Place on the edge of the desert of Sin, where the children of Israel encamped after crossing that desert. The people suffered there from lack of water; they complained, and Moses smote water from the rock. Moses named the place "Massah and Meribah" (Exodus 17:1-7). In the parallel account, Numbers 21, the place where this occured is not Rephidim, but Kadesh. At Rephidim Amalek attacked Israel from behind. Modern research (Ebers, Leprius, and others) places it in the northwestern part of the Wadi Firan. According to Robinson ("Researches," 1:179), Rephidim is in the narrow gorge of Al-Waá¹iyyah in the great Wady al-Shaikh.