Dophkah

Dophkah (meaning a knocking or driver) was an Israelite encampment in the Sinai wilderness, listed in the travel itinerary of Numbers 33:12–13 between the wilderness of Sin and Alush on the route toward Mount Sinai. No narrative events are associated with Dophkah in the biblical text beyond its position in the wilderness travel log.

Modern scholars have proposed its identification with Serabit el-Khadim in the southern Sinai Peninsula—an Egyptian turquoise and copper mining site at which inscriptions referencing Semitic workers (including the Proto-Sinaitic script) have been found. The ISBE and some archaeologists support this identification as consistent with the geographic route from the Red Sea crossing toward Sinai. If correct, it would link Israel's wilderness journey to one of the most significant ancient industrial sites in the Sinai, and the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions found there are among the earliest alphabetic writing known.