² After breaking camp at Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp there at the base of Mount Sinai.

Water from the Rock

17 At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin^[a] and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink.

Moses and the Burning Bush

3 One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro,^[a] the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai,^[b] the mountain of God.

¹² God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”

⁵ Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, now came to visit Moses in the wilderness. He brought Moses’ wife and two sons with him, and they arrived while Moses and the people were camped near the mountain of God.

Israel Defeats the Amalekites

⁸ While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them.

²⁴ These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them.

³⁸ Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness, when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai. And there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us.^[a]

³⁰ “Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush.