You will not find the name Eilat in your Bible. That is the city’s current name. Its biblical name is Ezion-geber. It is mentioned three times in connection with camping sites of the Israelites enroute to the Promised Land, and four times as a port city of Solomon and Jehoshaphat. (See Num. 33.35; Deut. 2.8; 1st Kings 9.26; 22.49; 2nd Chron. 8.17; 20.36)
Today, it is a beautiful resort city on the northern tip of the Red Sea (known by Arabs as the Gulf of Aqaba). In Old Testament times, it was a strategic port city. Israel enjoyed the role of an intermediary between adjacent countries. So the northern seaports of the Mediterranean (Tyre, Sidon, and Joppa) offered commercial links to the nations north and west of Solomon’s kingdom, and the southern seaport (Ezion-geber) provided a strategic link to the Indian Ocean and the Orient.
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