Bible chapter guide

Exodus 19

In the third month Israel camps before Mount Sinai. God offers a covenant: they will be his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. After three days of preparation the mountain is wrapped in smoke, thunder and a loud trumpet, and the LORD descends on it in fire.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

What happens in this chapter

In the third month after leaving Egypt, Israel reaches the wilderness of Sinai and camps before the mountain. Moses goes up, and God sends a message back: he carried them on eagles' wings, and if they keep his covenant they will be his own possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation; the people answer that they will do all the LORD has said. They are given three days to wash their clothes and get ready, and Moses sets bounds round the mountain that neither people nor animals may cross. On the morning of the third day come thunder, lightning, a thick cloud and a very loud trumpet; the mountain smokes like a furnace and quakes, the LORD comes down on it in fire and calls Moses up to the top.

What the lab shows, and where to look

The Exodus lab's Arrival at Sinai stop has three moments: the camp, The boundary and The third day. The ground is the real Jebel Musa and the plain of er-Raha, the traditional site, built from elevation data with added rock detail; whether this is Sinai is uncertain, and the lab says so. The tents, the cairns marking the bounds and the path Moses takes up are artistic, since the text does not say how the bounds were set. On the map you can compare four candidates for Sinai, each with an evidence level. The Bible Time Map has the giving of the law on its timeline.

Questions people ask

Where is Mount Sinai?

The Bible does not locate it in terms that can be mapped with certainty. Jebel Musa in southern Sinai has been venerated as the mountain since at least the fourth century AD, and the pilgrim Egeria climbed it about AD 383. Jebel Serbal, also in Sinai, has had defenders since the nineteenth century; Jebel al-Lawz in north-west Arabia rests on Moses' time in Midian and Paul's 'Mount Sinai in Arabia' (Galatians 4:25); Har Karkom in the Negev has many ancient shrines, though most are far older than either date for the exodus. The lab rates Jebel Musa plausible and the others speculative.

Strongly supported

Was Mount Sinai a volcano?

Some have read the fire, the smoke like a furnace and the quaking (19:18) as a volcanic eruption, and it is one reason a few place Sinai in north-west Arabia, where there are volcanic fields; the Sinai peninsula has no active volcanoes, and Jebel al-Lawz itself is not a volcano either. The text tells it as the LORD coming down on the mountain, and the lab marks the volcano idea as speculative.

Speculative

Why could the people not touch the mountain?

Because the LORD was coming down on it: the bounds marked holy ground, and anyone who touched the mountain was to be put to death (19:12–13). Only when the trumpet sounded long were they to come up to the mountain, and even then the priests and people were warned not to break through (19:21–24). Hebrews 12:18–21 recalls the scene as a picture of fear.

Textually stated

See it in the Labs

Places

Mount Sinai

Also in this chapter

The law at Sinai Arrives at Sinai The LORD comes down on Sinai

How sure can we be?

Textually stated
Thunder, lightning, a thick cloud, a very loud trumpet blast, smoke like a furnace and fire, and the whole mountain quaking.
Exodus 19:16–18.
Textually stated
Moses set bounds for the people round about the mountain.
Exodus 19:12, 23. The text does not say what marked them; the cairns here are artistic.

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King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)