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SUR

Volume 18 · 151 words · 1797 Edition

or Shur (anc. geog.), a desert of Arabia Petraea, extending between Palestine and the Arabian Gulph; into which the Israelites, after marching through the Red Sea, came (Exod. xv. 22.). Again (Numb. xxxiii. 8.), it is said, that from the sea they went three days journey into the Wilderness of Etham; whence some conclude that Etham and Shur are the same wilderness; or only differ as a part from the whole, Shur being the general name, and Etham that part of it lying nearest to the place of encampment of the same name. We know so little of the geography of these places that there is more room for disputation than for decision. As to the route which the Israelites followed in their passage through the Red Sea, Mr Bryant, we think, has given the most satisfactory account in his late work on the Plagues of Egypt.—Shur is now called Co-ondel.