The route from Sin to Rephidim cannot be traced. There are no satisfactory data. In Exodus (xvii. i) it is simply recorded that they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim.' In the book of Numbers (xxxiii. 12, 13), two intermediate stations are men tioned, Doplikah and Alush, but their sites are unknown. The various opinions regarding the position of Rephidim have already been stated, and its probable site pointed out [REPHIptm]. Taking for granted that Rephidim was in Wady esh-Sheikh, a short march from Sinai, and consequently not far distant from the tomb or sanctuary of Sheikh Saleh (Handbook, IL 37 ; Robinson, B. R. i. 14.6 and 12.1), the distance from Sin would be above sixty miles, through an exceedingly wild and diffi cult region. Several routes were open to the people. One leads up Wadys Shelal, Mokatteb (the celebrated written valley'), and Feiran ; another passes along the coast to the entmnce of Wady Feiran, and goes up that great valley ; a third passes along the plain nearly to the parallel of Tfir, and then up through sublime glens direct to Sinai. The passes along the first route are in places so narrow and difficult that the people would scarcely have ventured through them unless driven by necessity. The passes on the third route are Ewen more difficult, and, besides, in following it the people would not have gone near the place which we have endeavoured to identify as Rephidim (see, however, Sandie, Ifereb and yerusalent, 156, seq.) Wady Feiran affords a tolerably easy and wide ap proach from the plain to the heart of the moun tains. It contains, besides, that copious fountain, with its streamlet and palm grove, near the old city of Feiran, which is justly called the desert para dise ;' and in connection with this it should not be forgotten that no complaint of want of water is recorded between Sin and Rephidim. Perhaps Feiran may be identical with Dophkah or Alush. Some locate Rephidim here ; but at Rephidim there was no water for the people to drink,' while Feiran is the best watering-place in the pen insula.
Wady esh-Sheikh falls into Feiran, after sweep ing round in a semicircle to the northward from the foot of Mount Sinai. It is the most spacious valley in the peninsula, and on the whole the most fertile. It is the natural, and for such a multitude as the Israelites, the only practicable approach to the Mount of God' from Egypt. It, with its con tinuation Feiran, forms in fact the great thorough fare of the desert.
At Rephidim the people murmured because there was no water for them to drink' (Exod. xvii. r). Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go on be fore the people, and take vvith thee the elders of Israel ; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb ; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall conie water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the eldeis of Israel' (verses 5, 6). Horeb niust have been at some little distance from the site of the camp at Rephi dim, and yet not so far as to prevent the people going there for a supply of water.
The attack of the Amalekites appears to have followed immediately the miracle of the smitten rock ; and as it was begun by an assault upon the rear of the Israelites—upon all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary' (Deut. xxv. IS)—it would seem probable it took place when the able-bodied men were gone for ward with Moses and the elders to procure water. This throws new light upon the incident. On the
following day the Israelitish warriors were mar shalled under Joshua (Exod. xvii. 9), and the Amalekites completely routed.
It is usual to connect the Amalekites with Feiran, and to represent the battle as a brave attempt on their part to defend the paradise of their desert home (Lepsius, p. 363 ; Ritter, Pal. ?Ind Syr. i. 717, seq. ; Stanley, S. and P. 28 ; Stewart, Tent and Khan, 97). For this there is not a shadow of evidence. The home of tbe Amalekites was much farther north, and it is questionable whether they had any possessions among the mountains of Sinai. It would seem that when the main body of the Israelites were approaching Rephidim, the Amalek ites feared they were about to advance northward ; consequently they crossed the passes of Jebel et-Tih in force, and attacked the rear of the host as above stated. It is important to observe that the roads from the desert of Et-Tih fall into Wady esh Sheikh just at the place where we have attempted to fix the site of Rephidim.
After leaving Rephidim the camp was pitthed in front of Mount Sinai, on the plain of Edhah (` rest'), on the first day of the third month, and conse quently just a month and a half after their depart ure from Rameses (Exod. xix. 1). With his usual graphic power Dean Stanley describes this last stage of the people's progress to the Mount of God :'—` Onwards and upwards, after their long halt, exulting in their first victoiy, they advanced deeper and deeper into the mountain-ranges, they knew not whither. They knew only that it was for some great end, for some mighty sacrifice, for some solemn disclosure, such as they had never before witnessed. Onwards they went, and the mountains closed around tbem, upvvards through winding valley, and under high cliff, and over rug ged pass, and through gigantic forms, on which the marks of creation even now seem fresh and power ful ; and at last, through all the different valleys, the whole body of the people were assembled. On their right hand and on their left rose long succes sions of lofty rocks, forming a vast avenue, like the approaches which they had seen leading to the Egyptian temples between colossal fig-ures of men and of gods. At the end of this broad avenue, rising iinmediately out of the level plain on which they were encamped, towered the massive cliffs of Sinai, like the huge altar of some natural temple ; encircled by peaks of every shape and height, the natural pyramids of the desert. In this sanctuary, secluded from all earthly things, raised high above even the wilderness itself, arrived, as it must have seemed to them, at the very end of the world— they waited for the revelation of God. . . . The outward scene might indeed prepare them for what was to come. They stood in a vast sanc tuary, not made with hands—a sanctuary where every outward shape of life, animal or vegetable, such as in Egypt had attracted their wonder and admiration, was withdrawn. Bare and unclothed, the mountains rose around them ; their very shapes and colours were such as were calculated to carry their thoughts back to the days of old creation' (Lectures on the ylwish Church, i. 147). Alone with their God, shut in by the wildest and grandest of his works, in front of his chosen mountain-altar, they now saw his glory, and received from his lips a full revelation of his will. The whole scene and circumstances were wondrously fitted to impress them with the majesty and power of Jehovah, to free them from every taint of Egyptian idolatry, and to constrain them to yield to him implicit and everlasting obedience.