Page:Keil and Delitzsch,Biblical commentary the old testament the pentateuch, trad James Martin, volume 1, 1885.djvu/606

month. For although, according to the etymology of חדשׁ (from חדשׁ to be new), it might denote the new moon, yet in chronological data it is never used in this sense; but the day of the month is invariably appended after the month itself has been given (e.g., לחדשׁ אחד Exo 40:2, Exo 40:17; Gen 8:5, Gen 8:13; Num 1:1; Num 29:1; Num 33:38, etc.). Moreover, in the Pentateuch the word חדשׁ never signifies new moon; but the new moons are called חדשׁים ראשׁי (Num 10:10; Num 28:11, cf. Hengstenberg, Dissertations, vol. ii. 297). And even in such passages as 1Sa 20:5; 1Sa 18:24; 2Ki 4:23; Amo 8:5; Isa 1:13, etc., where חדשׁ is mentioned as a feast along with the Sabbaths and other feasts, the meaning new moon appears neither demonstrable nor necessary, as חדשׁ in this case denotes the feast of the month, the celebration of the beginning of the month. If, therefore, the text is genuine, and the date of the month has not dropt out (and the agreement of the ancient versions with the Masoretic text favours this conclusion), there is no other course open, than to understand יום, as in Gen 2:4 and Num 3:1, and probably also in the unusual expression החדשׁ יום, Exo 40:2, in the general sense of time; so that here, and also in Num 9:1; Num 20:1, the month only is given, and not the day of the month, and it is altogether uncertain whether the arrival in the desert of Sinai took place on one of the first, one of the middle, or one of the last days of the month. The Jewish tradition, which assigns the giving of the law to the fiftieth day after the Passover, is of far too recent a date to pass for historical (see my Archäologie, §83, 6).
The desert of Sinai is not the plain of er Rahah to the north of Horeb, but the desert in front (נגד) of the mountain, upon the summit of which Jehovah came down, whilst Moses ascended it to receive the law (Exo 19:20 and Exo 34:2). This mountain is constantly called Sinai so long as Israel stayed there (Exo 19:18, Exo 19:20, Exo 19:23, Exo 24:16; Exo 34:2, Exo 34:4, Exo 34:29, Exo 34:32; Lev 7:38; Lev 25:1; Lev 26:46; Lev 27:34; Num 3:1; see also Num 28:6 and Deu 33:2); and the place of their encampment by the mountain is also called the “desert of Sinai,” never the desert of Horeb (Lev 7:38; Num 1:1, Num 1:19; Num 3:14; Num 9:1; Num 10:12; Num 26:64; Num 33:15). But in Exo 33:6 this spot is designated as “Mount Horeb,” and in Deuteronomy, as a rule, it is spoken of briefly as “Horeb” (Deu 1:2, Deu 1:6, Deu 1:19; Deu 4:10, Deu 4:15; Deu 5:2; Deu 9:8; Deu 18:16;