Sanibona! Happy Sabbath, we are having a truly peaceful day in up here in the Mountains. And we have something for you that we normally would have published a while back. However, you know these things take time to get into a somewhat readable article. And understandable English, and English is useful dont get us wrong, but not very friendly. So we will give this one a proper go. Now as we have made numerous comments before, we think a Southern African inland lake or in fact several lakes, are missing. As we see it, several bodies of water are actually not where they used to be. Or the ones we have remnants of, are looking like dams and such, or other bleak images of the past we are left with today (only wondering what once was), we have to conclude that there used to be vast and large bodies of water that have effectively over time shrunk. Or dried completely up. From our geographical bearings, where some of these bodies of water have dried up, we can find traces of them now inside rather dry countries like Botswana and very much in Namibia, but also in South Africas interior. And, there are even hints in our Scriptures that this `drying up` would happen.
Keeping that in mind, we think The Sea of Araba or The Dead Sea as it is also called, is a pretty clear reference in our Bibles - to a sea without to much life. Araba (הָעֲרָבָה) means barren or bareness in Hebrew, in Sotho it means answers (araba). Seen it it has this etymology of lifelessness - it cannot be The Great Oceans as there is plenty of life there, but not life giving water on account of the salt content. Apparently so, but lets get into this. Just off the cuff, There are a few Biblical descriptions of the Dead Sea being referred to as salty, but that was not its biggest problem according to some of the ancient authors. Remember it has been described in several ancient sources as being a sea where there was not to much life. More importantly, we do have descriptions of it being filled on its shores with Bitumen or coal looking material. As ancient historian Flavius Josephus describes it, with another Roman given name. We will get back to that. But this is pretty damming evidence and will perhaps become very much for future researchers to determine. Now more clues to this lies with its connection to The Jordan River, from Chinnereth (Sea of Galilee) to the Sea of Araba (Dead Sea) as the quote goes, and further more to the salt sea under the slopes of Pisgah going eastward (Deuteronomy 4,48-49):
48 This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon), 49 and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Dead Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah.
So then to make sense of these without having the actual outlines of the Lake is not exactly easy. Now Is this describing the flow of the Limpopo River (which could be Pisgah in this instance), ABOVE Araba (Dead Sea), East of the Jordan. So, The Dead Sea was East of the Jordan - which we still think is the Orange River as it cuts Southern Africa dramatically in two, from East to West. With Pisgah being a Limpopo tributary or even Orange River Tributary. This can fit. Remember the Promised Land would be on both sides, with 12 Tribes each owning their specific part of the land. We have previously made some thoughts if this area (in Botswana and the salt pans) could be the place of The Red Sea where The People crossed after coming out of Egypt, but it fits much better if we place the Dead Sea there. And then Red Sea would perhaps be further up or even towards the East African coast. Someone once suggested the Red Sea could be the Nile, that could be but then we have MANY harbours to explain on the Red Sea. Especially Phoenician Harbours. Now we wont cross that bridge just yet, but if we place the Dead Sea or the Sea of Arabah there among the Salt Pans of Botswana, this means The Sea of Galilee cannot be not far of.
Now on the Plains of Jordan, we can find the Fortress of Masada, Valley of Siddim and locations like Mount Sodom (the cities of the Plains would also be laid out there). Now Greek and Latin (Roman) writers alike all describe the remarkable inland lake that occupied the deepest part of the depression of Araba. Sometimes in the Bible called the Salt Sea (Genesis 14,3):
3 All these latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea Valley).
And another one in Deuteronomy 3,17:
17 Its western border was the Jordan in the Arabah, from Kinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.
There is a quote in Joshua 3,15-16:
15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
So here, waters still flowing down to the Dead Sea and was cut off. Which could be a factor in the area being dried up in these days. Moving on, to Ezekiel where we find a quote of the borders of the Promised Lands being drawn up, with mentions of Araba and the Eastern Sea or The Ancient Sea (Ezekiel 47,15-20):
15 “This is to be the boundary of the land:
“On the north side it will run from The Great Sea (Sea to the West and South) by the Hethlon road past Lebo Hamath to Zedad, 16 Berothah and Sibraim (which lies on the border between Damascus and Hamath), as far as Hazer Hattikon, which is on the border of Hauran. 17 The boundary will extend from the sea to Hazar Enan, along the northern border of Damascus, with the border of Hamath to the north. This will be the northern boundary.
18 “On the east side the boundary will run between Hauran and Damascus, along the Jordan between Gilead and the land of Israel, to the Dead Sea and as far as Tamar. This will be the eastern boundary.
19 “On the south side it will run from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribah Kadesh, then along the Wadi of Egypt to The Great Sea. This will be the southern boundary.
20 “On the west side, The Great Sea will be the boundary to a point opposite Lebo Hamath. This will be the western boundary.
So we see here that The Great Sea, not the ancient Sea which was also referred to as the Eastern Sea, would be on most sides around the Promised Lands. There is more in Joel 2,20:
“I will drive the northern horde far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land; its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea and its western ranks in The Great Sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise.”
These are some of the Scriptures that our Bibles provides on Araba. And it seems to be often referenced in union with The Great Sea, we believe is what the Bible calls the SouthAtlantic Ocean and parts of the so-called Indian Ocean. We will do a separate article on the ancient Seas, only Remember there are Only two mentioned, The Great Sea and The Ancient Sea (Also called The Eastern Sea). The other sea is called Red Sea, which we believe was land ocean. Anyway, now by the time we get to Flavius Josephus we see that the Sea of Araba, was called Lake Asphaltires (Antiquities of the Jews 1, 9). And we can read that this was on account of the quantities of bitumen or asphalt the occasionally washed up on the shores. And this we think is a major clue for revealing what we have been saying for quite some time, that a ancient Sea, namely the Sea of Araba, was in Botswana ruling over areas that are now called Ntwetwe and Sua Pan (ancient Lake Makgadikgadi). You see not far from the Ntwetwe and Sua Pan (or as we have written before in the areas of ancient Lake Makgadikgadi as perhaps being the Red Sea), in these areas we will find one the LARGEST coal mine reserves in Africa, Letlhakane Coal (& Diamond) Mine. And what is coal or black coal also called? Thats right, bituminous coal (wikipedia):
Which is exactly what Josephus describes this lake having at its shores and in nearby wells. A Black tar like substance, in abundance. What a clue left for us by the ancient Historian. SoNiNi made sure Josephus left that one in there for us to find in these last days. A lifeless lake. And We can basically find the outlines of this inland African lake by just following the traces of mines and bitumen in these areas around the salt pans in Botswana. By following the mines Diamond and Mineral (bitumen especially) that are plenty around in these areas.
Now if we go into the descriptions that are being given to us from the Bible on the Sea of Araba, it says it is a large body of salt water on the southern end of the Jordan River.... That creates problems if the Jordan is the Orange River. Still waterways may have changed, or This Lake was very large spanning over larger areas. We placed it just for experimental reasons up there in the Ntwene Pan and Sue Pan up in Botswana, and we are quite a bit far away from the Orange River as it flows out towards the sea. Still the Lake may also have been further down, but we have yet to discover areas that contain Bitumen or Asphalt.
Now this is not wishful and fanciful thinking from us, but we know we are in dire historical need to place some of these ancient lakes on the Southern African map. The largest one being in the southern parts is Lake Fundudzi in Limpopo Province, important to Vendas, but does not really fit in the share size we need for a Sea of Bareness or even Sea of Galilee. However there are researchers who are under the same opinion that there used to be much more water in these parts. A certain Andrew Carr from University of Leicester School of Geography, Geology & Environment, has said they have brought forth evidence for when these lakes existed. These regions they have investigated have always looked like gaps on maps, in terms of climate and archeology. However, Carr will, like any geologically inclined person (or anyone with a degree) say this involve the ice age and millions of years ago.....
Now although geology is a scientific discipline we would say its very much hypothetical to boot, as none of these students of nature were there to observe any of these millions of years they purpose for our earth. We do not think this is how it all went down, we think geology (rock formation) can, with regards to climate, be just as rapid and onset as SoNiNi wants it to be. We would literally be talking of events that took hundreds of years even a few decades, certainly not millions of years for these changes to occur. Now Controlling the elements at your fingertips does give you the right to decide which empires rise and which empires fall. And removing or limiting water does certainly give you that option.
So back to the team of scientists, that found traces of 3 Large Lakes located in the arid western interior of South Africa, and they added they would extend as far east as Kimberly. That would place large parts of the Great and vast nothingness of the Karoo, under water. This would be in one of the driest areas we know today. Although they add their dates to be some 150,000 years ago. We not so sure about that. We think there was water, not so long ago. Our opinion. These Paleo-lakes where around, numerous and massive. The regional hydrology studies show that there is something to this.
Andrew Carr mentions in Journal of Archeological Science (Carr, 2016:51-65):
“We know humans were present at times during the last ice age, as archaeological materials are scattered across the landscape surface. This new work hints at when and why humans used this landscape,”
So, lots of other things are speculated in his paper, and how the areas have changed over time. We would agree, that when SoNiNi withdraws from an area, the waters soon follow. Ask any African rain is life, water is THE one necessity. The study abstract talks about the Pleistocene (fancy word for Ice Age) hydrological change, and the presence of LARGE paleo-lakes in South Africas interior WITH large hydrological networks, which means dried up rivers and underground rivers. With this discovery, the whole landscape naturally changes as well. Flora and fauna, shrubs, grasslands and much denser vegetation follows. If people are interested they can read the full study.
So there you have it. More proofs and possibly many more Biblical locations will come to life WHEN these areas again are filled with water. And if the people in the areas are dry, as person without Scripture is dry, let the waters flow once again. Let the areas be filled again with life giving waters. Let these areas be filled with people that read their Bibles and show love to their fellow man, by following The Most High and telling others to do the same. Now in that Spirit - Lets get back to our Bibles, and do some more Scriptural studies. Araba is cited 16 times in our Scriptures and is very often mentioned to describe and define the Borders of the Promised Land. Lets go through them.
It starts in Genesis 14,3, and we have already included this quote above, it names The Valley of Siddim as being the same as The Dead Sea Valley. And we can find another Great quote of the Borders, just like in Ezekiel and Joshua, in Numbers 34,3-12:
...is to have these boundaries:
3 “‘Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. Your southern boundary will start in the east from the southern end of the Dead Sea, 4 cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, 5 where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Great Sea.
6 “‘Your western boundary will be the coast of the Great Sea. This will be your boundary on the west.
7 “‘For your northern boundary, run a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor 8 and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, 9 continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary on the north.
10 “‘For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. 11 The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Galilee. 12 Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea.
“‘This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side.’”
Its easy to get lost if one starts to try to make sense of this, because the way we see it ONLY The Great Sea to the West is the clear marker we have today. But lets stick to The Dead Sea, locating it will help us greatly (Joshua 12,3):
3 He also ruled over the eastern Arabah from the Sea of Galilee to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea), to Beth Jeshimoth, and then southward below the slopes of Pisgah.
Here we can see these two ancient (we presume) inland lakes, being mentioned as almost being connected. One of the last quotes we can find is in II Kings where King Jeroboam restored the Old Borders (II Kings 14,25):
25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea, in accordance with the word of SoNiNi, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.
Later on there are mentions of The Eastern Sea in Ezekiel 47,18 as we saw, and another very interesting one towards the end of Zecharia 14,8:
8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Great Sea, in summer and in winter.
This Scripture might be the nail in the coffin, placing The Sear of Araba in these areas we suggest, along with perhaps many other ancient lakes. And more importantly, Jerusalem. With two Great Seas on its sides, one to the West and the other to the East. This gives the areas around the opportunity for many inland lakes, like the study from Leicester purports.
Now, What is truly interesting is that ONLY in Genesis 14,3 is the Sea of Barrenness `Arabah` referred to as a location. IN all the other examples we have provided it is used to mark the border of the Promised Land,. Now in placing this inland lake in the Area of Botswana, we are truly in the outer borders as the Euphrates (Zambezi) is not far off. On the shores of the Sea of Araba we have locations such as Masada, En Gedi (could be Okavango Delta area) and Kumran (last could be Kumaga Village in Central Botswana). Which would be something to place all of these location within the vicinity of the dried up Asphalt Lake.
Now Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the plains, would not be far away from The Dead Sea, and as we can read in Genesis 18 and 19, they were within close proximity of one another. And we have placed the Plains of Moab not far from there with The Cities of the Plains (Towards Gauteng) laid out in and towards South Africa. So remember when King Saul fled from King David, he took refuge on the west shore of the Dead Sea in an area and town called En Gedi. Now En Gedi was in starch contrast to the Dead Sea, it was an oasis full of life with fresh springs, dates, medicinal plants and vegetation. We think this could have been the Okavango Delta, not far from Botswanas salt pans. Making this area very interesting, one there is a dried up lake connected to a Large River, and there is an literal Oasis (quite famous we might add among botanists) in the Okavango Delta. We will publish an article on this after we have went to the area.
In Closing we can see more borders being drawn up in Joshua, with lots of mentions of The Dead Sea and the lands of Judah (Joshua 15,2-12):
2 Their southern boundary started from the bay at the southern end of the Dead Sea, 3 crossed south of Scorpion Pass, continued on to Zin and went over to the south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it ran past Hezron up to Addar and curved around to Karka. 4 It then passed along to Azmon and joined the Wadi of Egypt, ending at the Great Sea. This is their southern boundary.
5 The eastern boundary is the Dead Sea as far as the mouth of the Jordan.
The northern boundary started from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan, 6 went up to Beth Hoglah and continued north of Beth Arabah to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben. 7 The boundary then went up to Debir from the Valley of Achor and turned north to Gilgal, which faces the Pass of Adummim south of the gorge. It continued along to the waters of En Shemesh and came out at En Rogel. 8 Then it ran up the Valley of Ben Hinnom along the southern slope of the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem). From there it climbed to the top of the hill west of the Hinnom Valley at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim.
9 From the hilltop the boundary headed toward the spring of the waters of Nephtoah, came out at the towns of Mount Ephron and went down toward Baalah (that is, Kiriath Jearim). 10 Then it curved westward from Baalah to Mount Seir, ran along the northern slope of Mount Jearim (that is, Kesalon), continued down to Beth Shemesh and crossed to Timnah. 11 It went to the northern slope of Ekron, turned toward Shikkeron, passed along to Mount Baalah and reached Jabneel. The boundary ended at the sea.
12 The western boundary is the coastline of the Great Sea.
By placing The Dead Sea, or Araba in these areas, we can kinda see the outlines of Juda and then we can find Benjamin (Joshua 18,19-20):
19 It then went to the northern slope of Beth Hoglah and came out at the northern bay of the Dead Sea, at the mouth of the Jordan in the south. This was the southern boundary.
20 The Jordan formed the boundary on the eastern side.
Now can the fate of Araba be revealed in the quote in Joshua, describing the Sea of Araba and the Salt Sea as being cut off.... (Joshua 3,14-17):
14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of SoNiNi stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
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