April 25

Sinai

Exodus 19

We must now conduct our readers to Sinai itself, to which sacred mount the next move brought the Israelites. We will accept the guidance of a very intelligent traveler, in taking the first view of this renowned mountain. It is only necessary first to premise, that it belongs to the high central group of the Sinai mountains; and seeing that the name of Horeb seems to be given convertibly to the mount on which the law was delivered, we agree with those who take Horeb to be the general name for the entire group of mountains, and Sinai for the particular summit. The traveler we accept for our guide is Dr. Durbin; but it is right to point out, that the Israelites are regarded as having approached the plain in front of the mountain, by a somewhat more circuitous and practicable route than that of the traveler; but the results are the same. “For two hours we ascended the wild, narrow pass, enclosed between stupendous granite cliffs, whose debris encumbered the defile, often rendering the passage difficult and dangerous. Escaping from the pass, we crossed the head of a basin-like plain, which declined to the south-west, and, ascending gradually, gloomy precipitous mountain masses rose to view on either hand, with detached snow-beds Note: This is accounted for by the time of the year—February. lying in their clefts. The caravan moved slowly, and apparently with a more solemn, measured tread; the Bedouins became more serious and silent, and looked steadily before them, as if to catch the first glimpse of some revered object. The space before us gradually expanded, when suddenly Tualeb, Note: The Arab guide. pointing to a black perpendicular cliff, whose two riven and rugged summits rose some 1,200 or 1,500 feet directly in front of us, exclaimed, Jebel Mûsa! Note: Mount of Moses. How Shall I describe the effect of that announcement? Not a word was spoken by Moslem or Christian; but slowly and silently we advanced into the still expanding plain, our eyes immovably fixed on the frowning precipices of the stern and desolate mountain. We were doubtless on the plain where Israel encamped at the giving of the law, and that grand and gloomy height before us was Sinai, on which God descended in fire, and the whole mountain was enveloped in smoke, and shook under the tread of the Almighty, while his presence was proclaimed by the long loud peals of repeated thunder, above which the blast of the trumpet was heard, waxing louder and louder, and reverberating amid the stern and gloomy heights around, and then God spake with Moses. ‘And all the people removed and stood afar off, and trembled when they saw the thunderings and lightnings, and thick darkness where God was; and said unto Moses, Speak thou unto us; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’ Exodus 20. We all seemed to ourselves to be present at this terrible scene, and would have marched directly up to the mount of God, had not Tualeb recalled us to ourselves, by pointing to the convent far up in the deep ravine between Horeb and Jebel Deir.” Note: Observations on the East, i. 132-134.

It is easily conceivable, and the history seems to require it, that the Israelites approached this place by a more convenient route, if any existed, than that which unencumbered travelers prefer. It is therefore usually understood that instead of going through the narrow and difficult mountain passes and ravines, which indeed would have been scarcely possible then, they, on leaving the Wady Feiran, swept round to Mount Horeb, by the comparatively broad valley of Wady esh-Sheikh. The author of Forty Lays in the Desert is the most recent traveler who has passed that way, and we must not refuse the reader the pleasure of his company. His description is, however, somewhat marred by the preconceived notion that the Mount of God was to be sought in another quarter.

“From the descriptions of the pass which I had read, I expected unusual grandeur in the scenery, as well as great difficulty in the ascent; but after our clamber up the terrific precipices of the Serbal, Note: Another of the Sinaic mountains, which some have regarded as the Sinai of Scripture. those which were in this desolate ravine appeared very insignificant, while the zig-zag pathway, built up with stones, seemed, comparatively, like a broad and easy turnpike-road, which we surmounted with little effort. Note: This facility is, however, an argument in favor of this route for the Israelites; but, as the author remarks, the route must have presented great difficulties before the construction of the road. Not so, however, did the camels; their piteous cries filled the air, and echoed wildly in the recesses of the shattered cliffs. Catching, as we mounted higher and higher, the still freshening breeze from the cool regions above, we felt equal to anything…. The narrow valley widened gradually into a high, dreary, undulating plain, hemmed in by still drearier mountains, which upreared their dark, shattered, thunder-stricken peaks higher and higher on each side as we advanced; while right before us, closing up the plain, and shutting it in, towered sheer from its level, an awful range of precipices, which seemed to bar our further progress through this region of desolate sublimity, As we still advanced, a narrow glen opened up between them, running deeper into the heart of the solitude, and at some distance up this, half lost between walls and naked rock, peeped out the high wall of the convent, and the dark verdure of its garden, looking, as some one has well described it, like the end of the world.”

The plain of er-Rabah, into which both routes thus lead, is regarded by Dr. Robinson, and by most other travelers since, as the camping ground of the Israelites. Its extent is still further increased by lateral valleys, receding from the plain itself, between the foot of the first range of mountains, and that of the grand central mass of crags—the left one being the Wady esh-Sheikh, of very considerable extent; the right, a smaller recess, altogether making a very extensive open space—supposed until lately to be the only one existing in this high central region, which could at all meet the necessities of the case—but still such as a military man, accustomed to estimate the ground which a large army requires for encampment, would perhaps hardly consider sufficient for the immense host of Israel.

It so happens, however, that the identification of this plain as the site of the Hebrew encampment, required a change of view as to the summit on which the law was delivered; for the mountain which had hitherto been regarded as the scene of that solemn event is not visible from this plain, and therefore not to the host assembled there—the view of its summit being intercepted by a nearer mountain.

The reader must clearly understand, that the Horeb, taken in the largest sense, is an oblong mountain, about three miles in length, all around the base of which sweeps a deep, irregular, and narrow defile, as if the Almighty himself had set bounds around it as holy ground. Even the mountains round about, which seem thrown together in wild confusion, are cut off from any communication with the Mount of God. At the southern extremity of this oblong edge, rises a summit, in lofty and stern grandeur, to the height of about 7,500 feet above the level of the sea; and this is the Jebel Mûsa, which tradition regards as the Sinai of Scripture—the mount where the law was delivered. The only ground on which its claim to this distinction—which it seems entitled to by its surpassing grandeur—has been questioned, is, that it is not visible from the plain which has been fixed upon as the camping ground of the Israelites. Most of those who have on this ground questioned its claims, have done so with declared reluctance, seeing how fully in all other respects the mountain corresponds to the ideas one previously forms of the Mount of God. But finding no help, they repair to the other extremity of the oblong mount, and discover there another pinnacle, which, although lower than Jebel Mûsa, boldly confronts the plain of the encampment, and is visible from all parts of it. It bears the name of Suksafeh, and is the “Horeb” of the traditions which gave to the two grand summits the distinctive names of Horeb and Sinai. Though inferior to the southern summit, it is not wanting in grandeur and magnificence, and it is of very difficult access, though some have contrived, with no small risk, to reach the summit. Dr. Durbin, who went to it directly from the summit of Jebel Mûsa says: “No one who has not seen them, can conceive the ruggedness of these vast piles of granite rocks, rent into chasms, rounded into small summits, or splintered into countless peaks, all in the wildest confusion, as they appear to the eye of an observer from any of the heights. But when we did arrive at the summit of es-Suksafeh, and cast our eyes over the wide plain, we were more than repaid for all our toil. One glance was enough. We were satisfied that here, and here only, could the wondrous displays of Sinai have been visible to the assembled host of Israel; that here the Lord spoke with Moses; that here was the mount that trembled and smoked in the presence of its manifested Creator! We gazed for some time in silence, and when we spoke, it was with a reverence that even the most thoughtless of our company could not shake off. I read on the very spot, with what feelings I need not say, the passage in Exodus which relates the wonders of which this mountain was the theater. We felt its truth, and could almost see the lightnings, and hear the thunders, and the ‘trumpet waxing loud.’”