RAPHIDIM. — Israelite encampment on their journey from the Red Sea to Sinai, situated between the wilderness of Sin and Sinai (Ex. 17:1), after the stages at Daphea and Alus (Num. 33:12–13), famous for the spring that Moses caused to gush forth there from the rock of Horeb (Ex. 17:1–7), and for the victory won over the Amalekites, in which the valor of Joshua shone forth (ibid. 17:8–16).
As early as the 4th century (Eusebius, Onom., 142, 22; Eteria in the portion of the itinerary reported by Pietro Diacono), R. was located in the Wādī Fejrān; even today, on Gebel Tāhūneh, overlooking the Fejrān oasis, the remains of the churches erected to commemorate the events of R. can be seen. Following the ancient pilgrims, quite a few modern scholars likewise mark the stages of the journey from the plain of el-Marḥah (= wilderness of Sin?) to Sinai by way of the mines of Magarah (Daphea) and the Mukatteb (Aluš?) and Fejrān (R.?) valleys. But as early as 1900, Fr. Lagrange pointed out that the plain of el-Marḥah (= wilderness of Sin?) is not topographically between «Elim and Sinai» (Ex. 16:1), and that, if the route marked out by tradition had been followed, the biblical silence concerning the Fejrān oasis, the pearl of the Sinai Peninsula, would be inexplicable. He proposed a route from Dabbet er-Ramleh (= wilderness of Sin), through the mines of Şerābit el-Hādim (Daphea) and the valleys of el-'Ešš (Aluš) and Erfājid (R.), to Sinai. This direction is now preferred both because traces of the ancient names Aluš and R. are preserved in the Arabic names el-'Ešš and Erfājid, and because it better accords with the topography of the entire region.