Punon
פּוּנֹן
Where was biblical Punon? At Khirbat Faynan, Wadi Faynan, in Jordan, about 95 km southeast of Beersheba. I mark it very likely.
Israel camped at Punon between Zalmonah and Oboth, on the march around Edom. They pitched their tents in the copper-mining heart of Edom's land.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Khirbat Faynan, Wadi Faynan, in Jordan
- How sure
- Very likely Strong evidence, with no serious rival.
- Other names
- Pinon, Phaeno, Phaino, Phainon, Feinan, Faynan, Khirbet Feinan, Khirbat Faynan
- Location
- 30.6128° N, 35.4472° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name survives almost unchanged. Punon became Phainon in Roman and Byzantine sources, and Faynan in Arabic today. Genesis also lists Pinon among the chiefs of Esau, which ties the name to Edom.
Eusebius gives the location. He calls it Phainon, "where there are copper mines, between Petra and Zoara." Faynan lies exactly there, on the east side of the Aravah. In Roman times Christian convicts were sent to work those mines.
The copper is the key. Faynan was one of the largest ancient copper districts in the Levant, and it was worked intensely in the Iron Age. The slag heaps from that work still cover the ground.
That brings up the serpents. On the march around Edom the people complained, and fiery serpents bit them. Moses made a nechash nechoshet, a serpent of copper, and set it on a pole, and whoever looked at it lived. Targum Jonathan ties Punon to the fiery serpents. A copper-mining center fits Moses' copper serpent well. But the Torah does not say it happened here, and it's better not to say more than the Torah does.
Visiting today
Wadi Faynan is part of the Dana Biosphere Reserve. Visitors can walk past slag heaps, ancient mine galleries, old field systems and the ruins of Khirbat Faynan.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Punon on the interactive map →
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