The wilderness of Paran, says Dr. Wells, seems to have been
taken in a larger, and in a stricter sense. In the larger
sense, it seems to have denoted all the desert and mountainous
tract, lying between the wilderness of Shur westward, and
mount Seir, or the land of Edom, eastward, the land of Canaan
northward, and the Red sea southward. And in this sense, it
seems to have comprehended the wilderness of Sin, and the
wilderness of Sinai, also the adjoining tract wherein lay
Kibroth-hattaavah and Hazeroth. In this sense it may be
understood in De 1:19, where, by "that great and terrible
wilderness," is intended the wilderness of Paran in its
largest acceptation; for, in its stricter acceptation, it
seems not to have been so great and terrible a wilderness; but
is taken to denote more peculiarly that part of Arabia Petr(9161)
which lies between mount Sinai and Hazeroth west, and mount
Seir east.
12:16 32:8 De 1:19,23 9:23
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