Places of the Bible

Mount Sinai

Sinai Peninsula · Old Testament · 37 verses

Mount Sinai, also called Horeb, is the mountain in the Sinai wilderness where God met Israel. Its exact peak is debated but traditionally placed in the southern Sinai. The name appears in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and 8 more in the King James text.

About Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai, also called Horeb, is the mountain in the Sinai wilderness where God met Israel. Its exact peak is debated but traditionally placed in the southern Sinai.

Its place in the story

At Mount Sinai the Lord gave the Ten Commandments and the law to Moses and made His covenant with Israel. There Moses saw the burning bush and later received the tablets amid thunder and cloud. Elijah too came to Horeb to meet with God.

Mount Sinai in Scripture (KJV)

“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.”

Exodus 3:1 (KJV)

“Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”

Exodus 17:6 (KJV)

“And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.”

Exodus 19:11 (KJV)

“And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.”

Exodus 19:18 (KJV)

“And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.”

Exodus 19:20 (KJV)

“And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.”

Exodus 19:23 (KJV)

“And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.”

Exodus 24:16 (KJV)

“And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”

Exodus 31:18 (KJV)

Mount Sinai is named 37 times in Scripture; 8 shown above.

Where it leads

The covenant and law given at Sinai prepared the way for the new covenant established by Jesus, who fulfilled the law and its promises.

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Scripture verbatim KJV. Place facts curated; any coordinates via Wikidata (CC0).