Sinai

סִינַי · si.nay · H5514GΣινᾶ · Sina · G46141 other spelling“a bush; enmity” Hitchcock's 186943 mentions in 12 books, most in Exodus (14)

Where it is

28.54° N, 33.97° E · ESV spelling: Mount Sinai

Coordinates and map: OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding · CC BY 4.0 · drawn without map tiles

Mentioned most in

Exodus · 14 Deuteronomy · 10 Leviticus · 4 Psalms · 3 Numbers · 2 1 Kings · 2 + 6 books

Counted from 43 references · STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0

About this place

Sinai, also known as Mount Sinai, Horeb, or Mount Horeb, is one of the most significant locations in the Bible. It is the mountain where God revealed Himself to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments, as well as other laws and instructions for the Israelites.

After the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites camped at the base of Mount Sinai for about a year (Exod. 19:1-2). During this time, God called Moses to the top of the mountain and spoke to him, giving him the Ten Commandments and other laws (Exod. 19-31). The mountain was filled with smoke, fire, and thunder, symbolizing the awesome presence of God (Exod. 19:16-19).

Moses spent forty days and forty nights on the mountain, receiving instructions from God and writing down the laws (Exod. 24:18; 34:28). He also received the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments (Exod. 31:18; 34:1, 4, 28-29).

The location of Mount Sinai is not specified in the Bible, but tradition has identified it with Jebel Musa (Mountain of Moses) in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula. However, some scholars have proposed alternative locations, such as Jebel al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia, based on various geographical and archaeological considerations.

Throughout the Bible, Sinai is mentioned as a symbol of God's revelation, covenant, and law (Deut. 33:2; Judg. 5:5; Ps. 68:8, 17; Neh. 9:13; Mal. 4:4). In the New Testament, Paul uses Sinai as an allegory for the old covenant, in contrast to the new covenant represented by the heavenly Jerusalem (Gal. 4:24-25).

The events at Sinai, including the giving of the Ten Commandments and the establishment of the Mosaic covenant, were pivotal moments in the history of Israel and laid the foundation for their identity as God's chosen people.

Article: STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0

Every mention

43 references, counted from STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0 · verse text: World English Bible (public domain)

Exodus14 mentions

Exodus 3:1Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb.Exodus 16:1They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second…Exodus 17:6Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of…Exodus 19:11and be ready for the third day; for on the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai.Exodus 19:18All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.Exodus 19:20Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.Exodus 19:23Moses said to Yahweh, “The people can’t come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain, and sanctify it.’”Exodus 24:16Yahweh’s glory settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud.Exodus 31:18When he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the covenant, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.Exodus 33:6The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.Exodus 34:2Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.Exodus 34:4He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.Exodus 34:29When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason…Exodus 34:32Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

Leviticus4 mentions

Leviticus 7:38which Yahweh commanded Moses in Mount Sinai in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai.Leviticus 25:1Yahweh said to Moses on Mount Sinai,Leviticus 26:46These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.Leviticus 27:34These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.

Numbers2 mentions

Numbers 3:1Now this is the history of the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that Yahweh spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai.Numbers 28:6It is a continual burnt offering which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

Deuteronomy10 mentions

Deuteronomy 1:2It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.Deuteronomy 1:6“Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You have lived long enough at this mountain.Deuteronomy 1:19We traveled from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to…Deuteronomy 4:10the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days…Deuteronomy 4:15Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire,Deuteronomy 5:2Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.Deuteronomy 9:8Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you.Deuteronomy 18:16This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again Yahweh my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire…Deuteronomy 29:1These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.Deuteronomy 33:2He said, “Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.

Judges1 mention

Judges 5:5The mountains quaked at Yahweh’s presence, even Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

1 Kings2 mentions

1 Kings 8:9There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.1 Kings 19:8He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s Mountain.

2 Chronicles1 mention

2 Chronicles 5:10There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

Nehemiah1 mention

Nehemiah 9:13“You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

Psalms3 mentions

Psalms 68:8The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai— at the presence of God, the God of Israel.Psalms 68:17The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.Psalms 106:19They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image.

Malachi1 mention

Malachi 4:4“Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

Acts2 mentions

Acts 7:30“When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.Acts 7:38This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living revelations to give to us,

Galatians2 mentions

Galatians 4:24These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar.Galatians 4:25For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children.

What the dictionary says

Of Sin (the moon god), called also Horeb, the name of the mountain district which was reached by the Hebrews in the third month after the Exodus. Here they…

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)

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Sources

STEPBible TIPNR · Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References · CC BY 4.0 · github.com/STEPBible/STEPBible-Data
OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding · CC BY 4.0 · www.openbible.info/geo/
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (1869) · Public domain