And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
Moses brought forth the people. All classes, except, of course, the aged, the sick, and infant children, including even the achsuph, or mixed multitude, required to be present at the inauguration of a national covenant. Wady er-Rahah, where they stood, as a spacious sandy plain immediately in front of Es-Safsafeh, is considered by Robinson to be the mount from which the law was given. 'We measured it, and estimated the whole plain at two geographical miles long, and ranging in width from one-third to two-thirds of a mile, or as equivalent to a surface of one square mile. This space is nearly doubled by the recess on the west, and by the broad and level area of Wady es-Sheikh on the east, which issues at right angles to the plain, and is equally in view of the front and summit of the mount. The examination convinced us that here was space enough to satisfy all the requisitions of the Scripture narrative, so far as it relates to the assembling of the congregation to receive the law. Here, too, one can see the fitness of the injunction to set bounds around the mount, that neither man nor beast might approach too near; because it rises like a perpendicular wall.' Mr. Sandie follows Dr. Robinson in expressing a strong conviction that Safsafeh was the mount from which the Decalogue was proclaimed, and he supports this view by additional reasons-
(1) That the tenor of the narrative implies the summit, unlike that of Jebel Musa, to have been comparatively low, as well as precipitous; because the people were not only brought to "the nether part of the mount" (Exodus 19:17: cf. Deuteronomy 4:11), but near to God (Deuteronomy 5:4).
(2) That this closeness to the mount-unnecessary, and not advisable, had the proclamation been made from a lofty peak-was in order that they might hear the voice of God, who addressed them not in the loud tones of wrath, but in the calm accents of kind and affectionate command.
(3) That other statutes, founded on the principles of the moral law (see the notes at Exodus 21:1-36; Exodus 22:1-31; Exodus 23:1-33), on the same occasion were delivered from the same place; but as the people stood afar off (Exodus 20:18), Moses alone heard them; whereas, had they been uttered from a higher eminence they must have been re-echoed throughout every part of the spacious valley.
This theory, however good it apparently is, entirely fails to meet one of the most prominent circumstances in the narrative-namely, 'that of Moses bringing forth the people out of the camp to meet with God;' for as, according to Dr. Robinson and Mr. Sandie, the encampment was in Er-Rahah and es-Shiekh-the people only came out of their tents in front of Safsafeh, but were not summoned out of the camp.
Many recent writers have furnished a complete solution of this difficulty by transferring the place of assembling the people to hear the proclamation of the law from the valleys in front of Safsafeh, the northern peak, to a plain in front of Jebel Musa, the southern summit. This is the spacious plain of es-Sebayeh, 'which,' says Mr. Drew ('Scripture Lands.' p. 393, 4) 'widens and enlarges toward the south into a most magnificent area for a much larger encampment than could be placed in Er-Rahah. And from every point of it, with the exception of a few inconsiderable depressions beneath recent mounds, Jebel Musa is grandly visible. This was our impression after we had walked a mile; but in order that we might be quite sure of it, and, especially, that we might quite satisfy ourselves that Abu Aldi, on the southeastern flank of Jebel Musa, did at no point hide it, we walked to the very end. At no point was the view of Jebel Musa interrupted. It rose everywhere before us, through the three miles over which Sebayeh extends as THE MOUNT. In the broadest part, near the south end, and along a line bearing northwest and southeast, we found the plain was one mile and three-quarters broad. We could look along it straight into the Wady es-Shiekh-a distance of fully ten miles. This wady meets all the requirements of the narrative. Its sides, gently sloping, are filled with vegetation. Jebel Musa is the object visible at every part, and the spurs from the mountain come down along it on the east side, so as to form a clearly defined boundary ... There is abundant room in it and the adjacent wadys for the Israelites to have been placed, as the narrative describes, during the giving of the law; and after going over the conditions that must have been fulfilled by the actual scene of that event, we came deliberately and strongly to the conclusion that it had far greater claims to be received in that character than Er-Rahah, and that the old traditional Sinai was indeed no other than the sacred mount. Still we thought it right to go and examine Er-Rahah again, though we had seen it so plainly from Safsafeh the day before; otherwise we should have been partly falling into what appears to have been Robinson's, Stanley's, and others' mistake in judging of the plain from the mountain, instead of the mountain from the plain. Obviously the problem is to find a plain from every point of which the mountain is distinctly and impressively visible-not to find a mountain where you can see everyone who is standing on a given space below. We went accordingly, and traversed Er-Rahah from end to end; and we found --
(1) 'That it is of smaller superficial extent than Sebayeh: it is, on the average, one mile broad, and it Isaiah 2:3 /4 miles long.
(2) 'That it is not to be compared with Sebayeh in regard to its approaches, and to the nature of its side boundaries, which are, and always have been, steep and bare of vegetation; and
(3) 'We were impressed greatly by the fact, that at all points of the plain Safsafeh stands blended and mingled with almost equal heights. Indeed, at the northern end El-Tlaha is far more impressive, so that Safsafeh could never be looked upon from Er-Rahah as THE MOUNT.
'Our conclusion was in the strongest manner sustained; and I do not hesitate to record my firm belief that the old traditional Sinai is the very place, if this be known at all, whence the law was given, and in view of which the people were assembled.' (See Laborde's 'Commentaire Geographique on Exodus;' also Tischendorf's 'Travels in the East,' vol. 1:, p. 232; Ritter, 'Erd Kunde,' 100: 14: 591; Wilson's 'Lands,' vol 1:, p. 232; Stewart, 'Tent and Khan,' pp. 134, 152.)