Possible Routes of the Exodus and Locations of Mount Sinai

After Jacob and his family traveled to Egypt, their descendants remained there for several generations; they grew from a family into a people. Upon their return to the Promised Land, they would settle there as a nation with YHWH as their God. The first step in that process is the Exodus from Egypt, when God delivers Israel from oppressive servitude, and the protracted journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land. The highlight of the wilderness stories is the divine revelation at Mount Sinai, the giving of the laws that form the covenant between God and Israel. God dwells among the people in the Tabernacle. After forty years in the wilderness, when the generation of the Exodus is gone, a new generation is to enter the Promised Land. Moses takes his leave of the people in his speeches in Deuteronomy, and Joshua takes his place, leading the people across the Jordan River into Canaan. They must conquer the Canaanites who live there before they can establish themselves securely.