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gig THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG "0
shows four pairs of names, thus: Pathros and Zoan; No and Sin; No and Sin; No and Noph. Of these pairs the first always belongs to Upper Egypt, the second to Lower Egypt. According, therefore, to the accepted Hebrew text, which is to be preferred, the correct view is, that Sin is a place in Lower Egypt. Ebers' surmise that it was in Upper Egypt because it appears to derive from the ancient Sun, which resembles the (creek Syene, overlooks the fact that this place existed in Hebrew times, and is mentioned by Ezekiel as Seveneh (xxx. 6). The Zoan that bears a relation to Sin in Ezek. xxx.14-16, was probably known to the Hebrews under the name of Rameses (Gen. xlvii. 11). The Sin of Ezekiel is thought of as one of the most important places in Lower Egypt, being twice paralleled with Thebes (No); it could not therefore have been an unimportant place in the east of Lower Egypt (contrary to W. M. Milller, EB, iv. 4629). As " the fortress of Egypt," however, it protected during the course of history the town of Pelusium, which lay on the east arm of the Nile. To the east of this town a high boundary wall was erected (Diodorus Siculus, i. 57) and the town itself was surrounded by a wall twenty stadia long. The armies of invasion from the East could not ignore this arsenal and key to Egypt. As in strategic importance, so also in general significance Sin and Pelusium may be identical, as when Strabo alludes to the marshy surroundings of the town as Pelusium. But what was Sin-Pelusium called by the ancient Egyptians ? Brugsch, in the appendix to his Dictionnaire gmgraphique, accepted the view of Dilmichen, the noted Egyptologist, in his Geachichte des alter Aegyptem (pp. 74, 263, 1878), according to which the capital of the nineteenth province of Lower Egypt was Am, named after the two eyebrows of Osiris, which were preserved as sacred relics in the temple of the town. W. M. Milller calls it Ame(t), " Prince of Lower Egypt " (EB, iv. 4628). In ancient Egyptian the word am (Coptic, ome) signifies morass. Whether the ancient Egyptians, who loved to play on words, placed a double meaning on the word " Am," the " town of the two eyebrows," is uncertain; there was a temptation to play on the word as the city was surrounded by marshes. At the present day, an ancient ruined castle, northwest of the ruins of ancient Pelusium, is called Tindh (" clay," or " mud "), an evidence that Sin was an appellation of Pelusium.
BiBuooasrHy: Consult the commentaries on Eselael by Emend, Leip®ic, 1880; Orelli, Munich, 1896; Bertholet, T66ingen, 1897; Kraetsechmar, Gbttingen, 1900; G. Jahn, Leipsic, 1905; C. H. Comill, Dar Bueh des Note Esechid, ib. 1886; and the articles in the Bible dictionaries.
SIN, DESERT OF. See WANDERING >N Talc DESERT.
SIN OFFERINGS. See SAcwsicE.SINAI, sai'nai or sai'na-ai: The mountain on which, according to the Pentateuch, Moses gave the
greater part of the Law to the Israelites; identified for a millennium and a half with a peak of the range which forms the center of the peninsula of Sinai, between the two northern arms of the Red Sea. The range in question consists of Jabal al-Dair (6,472 ft.), Jabal Musa (7,363 ft.), and Topography Jabal Katarin (8,536 ft.), but it is ex of the tremely difficult of access, being off all Traditional the main routes, and surrounded by Sinai. barren wastes, especially to the north. The central group of these mountains is bounded by valleys on three sides, but continues without deep indentation on the south. Jabal al Dair throws out a triangular spur toward the north and is bounded on the east by the Wadi al-Sadad, called Wadi al-Saba'iyah further south. On the northwest of Jabal al-Dair is the Wadi al-Shaikh, which turns northward; and on the southwest is the short Wadi al-Dair, the upper part of which is called Wadi Shu'aib (" Valley of Jethro "), and which debouches into the Wadi al-Shaikh. The other side of the Wadi al-Dair is enclosed by the de clivities of the second lofty peak, the southeast sum mit of which is called Jabal Musa (" the Mountain of Moses "), and the northwest summit Ras al 7raftaf (" Mountain of the Willow "; 6,540 ft.), the northwest slopes of the latter running parallel with those of Jabal al-Dair to the Wadi al-Shaikh, which continues to the southwest to the steep Wadi al Laja, which soon turns to the southeast and leads to the abandoned Dair al-Arba'in (" Monastery of the Forty [martyrs slain by the Mohammedans] "). South of Jabal Musa and the monastery rises Jabal Katarin, the highest peak of the whole group, the foothills of which connect with Jabal Musa. On the northeast slope of the latter mountain is the Mon astery of St. Catharine, behind the apse of the church of which is the Chapel of the Burning Bush, which is honored by the removal of the shoes of all who enter (cf. Ex. iii. 5). The summit of Jabal Musa may be reached in an hour and a half from the Monastery of St. Catherine. On the way a little spring is passed where Moses is said to have tended Jethro's flock (Ex. ii. 15 sqq.); at a height of 6,900 feet is the small chapel of Elijah (cf. I Kings xix. 11 sqq.); and on the summit are another chapel and a small mosque, beside which are the ruins of a church. [Beneath this mosque is a grotto, sup posed to be that in which Moses stood when Yah weh passed by (Ex. xxxiii. 22).] The other summit is hard to climb. It takes its name, Rae al-Zaftaf, from a willow (Arab. rafza f) from the wood of which Moses is supposed to have cut his miraculous rod (Ex. iv. 2). On the road which passes through the Wadi al-Dair into the Wadi al-Laja and past the Dair al-Arba'in, is the Hajar Musa (" Rock of Moses "), a block of reddish-brown granite about eleven feet nine inches high, identified with that from which Moses brought the water (Num. xx. 8 sqy.), and this water is said to have returned here after having accompanied the Children of Israel in their wanderings (cf. I Cor. x. 4). Near the junction of the Wadi al-Laja, Wadi al-Dair, and Wadi al Shaikh is the traditional spot where the earth swal lowed up Korah and his followers (Num. xvi.), while a small hole in the rock is shown as the mold of the