Hebrew word · H5514
סִינַי
sinai
Sinai
Sinai is the mountain of the covenant; its exact location is debated (the traditional southern Sinai peninsula, north-west Arabia, and other proposals). Seir is the highlands of Edom, south-east of the Dead Sea (Gen 32:3; 36:8).
Appears 35 times in 34 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
§ Sinai = "thorny"
the mountain where Moses received the Law from Jehovah; located at the southern end of the Sinai peninsula between the horns of the Red Sea; exact
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Deuteronomy 33:2
- Range of meaning
Sinai is the mountain of the covenant; its exact location is debated (the traditional southern Sinai peninsula, north-west Arabia, and other proposals). Seir is the highlands of Edom, south-east of the Dead Sea (Gen 32:3; 36:8). Paran is the wilderness south of Canaan, between Sinai and Kadesh (Num 10:12; 12:16; 13:3, 26 'to the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh').
- Against the English
The English is accurate. What modern readers lack is the map: all three names lie on Israel's southern desert horizon, along the route of the wilderness wanderings.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The same group of southern names appears in other old poems of God coming as a warrior: Judg 5:4–5 ('when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom... this Sinai'); Hab 3:3 ('God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran'); Ps 68:7–8, 17. Inscriptions from Kuntillet ʿAjrud in the northern Sinai (about 800 BC) mention 'YHWH of Teman' (Teman = 'the south', a region linked with Edom).
- Range of meaning
The mountain of the covenant and of God's great appearance (Exodus 19–20). In old poetry it is tied to God's coming from the south: Deuteronomy 33:2 ('The LORD came from Sinai'), Judges 5:4–5 and Psalm 68:8 ('Sinai itself' / 'this Sinai' quaked before God, zeh sinai, possibly 'the One of Sinai').
- Against the English
The Hebrew sets 'Sinai' down with no connecting word. Translations have to supply one: 'as in Sinai' (KJV), 'as He was at Sinai' (BSB), 'in Sinai' (YLT), 'from Sinai' (WEB, by emendation), or the ESV's choice to make Sinai 'now in the sanctuary'. Each is an interpretation of a very compressed line.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Deuteronomy 33:2 is the closest parallel. It combines the LORD, Sinai, 'myriads' (rivevot) and 'holiness' (qodesh), the same set of words found here. Judges 5:4–5 and Habakkuk 3:3 describe the same march of God from the southern desert.
Where it appears
Exodus · 13
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Exodus 16:1 סִינָ֑י Sinai
On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.
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Exodus 19:1 סִינָֽי׃ Sinai
In the third month, on the same day of the month that the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.
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Exodus 19:2 סִינַ֔י Sinai
After they had set out from Rephidim, they entered the Wilderness of Sinai, and Israel camped there in front of the mountain.
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Exodus 19:11 סִינָֽי׃ Sinai
and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Here: The mountain of God (also called Horeb), where YHWH first met Moses at the burning bush (3:1, 12). The sign promised there ('you will worship God on this mountain') is now coming true.
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Exodus 19:18 סִינַי֙ Sinai
Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.
Here: The mountain in the wilderness where Israel camped (19:1–2). Its exact location is uncertain. Here it is named because it is about to become the place of the covenant.
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Exodus 19:20 סִינַ֖י Sinai
The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the summit. So Moses went up,
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Exodus 19:23 סִינָ֑י Sinai
But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, for You solemnly warned us, ‘Put a boundary around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’”
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Exodus 24:16 סִינַ֔י Sinai
and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.
Here: The mountain of revelation, where Israel has camped since 19:1–2. Its exact location is unknown.
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Exodus 31:18 סִינַ֔י Sinai
When the LORD had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
Here: The mountain of the covenant. Naming it here ties the tablets to the whole event of chapters 19–24, when the covenant was made.
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Exodus 34:2 סִינַ֔י Sinai
Be ready in the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai to present yourself before Me on the mountaintop.
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Exodus 34:4 סִינַ֔י Sinai
So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals. He rose early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hands, he went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him.
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Exodus 34:29 סִינַ֔י Sinai
And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant from speaking with the LORD.
Here: The mountain where the covenant was made, now the place where it is renewed after the golden calf.
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Exodus 34:32 סִינָֽי׃ Sinai
And after this all the Israelites came near, and Moses commanded them to do everything that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.
Leviticus · 5
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Leviticus 7:38 סִינָ֑י סִינָֽי׃ פ Sinai
which the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai on the day He commanded the Israelites to present their offerings to the LORD in the Wilderness of Sinai.
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Leviticus 25:1 סִינַ֖י Sinai
Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
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Leviticus 26:46 סִינַ֖י Sinai
These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.
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Leviticus 27:34 סִינָֽי׃ Sinai
These are the commandments that the LORD gave to Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.
Numbers · 12
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Numbers 1:1 סִינַ֖י Sinai
On the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Wilderness of Sinai. He said:
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Numbers 1:19 סִינָֽי׃ פ Sinai
just as the LORD had commanded Moses. So Moses numbered them in the Wilderness of Sinai:
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Numbers 3:1 סִינָֽי׃ Sinai
This is the account of Aaron and Moses at the time the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.
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Numbers 3:4 סִינַ֔י Sinai
Nadab and Abihu, however, died in the presence of the LORD when they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD in the Wilderness of Sinai. And since they had no sons, only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father Aaron.
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Numbers 3:14 סִינַ֖י Sinai
Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, saying,
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Numbers 9:1 סִ֠ינַי Sinai
In the first month of the second year after Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai:
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Numbers 9:5 סִינָ֑י Sinai
and they did so in the Wilderness of Sinai, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
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Numbers 10:12 סִינָ֑י Sinai
and the Israelites set out from the Wilderness of Sinai, traveling from place to place until the cloud settled in the Wilderness of Paran.
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Numbers 26:64 סִינָֽי׃ Sinai
Among all these, however, there was not one who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.
Here: The place of the covenant and of the first census (1:1, in the second year after the exodus). It contrasts with 'the plains of Moab by the Jordan' in v. 63.
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Numbers 28:6 סִינַ֔י Sinai
This is a regular burnt offering established at Mount Sinai as a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.
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Numbers 33:15 סִינָֽי׃ Sinai
They set out from Rephidim and camped in the Wilderness of Sinai.
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Numbers 33:16 סִינָ֑י Sinai
They set out from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth-hattaavah.
Deuteronomy · 1
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Deuteronomy 33:2 מִסִּינַ֥י from Sinai
He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand.
Here: The mountain where the covenant was made. Here it is the starting point of a march: God sets out from his mountain toward his people.
Judges · 1
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Judges 5:5 סִינַ֔י Sinai
The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel.
Nehemiah · 1
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Nehemiah 9:13 סִינַי֙ Sinai
You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.
Here: The prayer uses the name found in Exodus ('Sinai') and not Deuteronomy's usual 'Horeb'. It is retelling Exodus 19–20.
Psalms · 2
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Psalm 68:8 סִינַ֑י Sinai
the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
Here: The mountain where God met Israel and made his covenant with them. Here it marks God's home ground, the place he comes marching from. The main verse-dividing accent falls on this word, so the first half ends 'before God, the One of Sinai'.
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Psalm 68:17 סִינַ֥י Sinai
The chariots of God are tens of thousands—thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.
Here: The mountain where God appeared to Israel in fire, storm and earthquake (Exodus 19). Here it stands with no preposition: 'Sinai' is dropped into the line so that Zion's holy place is identified with Sinai, or (on the regrouped reading) the march began from Sinai.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.