Psalms 66:10

10. As silver is tried Such figures indicate that the art of refining the precious metals was known to the Hebrews. The history of the tabernacle in the wilderness shows them to have been advanced in the art of metallurgy, which they had learned of the Egyptians. See Psalms 12:6; Exodus 25:0. In the peninsula of Mount Sinai are still found numerous excavations of ancient Egyptian mines of iron and copper, also turquois and manganese, with shafts, vast slag heaps, ruins of smelting furnaces, dwellings, temples and hieroglyphics, dating anterior to, and at the time of, the exodus. In their oppressed condition it is not improbable that many of the Israelites worked in these mines. Moses led the people within a few miles of a principal colony of miners, (in Serabit el Khadim,) then evidently in full operation, “having most probably a considerable military establishment to preserve discipline, as the miners were chiefly selected from criminals and prisoners of war.” PALMER’S Desert of the Exodus.