Sin, Wilderness of

a tract of the wilderness which the Israelites reached after leaving the encampment by the Red Sea. (Numbers 33:11,23) Their next halting-place, (Exodus 16:1; 17:1) was Rephidim, probably the Wady Feiran [REPHIDIM]; on which supposition it would follow that Sin must lie between that way and the coast of the Gulf of Suez, and of course west of Sinai. In the wilderness of Sin the manna was first gathered, and those who adopt the supposition that this was merely the natural product of the tarfa bush find from the abundance of that shrub in Wady es-Sheikh , southeast of Wady Ghurundel , a proof of local identity.