Bartlett, William Henry: Forty days in the desert, on the track of the Israelites: or a journey from Cairo by Wady Feiran, to Mount Sinai and Petra (London, [1840])

OBJECTIONS.

57

there is no open space in the immediate neighbourhood of the Serbal
suitable for the encampment of the vast multitude, and from which
they could all of them at once have had a view of the mountain, as is
the case at the plain Er Rahah, at Mount Sinai, where Robinson sup-
poses, principally for that reason, the law to have been given. But
is this objection conclusive ? We read, indeed, that Israel " camped
before the mount." and that " the Lord came down in sight of all
the people;" moreover, that bounds were set to prevent the people
from breaking through and violating even the precincts of the holy
solitude. Although these conditions are more literally fulfilled at
Er Rahah, yet, if we understand them as couched in general terms,
they apply, perhaps, well enough, to the vicinity of the Serbal. A
glance at the view, and a reference to this small rough map, will

show the reader, that the main encampment of the host must have
been in Wady Feiran itself, from which the summit of the Serbal is
otdy here and there visible, and that it is by the lateral Wady
Aleyat that the base of the mountain itself, by a walk of about an
Qour, is to be reached. It certainly struck me, in passing up this
valley, as a very unfit, if not impracticable, spot for the encamp-
ment of any great number of people, if they were all in tents:

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