Arrival At Mount Sinai And The Appearance of Yahweh on the Mount (Exodus 19:1-25).
This section is introduced by a summary (Exodus 19:1-2) which refers back to the details in Exodus 17-18. It was possibly the opening of a new papyrus scroll (or tablet) in his source to bring back to mind the stage reached in the last scroll. Compare here Exodus 6:28 to Exodus 7:1 with Exodus 6:11-13.
Opening Summary (Exodus 19:1-2).
‘In the third moon period after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. And when they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the wilderness of Sinai, they pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount.'
“In the third moon period.” Where there is the intention of being specific the day of the month is always given, so this is a rather vague indicator of time. About seventy to ninety days have thus passed since they began their journey. ‘The same day', that is, in that particular time period, with ‘yom' signifying a particular time rather than a day.
“They came into the wilderness of Sinai.” This refers to their entry into that part of the country south of Canaan named ‘the wilderness of Sinai', the area in which the mountain itself was found.
“And when they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the wilderness of Sinai, they pitched in the wilderness.” Here the ‘wilderness of Sinai' refers to that part of the Sinai peninsula which is immediately around the Mount. It was here that they pitched their camp ‘in the wilderness', and where the rock was to be found from which water gushed (Exodus 17:6). This brief summary connects back to the previous Chapter s, probably indicating the beginning of a new papyrus scroll.
“There Israel camped before the mount.” This is the mountain where Moses met with God in the theophany at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1), the place where God had chosen to reveal Himself. The place of which Yahweh had said, ‘You shall serve God on this mountain' (Exodus 3:12). Now Moses has come to meet with Him there again for one of the greatest events in history. Note again the use of ‘Israel' by itself. This is now used synonymously with ‘the children of Israel'.
Note on the whereabouts of Sinai.
The traditional Mount Sinai is Jebel Musa (the mount of Moses), part of the granite range of mountains in the south-central part of the peninsula of Sinai. It is one of three large peaks in that area.
Tradition has pointed to this mountain as Mount Sinai, although the tradition is rather late only going back sixteen hundred years. It has a plain at its base which ties in with the Biblical description. “That such a plain should exist at all in front of such a cliff is so remarkable a coincidence with the sacred narrative as to furnish a strong internal argument, not merely of its identity with the scene, but of the scene itself having been described by an eyewitness. -- the awful and lengthened approach, as to some natural sanctuary, would have been the fittest preparation for the coming scene. The low line of alluvial mounds at the foot of the cliff exactly answers to the ‘bounds' which were to keep the people off from touching the mount. 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, against which the people could ‘remove and stand afar off'. The cliff, arising 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 mountain that might be touched', and from which the voice of God might be heard far and wide over the plain below, widened at that point to its utmost extent by the confluence of all the contiguous valleys.”
And its strongest support comes from the fact that some of the places that the Israelites visited are generally, although not certainly, identifiable along the way to it.
Some have argued against this identification on the grounds that: 1). The mountain is not volcanic and they consider what follows to suggest volcanic action. 2). That the Sinai peninsula lay within the jurisdiction of Pharaoh and that therefore the children of Israel would avoid it. 3). That Jethro's clan lay east of the Gulf of ‘Aqabah and not in the south of the Sinai peninsula.
But in the case of 1). there is no reason for requiring the mountain to be volcanic. The vivid pictures of the glory of Yahweh fit better with a violent storm rather than a volcano. In the case of 2). we know that Pharaoh's soldiers were only in the area when the mines were operating in January-March. They would therefore not be around at this time. And in the case of 3). the Midianites were nomads and therefore moved around at will. The presence of the Amalekites at Rephidim to defend it demonstrates that this territory was seen as Bedouin territory. The Midianites and the Amalekites tended to live at peace with one another acknowledging that each had a right to be there. Thus Midianites may well have travelled and encamped in the Sinai region. It is also clear that they had contacts with the Kenites for Jethro's grandson is called a Kenite (Judges 4:11), possibly through marriage. And the word Kenite probably means ‘smiths', thus connecting them with the mines in the Sinai peninsula.
Be that as it may what happened there was considerably more important than its identity.
End of note.