Sin, Wilderness of

Lying between Elim and sinai (Ex. 16:1; comp. Num. 33:11, 12). This was probably the narrow plain of el-Markha, which stretches along the eastern shore of the Red Sea for several miles toward the promontory of Ras Mohammed, the southern extremity of the Sinitic Peninsula. While the Israelites rested here for some days they began to murmur on account of the want of nourishment, as they had by this time consumed all the corn they had brought with them out of Egypt. God heard their murmurings, and gave them “manna” and then quails in abundance.

a tract of the wilderness which the Israelites reached after leaving the encampment by the Red Sea. (Numbers 33:11,23) Their next halting-place, (Exodus 16:1; 17:1) was Rephidim, probably the Wady Feiran [Rephidim]; on which supposition it would follow that Sin must lie between that way and the coast of the Gulf of Suez, and of course west of Sinai. In the wilderness of Sin the manna was first gathered, and those who adopt the supposition that this was merely the natural product of the tarfa bush find from the abundance of that shrub in Wady es-Sheikh, southeast of Wady Ghurundel, a proof of local identity.

SIN, WILDERNESS OF, a region between Elim and Rephidim. Ex 16:1; Ex 17:1; Num 33:11-12. Here the Israelites were first fed with manna and quails. The wilderness extends 25 miles along the east shore of the Red Sea, from Wady Taiyibeh to Wady Feiran; it is now called the plain of el-Markha. It is barren, but has a little vegetation, and when the rainfall was larger and the drainage from the mountain descended more gradually, instead of sweeping everything before it as now, it may have afforded fair pasturage. Travellers report seeing numerous quails upon this plain in modern times.