The REAL Mount Sinai

The actual location of Mount Sinai (The Mountain of Moses) is in Arabia and today is called Jebel al Lawz. It is NOT in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula or the Negev commonly depicted on maps.

The real Mount Sinai is clearly identified in the books of Exodus and Numbers and is located in Arabia, which was in the ancient land of Midian, across from the Red Sea. 

Mt Lawz is the tallest mountain in Northern Arabia at 2,580 meters.

Arabia in the Bible is always the land of Midian (modern Saudi Arabia).

"Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel." Judges 6:33

Mt. Sinai is associated with Ishmael who lived in the wilderness of Paran, near Midian.

"And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness. He became a skillful archer, and he settled in the wilderness of Paran." Genesis 21:20-21

In the second year after Israel’s departure from Egypt—on the twentieth day of the second month—the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle of the Covenant. So the Israelites set out from the wilderness of Sinai and traveled on from place to place until the cloud stopped in the wilderness of Paran. Numbers 10:11-12

They marched for three days after leaving the mountain of the Lord, with the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant moving ahead of them to show them where to stop and rest. Numbers 11:33

"Then they left Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran." Numbers 12:16

"After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran." Numbers 13:25-26

Paul tells us that Mount Sinai is in Arabia. 

"...Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them. And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia..." Galatians 4:24-25

"When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born." Acts 7:29

Mt Sinai is very close to Jethro's hometown (Jethro is Moses' Father-in-law).

"Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian." Exodus 2:15

Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about everything God had done for Moses and his people, the Israelites. Exodus 18:1

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, now came to visit Moses in the wilderness. He brought Moses’ wife and two sons with him, and they arrived while Moses and the people were camped near the mountain of God. Exodus 18:5

Moses saw the burning bush in the wilderness of Sinai. 

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Exodus 3:1-2

"When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born. Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush." Acts 7:29-30

Moses brother-in-law, Hobab, from Midian, knew all the best places to camp in the Wilderness, near the Mountain of God. Hobab, must have spent much time camping in this area, not too far from his homeland.

Moses said, “You know the best places in the wilderness where we should camp.” Numbers 10:31

Kadesh was in the Wilderness of Paran. Kadesh was renamed Sela, Sela is Petra. The Rock. The stronghold for David. Also, the location where Aaron was buried. 

Kadesh is NOT in the promised land. It is where they came from. Most bibles have Kadesh IN the promised land. This contradicts the numerous and clear writings in multiple books about the boundaries of the land.

“The southern boundary began at the south bay of the Dead Sea, ran south of Scorpion Pass into the wilderness of Zin, and then went south of Kadesh-barnea to Hezron.” Joshua 15:1-3

Most bible maps show Kadesh in Judea at El-Qudeirat. A clear contradiction of the assigned land. The improper notation of where Kadesh is located causes the entire map of the exodus to be wrong. 

While Moses was at Kadesh, he sent ambassadors to the king of Edom with this message:  

“This is what your relatives, the people of Israel, say: You know all the hardships we have been through. Our ancestors went down to Egypt, and we lived there a long time, and we and our ancestors were brutally mistreated by the Egyptians. But when we cried out to the Lord, he heard us and sent an angel who brought us out of Egypt. Now we are camped at Kadesh, a town on the border of your land.” Numbers 20:16

Edom is at Petra – Transjordan. 

When Moses had to turn around and go back to Kadesh, Aaron died and was buried on the top of Mt Hor. This location is at Kadesh (Petra). On the border of Edom. 

“Then they moved out and camped on the far side of the Arnon River, in the wilderness adjacent to the territory of the Amorites. The Arnon is the boundary line between the Moabites and the Amorites.” Numbers 21:13

This Arnon River is North of Edom, North of Moab, Transjordan. 

Before they left Kadesh, they spent many years there. Near 38 years in essentially one main location at Kadesh. This is the area where Miriam and Aaron died. It is the area water came from a rock and flowed the entire time they camped. It is where the bad report came and God said only Caleb and Joshua would enter the land. This means, the spies were sent after Moses and Aaron were told they would not be entering the promised land. It is the area the people rebelled and tried to fight without Moses and the Ark and were defeated. 

The people stayed at Kadesh until all the men aged 20 and older had died. It is after that, they broke camp and headed North. When they camped across from Jericho on the East side of the Jordan, a new census was taken of the fighting aged men, none of the people in this census were part of the original group taken at Sinai, except Caleb and Joshua. 

"Thirty-eight years passed from the time we first left Kadesh-barnea until we finally crossed the Zered Brook! By then, all the men old enough to fight in battle had died in the wilderness, as the Lord had vowed would happen. The Lord struck them down until they had all been eliminated from the community." Deuteronomy 2:14-15 

Moses was at Horeb when the Lord appeared in the flaming bush. Horeb was in Midian at the site of the Lords Mountain – Mt Sinai (Jabel El Lawz). Moses took a similar path from Egypt to Midian and then back to Egypt from Midian, then back to Midian from Egypt. Moses was familiar with the territory.