Mount Sinai
Sinai PeninsulaMountain in Sinai Peninsula · today Jebel Musa or Jebel al-Lawz (debated), Egypt/Saudi Arabia
Meaning: “Also called Horeb, "the mountain of God"”
The mountain where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Law. Also called Horeb. Moses encountered the burning bush here, and Elijah fled here after Jezebel's threats.
Location
Overview
Mount Sinai, also called Horeb, is "the mountain of God" where the LORD revealed himself to Israel after the Exodus. Its exact location is debated, but tradition places it in the granite peaks of the southern Sinai Peninsula.
The burning bush
It was at Horeb that Moses, tending Jethro’s flock, saw the bush that burned without being consumed and was commissioned to deliver Israel from Egypt (Exodus 3:1–10).
The giving of the Law
Three months after the Exodus, Israel camped before Sinai. Amid thunder, smoke, and fire, God descended and gave the Ten Commandments and the covenant law (Exodus 19:18; 20:1–17), making Israel his "peculiar treasure."
The golden calf
While Moses was on the mountain, the people made a golden calf and fell into idolatry, and the first tablets were broken (Exodus 32). Centuries later the prophet Elijah fled to Horeb, where he heard God in "a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:8–12).
Events Here
Moses sees the burning bush and is commissioned
God gives the Ten Commandments and the covenant law
Israel makes the golden calf while Moses is on the mountain
Elijah hears God in a still small voice at Horeb
Scripture References
53 versesExodus16 verses
Exodus 3:1
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
Exodus 16:1
And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 17:6
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Exodus 19:1
In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
Exodus 19:2
For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
Exodus 19:11
And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
Exodus 19:18
And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
Exodus 19:20
And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
Exodus 19:23
And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
Exodus 24:16
And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
Exodus 31:18
And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Exodus 33:6
And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.
Exodus 34:2
And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
Exodus 34:4
And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
Exodus 34:29
And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
Exodus 34:32
And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai.
Leviticus4 verses
Leviticus 7:38
Which the Lord commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.
Leviticus 25:1
And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
Leviticus 26:46
These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
Leviticus 27:34
These are the commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.
Numbers12 verses
Numbers 1:1
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Numbers 1:19
As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
Numbers 3:1
These also are the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that the Lord spake with Moses in mount Sinai.
Numbers 3:4
And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord, when they offered strange fire before the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children: and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest’s office in the sight of Aaron their father.
Numbers 3:14
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying,
Numbers 9:1
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Numbers 9:5
And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
Numbers 10:12
And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.
Numbers 26:64
But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
Numbers 28:6
It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained in mount Sinai for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord.
Numbers 33:15
And they departed from Rephidim, and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai.
Numbers 33:16
And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibroth–hattaavah.
Deuteronomy10 verses
Deuteronomy 1:2
(There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh–barnea.)
Deuteronomy 1:6
The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:
Deuteronomy 1:19
And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh–barnea.
Deuteronomy 4:10
Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
Deuteronomy 4:15
Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
Deuteronomy 5:2
The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
Deuteronomy 9:8
Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you.
Deuteronomy 18:16
According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
Deuteronomy 29:1
These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
Deuteronomy 33:2
And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
Judges1 verse
Judges 5:5
The mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel.
1 Kings2 verses
1 Kings 8:9
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
1 Kings 19:8
And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
2 Chronicles1 verse
2 Chronicles 5:10
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.
Nehemiah1 verse
Nehemiah 9:13
Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:
Psalms3 verses
Psalms 68:8
The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
Psalms 68:17
The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
Psalms 106:19
They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.
Malachi1 verse
Malachi 4:4
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
Galatians2 verses
Galatians 4:24
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Galatians 4:25
For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Archaeology & History
The traditional site, Jebel Musa, has been venerated since at least the 4th century AD, when Christian monasticism took root in the Sinai. St. Catherine’s Monastery at its foot — built by Justinian in the 6th century and still active — is among the oldest working monasteries in the world and holds one of the most important libraries of ancient manuscripts. Other scholars propose alternative locations for the biblical mountain.
People who appear here
Objects mentioned here
Frequently asked about Mount Sinai
Where is Mount Sinai today?
Today, Mount Sinai corresponds to Jebel Musa or Jebel al-Lawz (debated), Egypt/Saudi Arabia.
What does the name Mount Sinai mean?
The name Mount Sinai means “Also called Horeb, "the mountain of God"”.
What happened at Mount Sinai in the Bible?
Key biblical events at Mount Sinai include moses sees the burning bush and is commissioned; god gives the ten commandments and the covenant law; israel makes the golden calf while moses is on the mountain.
Where is Mount Sinai first mentioned in the Bible?
Mount Sinai is first mentioned in Exodus 3:1.
How often is Mount Sinai mentioned in the Bible?
Mount Sinai is mentioned in 53 verses across 11 books: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Psalms, Malachi, Galatians.
Where is Mount Sinai?
Its location is debated; the traditional identification is Jebel Musa in the southern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, site of St. Catherine’s Monastery.
What happened at Mount Sinai in the Bible?
God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, gave Israel the Ten Commandments and the Law there, and the incident of the golden calf took place at its foot.