Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai is also known in the Bible as “Mount Horeb” or “the Mountain of Moses,” and in Arabic as Jabal Musa.

Mount Sinai is a granite peak in the south-central Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, located in the South Sinai Governorate. It has an elevation of 2,285 meters and is surrounded by other high mountains. In Jewish history, this mountain is “the mountain of God,” a primary location for divine revelation. According to the Bible, Mount Sinai is where the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in flames of fire from within a bush (Exodus 3:1-2). After leading the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses went to this mountain to receive the Law, the Ten Commandments, from the Lord on behalf of the Israelites. While Moses was on the mountain, Aaron created the golden calf for the Israelites to worship. When Moses descended and saw what was happening, he was so angry that he smashed the stone tablets inscribed with God’s Law. After a period of punishment and repentance, Moses returned to Mount Sinai with two newly carved stone tablets, and God wrote the “Ten Commandments” on the new tablets and instructed Moses to place them in the Ark of the Covenant.

In the Book of Kings, after the prophet Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he fled to a wilderness near Beersheba to escape Queen Jezebel’s revenge. Exhausted, he lay down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. An angel then came and provided him with food and water. Strengthened by the meal, he walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God (which is Mount Sinai) (1 Kings 19:8). There, God gave Elijah a new mission.

In summary, “Mount Sinai” appears multiple times in the Bible as the place where the Israelites directly encountered God and received the Law. It is the place where a scattered people found unity and a shared identity. In the hearts of the Jewish people, Mount Sinai is sacred and irreplaceable, an eternal site of pilgrimage.

(Compiled and edited based on the Chinese Union Version, “Holy Light Bible Geography,” and a comprehensive biblical interpretation.)