the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Sina, Sinai
Morrish Bible Dictionary
or This name is applied to both a mountain and to a wilderness. They lie between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akaba.The mountain is really a range of high hills and is sometimes called HOREB, which may be a more general name for the whole of the range. Mount Sinai is especially connected with the giving of the law. Moses and the elders went up into the mountain, and Moses there received the Ten Commandments written on two stones. The Israelites were located in the wilderness of Sinai, which must have been a large place capable of holding two million people. By comparing Exodus 19:1 with Numbers 10:11 , it will be seen that they continued there nearly a year.
The mountains in the locality have been surveyed in modern days, and a plain has been found, about two miles long and half a mile wide, affording ample room for the people to assemble, and where they could hear the thunder, and see the fire and smoke issuing from the mount. The plain is now called er Rahah. Adjoining this is a precipitous granite rock called Jebel Musa (Ras Sufsafeh) which is so formed that the elders who accompanied Moses part of the way up, could remain there while Moses proceeded to the summit, which cannot be seen from the plain. Exodus 19:1-23 , etc.; Psalm 68:8,17; Nehemiah 9:13; Acts 7:30,38 .
The term Sinai is frequently employed as representing 'the law,' and is used by Paul as a symbol of 'bondage,' for law and bondage cannot be separated, and stand in strong contrast to the 'liberty' wherewith Christ makes the believer free. Galatians 4:24,25 , compare with Galatians 5:1 .