Exodus 16:1

And they took their journey from Elim,.... And came again to the Red sea, as appears from Numbers 33:10 perhaps to some bay or creek of it, which ran up from it, and lay in their way, and where for a

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

EXODUS CHAPTER 16 The children of Israel sojourn in the wilderness of Sin, ; murmur against Moses, ,3. God promises to supply their wants with bread from heaven, ; and directs about preparing this bread, . Moses reproves the people for murmuring, ,8; appoints them to come before the Lord, . God’ s glory appeareth in the cloud, . He sendeth quails, , and manna, ,15. Every one gather a quantity, . The command about keeping it, , is disobeyed, . The time of gathering, . Their increasing the quantity on the sixth day, . The command concerning the sabbath, ,26, disobeyed, ; for which God is angry, . Moses’ s counsel, . They rest, . The name of the bread, . The command concerning the preservation of the manna, ,33. The time of the manna’ s continuance, . BC 1491 They came not immediately to the wilderness of Sin; for there is another stage of theirs by the Red Sea, mentioned , (in which chapter Moses designed exactly to set down all their stations,) but omitted here, because nothing remarkable happened in it; and Moses in this place designed to record only the memorable passages. The wilderness of Sin was a great wilderness between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai, but differing from that Zin mentioned .

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.Ver. 1. Unto the wilderness of Sin.] So called because it bordered upon the city of Sin, whereof see Ezekiel 30:15-16; Ezekiel 20:35-36. Or, of the many brambles that grew therein.

XVI. THE JOURNEY FROM ELIM.—THE MANNA GIVEN.(1) They took their journey from Elim. The stay at Elim was probably for some days. “Sin” was reached exactly one month after the departure from Egypt, yet there had been only five camping-places between Sin and Rameses, and one journey of three days through a wilderness (Exodus 15:22). Long rests are thus clearly indicated, and probably occurred at Ayun Musa, at Marah, and at Elim. The places named were the head-quarters of the camp on each occasion, but the entire host must have always covered a vast tract, and the flocks and herds must have been driven into all the neighbouring valleys where there was pasture. Wadys Useit, Ethal, and Tayibeh are likely to have been occupied at the same time with Wady Ghurundel.All the congregation . . . came unto the wilderness of Sin.—“All the congregation” could only be united in certain favourable positions, where there happened to be a large open space. Such an open space is offered by the tract now called El Markha, which extends from north to south a distance of twenty miles, and is from three to four miles wide in its more northern half. To reach this tract, the Israelites must have descended by Wady Useit or Wady Tayibeh to the coast near Ras Abu Zenimeh, and have then continued along the coast until they crossed the twenty-ninth parallel. This line of march is indicated in Numbers 33:10-11, where we are told that “they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea; and they removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.”

CHAPTER XVI The Israelites journey from Elim, and come to the wilderness of Sin, 1. They murmur for lack of bread, 2, 3. God promises to rain bread from heaven for them, 4, of which they were to collect a double portion on the sixth day, 5. A miraculous supply of flesh in the evening and bread in the morning, promised, 6-9. The glory of the Lord appears in the cloud, 10. Flesh and bread promised as a proof of God's care over them, 11, 12. Quails come and cover the whole camp, 13. And a dew fell which left a small round substance on the ground, which Moses tells them was the bread which God had sent, 14, 15. Directions for gathering it, 16. The Israelites gather each an omer, 17, 18. They are directed to leave none of it till the next day, 19; which some neglecting, it become putrid, 20. They gather it every morning, because it melted when the sun waxed hot, 21. Each person gathers two omers on the sixth day, 22. Moses commands them to keep the seventh as a Sabbath to the Lord, 23. What was laid up for the Sabbath did not putrefy, 24. Nothing of it fell on that day, hence the strict observance of the Sabbath was enjoined, 25-30. The Israelites name the substance that fell with the dew manna; its appearance and taste described, 31. An omer of the manna is commanded to be laid up for a memorial of Jehovah's kindness, 32-34. The manna now sent continued daily for the space of forty years, 35. How much an omer contained, 36. NOTES ON CHAP. XVI Verse 1. The wilderness of Sin] This desert lies between Elim and Sinai, and from Elim, Dr. Shaw says, Mount Sinai can be seen distinctly. Mr. Ainsworth supposes that this wilderness had its name from a strong city of Egypt called Sin, near which it lay. See Ezekiel 30:15-16. Before they came to the wilderness of Sin, they had a previous encampment by the Red Sea after they left Elim, of which Moses makes distinct mention Numbers 33:10-11. The fifteenth day of the second month] This was afterwards called Ijar, and they had now left Egypt one month, during which It is probable they lived on the provisions they brought with them from Rameses, though it is possible they might have had a supply from the seacoast. Concerning Mount Sinai, See Clarke on Exodus 19:1.

1. the congregation] P’s standing expression (Exodus 12:3). So v. 2 &c. the wilderness of Sin] Exodus 17:1, Numbers 33:11-12†. In Numbers 33:10 the people are said to have halted, between Elim and the wilderness of Sin, at the Red Sea. Accepting the oasis in W. Gharandel as Elim (on Exodus 15:27), the ‘Red Sea’ station can hardly have been anywhere but at or near the mouth of Wβdy Ṭ ?aiyibeh,—perhaps in the littoral plain of el-Murkheiyeh, just beyond it. There is no passage along the coast from W. Gharandel to W. Ṭ ?aiyibeh, the abrupt projecting cliffs of the lofty Jebel Ḥ ?ammam Far‘un (‘Mountain of Pharaoh’s Bath,’—1570 feet) effectually stopping it: the Israelites, if they came in this direction, must have retraced their steps up the W. Gharandel to the point where (see on Exodus 15:26) W. Hawwβrah enters it (Ordn. Surv. 75, 76), and then have turned to the right for 12 miles over the desert uplands at the back of J. Ḥ ?ammam Far‘un, till they arrived at the top of W. Shebeikeh (the ‘Wβdy of network’), by which they could descend, ‘through an amazing labyrinth of chalky hillocks and ridges,’ to the head of W. Ṭ ?aiyibeh, and so pass straight down to the coast—in all 21 miles (O.S. 156). In W. Ṭ ?aiyibeh, a little above its mouth, there are a few brackish springs, with some stunted palms growing near them (O.S. 81). From the mouth of W. Ṭ ?aiyibeh there are two principal routes to Jebel Serbβl and Jebel Mϋsβ—one, the northern route, back up to the head of W. Ṭ ?aiyibeh again (4 miles), then to the right along the W. Ḥ ?amr (18 miles), to the long upland plain called Debbet er-Ramleh (the ‘Plain of sand’), and thence through a succession of mountain valleys to either J. Mϋsβ or J. Serbβl; the other, the coast route, on to the broad flinty plain of el-Markhβ, and then, either leaving this plain on the E., up the Seiḥ ? Sidreh, and afterwards along the W. Mukatteb into the Wβdy Feiran, or else keeping along the coast for 7 miles beyond the SE. end of el-Markhβ, and there ascending the W. Feiran from its mouth,—in either case, the W. Feiran leading on to both Serbβl and J. Mϋsβ. Knob., followed by Keil and Canon Cook, advocated the former of these routes, supposing the ‘wilderness of Sin’ to be the Debbet er-Ramleh. But, if the Israelites were already on the ‘Red Sea’ (Numbers 33:10), at the mouth of W. Ṭ ?aiyibeh or beyond, the latter is much the more natural route for them to have followed (so Rob. i. 73, 120; and the members of the Ordnance Survey Expedition): in this case el-Markhβ will be the wilderness of Sin. But it must be admitted that neither Debbet er-Ramleh nor el-Markhβ is at all naturally described, as a glance at the map will shew, as ‘between’ Elim and Sinai, at least if Elim be in the W. Gharandel.

The the wilderness of Sin - The desert tract, called Debbet er Ramleh, extend nearly across the peninsula from the Wady Nasb in a south-easterly direction, between the limestone district of Et Tih and the granite of Sinai.

THE IN THE DESERT OF SIN, Exodus 16:1-3. 1. The wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai — That is, between them by the route which a caravan of this kind would naturally take, not between them as a bird would fly.