What was Israel’s life for 38 years in Arabia?

Posted by on Jul 22, 2020

Question: What was Israel’s life for 38 years in the desert of Arabia?

Answer: After the sin of ten spies for rejecting the Promised Land, the nation was sent back to the desert until that generation died out in Arabia.

We should recall that the sin for making the golden calf was forgiven, but the sin for rejecting the Promised Land was not and the people were sent back in the desert.

Most regrettably, we know very little of Israel’s life in the wilderness of Arabia.

What we know, however, is that there is a gap of 38 years between Num 19 and Num 20 and Deu 1:46 and Deu 2:1: the time period between the old generation of the Exodus and the new generation of the Land. About this time period, which the children of Israel lived in the Arabian Peninsula, we know very little.

This comes to tell us that these years of Israel’s wandering in the desert of Arabia is omitted twice in the narratives in Numbers and Deuteronomy.

But, what we also know is that nothing is written and appears in the Torah randomly. If Mosheh our teacher had not written a word about the 38 years of Israel’s life in the desert of Arabia, there must have been a reason for this.

And if this should be the case, then we should note that he had not missed these 38 years of Israel in the desert of Arabia but omitted them. The question is why did Mosheh, to whom YHVH Elohim spoke face to face and mouth to mouth, omit these 38 years of Israel in the wilderness of Arabia not once but twice in the Torah narrative?

We do not know but it is worth considering. And a good start will be the article 38 contentious years of Israel in Arabia.