Punon
Pu'non (Heb. Punon', פוּנֹן, darkness [Gesenius], ore-pit [Fiirst]; Sept. Φινών v. r. Φινώ), a camp station of the Israelites on their journey to Canaan (Nu 33:42), on the east side of the mountains of Edom, and perhaps belonging to that district, since a duke Pinon is mentioned (Ge 36:41; 1Ch 1:52) among the chieftains of the Edomites. It lay next beyond Zalmonah, between it and Oboth, and three days' journey from the mountains of Abarim, which formed the boundary of Moab. By Enusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon, Φινῶν, "Fenon") it is identified with Pinon, the seat of the Edomitish tribe of that name, and, further, with Phoeno, which contained the copper-mines so noted at that period, and was situated between Petra and Zoar; It is often mentioned by other Christian authors (see Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 1095). It is not to be identified with the modern Tufileh (Burckhardt, 2, 677; see Raumer, Zug der Israel, p. 46); but on the Kalaat Phenan of Seetzen (Zach's Monatl. Corresp. 17:137) we must await more particular intelligence. SEE EXODE.
