ETHAM (Hebrew 'Ethan). - The second stage or station of the Israelites in their journey toward the Promised Land (Ex. 13:20; Num. 33:6). The name is probably the Hebraized form of the Egyptian hinn “fortress,” and the place is identified with the site called S(e)-raperum, north of the Great Bitter Lake, a hub of all roads leading to the center and south of the Sinai peninsula, where Rameses II had built a fortress to defend the canal of Teku. The locality was situated “on the edge of the desert” of Shur (Ex. 15:21; Num. 33:8), which extended eastward from the great wall (Hebrew sār) protecting the Isthmus of Suez.
Bibl.: C. Bourdon, in Rev. bibl., 41 (1932), pp. 372-343. Donato Baldi