Repha'ims, so the Hebrew plural Rephaim up v.) is incorrectly pluralized again in English in the A. Y.
((Jen. xiv. 5; xv. 20).
Reph'idim (Heb. Rephidim', C^TSi. supports, i. c., perhaps, resting-places; Sept. .and Josephus, 'Va<pi- rn. .1 station of the Israelites on their journey through
the Arabian desert, to which they passed fr the Deserl
of Sin (Exod. xvii, 1 ), situated, according to Numb. xxxiii, II sip. between Alush and the wilderness of Sinai. Here the Amalekiles attacked [srael, bul were repulsed I Exod. xvii. 8 sip). Here also Moses struck the rock, from which the fountain of water leaped forth; to which the later Jewish traditions added many other wonders, as that the rock itself followed the people in their journey, supplying water alwaj - 1 BeeWettstein and Schottgen, on I Cor. x, I: Buxtorf, Exercit. p. 391 Bq.). The knowledge of this miraculous -ill of water reached the Romans. Tacitus alludes to it , Hist. v. :; i. and sup- poses i hat Moses was guided by wild asses, and then by
the green pasture, to the exacl spot where water was
e iealed (comp., in the Grecian mythology, especially
Pausan. iv, 36, 5; but the legend of Hippocrene [Ovid, Met. v. 256 sip | has scarcely any points of resemblance). The most definite indication a- to the situation ofReph-
REPHIDDI
1045
REPRESENTATION
idim is incidentally supplied in the Scripture account of the above miracle. While encamped at Rephidim, " there was no water for the people to drink," and they murmured against Moses. He was therefore command- ed to "go on (1I33J, pass. i. e. cross the desert shore) be- fore the people," and with his rod to smite " the rock in Horeb," upon which ( "i^SSil bv, the towering cliff bounding the range et-Tih) Jehovah stood. (This ad- mirably suits the entrance of Wady Hibran, but is utter- ly vague and inapt if spoken of the interior.) In con- sequence of this, Rephidim was called Massah ("temp- tation") and Meribah (" chiding"). As the Israelites, though encamped in Rephidim, were able to draw their needful supply of water from " the rock in Horeb," the two places must have been adjacent. Assuming Jebel Miisa to be Sinai (or Horeb), and that the Israelites ap- proached it by Wady es-Sheik, which is the only prac- ticable route for such a multitude coming from Egypt, it follows that Rephidim was not more than one march — and apparently a short one — distant from the moun- tain. Notwithstanding this indication, however, the position of Rephidim has created much discussion among travellers and sacred geographers. Josephus appears to locate it very near to Sinai, and states that the place was entirely destitute of water, while in their preceding marches the people had met with fountains {Ant. iii, 1, 7, and 5, 1). Eusebius and Jerome say it was near Mount Horeb ( Onomast. s. v. " Raphidim" ). Cosmas places it at the distance of six miles, which agrees pret- ty nearly with that of Nebi Saleh (Topographia Chris- tiana, v, 207 sq.). Robinson removes it some miles far- ther down Wady es-Sheik to a narrow gorge which forms a kind of door to the central group of moun- tains. He gets over the difficulty in regard to the proximity of Horeb by affirming that that name was given, not to a single mountain, but to the whole group {Bib. Res. i, 120). See Horeb. Mr. Sandie places Reph- idim at the extreme end of Wady er-Rahah, and iden- tifies it with a Wady Rudhwan. He supposes that the Israelites marched from the coast plain of el-Kaa by Wady Daghadah {Horeb and Jerusalem, p. 150). This route, however, would scarcely be practicable for such a multitude. Lepsius (ed. Bohn, p. 310 sq.), Stewart {Tent and Khan), Ritter {Pal. und Syr. i, 738 sq.), Stanley {Syr. and Pal. p. 40 sq.), and others, locate Rephidim in Wady Feiran, near the base of Mount Serbal, especial- ly at the oasis of el-Hesmeh or the rock Hesyel-Khatatin (Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, p. 135). The great dis- tance from Sinai — twelve hours' march — and the abun- dance of water at Feiran appear to be fatal to this the- ory. No spot in the whole peninsula has such a supply of water, and Feiran is on this account called " the par- adise of the Bedawin." The position of Rephidim, it is thus seen, largely depends upon the route which the Is- raelites may be supposed to have taken from the Desert of Sin to Mount Sinai. Murphy ( Comment, on Exod. p. 174 sq.) regards that by way of Wady Hibran as be- ing out of the question, partly on account of its length (whereas it is really little, if any, farther than either of the two other practicable ones, especially the northern one by way of the Debbet er-Ramleh, which he prefers), and partly on account of the narrow and difficult passes (especially Nagb Ajamch) along it, which, however, are no worse than many others in different parts of their identified route (see Palmer, Desert of the Exodus [Amer. ed.], p. 228). Keil, who likewise prefers the same northern route for reaching Sinai, observes {Com- ment, on Pent, [Clarke's ed.] ii, 75) that Rephidim lay at only one day's distance from Sinai (Exod. xix, 2). He therefore locates Rephidim at the point where the Wady es - Sheik opens into the plain er-Rahah, al- though this would be almost at the foot of Sinai, and past several fountains which would have relieved their thirst without the need of a miracle. If, on the other hand, we should place Rephidim at the other end of the Wady es-Sheik, this, according to Keil's own showing,