To the desert of Sinai, i.e. to that part of the desert which adjoined to Mount Sinai, as Rephidim, from whence they came, was in that part of the wilderness adjoining to Horeb, which was another part of the same mountain. See Exo 17:6. So they seem to have fetched a large compass, and to have come from one side of the mountain to the other.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2. were come to the desert ofSinaiThe desert has its provinces, or divisions, distinguishedby a variety of names; and the “desert of Sinai” is thatwild and desolate region which occupies the very center of thepeninsula, comprising the lofty range to which the mount of Godbelongs. It is a wilderness of shaggy rocks of porphyry and redgranite, and of valleys for the most part bare of verdure.

and there Israel campedbefore the mountSinai, so called from Seneh, or acacia bush.It is now called Jebel Musa. Their way into the interior of thegigantic cluster was by Wady Feiran, which would lead the bulk of thehosts with their flocks and herds into the high valleys of JebelMusa, with their abundant springs, especially into the greatthoroughfare of the desertthe longest, widest, and most continuousof all the valleys, the Wady-es-Sheikh, while many would be scatteredamong the adjacent valleys; so that thus secluded from the world in awild and sublime amphitheatre of rocks, they “camped before themount.” “In this valleya long flat valleyabout aquarter of a mile in breadth, winding northwards, Israel would findample room for their encampment. Of all the wadys in that region, itseems the most suitable for a prolonged sojourn. The ‘goodly tents’of Israel could spread themselves without limit” [BONAR].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For they were departed from Rephidim,…. After they had fought with Amalek, and came to the western part of the mount to Horeb, where the rock was smitten for them; and they were come from that now, and encamped at Sinai, after Jethro had paid a visit to Moses:

and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in this wilderness; that is, of Sinai, as in the preceding verse:

and there Israel encamped before the mount; Mount Sinai, from whence the desert or wilderness was called. This, as Jarchi says, was on the east side of the mount; Horeb and Sinai were but one and the same mountain, which had two tops. Horeb was on the western side, near to which lay the plain of Rephidim; and Sinai was on the eastern side, on which the wilderness of that name bordered: so that the children of Israel, when they came from Rephidim, came from the western side, and took a circuit about and came to the eastern; which, according to a fore mentioned writer, was eight miles, and was the twelfth station or mansion of the children of Israel. This number twelve is taken notice of by some, as having something singular and peculiar in it; there were the twelve tribes of Israel, and at their twelfth mansion the law was given them; Christ had twelve apostles, and there are twelve foundations of the new Jerusalem, and 12,000 were sealed out of every tribe of Israel.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

XIX.
THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD TO THE PEOPLE ON MOUNT SINAI.

(2) They were departed from Rephidim.If Rephidim was where we have placed it, in the Wady Feiran, the march to the wilderness of Sinai (Er Rahah) must have been by the Wady Solaf, or the Wady esh Sheikh, or possibly by both. The distance by Wady Solaf is about eighteen, by Wady esh Sheikh about twenty-five miles. The wilderness of Sinai, now generally identified with Er Rahah, is a plain two miles long by half a mile wide, enclosed between two precipitous mountain ranges of black and yellow granite, and having at its end the prodigious mountain block of Ras Sufsafeh (Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 74). It is nearly fiat, and covered at present with stunted tamarisk bushes. No spot in the whole peninsula is so well supplied with water (Our Work in Palestine, p. 268).

Israel camped before the mount.On the capacity of the plain Er Rahah to receive the entire multitude, see Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, p. 42), and comp. The comment on Exo. 12:37-41. The Ras Sufsafeh is visible from every part of the plain.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

2. For they were departed from Rephidim Rather, And they departed from Rephidim . This verse is but a fuller statement of what was said in the preceding verse, omitting, however, the mention of time and date . The emphasis is on the fact that there, in the solemn and sublime amphitheatre among the mountains, and before the mount which was to be forever consecrated in the history of the chosen people, Israel camped. The word here rendered pitched and camped is one and the same in Hebrew, ( . ) In front of the sacred mountain the people now settled down to receive revelations from Him who had declared himself from the burning bush, I AM THAT I AM. Exo 3:14. We need not suppose that the entire body of people who came out of Egypt with Moses actually encamped and remained for a year in this one place . Probably only the heads of the nation, “the elders of the people,” (Exo 19:7,) and the leading families remained permanently in this place of encampment . The rest would naturally be distributed through the various adjacent valleys and plains, wherever the best pasturage for their numerous flocks could be found . According to Exo 34:3, the flocks and herds were not permitted to feed before the mount . It is a carping and unworthy criticism that makes difficulties in the Scripture narrative by assuming as recorded fact things on which the sacred writers are silent. But for incidental allusions, like those of Exo 3:1, and Gen 37:17, no one would have supposed that either Moses or the sons of Jacob went off scores of miles from home to pasture their flocks . We need to keep in mind that such terms as “all Israel,” “all the land,” “all the world,” and even “all the high hills that were under the whole heaven,” (Gen 7:19, where see note, and also on page 123,) need not to be taken in their extreme literal import .

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Exo 19:2. For they were departed Houbigant renders this, For they had departed from Rephidim, that they might come into the wilderness of Sinai, and encamp there: there, therefore, Israel encamped before the Mountain.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Reader! have you left Rephidim, the place of murmuring? And are you come to the Mount of God? If so, how sweet will you read that scripture of the Apostle’s, compared with this of Moses! Heb 12:18-24 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Exo 19:2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come [to] the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

Ver. 2. For they were departed. ] See Trapp on “ Exo 18:5 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Rephidim: Exo 17:1, Exo 17:8

the desert: Mount Sinai, called by the Arabs Jibbel Mousa, the Mountain of Moses, and sometimes by way of eminence, El Tor, the Mount, is a range of mountains in the peninsula formed by the gulfs of the Red Sea. It consists of several peaks, the principal of which are Horeb and Sinai; the former, still called Oreb, being on the west, and the latter, called Tur Sina, on the east, at the foot of which is the convent of St. Catherine. Dr. Shaw conceives that the wilderness of Sinai, properly so called, is that part which is to the eastward of this mount; so that the removal of the Israelites from Rephidim, which was on the West, to the desert of Sinai, was only removing from one part of the mountain to another.

camped: Exo 3:1, Exo 3:12, Exo 18:5, Act 7:30, Act 7:38, Gal 4:24

Reciprocal: Num 10:12 – out of the Num 33:14 – Rephidim Num 33:15 – General Deu 1:6 – Ye have Deu 11:29 – General

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge