Paran, El-paran (pâ'ran), place of caverns. A desert or wilderness south of Palestine, and near the wilderness of Etham, which separated it from the Gulf of Suez and Egypt. Paran is named in connection with the invasion of the confederate kings, Genesis 14:6, and in the story of Hagar, Genesis 21:21. In the detailed itinerary of the children of Israel, Numbers 33:1-56, many stations in Paran are recorded. Numbers 33:17-49, and probably all the eighteen stations there mentioned between Hazeroth and Kadesh were in Paran. Through this very wide wilderness, from pasture to pasture, as do modern Arab tribes, the Israelites wandered in irregular lines of march.