We should thus understand, that there were two “Mountains of God,” the one, “The Mountain of God Choreb,” in Raphidîm, which might be Serbâl, and one “The Mountain of God Sinai,” upon which the Commandments were given, which might be Gebel Mûsa.[136] This acceptation would, however, not only be scarcely credible, but would contradict itself most positively by the fact, that the Mountain of God, Choreb, where Moses was called, already before was designated as the Mountain of the Law;[137] (2, 3, 1, 12,) and further the general name of “God’s Mountain,” which so often appears, without any other name (2, 4, 27, 18, 5, 24, 13, 4, 10, 33,) could only be used if there were but one such mountain; and finally, that the name Sinai, or Mount Sinai, and Choreb, or Mount Choreb, continue to be used in the very same signification as the Mountain of the Law. This visible difficulty has also formerly been felt.[138] Josephus (_Ant._ 3, 2, 3,) helped himself out of it, by putting the supposed beginning of the nineteenth chapter, from its present place to before the visit of Jethro; so that Moses did not receive his family in Raphidîm, but in Sinai. By this two difficulties would certainly be overcome; one, that there was only one Mountain of God, and the other, that the organisation of the people did not take place during the journey. He also surrenders after some consideration, the statement that the rock, which Moses struck, lay in Choreb. The new school have, however, set forth the opinion that either Sinai was the general name of the whole range of mountains, and Choreb that of the one mountain where the law was given, or contrarywise, that Choreb signified the wider designation, and Sinai the single mountain,[139] while the monkish tradition gave the names to two mountains lying close together.[140] A comparison of the individual places does not appear to me to admit of either of these views; my opinion leans much more to that of the indiscriminate use of the two names Choreb and Sinai, and that both point out one and the same mountain, and the neighbourhood.[141] Perhaps Choreb might be the particular local Amalekite name, and Sinai a name derived from its situation in the desert of Sin.