*H In the third month of the departure of Israel out of the land of Egypt, on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai:
Ver. 1. This day. The same on which they departed from the Raphidim, or on the third day of the third month; though S. Aug. understands the first of the month; (C.) on which last supposition, allowing 16 days of the month Nisan, 30 of Jiar, and 4 of Sivan, the law was given 50 days after the liberation of the Jews, as the new law was promulgated on Whit-Sunday, on the day of Pentecost. S. Aug. ep. 119. 16. W.
* Footnote * Numbers 33 : 13
And departing from Daphca, they camped in Alus.*H And Moses went up to God; and the Lord called unto him from the mountain, and said: Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
Ver. 3. And Moses went up to God. Moses went up to Mount Sinai, where God spoke to him.
* Footnote * Acts 7 : 38
This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sina and with our fathers. Who received the words of life to give unto us.*H You have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, how I have carried you upon the wings of eagles, and have taken you to myself.
Ver. 4. Eagles. Out of the reach of danger. As eagles carry their young upon their wings, so I have protected you from all your enemies. Deut. xxxii. 11. C.
* Footnote * Deuteronomy 29 : 2
And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all the things that the Lord did before you in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land.*H If therefore you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my peculiar possession above all people: for all the earth is mine.
Ver. 5. Possession, (peculium.) Heb. segula, "a chosen portion or treasure." M. — Mine. I could have made choice of others. We cannot but admire the goodness of God, who asks for the free consent of the people. Hence they can have no pretence for breaking this solemn covenant. C. Theod. 9. 35.
* Footnote * Psalms 23 : 1
On the first day of the week, a psalm for David. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof: the world, and all they that dwell therein.*H And you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation. These are the words thou shalt speak to the children of Israel.
Ver. 6. Priestly kingdom. "Priests and kings." Chal. You shall rule over the Chanaanites, &c. and you shall offer sacrifice to me, at least, by slaying the paschal lamb. This kingdom shall not be merely of a civil nature; it shall be also sacred. The whole nation shall be holy, separated from the pagans, and consecrated to me. M.
* Footnote * 1_Peter 2 : 9
But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:*H And all the people answered together: All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. And when Moses had related the people's words to the Lord,
Ver. 8. Related, as a mediator acting between two parties, (H.) though God knew all before. Thus his servants cease not to lay before him their own and our wants. W.
*H The Lord said to him: Lo, now will I come to thee in the darkness of a cloud, that the people may hear me speaking to thee, and may believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
Ver. 9. Cloud, to veil his majesty, while he spoke to Moses in the hearing of all. H. — Then they began to place an entire confidence in their leader. Maimonides.
*H And he said to him: Go to the people, and sanctify them to day, and to morrow, and let them wash their garments.
Ver. 10. Garments, with their bodies, as the Jews understand by this expression. They were also to abstain from their wives, &c. By which exterior practices, they were admonished of the interior purity which God required. All nations seem to have adopted similar observances of continence, washing themselves, and putting on their best attire, when they appeared before God. See Herod. &c. C.
* Footnote * Hebrews 12 : 18
For you are not come to a mountain that might be touched and a burning fire and a whirlwind and darkness and storm,*H No hands shall touch him, but he shall be stoned to death, or he shall be shot through with arrows: whether it be beast, or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet shall begin to sound, then let them go up into the mount.
Ver. 13. Him. In detestation of his impiety, which has made him unclean. H. — Go up into the precincts of the mountain, to which Moses conducted them; (v. 17. 21,) or they might ascend after the trumpet ceased, and the law was given. For some understand shall begin, in a contrary sense with the Roman Sept. "when the voices of thunder, and the trumpets, and the cloud shall be no more;" (apelthe) so also the Chal. Syr. Vatable. The sound which was heard, resembled that of a horn. (Jobel.) See Levit. xxv. 10. C.
*H He said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.
Ver. 15. Wives. S. Paul recommends continence when people have to pray. 1 Cor. vii. On the pagan temple of Epidaurus, this inscription was placed, "Let those be chaste who enter here." Clem. strom. 5.
*H And all Mount Sinai was on a smoke: because the Lord was come down upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible.
Ver. 18. Terrible, by the display of so many instruments of God's power; lightning, fire, a thick cloud, and various peals of thunder, and the sound of a trumpet; besides rain, and the company of millions of angels. Ps. lxvii. 9. 18. How different was the appearance of Sion, when Jesus proclaimed his gospel! Heb. xii. 18.
* Footnote * Deuteronomy 4 : 11
And you came to the foot of the mount, which burned even unto heaven: and there was darkness, and a cloud and obscurity in it.*H And the sound of the trumpet grew by degrees louder and louder, and was drawn out to a greater length: Moses spoke, and God answered him.
Ver. 19. Answered him, "in a speech," articulated and heard by all the people, as the Heb. Sept. Syr. &c. intimate. Many legislators have pretended that their laws came from heaven. But they had no witnesses. Moses does all openly. His laws are preceded, accompanied, and followed by prodigies.
*H The priests also that come to the Lord, let them be sanctified, lest he strike them.
Ver. 22. Sanctified, in an extraordinary manner, above the rest. These priests, according to S. Aug. are the children of Aaron, and the whole race of Levi, who would shortly be selected by God. But others think, they are those who, by the law of nature, were accustomed to officiate. Or, as God had declared that they were all a priestly kingdom, some of the most comely and irreproachable youths of each family, had been chosen to present victims, when the covenant with God was to be ratified. C. xxiv. 15. C.
*H And Moses said to the Lord: The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai: for thou didst charge, and command, saying: Set limits about the mount, and sanctify it.
Ver. 23. The people. Glassius understands this with an interrogation, "Can no one?" God exempts Aaron from the common law, v. 24. H.
*H And the Lord said to him: Go, get thee down; and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people pass the limits, nor come up to the Lord, lest he kill them.
Ver. 24. Pass. Sept. "contend violently to pass." The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, Matt. xi. 12. M. — Moses was the mediator of this covenant, and Aaron his interpreter, to explain to the people the orders of Moses. C. — Thus we have seen the dreadful apparatus of the law of fear, with the preface to it, and the approbation of the people.