Shur is a stretch of wilderness near the border of Egypt, and it turns up wherever people are travelling through hard country. The angel of the LORD found Hagar “by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.” Israel walked into the wilderness of Shur after crossing the sea, and “found no water” for three days. Abraham lived between Kadesh and Shur, and both Saul and David fought the Amalekites in the land toward it. Genesis 16 is a gentle place to begin, because that is where someone is found there.
6 verses
And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.
So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
An enclosure; a wall, a part, probably, of the Arabian desert, on the north-eastern border of Egypt, giving its name to a wilderness extending from Egypt toward Philistia (Gen. 16:7; 20:1; 25:18; Ex.15:22). The name was probably given to it from the wall (or shur) which the Egyptians built to defend their frontier on the north-east from the desert tribes. This wall or line of fortifications extended from Pelusium to Heliopolis.
William Smith, 1884
(a wall), a place just without the eastern border of Egypt. Shur is first mentioned in the narrative of Haggar’s flight from Sarah. (Genesis 16:7) Abraham afterward "dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar." (Genesis 20:1) It is also called Ethami. The wilderness of Shur was entered in the Israelites after they had crossed the Red Sea. (Exodus 15:22,23) It was also called the wilderness of Etham. (Numbers 33:8) Shur may have been a territory town east of the ancient head of the Red Sea; and from its being spoken of as a limit, it was probably the last Arabian town before entering Egypt.