After Beer Sheva, we went to Tel Arad. We had a nice box lunch in a shaded area near the parking lot, then walked up the hill to the ancient fortress of Arad. Mickey gave us a shpiel about the history and archaeology of the site, which figures in portions of the book of Numbers (21:1-3, and 33:40). It is also mentioned in Judges 1:16-17, and Ezekiel 35:1-10, and indirectly in Obadiah 19.
It was fascinating to walk around a site where, as Mickey explained, Moses sent the spies to go "spy out the land" in Exodus. When they returned, of the 12 spies, only Joshua and Caleb gave a good report, and as a result of the bad report of the other 10, and the Israelite's subsequent refusal to go into the land, they were condemned to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and for that entire generation to perish in the desert before the people would be allowed into the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb, of course, were the only two of that generation to enter the land.
Click on the picture to see other photos of Arad.
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