Atomic Bible

Mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments

Sinai

Named in 43 verses across 12 books, first in Exodus 3:1.

The name means “a bush; enmity.” Hitchcock's Bible Names, 1869

About Sinai Written by AI

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.

Drafted by an AI model for STEPBible's TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Check it against the verses below.

Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897

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 remained encamped for about a whole year. Their journey from the Red Sea to this encampment, including all the windings of the route, was about 150 miles. The last twenty-two chapters of Exodus, together with the whole of Leviticus and Num. ch. 1-11, contain a record of all the transactions which occurred while they were here. From Rephidim (Ex. 17:8-13) the Israelites journeyed forward through the Wady Solaf and Wady esh-Sheikh into the plain of er-Rahah, “the desert of Sinai,” about 2 miles long and half a mile broad, and encamped there “before the mountain.” The part of the mountain range, a protruding lower bluff, known as the Ras Sasafeh (Sufsafeh), rises almost perpendicularly from this plain, and is in all probability the Sinai of history. Dean Stanley thus describes the scene:, “The plain itself is not broken and uneven and narrowly shut in, like almost all others in the range, but presents a long retiring sweep, within which the people could remove and stand afar off. The cliff, rising like a huge altar in front of the whole congregation, and visible against the sky in lonely grandeur from end to end of the whole plain, is the very image of the ‘mount that might be touched,’ and from which the voice of God might be heard far and wide over the plain below.” This was the scene of the giving of the law. From the Ras Sufsafeh the law was proclaimed to the people encamped below in the plain of er-Rahah. During the lengthened period of their encampment here the Israelites passed through a very memorable experience. An immense change passed over them. They are now an organized nation, bound by covenant engagement to serve the Lord their God, their ever-present divine Leader and Protector. At length, in the second month of the second year of the Exodus, they move their camp and march forward according to a prescribed order. After three days they reach the “wilderness of Paran,” the “et-Tih”, i.e., “the desert”, and here they make their first encampment. At this time a spirit of discontent broke out amongst them, and the Lord manifested his displeasure by a fire which fell on the encampment and inflicted injury on them. Moses called the place Taberah (q.v.), Num. 11:1-3. The journey between Sinai and the southern boundary of the Promised Land (about 150 miles) at Kadesh was accomplished in about a year. (See MAP facing page 204.)

M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, third edition (1897), public domain, from CrossWire. Shown as written; its Scripture quotes are from older translations.

28.540, 33.973 See it on a map

GenesisMatthewRevelation

Where the Bible names it

  1. Exodus 3:1

    Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

  2. Exodus 16:1

    On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.

  3. Exodus 17:6

    Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

  4. Exodus 19:11

    and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

  5. Exodus 19:18

    Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.

  6. Exodus 19:20

    The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the summit. So Moses went up,

  7. Exodus 19:23

    But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, for You solemnly warned us, ‘Put a boundary around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’”

  8. Exodus 24:16

    and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.

  9. Exodus 31:18

    When the LORD had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

  10. Exodus 33:6

    So the Israelites stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.

  11. Exodus 34:2

    Be ready in the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai to present yourself before Me on the mountaintop.

  12. Exodus 34:4

    So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals. He rose early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hands, he went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him.

  13. Exodus 34:29

    And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant from speaking with the LORD.

  14. Exodus 34:32

    And after this all the Israelites came near, and Moses commanded them to do everything that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.

  15. Leviticus 7:38

    which the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai on the day He commanded the Israelites to present their offerings to the LORD in the Wilderness of Sinai.

  16. Leviticus 25:1

    Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

  17. Leviticus 26:46

    These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

  18. Leviticus 27:34

    These are the commandments that the LORD gave to Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.

  19. Numbers 3:1

    This is the account of Aaron and Moses at the time the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.

  20. Numbers 28:6

    This is a regular burnt offering established at Mount Sinai as a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.

  21. Deuteronomy 1:2

    It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.

  22. Deuteronomy 1:6

    The LORD our God said to us at Horeb: “You have stayed at this mountain long enough.

  23. Deuteronomy 1:19

    And just as the LORD our God had commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites, through all the vast and terrifying wilderness you have seen. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,

  24. Deuteronomy 4:10

    The day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”

  25. Deuteronomy 4:15

    So since you saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb, be careful

  26. Deuteronomy 5:2

    The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

  27. Deuteronomy 9:8

    At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.

  28. Deuteronomy 18:16

    This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!”

  29. Deuteronomy 29:1

    These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He had made with them at Horeb.

  30. Deuteronomy 33:2

    He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand.

  31. Judges 5:5

    The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel.

  32. 1 Kings 8:9

    There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of the land of Egypt.

  33. 1 Kings 19:8

    So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

  34. 2 Chronicles 5:10

    There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

  35. Nehemiah 9:13

    You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.

  36. Psalm 68:8

    the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

  37. Psalm 68:17

    The chariots of God are tens of thousands—thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.

  38. Psalm 106:19

    At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

  39. Malachi 4:4

    “Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb.

  40. Acts 7:30

    After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

And 3 more

Acts 7:38

Galatians 4:24, 4:25

From STEPBible's TIPNR, Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0): names, family, references and the AI written article. Verse text is the BSB.