As to what concerns the departure from Raphidîm, it must appear very probable to many, that those words, which so completely interrupt the natural continuity of the events, have been purposely displaced either by Josephus, or before him did not originally belong here, but were placed at the beginning of the giving the Commandments, when this (as without doubt, it frequently happened) was taken distinctly from all that went before, or came after.[142] The want of connection, since the arrival at Sinai, is mentioned before the departure from Raphidîm, and the expression so difficult of explanation, “and the same day,” while by other statements of time, a particular day is meant, would support the supposition.[143] Those, however, to whom this acceptation may appear too bold, as it does not agree with the original comprehension of the subject, may understand the new departure as a slight misarrangement of the encampment, as we must already consider that of the departure from Elim to the coast of the Red Sea. This change happened either while they advanced from El Hessue, where the sea was first seen, to Firân, from Firân into the upper part of the Wadi Aleyât, where the camp could spread out, far round the foot of the mountain.[144] Such a comprehension will alone content those who strive to represent the whole course of events in their essential and necessary points. They will not be able to prevent the conviction, that Serbâl, on account of the oasis at its foot, must have been the aim and centre of the new immigrating population, and that to be fenced in in a mountain-hollow, like the plain at Gebel Mûsa, where the multitude could find no water, no fruit, or manna-bearing trees, and where they were cut off from all connection with the other part of the peninsula more than anywhere else, could never possibly, have been the intention of the wise and learned man of God. It must be acknowledged that the distinguishing Sinai as the principal mountain of the desert of Sin, and the sanctity that it possessed, not only among the Israelites, but also among the native-born races of the country, very decidedly point out Serbâl; further, that the Raphidîm, with the well of Moses of Choreb, which was defended by the Amalekites, undoubtedly lay in the Wadi Firân, that consequently also the mountain of God, Choreb, where Moses was called, and the mountain of God, near Raphidîm, where Moses was visited by Jethro, and organized the people, could be no other than Serbâl, from which finally, it also appears, that if we do not admit of two mountains of God, the Mountain of the Law lay near Raphidîm, and in Serbâl must be recognised, and not in Gebel Mûsa.