Sin, Wilderness of

The Wilderness of Sin was a region in the Sinai peninsula through which the Israelites passed after leaving the Red Sea shore and before reaching Rephidim and Mount Sinai (Exodus 16:1; 17:1; Numbers 33:11–12). The name has no connection to moral sin but is a place name, possibly derived from Siyn, an ancient name for the Sinai peninsula itself or from the moon-god Sin. The arrival in this wilderness — in the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from Egypt — triggered the first complaint about food and the provision of quail and manna (Exodus 16). The manna continued every day except the Sabbath for the entire forty years in the wilderness (Exodus 16:35). The Wilderness of Sin is generally located on the west coast of the Sinai peninsula, in the vicinity of the plain of El-Markha.