Bible Questions and Answer

Rephidim was Israel's last campsite before they reached Mount Sinai. Exodus 17 says that when they camped there, there was no water, and the people quarreled with Moses so bitterly that he feared they would stone him. God told Moses to strike the rock at Horeb, and water came out. The place was named Massah and Meribah, meaning "testing" and "quarreling." Then the Amalekites attacked Israel at Rephidim, and Israel won while Moses held up his hands on a nearby hill. Soon after, Moses' father-in-law Jethro visited and advised him to appoint judges to share the work. The location isn't certain. Those who place Mount Sinai at the traditional Jebel Musa usually put Rephidim at Wadi Feiran, a long valley in the southern Sinai with the largest oasis on the peninsula, about 25 miles from Jebel Musa. Early Christian monks built churches there, and ruins of a Byzantine town remain.