II. JJiatinction between Sinai and Iloreb. — Those crit- ics who disintegrate the Pentateuch and assign to it a variety of authors are ready to support their view by pointing to a variety of diction ; and one evidence of this they find in the use of Horeb throughout the book of Deuteronomy (except in the song of Moses, xxxiii, 2, which they attribute to a still different writer); whereas the person whom they suppose to have been the original composer of the first four books uses Sinai, which is the name always employed except in Exod. iii, 1; xvii, 6; xxxiii, 6; and these passages they at- tribute to a supplementary writer. This view is still strongly asserted by Ewald {Geschichte, \\,o7),y{'ho pro- nounces Sinai the older name, therefore occurring in the ancient song of Deborah (Judg. v, 5) ; whereas Ho- reb is not discoverable till the time of his fourth and fifth narrators, in whose age, however, it had become quite prevalent. His statement is a very^ fair sample of the precision and confidence with which these crit- ics speak of matters as to which there is no evidence except their own critical sagacity, or their imagination, as others may be apt to consider it who claim no such peculiar insight. For while it is quite possible that the same writer might use two names indiscriminately for the same place, as in the case of Bethel and Luz, Baa- lah and Kirjath-jearim, the Sea of Galilee and the Lake of Tiberias, yet this last example indicates how readily two names may come to be in use indifferently, though originally the one was more definite than the other. Accordingly, Gesenius suggested that Sinai might be the more general name, and Horeb a particular peak; and in this conjecture he was followed by Rosenmhller.
Another supposition was made by Hengstenberg {Pentateuch, ii, 32.5-327) which has gained the assent of almost all the German authorities since his time, as also of Robinson {Bib. Res. i, 120, 591), ai)parently after having inclined to the conjecture of Gesenius. Heng- stenberg agrees with Gesenius that the one name is more general than the other; but he differs in this re- spect— that he makes Horeb the mountain-ridge, and Sinai the individual summit from which the ten com- mandments were given. The reasons for this opinion as urged by him and by others may be arranged un- der a threefold division : (1.) The name Sinai is used at the time that the Israelites were upon the very spot of the legislation, that is, from Exod. xix, 11 and onwards till Numb, iii, 1 ; whereas it is Horeb that is always used in the recapitulation in Deuteronomy; as a writer close beside a particular mountain would naturally single it out when describing his locality, though afterwards, when writing at a distance from it and taking a general retrospect, he might use the more comprehensive name of the entire mass of mountains to which it belonged. The only exception in Deuter- onomy is that case in the song of Moses already alluded to (xxxiii, 2), which is universally admitted to be a peculiar composition both by the impugners and by the defenders of the Jlosaic autliorship. When we take in the additional ex|iression, " the wilderness of Sinai," as denoting the place in which the Israelites encamped, we have Sinai occurring as early as Exod. xix, 1, 2, and continuing till Numb, x, 12, where the march from Sinai is described. That particular spot would natu-
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rally take its name from the mountain-peak beside it, whereas tlie name 'MviUierness of Horeb" is unknown to Scripture. The name Sinai never occurs in tlie Pen- tateuch after the departure from tlie spot except in three instances. Two of these (Numb, xxvi, (54; xxxiii, 15) refer expressly to events in language already era- ployed upon the spot about the census, and in the list of stations or encampments, and both use that phrase "the wilderness of Sinai," which never occurs with the name Horeb; so that they are no exceptions in reality. The third (xxviii, (i) is, therefore, the only exception— "It is a continual burnt-otfering which was ordained in Mount Sinai;" and this also is explicable on the princi[ile that the phrase had become so common in the legislation. Once, also, Sinai occurs before the Is- raelites reached it (Exod. xvi, 1), "the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai," and here the precision of this term is thoroughly natural. (2.) The name Horeb occurs in the earlier books thrice, all in Exodus, but it is in circumstances which best suit the general or comprehensive meaning which we attach to it. Moses, while acting as the shepherd of Jethro (iii, 1), "came to the mountain of God [even J to Horeb," or, more literally, "came to the mountain of God Ho- reb-ward." Our translators have identified the moun- tain of (iod with Horeb, an identilication which is at least uncertain; for the original may (piite as natural- ly be interpreted that he came to a particular peak in that mass of mountains which had the name of Horeb, to the sacred peak which is to be sought in the direc- tion of Horeb. Particularly distinct is the second in- stance (xvii, 6), " Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb," etc.; for this miraculous gift of water took place while the Israelites were encamped in Kephidim (ver. 1), the station before the station in the wilderness of Sinai (xix, 2). Probably the like should be said of the third instance (xxxiii, 6), "And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their or- naments by the mount Horeb," retiring every family apart, and every individual apart, as in other cases of hinnilintion and repentance; and the propriety of the use of the general rather than the specific term is the more ap()arent if those are right who translate the pe- culiar Hebrew phrase as exactly as they can, "stripped themselves, etc. [retiring], from Moiuit Horeb." (3.) i An argument may be drawn from the use of the prepo- sitions connected with these two names. Keverting to Exod. xvii, C, we find the Lord saying, " Behold, I will stand upon the rock in Horeb," that is, upon the partic- ular spot, but in the clistrict. Accordingly, it is the preposition in (in the Englisii version needlessly varied into "at" once or twice) which is used with Horeb, not only here, but almost always where the name oc- curs in Deuteronomy, perhaps always, except " from" (i, 2, 19). The same is true of all the |)assages in which I Horeb is mentioned in later Scripture (1 Kings viii,9; 2 Chron. v. 10; Psa. cvi, ID; Alal. iv, 4 | liel). iii. 22]), except 1 Kings xix, «, "unto Horel) the mount of (iod," or better, "up to the mount of God Horeb [wardj," for it is plainly an expression referring to Exod. iii, 1, of which we have already spoken. With Sinai, on the other hand, there are connected several prepositions, "in" and "from" as in the case of Horeb; also "to," but especially "upon" (Ivxod. xix, II, 1«, 20; xxiv, H!), which describes the descent of the Lord, or the resting of the symbol of his presence, upon that individual jieak from which the law was given, whereas we have no rea- son to think that it rested upon the whole mass of moim- taius which are clustered together. The same preposi- tion, "upon," is foimd in tin- only passage in later Old- Test. .Scripture where Sinai occLirs with a |)reposition (Neh. ix, \'A). Indeed, besides this text w(' find Sinai nowhere but iii .fudg. v, .'); Psa. Ixviii.K, 17 ( Heb. !), IH), in passages which indisputably stand in a very close coiniection with Dent, xxxiii, 2.