S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

Where is the real Mount Sinai? For centuries, scholars, explorers and pilgrims have sought the location of the real Mount Sinai-the mountain of God from the biblical story of Moses and the Exodus. ...

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July 01 2013 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Doreen Lovell Supporter Evangelist and Prayer Intercessor

In addition to the 1st answer given the term HOREB is often used to refer to Mt. Sinai (Ex. 3:1).Since Horeb means waste or wilderness it seems best to think of Horeb as the general term for the area and Sinai as the specific peak where God manifested Himself to Moses.

The modern name for the site of Mount Sinai is JEBEL MUSA (the mount of Moses). Jebel is Arabic for hill and is sometimes written as Jabal or Gabel.

April 24 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

John Appelt Supporter

The location of the real Mount Sinai might be debated for a long, long time. However, there seems to be one place that seems to fit every Scriptural detail. It is Jebel Yi’allaq, a mountain west of the middle of the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. Here are some reasons:

It had to be a 3-days’ journey from Egypt, Exodus 8:27. That figures to be about 60 miles. This eliminates many places in the southern and eastern portions of the Sinai and beyond. When it says Moses led the flock to the back of the desert, Exodus 3:1, this would be coming from Midian into the Sinai desert. After this, Moses went back to Midian, after which he left for Egypt, Exodus 4:18, 19. On the way, Moses met Aaron at the mountain of God, Exodus 4:27. Jebel Yi’allaq would be conveniently on the way. 

It had to be an 11-day’s journey from Kadesh Barnea, Deuteronomy 1:2, which likely locates Mount Sinai in the northern part of the central deserts. The ‘way of Seir’ is the road from Egypt to Edom at the south end of the Dead Sea. It lines up.

It had to have the Amalekite connection. In Exodus 17:8, the Amalekites at Rephidim attacked Israel, recently come out of Egypt. The Amalekites had to be from nearby. Numbers 13:29 relates that, “The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South.” In Numbers 14:45, when Israel presumed to enter the land after the Lord forbade them, the Canaanites and the Amalekites attacked them. Israel would have been trespassing right into their territory in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. The name Yi’allaq or Yalek is close to the name of Amalek, the prefix ‘Am’ meaning ‘country of,’ suggesting a connection there. 

During the 1960s and 70s, Bir Gifgafa Airfield, a strategic place militarily, came under Israeli control and was called Rephidim Airbase. It is reasonable to think that Israel named it that because the ancient site was there or very close by. 

After Rephidim, Israel came to the Wilderness of Sinai, Exodus 19:2. Mount Yi’allaq is east of where the Rephidim may have been. Horeb or Mount Sinai would fit here geographically and chronologically. 

Jebel Yi’allaq is the highest mountain in its region and certain features of the limestone mountain make it very conspicuous, said by some to seem majestic as it stands alone. This would be the feature that was needed to prohibit anyone from approaching this holy ground under the penalty of death, Exodus 19:12.

Near Jebel Yi’allaq is a well or spring, Bir Abu Qurun, which may be the source of a river that may fit Deuteronomy 9:21, “a brook that descended from the mountain.”

Jebel Yi’allaq lines up with the major journeys of the Israelites. The trajectory from the Red Sea to Elim to Rephidim to Jebel Yi’allaq to Kadesh Barnea, make a straight line. 

Although not written in stone, Jebel Yi’allaq is a good possibility for being the Mount Sinai.

December 20 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Leslie Coutinho Supporter

Exodus 4:19 And the Lord said unto Moses in Mid’-i-an, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.

Moses, when he fled from Pharaoh, from the land of Egypt, came to the “Land of Midian,” located on the east, on the other side of the Red Sea, having Mount Sinai on the backside in the Arabian Peninsula. The Red Sea has two rivers flowing up in the north: on the left, the Gulf of Suez, and on the right, the Gulf of Aqaba. Moses then dwelt in the land of Midian and was then given the daughter of the priest of Midian, who looked after the flock, taking them to the mountain of God to Horeb. (Exo 2:15-16,21,3:1) The Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire. God, the Father, then called out to him from the midst of the bush and said unto him to bring the children out of Egypt. (Exo 3:2,4,10) Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in Rameses, the country of Go’-shen, a fertile region in the eastern Nile Delta in “Lower Egypt.” After all the plagues in Egypt, Pharaoh let the Israelites go, three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord God. (Gen 47:11,27/Exo 8:27,12:31) 

“God the Father then led them from their dwelling in Lower Egypt through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.” The Lord then spoke to Moses to camp before “Pi-ha-hi’-roth between Mig’-dol and the Red Sea.” For Pharaoh will say the children of Israel had become “entangled in their land, Egypt,” for the wilderness with the Red Sea had shut them in. (Exo 13:18,14:1-3) When Pharaoh drew nigh to the children of Israel, the Lord then said to Moses, " Speak unto the children of Israel to go forward, and lift thy rod which I have given thee, stretch out thy hand over the Red Sea and divide it.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and made the sea a dry land, dividing the waters of the sea. (Exo 14:8,16,21) Moses then brought the Israelites through the Red Sea and went out into the wilderness of Shur to E’-lim, to the wilderness of Sin, to Reph’-i-dim, and came to the desert of Si’-nai. (Exo 15:22,27/16:1/17:1/19:1-2) 

The Land of Midian, which is named after Abraham's second wife Keturah’s son Midian, who were sent eastward to the east country (Gen 25:2,6), is the Arabian Peninsula. Mount Sinai is the mountain of God in Horeb, in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Lord said I will stand before thee there upon the Rock in Horeb. Moses was then called up on the mount and was given the tablets of stone with the law and commandments which God the Father had written. When he came down from the mount, his anger waxed hot, for they were worshiping idols, and he cast the tables and broke them near the mount. (Exo 24:12,31:18,32:19) The Angel of the Lord (Lord Jesus) that was sent before him then said (Exo 23:20) unto Moses, “Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first which thou brakest,” and the Lord then said unto him. “Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.” For they all drank the same spiritual drink of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (Exo 17:6/34:1,27/Num 20:8/John 5:46/1 Cor 10:4) 

Galatians 4:24-25 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Si’-nai, which gendereth to bondage, which is A’-gar. For this A’-gar is mount Si’-nai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

1 day ago • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report