Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Exodus 19:1
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
In the third month after their departure from Egypt, the Israelites arrived at Sinai, proceeding from Rephidim into the desert of Sinai, and encamping there before the mountain. On what day of the month, the received text does not state. The striking expression הזּה בּיּום ("the same day"), without any previous notice of the day, cannot signify the first day of the month; nor can השּׁלישׁי החדשׁ signify the third new moon in the year, and be understood as referring to the first day of the third month. For although, according to the etymology of חדשׁ (from חדשׁ to be new), it might denote the new moon, yet in chronological data it is never used in this sense; but the day of the month is invariably appended after the month itself has been given (e.g., לחדשׁ אחד Exo 40:2, Exo 40:17; Gen 8:5, Gen 8:13; Num 1:1; Num 29:1; Num 33:38, etc.). Moreover, in the Pentateuch the word חדשׁ never signifies new moon; but the new moons are called חדשׁים ראשׁי ( Num 10:10; Num 28:11, cf. Hengstenberg, Dissertations, vol. ii. 297). And even in such passages as Sa1 20:5; Sa1 18:24; Kg2 4:23; Amo 8:5; Isa 1:13, etc., where חדשׁ is mentioned as a feast along with the Sabbaths and other feasts, the meaning new moon appears neither demonstrable nor necessary, as חדשׁ in this case denotes the feast of the month, the celebration of the beginning of the month. If, therefore, the text is genuine, and the date of the month has not dropt out (and the agreement of the ancient versions with the Masoretic text favours this conclusion), there is no other course open, than to understand יום, as in Gen 2:4 and Num 3:1, and probably also in the unusual expression החדשׁ יום, Exo 40:2, in the general sense of time; so that here, and also in Num 9:1; Num 20:1, the month only is given, and not the day of the month, and it is altogether uncertain whether the arrival in the desert of Sinai took place on one of the first, one of the middle, or one of the last days of the month. The Jewish tradition, which assigns the giving of the law to the fiftieth day after the Passover, is of far too recent a date to pass for historical (see my Archologie, 83, 6). The desert of Sinai is not the plain of er Rahah to the north of Horeb, but the desert in front (נגד) of the mountain, upon the summit of which Jehovah came down, whilst Moses ascended it to receive the law ( Exo 19:20 and Exo 34:2). This mountain is constantly called Sinai so long as Israel stayed there ( Exo 19:18, Exo 19:20, Exo 19:23, Exo 24:16; Exo 34:2, Exo 34:4, Exo 34:29, Exo 34:32; Lev 7:38; Lev 25:1; Lev 26:46; Lev 27:34; Num 3:1; see also Num 28:6 and Deu 33:2); and the place of their encampment by the mountain is also called the "desert of Sinai," never the desert of Horeb ( Lev 7:38; Num 1:1, Num 1:19; Num 3:14; Num 9:1; Num 10:12; Num 26:64; Num 33:15). But in Exo 33:6 this spot is designated as "Mount Horeb," and in Deuteronomy, as a rule, it is spoken of briefly as "Horeb" ( Deu 1:2, Deu 1:6, Deu 1:19; Deu 4:10, Deu 4:15; Deu 5:2; Deu 9:8; Deu 18:16; Deu 29:1). And whilst the general identity of Sinai and Horeb may be inferred from this; the fact, that wherever the intention of the writer is to give a precise and geographical description of the place where the law was given, the name Sinai is employed, leads to the conclusion that the term Horeb was more general and comprehensive than that of Sinai; in other words, that Horeb was the range of which Sinai was one particular mountain, which only came prominently out…
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