Paran

Paran is a wilderness the Israelites crossed after leaving Sinai. Ishmael grew up there, where “he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran” (Genesis 21:21). In Numbers the cloud rested there, the twelve men Moses sent to look over the land set out from it, and they came back to Kadesh in the same wilderness carrying fruit to show. Moses’ last blessing remembers the LORD who “shined forth from mount Paran.” Later a little boy named Hadad passed through on his way to Egypt, escaping Edom. Numbers 13 is the most eventful visit.

8 verses

Genesis

Genesis 21:21

And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

Numbers

Numbers 10:12

And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 12:16

And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 13:3

And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.

Numbers 13:26

And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 33:2

And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

1 Kings

1 Kings 11:17

That Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father's servants with him, to go into Egypt; Hadad being yet a little child.

1 Kings 11:18

And they arose out of Midian, and came to Paran: and they took men with them out of Paran, and they came to Egypt, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt; which gave him an house, and appointed him victuals, and gave him land.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Abounding in foliage, or abounding in caverns, (Gen. 21:21), a desert tract forming the north-eastern division of the peninsula of Sinai, lying between the ‘Arabah on the east and the wilderness of Shur on the west. It is intersected in a north-western direction by the Wady el-‘Arish. It bears the modern name of Badiet et-Tih, i.e., “the desert of the wanderings.” This district, through which the children of Israel wandered, lay three days’ march from Sinai (Num. 10:12, 33). From Kadesh, in this wilderness, spies (q.v.) were sent to spy the land (13:3, 26). Here, long afterwards, David found refuge from Saul (1 Sam. 25:1, 4).

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