They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain,
God set up His pavilion on a barren mountaintop in the wilderness, not in any city or palace men had built, and thus put contempt upon all our magnificence. The Israelites reckoned on a three days' journey to sacrifice, yet took nearly two months; we are always miscounting the time such things require.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 19:1-8
Horeb and Sinai were two peaks of the same mountain, one on the west and one on the east; the people came from Rephidim on the western side and made their circuit to camp on the eastern side before the mount. That this was their twelfth station, and the law given them at their twelfth mansion, strikes a singular note.
AI summary
The desert has its provinces and names; Sinai lies in the wild center of the peninsula, a harsh range of porphyry and granite. The Wady-es-Sheikh, longest and widest valley in the region, offered ample room for Israel's goodly tents to spread without limit during their sojourn before the mount.
AI summary