Ezion-geber

The giant’s backbone (so called from the head of a mountain which runs out into the sea), an ancient city and harbour at the north-east end of the Elanitic branch of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Akabah, near Elath or Eloth (Num. 33:35; Deut. 2:8). Here Solomon built ships, “Tarshish ships,” like those trading from Tyre to Tarshish and the west, which traded with Ophir (1 Kings 9:26; 2 Chr. 8:17); and here also Jehoshaphat’s fleet was shipwrecked (1 Kings 22:48; 2 Chr. 20:36). It became a populous town, many of the Jews settling in it (2 Kings 16:6, “Elath”). It is supposed that anciently the north end of the gulf flowed further into the country than now, as far as ‘Ain el-Ghudyan, which is 10 miles up the dry bed of the Arabah, and that Ezion-geber may have been there.

e-zi-on-ge'-ber ('etsyon gebher; Gasion Gaber):

Always mentioned along with Elath ("Eziongaber," Nu 33:35 f the King James Version). When the children of Israel left "the way of the Arabah," having come from the Northwest, they seem to have turned to the Northeast from the neighborhood of `Aqaba, passing up by Wady el-Ithm toward the eastern desert (De 2:8). Elath and Ezion-geber were evidently not far apart. They are named together again in connection with the maritime enterprises of Solomon and Jehoshaphat (1Ki 9:26, etc.). They therefore both lay on the shore of the sea. No trace of Ezion-geber is to be found on the present coast line. It is probable, however, that in ancient times the sea covered a considerable stretch of the mud flats at the South end of Wady el-`Arabah, and the site of Ezion-geber may be sought near the spring `Ain el-Ghudyan, about 15 miles North of the present head of the Gulf of `Aqaba.

W. Ewing