Exodus 19:17

_AND MOSES BROUGHT FORTH THE PEOPLE OUT OF THE CAMP TO MEET WITH GOD; AND THEY STOOD AT THE NETHER PART OF THE MOUNT._ Moses brought forth the people. All classes, except, of course, the aged, the sick, and infant children, including even the achsuph, or mixed multitude, required to be present at the inauguration of a national covenant. Wady er-Rahah, where they stood, as a spacious sandy plain immediately in front of Es-Safsafeh, is considered by Robinson to be the mount from which the law was given. 'We measured it, and estimated the whole plain at two geographical miles long, and ranging in width from one-third to two-thirds of a mile, or as equivalent to a surface of one square mile. This space is nearly doubled by the recess on the west, and by the broad and level area of Wady es-Sheikh on the east, which issues at right angles to the plain, and is equally in view of the front and...

17._And Moses brought forth the people. _We learn from these words that the prodigies were not intended to drive the people from God’s sight, and that they were not smitten with fear to exasperate and disgust them with the doctrine, but that God’s covenant was no less lovely than alarming; for they are commanded to go and “meet God,” presenting themselves with minds ready unto obedience. But this could not be unless they heard in the Law something besides precepts and threatenings. Yet in the smoke and fire, and other signs, some fear was added, in accordance with the office of the Law, because the sinner will never be capable of pardon until he learns to tremble from consciousness of his guilt, nay, until confounded with dread he lies like one dead before the tribunal of God. In the two following verses, Moses explains what he had briefly touched upon respecting the meeting with God; fo...

16-25 Never was there such a sermon preached, before or since, as this which was preached to the church in the wilderness. It might be supposed that the terrors would have checked presumption and curiosity in the people; but the hard heart of an unawakened sinner can trifle with the most terrible threatenings and judgments. In drawing near to God, we must never forget his holiness and greatness, nor our own meanness and pollution. We cannot stand in judgment before him according to his righteous law. The convinced transgressor asks, What must I do to be saved? and he hears the voice, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The Holy Ghost, who made the law to convince of sin, now takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to us. In the gospel we read, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. We have redemption through his blood,...

Verse Exodus 19:17. _AND MOSES BROUGHT FORTH THE PEOPLE - TO MEET WITH GOD_] For though they might not touch the mount till they had permission, yet when the trumpet sounded long, it appears they might come up to _the nether part of the mount_, (see Exodus 19:13, and Deuteronomy 4:11); and when the trumpet had ceased to sound, they might then go up unto the mountain, as to any other place. It was absolutely necessary that God should give the people at large some particular evidence of his _being_ and _power_, that they might be saved from idolatry, to which they were most deplorably prone; and that they might the more readily credit Moses, who was to be the constant mediator betwe

OUT OF THE CAMP - The encampment must have extended far and wide over the plain in front of the mountain. From one entrance of the plain to the other there is space for the whole host of the Israelites....

EXPOSITION THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD UPON SINAI. All was ready. The fence had been made (Exodus 19:23); the people had purified themselves—at least so far as externals went. The third day was come—there was a breathless hush of expectation. Then suddenly, in the morning, the presence manifested itself. "There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud" (Exodus 19:16); "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" (Exod

AND MOSES BROUGHT FORTH THE PEOPLE OUT OF THE CAMP,.... Which was before the mountain and near it, when the above tokens were given of the divine Presence on it; as they were thrown into a panic upon the sound of the trumpet, it was, perhaps, with some difficulty that they were brought out of the camp, or persuaded to quit it; and nothing short of the presence of Moses at the head of them, to go before them, and lead them to the foot of the mountain, could have prevailed upon them to have done it: TO MEET WITH GOD; who came forth in such an awful and solemn manner, as their King and lawgiver, to deliver a body of laws to them, to be the rule of their future conduct: AND THEY STOOD AT THE NETHER PART OF THE MOUNT; at the bottom of it, where bounds were set, and a fence made, that they should proceed no further, and yet near enough to hear what God said to Moses and to them....

EXODUS 19. AWFUL REVELATION OF GOD IN FIRE AND CLOUD. Exodus 19:1 a P, Exodus 19:2 b - Exodus 19:3 a E, Exodus 19:3 b - Exodus 19:6 Rd, Exodus 19:7 a E, Exodus 19:11 b - Exodus 19:13 J, Exodus 19:14 E,...

THE TEXT OF EXODUS TRANSLATION 19 IN THE THIRD MONTH AFTER THE CHILDREN OF IS-RA-EL WERE GONE FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF E-GYPT, THE SAME DAY CAME THEY INTO THE WILDERNESS OF SI-NAI. (2) AND WHEN THEY WERE DEPARTED FROM REPH-I-DIM, AND WERE COME TO THE WILDERNESS OF SI-NAI, THEY ENCAMPED IN THE WILDERNESS; AND THERE IS-RA-EL ENCAMPED BEFORE THE MOUNT. (3) AND MO-SES WENT UP UNTO GOD, AND JE-HO-VAH CALLED UNTO HIM OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN, SAYING, THUS SHALT THOU SAY TO THE HOUSE OF JACOB, AND TELL THE CHILDREN OF IS-RA-EL: (4) YE HAVE SEEN WHAT I DID UNTO THE E-GYP-TIANS, AND HOW I BARE YOU ON EAGLES-' WINGS, AND BROUGHT YOU UNTO MYSELF. (5) NOW THEREFORE, IF YE WILL OBEY MY VOICE INDEED, AND KEEP MY COVENANT, THEN YE SHALL BE MINE OWN POSSESSION FROM AMONG ALL PEOPLES: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE: (6) AND YE SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, AND A HOLY NATION. THESE ARE THE WORDS WHICH THO...

PREPARATION FOR THE GIVING OF THE LAW 1. The same day] the 15th day of the month: cp. Exodus 12:18; Exodus 12:29; Exodus 16:1. Marching slowly, with long halts at the various stations on the route, the host took two months to traverse the 150 m between Egypt and Sinai. Here they remained eleven months (see Numbers 10:11), during which time the nation entered into a formal covenant with Jehovah on the basis of the moral law received from God by Moses, and promulgated by him. WILDERNESS OF SINAI] This must not be confounded with the 'wilderness of Sin' (see on...