bills. Wc thus place them before Mount Iloreb, in the capacious plain Kaluili, which, having its -vvidest part in the innnediate front of that immense mass of rock, extends as if with two arms, one towards the north-west, the other towards the north-east. The re- view of the plain by so competent a person as Robin- son is of great consequence for the interests of scien- tific geography, and the yet more important interests of religious truth ; the rather because a belief prevail- ed, even among the best informed, that there was no spot in the Sinaitic district which answered to the de- mands of the scriptural narrative. Even the accurate Winer {Rml-Wort. in art. "Sinai," not "Horeb," as referred to by Kobinson, i, 17; ii, 550) saj's, "Which- ever mountain may be considered as the place for the promulgation of the law, the common representation still remains false — that at the foot of the hill there spreads out a great plain, on which the people of Israel might assemble" (comp. Kosenmiiller, Alterth. iii,129). We shall tlierefore transcribe Robinson's words in ex- tenso: "We came to Sinai with some incredulity, wishing to investigate the point whether there was any probable ground, beyond monkish tradition, for fixing upon the present supposed site. We were led to the conviction that the plain er-Rahah is the proba- ble spot where the congregation of Israel were assem- bled ; and that the mountain impending over it, the present Horeb, was the scene of the awful phenomena in which the law was given. We were surprised as well as gratified to find here, in the inmost recesses of these dark granite cliff's, this fine plain spread out before the mountain, and I know not where I have felt a thrill of stronger emotion than when, in first crossing the plain, the dark precipices of Horeb rising in sol- emn grandeur before us, Ave became aware of the en- tire adaptedness of the scene to the purposes for which it was chosen by the great Hebrew legislator. Moses doubtless, during the forty years in which he kept the flocks of Jethro, had often wandered over these moun- tains, and was well accpiainted with their valleys and deep recesses, like the Arabs of the present day. At any rate, he knew and had visited the spot to which he was to conduct his people — this adytum in the midst of the great circular granite region ; a secret hoh' place, shut out from the world amid lone and desolate mountains" (i, 175 sq.). "Wq subjoin what Robinson reports of the climate : "The weather, during our resi- dence at the convent (of Sinai), as, indeed, during all our journey through the peninsula (March and April), was very fine. At the convent the thermometer ranged only between 47° and 67° F. But the winter nights are said here to be cold ; water freezes as late as Feb- ruary, and snow often falls upon the mountains. But the air is exceedingh' pure, and the climate healthy, as is testified by the gi'eat age and vigor of many of the monks; and if in general few of the Arabs attain to so great an age, the cause is doubtless to be sought in the scantiness of their fare, and their exposure to privations, and not to any injurious influence of the climate" (p. 175). Other travellers, however, have since contended for the plain of wady es-Sebaiyeh, at the south-eastern base of Sinai, as the scene of the giv- ing of the law (Kitto's Baih/ Bible Illtist. ii, 123). This appears a less favorable position for that purpose, but it might easilj' have been reached by the Israelites by keeping along the shore of the Red Sea, and ascending by the next valley opposite Jebel Um-Shaurner. See Sinai.
V. From Sinai to Kadesh. — The sojourn of a j'ear in the neighborhood of Mount Sinai was an eventful one. The statements of the scrijitural narrative which re- Lite to the receiving of the two tables, tlie golden calf, Moses's vision of God, and the visit of Jethro, are too ■well known to need speci;il mention here ; but, besides these, it is certain, from Ntimb. iii, 4, that before they quitted the wilderness of Sinai the Israelites were thrown into mourning by the untimely death of Aaron's
two sons, Nadal) and Abihu. This event is probably connected with the setting up of the tabernacle and the enkindling of that holy fire, the sanctity of which their death avenged. That it has a determinate chro- nological relation with the promulgations which from time to time were made in that wilderness, is proved hy an edict in Lev. xvi, being fixed as subsequent to it (Lev. X ; comp. xvi. 1). The only other fact of his- tory contained in Leviticus is the punishment of the son of mixed parentage for blasphemy (xxiv, 10-14). Of course the consecration of Aaron and his sons is mentioned early in the book in connection with the laws relating to their office (viii, ix). In the same wilderness region the people were numbered, and the exchange of the Levites against the first-born was ef- fected ; these last, since their delivery when God smote those of Egypt, having incurred the obligation of sanc- tity to him. The offerings of the princes of Israel were here also received. The last incident mentioned before the wilderness of Sinai was quitted for that of Paran is the intended departure of Hobab the Kenite, which it seems he abandoned at Moses's urgency. See