Sinai

Sinai, also called Horeb, is the mountain in the wilderness east of the Red Sea where Yahweh first commissioned Moses at the bush, descended in fire and cloud to deliver the Decalogue, sealed the covenant with Israel, and afterward met Elijah in a still small voice. Around it cluster the wilderness wanderings, the tabernacle plan, the golden calf, and the figurative readings of Sinai in Psalms, Sirach, Galatians, and Hebrews.

The Bush

The site is first marked out by the angel of Yahweh in flame: "And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and noticed that the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed" (Ex 3:2). Moses turns aside to investigate the prodigy: "And Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt" (Ex 3:3). The Lord Jesus later cites the same scene as proof of resurrection: "have you⁺ not read in the Book of Moses, in [the place concerning] the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I [am] the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" (Mr 12:26).

The Mountain Reached

After the Exodus, Israel arrives at Sinai. Yahweh's covenant offer comes from the mountain: "And Moses went up to God, and [the Speech of] Yahweh called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus you will say to the house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel: You⁺ have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you⁺ on eagles' wings, and brought you⁺ to myself" (Ex 19:3-4). The conditions are stated plainly: "Now therefore, if you⁺ will obey [my Speech] indeed, and keep my covenant, then you⁺ will be my own possession from among all peoples ... and you⁺ will be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation" (Ex 19:5-6).

Theophany at the Giving of the Law

The descent itself is at the center of the narrative. Yahweh announces it: "Look, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you" (Ex 19:9). On the third day the mount is enveloped in a storm: "there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceedingly loud; and all the people who were in the camp trembled" (Ex 19:16). The whole mountain becomes furnace: "And mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly" (Ex 19:18). The trumpet swells, voice answers voice (Ex 19:19), and Moses ascends: "And [the Speech of] Yahweh came down on mount Sinai, to the top of the mount: and [the Speech of] Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mount; and Moses went up" (Ex 19:20).

The people perceive the sensible signs and recoil: "And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood far off" (Ex 20:18). They beg for a mediator: "You speak with us, and we will hear; but don't let [the Speech of] God speak with us, or else we will die" (Ex 20:19). Moses answers, and then "the people stood far off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was" (Ex 20:21).

The Voice and the Decalogue

From this fire and darkness the words of the covenant are issued: "And [the Speech of] God spoke all these words, saying," (Ex 20:1) — beginning with "You will have no other gods before me" (De 5:7). Deuteronomy preserves the same memory: "And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which [the Speech of] Yahweh spoke to you⁺ in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly" (De 10:4). The teaching purpose is summarized by Moses: "Out of heaven he made you hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and on earth he made you see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire" (De 4:36).

The covenant is then declared: "And he declared to you⁺ his covenant, which he commanded you⁺ to perform, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone" (De 4:13). The tables are not human work: "And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tables" (Ex 32:16). After forty days on the mount, Moses writes again: "And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. And he wrote on the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments" (Ex 34:28).

Moses is the lawgiver by deputation: "Moses commanded us a law, An inheritance for the assembly of Jacob" (De 33:4); "this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel" (De 4:44); "he gave them in commandment all that [the Speech of] Yahweh had spoken with him in mount Sinai" (Ex 34:32).

The Cloud and the Forty Days

The cloud is both screen and conveyance for the divine presence. "And Moses went up into the mount, and the cloud covered the mount" (Ex 24:15). "And the appearance of the glory of Yahweh was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the sons of Israel" (Ex 24:17). And again at the renewal: "And Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of [the Speech of] Yahweh" (Ex 34:5). Sirach renders the same picture: Moses "caused him to hear his voice, And let him draw near to the dark cloud; And he placed in his hand the commandment, Even the law of life and discernment" (Sir 45:5).

The Seventy Elders

The covenant ratification meal is held above the camp. "And he said to Moses, Come up to Yahweh, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and you⁺ worship far off" (Ex 24:1); "Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel" (Ex 24:9). For ordinary judgment Aaron and Hur are left in charge below (Ex 24:14). The same number of elders later receives the Spirit at the tent of meeting: "And Yahweh said to Moses, Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel ... that they may stand there with you" (Nu 11:16); "And Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders" (Nu 11:25).

The Golden Calf

While Moses is on the mount the people demand a tangible god. "And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden rings ... And he received it at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it [into] a molten calf: and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (Ex 32:2-4). The Psalmist's bare verdict: "They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged his glory For the likeness of an ox that eats grass" (Ps 106:19-20). After judgment Israel divests itself of its finery: "And the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from mount Horeb onward" (Ex 33:6).

Aaron and the Priesthood

Sinai is also where the priesthood is appointed. The mountain is fenced for Aaron alongside Moses (Ex 19:24). Sirach's recital makes Sinai the moment of his consecration: "Moses consecrated him, And anointed him with the holy oil; And it became for him an eternal covenant, And for his seed as the days of heaven; To minister and to execute the priest's office for him, And to bless his people in his name" (Sir 45:15). "And he gave them his commandments, And invested him with authority over statute and judgement, That he might teach his people statutes, And judgements to the children of Israel" (Sir 45:17). Sirach also marks Moses himself: "Beloved of God and men was Moses, Whose memorial is blessed" (Sir 45:1); "By his words he caused wonders to happen in quick succession ... And he gave him a charge to the people, And showed him his glory" (Sir 45:3); "For his faithfulness and his meekness, He chose him out of all flesh" (Sir 45:4).

Moses' Face and the Tent

Moses' commerce with Yahweh marks his body: "when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of the testimony in Moses' hand ... Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him" (Ex 34:29). Of the tent erected at the foot of the mount: "And Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his companion" (Ex 33:11). Moses' meekness is noted: "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all among man who were on the face of the earth" (Nu 12:3).

The Tabernacle

The Sinai legislation includes the building plan: "And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may stay among them" (Ex 25:8). When at last erected, the same theophanic cloud that had wrapped the mount now wraps the tent: "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle" (Ex 40:34). Sirach reads Sinai forward into Levitical worship: "in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the sons of Israel to offer their oblations to Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai" (Le 7:38).

Departure and the Wilderness

After the cloud lifts, the camp moves. "And the sons of Israel set forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud stayed in the wilderness of Paran" (Nu 10:12). A generation later the census reckons the cost: "But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai" (Nu 26:64). Yet sustenance held: "And I have led you⁺ forty years in the wilderness: your⁺ clothes are not waxed old on you⁺, and your sandals have not waxed old on your feet" (De 29:5).

The Mountain Remembered

Later Scripture keeps returning to Sinai/Horeb as a reference point for the law. Nehemiah: "You came down also on mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments" (Ne 9:13). Malachi closes the prophets with the same horizon: "Remember⁺ the law of Moses my slave, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances" (Mal 4:4). The blessing of Moses opens with the same locus: "[The Speech of] Yahweh came from Sinai, And rose from Seir to them; He shined forth from mount Paran ... At his right hand was a fiery law for them" (De 33:2).

The Psalter echoes the same theophany: "The earth trembled, The heavens also dropped [rain] at the presence of God: This Sinai [trembled] at the presence of God, the God of Israel" (Ps 68:8). And again: "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands on thousands; The Lord is among them, [as in] Sinai, in the sanctuary" (Ps 68:17).

Elijah at Horeb

Elijah retraces Moses' route. From the wilderness he is fed and goes "in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God" (1Ki 19:8). At the same mountain Yahweh passes by, but the order is reversed: "a great and strong wind ... but Yahweh was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but Yahweh was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice" (1Ki 19:11-12). Elijah, like Moses, hides his face: "he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave" (1Ki 19:13). Sirach pairs the two prophets at the same site: Elijah is the one "Who heard rebukes from Sinai, And from Horeb judgements of vengeance" (Sir 48:7) — a prophet whose word "was like a burning furnace" (Sir 48:1), through whom "fire came down three times" (Sir 48:3). Malachi promises his return: "Look, I will send you⁺ Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes" (Mal 4:5).

The Allegory of Two Covenants

Paul reads Sinai figuratively. "Which things contain an allegory: for these [women] are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children to slavery, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answers to the Jerusalem that now is: for she works as a slave along with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother" (Ga 4:24-26).

The Contrast in Hebrews

Hebrews sets the audible terror of Sinai over against the heavenly assembly: "For you⁺ have not come to [a mount] that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] those who heard entreated that no word more should be spoken to them ... and so fearful was the appearance, [that] Moses said, I am terrified and trembling: but you⁺ have come to mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem ... and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than [that of] Abel" (Heb 12:18-24). The warning that follows trades on the same Sinai voice: "See that you⁺ do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned [them] on earth, much more [will] we [not escape] who turn away from him who [warns] from heaven" (Heb 12:25). The closing word holds the two mountains together in one image: "for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb 12:29).