Ein Gedi - near the Okavango Delta?

Happy Sabbath folks! We are currently outside South Africa, so our Full Moon readings may be off. We have read the sky in this northern Hemisphere, and the Sabbath is on Sunday now the next 4 weeks. Until the Next Full Moon rises in the east again. But do not worry we will tell you. Shout it from the rooftops if necessary. And please watch the blessings that usually follows when the whole World, inadvertently, will follow the Sabbath for 4 weeks. It is quiet something to see. Just like this last row of Saturdays has brought blessings, these next 4 Sundays certainly will. For the discerning mind that understand what we are talking about, this is deep stuff. Lets do some locations now!

Now, as we made a brief mention in our previous article on Araba, the oasis and city called Ein Gedi spoken about in our Bibles, we will try to connect it to a famous wildlife area in Botswana. Aiyn Geidi, The Spring of the Child or The Childs Spring - is a famous location in our Scriptures that was said to be located not far from The Dead Sea and other locations like Maun. And if Araba (The Dead Sea) was in Botswana, En Gedi or MaKhadi may have been close. We think that this Spring, that starts further up, slowly becoming the Okavango Delta as it rushes down towards the plains of Botswana, creating life as it floods the plains. Now another famous Biblical town and fortress is Masada, also said to be close to En Gedi. Another article we have coming out soon. And yes we are getting closer to Jericho, which is basically to the west of Gauteng area. But more on that later.

Satellite image of the Delta

Now the Okavango Delta is a vast inland delta, formed where the Okavango River meets a kinda trough or sift at around 1000 meters over sea level, in the Kalahari desert. This delta does not flow into any sea or ocean, at this moment in time. But think it used to. For now most the water that ends up here, evaporates. Now this area was once a part of Lake Makgadikgadi, which could have been part of the Red Sea. But has since those times these locations have dried very much up. Currently this area enjoys a place on the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa. And it truly is a natural wildlife reserve. This area thrives of seasonal flooding, and it dances between transpiration and evaporation, that gives something like three cycles of rising and falling levels of water. During these times the area grows something like three times its dry season size, this can happen on account of its flatness. Now there are several natural lagoons and salt islands (perhaps remnants of forested areas) formed from this tremendous amount of water inn and water out, there are also natural islands like Chief Island, where much of the wildlife resides when the waters rise.

You will find here animals that you will not any other place in the world, such as: lions, leopards, Lechwe, African Buffalo, Elephant, Rhino (black and white), giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, hippos, impalas, eland, kudu, antelope, waterbuck, cheetahs, hyena, wild dogs, caracal, serval, fox, baboons, monkeys and the Nile Crocodile (among many others some 400 bird species and 70 different species of fish). Now the fish are found in the Zambezi also, meaning these two River system have been connected in the past. And they will be again. Plants and flora are also study in its own right, a literal plethora of greens and different deep water generas.

Now as the rains return again to Southern Africa, you will see some dramatic changes to places such as these. As we have been saying for years, Imvula Iyanetha - rain is coming. Now as far as the people living in these Lands of Juda now, we can go into demographics, separating possible Bantu people connected with tribes, but there are a lot of bushmen here to account for, so we do not want to insult anyones lineage. But basically you can find, Hambukushu (Ghuva, Bukusu, etc), Dceriku (Giriku, Nikiru), Wayeyi (Yei), Bagakhwe (Kxoe, Khwe), River Bushmen and Swamp Bushmen (Gxanekwe and Xanekwe). Mostly modern names. And Many of these are remnants of Biblical tribes such as Amonites, Jebusites, Hittites (can be San bushmen), but also remnants of the greater ones such as African Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians (Samaritans) and most of them are still in these areas, spread around the river banks, Boteti and Seronga. And also MANY other places. Sidenote: What is interesting about this area is its water streams (molapos), that hint of past times with lots more water and less dry spells. These are the lower parts of the delta, and used to control flooding in the area with sluice gates and such. This will surely become more interesting areas as the rains slowly return.

Tswana/Pedi Etymology of En Gedi - Makgadi

Now the name En Gedi, consists of two words, and seems to be mostly and Arabic word today. But humour us. Because the etymology gives away the old Tswana here, we have Ein Gedi, meaning The fountain of the kid or child, we can pronounce it like this, En Gedi, En-Gedi, Eggadi, Engaddi, which is very close to Ma-kgadikgadi... MaKHAdi KHadi... Anyways, the pronunciation of the letter KHA in KGA, gives this word away as being The Spring of En Khedi, close to The Lake of Makgadikgadi (En Gedi). Makgadikgadi can mean place of butterflies in Tswana, however the ancient Hebrew and Sotho/Tswana will bounces of water and child as the root word.

Now, when involving some witnesses from the Bible of what we are saying, we can go to Joshua that gives us En Gedi as One of the Cities in the Wilderness of the Tribe of Juda in the Desert of Betharba (Joshua 15,61-63):

61 In the wilderness:

Beth Arabah, Middin, Sekakah, 62 Nibshan, the City of Salt and En Gedi—six towns and their villages. 63 Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.

Furthermore, Ezekiel we can find a much more fleshed out prophecy about The dead Sea and other costal locations close to Ein Gedi (Ezekiel 47,10):

6 He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?”

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. 9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.

10 Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. 11 But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

We can see here that the fishing nets will be spread from Ein Gedi to Ein Eglaim.... Has this happened, or is it something that will happen? If these are the areas we think they are, they are now malnourished for water. Dried up. But SoNiNi can change that in a few seasons. In these Ezekiel books there is A LOT of prophecy that have yet to happen, and some of it may come to pass in our lifetime. Ezekiel is the base we used for the old borders of the 12 Tribes, and article we are still not quite ready to publish.

More on this area, we remember when King David was fleeing King Saul, he hid at strongholds close to Ein Gedi (I Samuel 23,29) and we know that Saul chased him even up into the sharp mountain tops there (I Samuel 24,2). More about Ein Gedi you can find in II Chronicles 20,1, identified as being close to Hazazon-Tamar (originally an Amorite city), the lands of the Palm dates, a place that was swarming with Moabites and Ammonites (they fought King of Juda, Josaphat). Now the Song of Solomon speak of the Vineyards of Ein Gedi (Song of Solomon 1,14) and more about Palm trees in Cades in Ben Sira 24,18, so the place was famous for both we think.

If we read some more from the historian Josephus, we can see that Ein Gedi held historical and important positions on areas such as trade. Apparently this was because of the balsam trees and and numerous palm trees growing there. More notes from Josephus on the Sicarii who fought the Romans and were defeated at Masada. If you read this you will find a staggering amounts of people died, women and children slaughtered. Pliny says Ein Gedi was destroyed during these wars, we are not so sure. if you read Eusebius Onomasticon, and we have, he said this was a thriving and large village in the 4th century. So, whom to believe. Not really important, the important thing is that this location likely was in the region of the Okavango Delta (very large region we know). But also likely closer to the infamous Fort at Masada, which we will cover soon.

Ungesabi lutho,

SoNiNi unathi