Inn

Inn (מָלוֹן, mnaldn, Ge 42:27; Ge 43:21; Ex 4:24, a lodging- place, as elsewhere rendered; κατάλυμα, Lu 2:7, a place for loosing the beasts of their burden, rendered "guest-chamber," Mr 14:14;

Lu 23:11; πανδοχεῖον, Lu 10:34, a place for receiving all comers). Inns, in our sense of the term, were, as they still are, unknown in the East where hospitality is religiously practiced. The khans, or caravanserais, are the representatives of European inns, and these were established but gradually. It is doubtful whether there is any allusion to them in the Old Testament. The halting-place of a caravan was selected originally on account of its proximity to water or pasture, by which the travelers pitched their tents and passed the night. Such was undoubtedly the "inn" at which occurred the incident in the life of Moses narrated in Ex 4:24. It was probably one of the halting-places of the Ishmaelitish merchants who traded to Egypt with their camel loads of spices. Moses was on his journey from the land of Midian, and the merchants in Genesis 37 are called indiscriminately Ishmaelites and Midianites. At one of these stations, too, the first which they reached after leaving the city, and no doubt within a short distance from it, Joseph's brethren discovered that their money had been replaced in their wallets (Ge 42:27).