Exodus 3:1

"Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb."

"Jethro his father-in-law ..." This is surprising in view of the fact that Reuel appeared in Exodus 2:18, both as the "priest of Midian," and as "father-in-law" of Moses. However, forty years had intervened, and Jethro, probably the son of Reuel, had inherited the office, as was the custom. This would have meant that Jethro was brother-in-law to Moses, the same word in Hebrew meant either. "The word here rendered father-in-law is used of almost any relation by marriage."[4] The phenomenal blindness that causes men to find evidence of contradictory sources in a passage like this is equaled only by that of those who are deceived by such false allegations. How true to life this narrative really is. How many things are changed when one revisits a site familiar to him forty years earlier!

"Keeping the flock ..." This humble occupation had been followed by Moses for forty years, and it shows how submissive and humble Moses was in the long discipline imposed upon him by the Lord. "He led the flock ..." The foolish and superstitious notion that Moses was led by the sheep to the sacred mountain evaporates in this statement that Moses led the sheep!

"To the back of the wilderness ..." This means to the west or northwest of the area. "Among the Hebrews the east is before a man, the west behind him, and the south and the north on the right and left hand."[5]

"And came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb ..." The "mountain of God" could be nothing other than Sinai. Moses was writing perhaps near the end of his life, and the whole nation of Israel would have understood this as a reference to the mountain where the Law was given. Thus, its being called the "mountain of God" here was proleptic. Note that it is identified with Horeb. "Horeb ..." "This name is not restricted to one single mountain, but applies to the central group of mountains in the southern part of the (Arabian) peninsula."[6]

Nevertheless, there was also a peak called Horeb, and, in the O.T., "Horeb and Sinai are used as equivalent terms."[7] We shall not bother with all the conflicting opinions with regard to the location of Sinai. The tradition is eighteen centuries old that places the location at, "Jebul Musa (Mount of Moses)." The monastery of St. Catherine is at the foot of it.[8] We fully agree with Fields who knew of no reason why this old tradition should be set aside.[9]