Exodus 19:2

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, ( חנה . ) 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. Exodus 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,” (Exodus 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 Exodus 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 Exodus 3:1, and Genesis 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,” (Genesis 7:19, where see note, and also on page 123,) need not to be taken in their extreme literal import .