator’s Note: Despite the well reasoned skepticism in Goethe’s essay, it surprises to see the author giving credence to the most improbable feature of the whole story, the census figures. I leave alone Bishop Colenso’s observation that there is no tent on Earth vast enough to give room on the ground for such a huge assembly to put down their feet, but Goethe himself has observed that the distance between those alleged stops “is just two miles away, a distance which doesn't even suffice, that such immense procession of people could gain the momentum to break camp.” An observation confirmed by modern archeology. Migrations of this size leave detectable traces even after 3,000 years. There was none.

The story was composed during Exile with then current affairs in mind: the Babylonian, and later the Persian overlord raised taxes from every Jew in the extended empire, and in order to raise taxes, it is customary to conduct a census; the figures are the current numbers from the time of composition. Moses, if there was such a person, could have been only the leader of a small band of fugitives who made themselves a nuisance to the Egyptian border patrols and gradually - over an extended period - attracted enough support to grow sufficiently in numbers that they could dare to raid across the Jordan and reunite with the majority of their fellow tribesmen who, according to the archeological record, never had left Palestine.

Except for the lack of pig bones on the garbage dumps of their settlements, the Hebrews shared the common culture and religion in Canaan. For all we know Hebrew identity and Hebrew religion has originated at the cult center in Shiloh. Even later in the period of animosities between the two regimes in Samaria and Jerusalem this remained a common bond, The Hebrews were polytheists and their territories were dotted with shrines and idols. In Jerusalem male prostitutes (2 Kings 23:7), women weeping for Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) and worshippers of the Great Mother shared the tempel’s premises with the priests of Yahweh.

“They wank themselves into a frenzy and copulate under every green tree and slay the children in the valleys under the rocks and pour drink offerings to the smooth stones of the stream” says Isaiah (Isaiah 57:5-6). Only later, when cut off from the physical presence of their shrines the emigrants in the Diaspora and their clerical leadership among the exiles in Babylon were left with little else than belaboring semantics and laws. It left Yahweh’s cult in possession of the religious monopoly by default, and his propagandists created an elaborate legend of denying all polytheistic traditions. Then the less well to do, the fanatics and the utopians decided to take on King Cyrus on his offer and go home.

The offer did not entail political independence. It did not even entail statehood, and there were renewed deportations under Artaxerxes Ochus (359-338 BC.). The repatriates would return with a new identity and the Torah, the portable country of the homeless Jew. Exile and homecoming is the book’s recurring leitmotif right from the start when Adam and Eve are driven out into the wilderness. Cain is exiled for homicide, Lot barely escapes from the destruction of Sodom, Abraham leaves behind urban comforts for the life of a nomad, Joseph rises to prosperity and advancement in a foreign country (Genesis 11:28ff). That was the context into which the narrator fitted in the character of Moses.

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