Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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Moses brought the hearers to the place of meeting, Ex 19:17. He that had led them out of the bondage of Egypt now led them to receive the law from God's mouth. Public persons are indeed public blessings when they lay out themselves in their places to promote the public worship of God. Moses, at the head of an assembly worshipping God, was as truly great as Moses at the head of an army in the field.
18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord
descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
The preacher was God himself (Ex 19:18): The Lord descended in fire, and (Ex 19:20), The Lord came down upon mount Sinai. The shechinah, or glory of the Lord, appeared in the sight of all the people; he shone forth from mount Paran with ten thousands of his saints (De 33:2), that is, attended, as the divine Majesty always is, by a multitude of the holy angels, who were both to grace the solemnity and to assist at it. Hence the law is said to be given by the disposition of angels, Ac 7:53.
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed
louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
The congregation was called together by the sound of a trumpet, exceedingly loud (Ex 19:16), and waxing louder and louder, Ex 19:19. This was done by the ministry of the angels, and we read of trumpets sounded by angels, Re 8:6. It was the sound of the trumpet that made all the people tremble, as those who knew their own guilt, and who had reason to expect that the sound of this trumpet was to them the alarm of war.
20 And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the
mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
21 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest
they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.
22 And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify
themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.