The Wilderness of Sin/Desert of Sin (Hebrew: מִדְבַּר סִין, Midbar Sin) is a geographic area mentioned by the Bible as lying between Elim and Mount Sinai. Sin does not refer to sinfulness, but is an untranslated word that would translate as the moon; biblical scholars suspect that the name Sin here refers to the semitic moon-deity Sin, who was worshipped widely around the entire periphery of pre-Islamic Arabia, the Levant, and Mesopotamia.
The location the Bible refers to is unknown, as its determination relies heavily on the location of Mount Sinai. The traditional identification of Mount Sinai as Jabal Musa, one of the peaks at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, would imply that the wilderness of Sin was probably the narrow plain of el-Markha, which stretches along the eastern shore of the Red Sea for several miles toward the promontory of Ras Mohammed; however, most scholars have since rejected these traditional identifications. The more popular identification among modern scholars, of Sinai as al-Madhbah at Petra, would imply that the wilderness of Sin was roughly equatable with the central Arabah.
The wilderness of Sin is mentioned by the Bible as being one of the places that the Israelites wandered during their Exodus; the similarly named wilderness of Zin is also mentioned by the Bible as having been a location through which the Israelites travelled. The Bible identifies Kadesh-Barnea as having been located within the wilderness of Zin, and most scholars, as well as traditional sources, consequently identify this wilderness as being part of the Arabah; it is thus eminently possible that the wilderness of Sin and the wilderness of Zin are actually the same place.
The biblical narrative states that on reaching the wilderness of Sin, the Israelites began to raise objections over the lack of food, as they had already consumed all the corn they had brought with them from Egypt. According to the account, Yahweh heard their murmurings, and so provided them with abundant manna and quail.
Later they left the wilderness of Sin and complained about a lack of water while camping at Rephidim.
Read more about Wilderness Of Sin: Cultural References
Famous quotes containing the words wilderness of, wilderness and/or sin:
“There were ghosts that returned to earth to hear his phrases,
As he sat there reading, aloud, the great blue tabulae.
They were those from the wilderness of stars that had expected more.
There were those that returned to hear him read from the poem of life,
Of the pans above the stove, the pots on the table, the tulips among them.
They were those that would have wept to step barefoot into reality....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“These were such houses as the lumberers of Maine spend the winter in, in the wilderness ... the camps and the hovels for the cattle, hardly distinguishable, except that the latter had no chimney.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)