Split Rock of Rephidim

The need for water became an ongoing issue for the two million Israelites who were traveling in the wilderness. They needed water again at the foot of the Mountain Sinai upon coming out of Elim.

I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel (Exodus 17:6, NIV).

 

The giant split rock, the rock at Rephidim, is found in the northwest of  Jabal Maqla (the Saudi name of Mount Sinai; it was discovered by Jim and Penny Caldwell in the early 1990s). According to Caldwells, Mountain Horeb was referring to the wide area of the entire mountain range, while Mountain Sinai was referring to one of the smaller peaks of Jabal Maqla (Fliz, Glen).

 

This is the rock that God commanded Moses to strike with his staff (Exodus 17:6), where the miraculous provision of water took place for the grumbling Israelites and their livestock in the wilderness. The water that gushed out of the rock was enough to feed two million people, and it formed a river and flowed down. The clear traces of the water that flowed as a river are found in this area.

In the front was a rock assumed to have served as the altar to Jehovah-Nissi.