Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Hebrews come to Sinai; Moses ascends the mountain; God commands the people to be sanctified and prepared to reverently receive the law of God; and therefore, verse 16, God fills the mountain with fire, smoke, thunder, lightning, earthquake, and the blast of a trumpet, in order to strike the Hebrews with fear and reverence for Him.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 19:1-25
1. In the third month after the departure of Israel from the land of Egypt, on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2. For having set out from Raphidim and arriving at the desert of Sinai, they encamped in the same place, and there Israel pitched their tents opposite the mountain. 3. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said: These things you shall say to the house of Jacob, and announce to the children of Israel: 4. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you upon the wings of eagles and took you to Myself. 5. If therefore you will hear My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My special possession above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine. 6. And you shall be to Me a royal priesthood and a holy nation: these are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel. 7. Moses came, and having called together the elders of the people, he set forth all the words that the Lord had commanded. 8. And all the people answered together: All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And when Moses had reported the words of the people to the Lord, 9. the Lord said to him: Even now I will come to you in the darkness of a cloud, so that the people may hear Me speaking to you and may believe you forever. So Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. 10. And He said to him: Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments. 11. And let them be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down before all the people upon Mount Sinai. 12. And you shall set bounds for the people round about, and you shall say to them: Take care not to go up to the mountain, nor to touch its borders; whoever touches the mountain shall surely die. 13. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or pierced with javelins; whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet begins to sound, then let them go up to the mountain. 14. And Moses came down from the mountain to the people and sanctified them. And when they had washed their garments, 15. he said to them: Be ready for the third day, and do not approach your wives. 16. And now the third day had come, and the morning had dawned; and behold, thunders began to be heard, and lightning to flash, and a very thick cloud to cover the mountain, and the blast of the trumpet sounded more and more loudly; and the people in the camp were afraid. 17. And when Moses had led them forth to meet God from the place of the camp, they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18. And all of Mount Sinai was smoking, because the Lord had come down upon it in fire, and the smoke rose from it as from a furnace; and the whole mountain was terrible. 19. And the sound of the trumpet gradually grew louder and extended longer; Moses spoke, and God answered him. 20. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the very summit of the mountain, and called Moses to its top. And when he had gone up, 21. He said to him: Go down and warn the people, lest they should wish to cross the boundaries to see the Lord, and a very great number of them should perish. 22. Let the priests also who approach the Lord be sanctified, lest He strike them. 23. And Moses said to the Lord: The common people cannot go up to Mount Sinai; for You have testified and commanded, saying: Set bounds around the mountain and sanctify it. 24. And the Lord said to him: Go, descend, and you shall come up, and Aaron with you; but let neither the priests nor the people cross the boundaries or go up to the Lord, lest He should slay them. 25. And Moses went down to the people and told them all things.
Verse 1: In the Third Month after the Departure of Israel from the Land of Egypt, on This Day They Came into the Wilderness of Sinai
"On this day," that is, on the same day, or the day of the same number as the third month, namely the third day of the third month; for Francisco Ribera, in Book V On the Temple, chapter 7, shows by various examples that the word is used here for "the same," and that it should be so understood in this passage will be clear from verse 11. Therefore certain Fathers are not correct in thinking that the Hebrews came to Sinai on the first day of the third month, as Bellarmine learnedly shows in Book III On the Veneration of Saints, chapter 13.
Note: The Hebrews came to Sinai on the third day of the third month, in the first year of their departure from Egypt; but they left Sinai in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day, as is stated in Numbers 10:11. They therefore remained at Sinai for a full year, minus thirteen days. All things, therefore, which are described from this chapter onward through the whole of Exodus and the whole of Leviticus, and in Numbers up to chapter 10, verse 11, took place at Sinai.
Hence St. Jerome says: "At Sinai was the twelfth encampment, where the second half of Exodus, and all of Leviticus, and the precepts of Numbers, and the distribution of the people by individual tribes, and the offering of the princes, are described."
Verse 3: And Moses Went Up to God
To Mount Sinai, on which he knew God had formerly appeared to him in Exodus 3, and had commanded that after the departure from Egypt he should sacrifice to Him on the same mountain. In order to consult God about this matter, Moses now ascended the same mountain.
Verse 4: How I Bore You upon the Wings of Eagles
For just as eagles do not carry their young with their talons and feet, but place them upon their wings and carry them so high that no one can even strike them with a weapon, so also God had lifted up the Hebrews on the wings of His providence, when He made them completely safe from all enemies and nurtured them with fatherly care. "For all other birds," says Rabbi Solomon, "place their young between their feet, because they fear the birds that fly above them. But the eagle fears nothing for itself except from man, lest he should strike it with a javelin. For since no bird flies higher than the eagle, it therefore places its young on its wings, thinking: It is better that the javelin should pierce me than my young. So also I have done, says God, according to that passage in chapter 14, verse 10: And the angel lifting himself up, etc., stood between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and when the Egyptians hurled javelins and stones, the cloud itself, in which the angel was hidden, received them." So far that author. The eagle therefore sets itself up as a shield for its young: and so God does for the faithful and the just.
Again, just as eagles lift their offspring through steep heights and accustom them to gaze at the sun, so also God had led the Hebrews through the greatest obstacles to such a clear and intimate knowledge and worship of God.
Historically, note that God's providence and beneficence are rightly compared to the eagle; for the eagle has a singular love both for its young and for mankind, especially if the person is a virgin or a benefactor. Pliny relates, in Book X, chapter 3, that an eagle was raised by a maiden in Sestus, and when it was set free, it repaid her with a double favor: first by bringing her birds, and then also by bringing her game. What is more, when it saw that the maiden had died and that the funeral pyre had been erected to burn her, it flung itself upon the kindled pyre and was consumed together with her; for it preferred to die the same death rather than survive its foster-mistress.
The Macedonians report that Ptolemy Soter, the son of Arsinoe, was exposed as an infant and nurtured by an eagle. This eagle, soaring above the infant with outstretched wings, warded off from him both the heat of the sun and the rain, drove away flocking birds, and fed the infant with the blood of quails as if with milk. Suidas is the authority for this in his entry on Lagus.
Pausanias, in Book IV, writes that Aristomenes was wondrously freed by an eagle from a deep pit, and describes the manner at length.
Plutarch in his Parallels says: "When a plague was raging in Sparta, the oracles warned that the force of the evil would cease if they sacrificed some noble maiden each year. It chanced that the lot fell upon Helen; and when she was being led out to be slaughtered, an eagle swooped down, snatched the sacrificer's sword, and carried it to the herds and dropped it upon a heifer. By the portent of this prodigy, the sacrifice of maidens, which the Spartans had long observed according to the oracle, was abolished."
In exactly the same manner, among the Valerii, a maiden named Valeria Luperca, who had been designated by lot for sacrifice, was saved by the kindness of an eagle.
Athenaeus writes, citing Phylarchus, that an eagle chick raised by a boy grew to love him like a brother, and stood mournfully by him when he was ill; when the boy would not eat, the eagle likewise refused food; when the boy died, it followed the funeral procession; and when he was being cremated, the chick flung itself upon the pyre.
Aelian writes, in Book XVII, chapter 37, that a farmer about to draw water came upon an eagle fighting with a serpent; he killed the serpent with his sickle, making the eagle victorious. Then he drew water, but since it had been poisoned by the serpent, his companions who drank from it died shortly afterward. When he was about to drink from it himself, the eagle flew up, overturned the cup, and poured out the water, and thus freed him from the poison and from death.
The same author, in Book XII, chapter 21, relates that Tilgamus, king of Babylon, when he was a boy, was thrown from a height by order of his grandfather, but was rescued by an eagle that flew up beneath him, caught the boy on its back, and gently set him down in a garden. "If this seems a fable to anyone," he says, "I confess that I too would not endorse it. However, I have heard that Achaemenes the Persian, from whom the noble line of the Persians descended, was also a nursling of an eagle."
These are profane examples; now hear sacred ones. For God has often wonderfully aided His saints through eagles.
St. Medard, when as a boy he was exposed to rain in a field, was protected by an eagle spreading its wings and body over him, as his Life relates.
The body of St. Benedict, killed by robbers and thrown into water, was discovered by an eagle.
The body of St. Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow, killed by King Boleslaus, was defended by four eagles from dogs and wild beasts for a full two days, until priests gathered the scattered limbs, which are said to have suddenly rejoined.
The Venerable Bede relates of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, that an eagle miraculously caught a fish from a river and brought it to St. Cuthbert lest he perish from hunger.
Tropologically, the saints, especially the illustrious ones, dwell in heaven like eagles, and there God takes them to Himself in the heavenly places, as His own intimate companions and courtiers. Hence St. Gregory, in Book XXXI of the Moralia, chapter 34, explaining the passage in Job 39: "Does the eagle rise up at your command, and make its nest on high?" compares St. Paul and the saints to the eagle. "Let us behold," he says, "the eagle building its nest in high places -- he who says: Our conversation is in heaven. And again: Who has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places. It has its nest on high, because assuredly it fixes its purpose on things above; it does not wish to cast down its mind to lower things; it does not wish to dwell in the lowest places through the abasement of human conversation. At that time Paul was perhaps held in prison when he testified that he sat together with Christ in the heavenly places; but he was there where he had already fixed his ardent mind, not there where sluggish flesh still of necessity held him." Then in what follows, he shows that this loftiness of a mind placed in heaven is a sign of divine predestination and election to glory. For this is what Isaiah says, chapter 58, verse 14: "Then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will lift you up above the heights of the earth, and I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob."
Rightly therefore St. Augustine, in Sermon 2 On All Saints, thus spurs on the faithful: "Let us willingly and readily contend for this palm in heaven; let us all run in the contest of justice with God and Christ watching. And we who have begun to be greater than the world and the age, let us not be slowed in our race by any worldly desire. If the last day finds us unencumbered, swift in this contest of labor, and running -- the Lord will never fail as a rewarder to crown our merits with the prize."
For this reason, the pagans at the funeral of an emperor would release an eagle from the pyre, which was to carry the soul of the deceased to heaven. Hear Spartian on the funeral and apotheosis of Emperor Hadrian: "From the summit, together with the fire beneath, an eagle is released to ascend into heaven, which is believed to carry the very soul of the prince to heaven." Dio testifies the same concerning Augustus at his funeral in Book LVI. Coins also attest this, which bear on one side the image of the deified emperor, and on the other an eagle, with the words: "Consecratio S.C." [Consecration, by decree of the Senate]. Indeed, princes after death were imagined and depicted sitting upon an eagle and being carried by it. Hear Artemidorus in his Interpretation of Dreams, Book II, chapter 20: "To be carried by an eagle foretells death for kings and wealthy men. For it is an ancient custom to depict and paint these deceased persons sitting upon an eagle."
Thus four eagles brought signs of death to Emperor Severus, by which in a nocturnal vision he seemed to be snatched up to heaven. On a coin whose inscription reads "The Deified Pertinax, Dutiful Father," an eagle sits on an orb, as if to signify that he was raised above the heavens. Finally, an epigram on Plato's tomb depicts an eagle, as though Plato's soul flew to heaven in the form of an eagle; for it reads thus:
Why, eagle, do you hover at this tomb? Say, have you perhaps discerned from the stars that some god dwells here?
Nay, I am the divine soul of the departed Plato, who inhabits Olympus; but Attica holds his earthborn body.
Verse 5: If Therefore You Will Hear My Voice and Keep My Covenant, You Shall Be My Special Possession
As if to say: Although you are a small flock, a small nation, you will nevertheless be My entire flock, that is, all My substance, all My wealth. For in ancient times all the substance of the ancients consisted in livestock, and from this the word "peculium" [special possession] was derived. "Peculium" therefore means a peculiar and proper inheritance. For this is what Deuteronomy 32:9 says: "The Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance," that is, His hereditary portion; for in ancient times inheritances among heirs used to be divided and measured out by cords.
For "peculium" [special possession] in Hebrew is segullah, that is, a chosen and beloved portion, like a treasure, as if to say: Although the whole world is Mine, and all peoples, yet you will be dear and precious to Me like a jewel or a treasure. Hence the Septuagint, and from them Saints Peter and Paul, translate it: you will be to Me a laos periousios, that is, a peculiar, choice, and eminent people. Hence also Symmachus translates it: you will be to Me a laos exairetos, that is, a select, outstanding, excellent people. Lyra translates it: you will be lovable to Me, that is, you will be so dear to Me as friends, as if you were My very friendliness itself. See what was said on Titus 2.
FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE. Since the whole earth is Mine by right of creation and preservation, I can and will choose you from it as My special possession, so that the whole earth may be My inheritance, but you may be My peculium, My segullah.
Verse 6: And You Shall Be to Me a Priestly Kingdom
In Hebrew: a kingdom of priests, that is, priestly; for the Hebrews use the genitive of a noun in place of an adjective, as if to say: You will be My kingdom, not lay and profane, but sacred and devoted to My worship and sacrifices. The Septuagint inverts the words: You shall be to Me a royal priesthood; whom St. Peter follows, in Epistle I, chapter 2, verse 2. But the meaning is the same: for both dignities, which are the highest in the state -- namely, that of kingship and priesthood -- God here bestows upon the Hebrews above all other nations. The Chaldean [Targum] translates: you shall be to Me kings and priests, as if to say: Not each of you individually, but some from among you will be appointed kings, through whom you will reign, and some will be priests, through whom you will offer sacrifices to God. However, secondly, this can be understood of individuals, as though God promises this to each one in particular, not only to the state as a whole, as if to say: Each of you will be like kings, because you will rule over the Canaanites and other nations, just as the ambassador of Pyrrhus said that in Rome he had seen as many kings as senators. And you will be priests, because among all the nations you alone will be devoted to My worship and My ceremonies. Moreover, I take "kingdom" and "kings" both actively and passively, as if to say: You will be kings, yet in such a way that I reign in you.
Some ask here why Moses promises the Jews a priestly kingdom, while St. Peter, in Epistle I, chapter 2, verse 2, inversely promises Christians a royal priesthood? And they answer, first, because the royal dignity, which was perfect among the Jews, was rendered more imperfect among Christians; but the priesthood, which was imperfect among them, became most perfect among Christians, and came to predominate over kingdoms and kings. Second, because the law of Moses was a law of justice, according to the saying: "I am a jealous God, or an avenger, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children" (Deuteronomy 5:9). But the law of Christ is a law of mercy. Royal authority upholds justice: for this reason it bears the sword; but priestly authority upholds mercy. For such a high priest befitted us, as St. Paul says in Hebrews 7, one who could sympathize with those who are ignorant and go astray, and have compassion on our weaknesses. Fittingly therefore, in the time of justice -- that is, under the old law -- royal authority was preeminent; but in the time of mercy, priestly dignity became superior, because from royal power justice is to be expected, and from priestly authority piety and mercy. So Ascanius Martinengus in his commentary on Genesis, volume 1.
Mystically, all good and holy Christians are kings, says St. Gregory, in Book XXVI of the Moralia, chapter 26: "For by ruling over all the movements of the flesh, now they bridle the appetite of lust, now they temper the heat of avarice, now they suppress the glory of pride, now they crush the suggestion of envy, now they extinguish the fire of anger. They are therefore kings because, by not consenting to the movements of their temptations, they have learned not to yield but to rule and govern, and to hold dominion." Hence in heaven they will receive a kingdom: "To him who conquers," He says, "I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, even as I have conquered and sat with My Father on His throne." Then they will say the words of Revelation 5:10: "You have made us a kingdom and priests for our God, and we shall reign upon the earth" -- nay, above heaven and the heaven of heavens.
A HOLY NATION -- separated from other profane and idolatrous nations, and devoted and, as it were, consecrated to Me alone by My calling and election.
This alludes to the story in Genesis 47:22, where the reason is given why the priests alone in Egypt had not been compelled during the general famine to sell their possessions: namely because the priestly land had been given by the king to the priests, to whom fixed provisions from the public granaries were also supplied. And so the honor and favor that the king of Egypt showed to the priests was great, as were the privileges, immunities, and exemptions that the priests of Egypt enjoyed. Moreover, the famine, toils, and hardships that afflicted everyone else did not touch the priests in the slightest, thanks to the king's singular goodwill and beneficence toward them. For these things were very well known to the people of Israel departing from Egypt, as if to say: I will make you My special possession, just as you saw that in Egypt the priests were the special possession of the king. So in Spain, military orders such as that of St. James and others are the special possession of the king. Moreover, the priests of Egypt are called kings, that is, friends of the king; and because they were judges of the people, and the high priest was the supreme judge, as Aelian relates, Book XIV, chapter 34. So Alcazar on Revelation 1:5.
Verse 8: And When Moses Had Reported the Words of the People to the Lord
As if to say: When Moses had returned to the Lord on the same day and was intending and beginning to report the obedience and words of the people to the Lord, the Lord anticipated him and said: "Even now I will come to you in the darkness." For the following words show that after these words of the Lord, Moses announced and reported to the Lord the ready obedience of the people, and that the Lord responded to it. This is clearer in the Hebrew, where after the words of the people, Moses is said to have reported them to the Lord, but in an indefinite tense. Note: The Hebrews call "done" that which is being done and is beginning; see Canon 22. Moreover, Moses reported it not because God did not know these things, but in order to offer the obedient will of the people to the Lord -- just as the angels report the prayers of men to God, joining their own petitions with them.
Verse 9: Even Now I Will Come to You in the Darkness
In order to establish you as the lawgiver of the Hebrews, that you may give them a law not human but divine. And so that the people may know and believe this, for this reason I will speak with you from heaven and will give thunder, lightning, etc., before the people. For so also the pagan lawgivers, in order to gain authority, pretended that they had conversed with God and had received their laws from Him. Thus Lycurgus, the lawgiver of the Lacedaemonians, went to Delphi and consulted the oracle. The Pythia answered that he was dear to the gods and was more a god than a man; and when he asked about the proper establishment of laws, she said that the gods granted and promised him that form of government which would be by far the most excellent of all. Therefore Lycurgus called his laws rhetra, as if to say, oracles. Likewise Numa Pompilius, the lawgiver and second king of Rome, pretended to converse with the goddess Egeria. Likewise Pythagoras was accustomed to halt and guide a trained eagle by his words, as if through it he received his doctrines from heaven. Plutarch is the authority for this in his lives of Numa and Lycurgus. Mercury, who was the first to give laws to the Egyptians, was considered a divine theologian, and for that reason was surnamed Trismegistus, that is, "thrice greatest."
Verse 10: Sanctify Them Today and Tomorrow, and Let Them Wash Their Garments
As if to say: Proclaim and command that today and tomorrow the Hebrews separate themselves from all uncleanness, and that they procure bodily cleanliness for themselves and the camp by washing and purifying. Hence Philo, in his book On the Decalogue, asserts that they were purified by washings for three days, and this so that by this means that uncultured people might be aroused to reverence for receiving the divine law on the third day. Hence the Chaldean [Targum] translates: prepare them. For this reason Moses also commanded each person to wash his garments, so that this exterior washing might remind them of interior washing and purification, that they might meet God with a pure mind. This sanctification and preparation, therefore, consisted first and foremost in continence, namely that they abstain from their wives -- for so Moses explains it in verse 15; secondly, in the washing of bodies and garments; thirdly, in the cleansing of the camp; fourthly, in the reverent expectation of God who was about to promulgate His law.
Verse 11: And Let Them Be Ready for the Third Day; for on the Third Day the Lord Will Come Down before All the People upon Mount Sinai
This third day was the fiftieth day from the Passover and from the departure from Egypt, and it was Pentecost, on which they received the law from God at Sinai. For in memory of the law given on this fiftieth day from the Passover, the Hebrews celebrated Pentecost every year, as St. Jerome teaches in his letter to Fabiola, and St. Augustine in Question 70, and many others passim.
This third day was the sixth of the third month, which is called Sivan and corresponds to May. For on the third day of Sivan the Hebrews came to Sinai, as is clear from verse 1; from their arrival, on the third day, which was the sixth of the month of Sivan, they received the law. Hence the Hebrews in their calendars, according to Genebrard, mark Pentecost on the sixth of Sivan; and this is clear because the sixth of Sivan is the fiftieth day from the departure and the Passover, exclusively. For these fifty days from the Passover to Pentecost are to be counted so that the Passover itself, or the first day of unleavened bread, is excluded, and the first of these fifty days is the second day of unleavened bread, which was the day after the Passover and the departure, as will be clear from Leviticus 23:11. Count therefore from the second day of unleavened bread, namely from the sixteenth day of the first month: the remaining 14 days of the same month and the 30 days of the second month (for the months of the Hebrews, being lunar, alternated between 29 and 30 days) give you 44 days. Add to these six days of the third month, and you will complete 50, or Pentecost. Therefore Abulensis errs here in Question 10 when he asserts that the law was given on the 48th day from the departure, not the 50th, and this because he thinks the Hebrews arrived at Sinai on the first day of the third month and received the law on the third day after that. For the first day of the month, he says, is called "this day" in verse 1. But I have shown there that "this day" means not the first but the third.
THE LORD WILL COME DOWN -- I will come down. This is a change of person, common among the Hebrews. I will come down, I say, not by local movement, but by the revelation of My glory, as the Chaldean [Targum] indicates. See verse 18.
Verse 12: Take Care Not to Go Up to the Mountain, Nor to Touch Its Borders
As curious investigators of the divine presence and majesty; but rather reverently restrain yourselves in the camp, along with your livestock.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, in Book VI of the Moralia, chapter 25, says: "The beast touches the mountain when a mind subject to irrational desires lifts itself up to the heights of contemplation; but it is struck down with stones, because, unable to sustain the heights, it is slain by the very blows of the heavenly weight."
WHOEVER TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN SHALL SURELY DIE; NO HAND SHALL TOUCH HIM, BUT HE SHALL BE STONED. Because this person who boldly and irreverently touches the mountain, now made sacred by God's presence, against My command, is to be considered a sacrilegious person, and so polluted and unclean that he must be avoided as something accursed, and not touched, lest he breathe some stain upon those who handle him. Therefore I command that he not be struck at close range, but stoned from a distance. So Rupert.
WHEN THE TRUMPET BEGINS TO SOUND, THEN LET THEM GO UP TO THE MOUNTAIN. In Hebrew it says: when it draws out, or prolongs the trumpet blast, that is, as our interpreter translates in Joshua 6:5: "When the longer and more broken sound of the trumpet shall resound." But because the Hebrews do not have compound verbs, but express them through simple forms, the Septuagint and the Chaldean [Targum] translate it with the opposite sense: to withdraw or subtract, meaning: When the sound has been withdrawn and the sound of the trumpet has ceased, then go up to the mountain. But our interpreter followed the more common meaning of the verb, since it is hardly found in the other meaning that the Septuagint gives. Hence modern interpreters also generally translate it this way. And that it was at the sound of the trumpet, and not at the cessation of the trumpet, that the Hebrews went up to the mountain, is clear from verses 16 and 17, from the common translation and agreement of all interpreters.
This trumpet, say the Jews, was the horn of the ram sacrificed in place of Isaac; but these are trifles. This trumpet was therefore not made of horn, but of bronze: for an angel struck the air to produce a sound similar to that of a blown trumpet, as if through a trumpet the angel here trumpeted, as it is said. The angel, therefore, sounding from Mount Sinai, as the Chaldean [Targum], the Septuagint, and the following passage indicate, by this trumpet-blast summoned the people out of the camp, which was at a distance from the mountain, so that they would come to the foot of the mountain and there hear the law of the Decalogue, with the angel proclaiming it like a herald of God.
Mystically, the sound of the trumpet signified the gravity of God's precepts, for the fulfillment of which war is declared upon man against himself, says St. Thomas in his lecture 4 on Hebrews chapter 12.
LET THEM GO UP TO THE MOUNTAIN -- let them go up toward the mountain, up to the boundaries set by Moses at God's command, at the very foot of the mountain. See verse 17; for in verse 12 they were commanded under penalty of death not to touch the mountain itself. They are therefore commanded here only to leave the camp and to approach closer to the foot of Mount Sinai. So Rupert, Hugh, and others. Add to this that the entire mountain was smoking with fire, as is clear from Deuteronomy 5:4; therefore the Hebrews could not approach closer to it.
Verse 14: He Sanctified Them
In the manner already described and which follows, namely by commanding them to wash their garments, to abstain from their wives, and to prepare themselves through cleanliness and reverent expectation of God and His law, for the third day on which the promulgation of the Decalogue was to take place.
Verse 18: And All of Mount Sinai Was Smoking, Because the Lord Had Come Down upon It in Fire
In Deuteronomy 4:11, Mount Sinai is said to have burned up to heaven. Just as in a furnace one sees partly flame and fire, and partly smoke not yet kindled but rolling together with the fire, so likewise the angel, acting on God's behalf, produced fire mixed with smoke on Sinai, whether from the air or from some smoky material that easily catches fire, such as incense, resin, sulfur, etc.
Note: Fire is the emblem of divine and royal majesty. Hence God appeared in fire in the bush of Moses, in the pillar, on Mount Sinai, in the temple, and elsewhere, when His royal or judicial power is expressed. For fire goes before Him as the true King and supreme Judge. Psalm 49: "God shall come manifestly, etc.; a fire shall burn in His sight," that is, it shall shine before the true King. Psalm 96, speaking of Christ's judgment: "Fire," it says, "shall go before Him." Thus fire was formerly carried before emperors, as Herodian testifies, because fire is a symbol both of sovereignty -- as that element which is first and chief among the elements in power and splendor -- and of life, doctrine, happiness, power, and glory, which are the attributes in which God and the saints excel, and after them princes, kings, and judges. Hence Varro says: Fire (ignis) is so called from begetting (gignendo) and being born (nascendo), because all things are born from fire, and fire imparts a wondrous power to living things.
Symbolically, Cyprian, in Book III of his Testimonies to Quirinus, thinks that the Holy Spirit was signified by this fire, as well as by the fire of the bush in Exodus chapter 3 and by the tongues of fire at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. Moreover, this smoking fire and the smoke itself was a menacing threat of conflagration if they should violate the law of God -- just as in fact, on account of the violation of the law, the city and temple were first burned by the Chaldeans, and then by Titus and the Romans, and reduced to smoke and ashes.
AND THE WHOLE MOUNTAIN WAS TERRIBLE. Our translator renders it well, if with different vowel points in Hebrew you read in the hiphil form vaiachared, that is, "and this mountain terrified" or "thoroughly frightened" the Hebrews. Now with other vowel points in the qal they read vaiecherad, that is, as the Chaldean [Targum] has it, "and the whole mountain trembled," and therefore it was likewise terrible.
That Mount Sinai was shaken by an earthquake is also clear from Psalm 67:9: "The earth was moved; indeed the heavens dropped rain at the presence of the God of Sinai, at the presence of the God of Israel." From which it is clear that, together with the earthquake, amid the fires and lightning mentioned in verse 16, there was also rain here, which Josephus also attests.
There were therefore seven terrible things at Sinai when the law was given there. First, the whole mountain trembled. Second, the whole mountain burned with fire and smoke. Third, there were terrifying thunders and lightning. Fourth, there was very thick darkness. Fifth, there was rain and storm, as the Apostle says in Hebrews 12:18. Sixth, the sound of the trumpet blared. Seventh, the angel from Sinai proclaimed the Decalogue with a trumpet-like and terrible voice. All these things were directed toward striking the Hebrews with a certain sacred horror, fear, and reverence both for the divine majesty and for the observance of the law they were about to receive. The rain also fittingly signified the law as doctrine descending from heaven. Hence that saying of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:2: "Let My doctrine gather as the rain; let My speech flow as the dew, like a shower upon the grass."
Allegorically, the thunder signified the terror of the preaching of the Gospel -- hence Paul is called by St. Jerome the "thunder of the Gentiles"; the lightning signified the brilliance of miracles; the sound of the trumpet signified the strong preaching of the Apostles. The Lord came down in fire and smoke because He illuminates the faithful by the manifestation of His brightness and of the Gospel, and obscures the eyes of unbelievers with the smoke and darkness of error, says Isidore.
Verse 19: God Answered Him
In Hebrew it adds: "by a voice," as if to say: Not through phantasms or visions, but outwardly, in a clear voice, God answered Moses, so that the Hebrews might hear God speaking with Moses their lawgiver.
Note: He who speaks here everywhere with Moses, and who in the following chapter proclaimed the Decalogue from Sinai, was an angel, as is clear from Acts 7:38 and Galatians 3:19, where it is expressly said that the law was given through angels. Nevertheless this angel is here called God, because he bore the person of God and delivered His law, as a herald and ambassador of God.
Verse 20: And the Lord Came Down upon Mount Sinai, on the Very Summit of the Mountain, and Called Moses
God had already descended through the angel in verse 18 upon the mountain in fire, but as though still raised up above the mountain and remaining in the air; for this is what "upon" implies. But here He further descended to the very summit of the mountain, and called Moses to ascend to it.
Verse 21: Lest Perchance They Should Wish to Cross the Boundaries
In Hebrew it is, "lest they break through, lest they destroy," supply, the boundary established by Me. From this it seems to be inferred that this limit and boundary had been covered with some fence, or stakes, which would have to be torn down by anyone approaching the mountain.
Verse 22: Let the Priests Also Who Approach the Lord Be Sanctified, Lest He Strike Them
Aaron and his sons had not yet been made priests: therefore by "priests" here He means those who before Aaron were priests among the people by the law of nature, whom many think were the firstborn of the families. So say Cajetan, Lipomanus, and others. Such indeed seem to have been those young men whom Moses, in chapter 24, verse 5, sent to offer holocausts.
Note "who approach the Lord," that is to say: Whose duty it is to approach the Lord, so that by praying and sacrificing they may be mediators between God and the people. God therefore commands the priests, together with the rest, indeed above all the rest, to be sanctified, that is, to cleanse themselves from every stain and blemish, to wash their garments, to abstain from their wives, and reverently to await God, the promulgator of the Decalogue.
Verse 23: And Moses Said: The Common People Will Not Be Able to Ascend the Mountain
That is to say: The people will not presume to do what they know is forbidden by You under penalty of death: Moses, more eager for divine conversation and fellowship, pleads and excuses himself so that he will not be ordered to return to the people.
YOU HAVE TESTIFIED -- you have solemnly declared.
SANCTIFY IT, that is to say: Separate Mount Sinai by a boundary, or some fence, from the access of the people, so that this mountain may seem dedicated to Me alone.
Verse 24: Go, Descend
So that you may announce also to the priests that they must not cross the boundaries of the mountain that I have appointed for the people: for concerning the priests, in the former precept of verse 21, I touched on nothing. Then "descend," so that by a more severe prohibition and penalty you may confirm and establish the same thing, namely that not by the people, but by Me your God, whoever does otherwise and crosses the boundaries of the mountain must be put to death. Third, "descend," so that you may bring Aaron, already designated as priest, with you up the mountain to Me, and for this purpose, that by this means his priesthood may be commended by Me to the people, and become venerable and reverend to them, when they see this honor conferred by Me upon Aaron, that I deign to call him to My presence. Fourth and especially, "descend," so that you, O Moses, stationed near the people below the summit of the mountain, as one of them, may hear My law, namely the Decalogue (which I shall proclaim from Sinai in the following chapter), to which you also are subject; but God here suppresses this reason.
Allegorically, the promulgation of the old law signified the promulgation of the new law: for both occurred on the fiftieth day after the Passover, namely at Pentecost; there the mountain trembled with an earthquake, here the house of the disciples; there amid the flames of fire and flashing lightning the crash of thunder resounded, here with the appearance of fiery tongues a sound likewise came from heaven as of a mighty wind; there the blast of a trumpet proclaimed the words of the law, here the Evangelical trumpet sounded from the mouth of the Apostles. So says Bede in his homily for the vigil of Pentecost, and St. Jerome to Fabiola; indeed the Apostle also, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 18: "For you have not come," he says, "to a tangible mountain, and a blazing fire, and a whirlwind, and darkness, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet; but you have come to Mount Zion, and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels, etc.: see that you do not refuse Him who speaks."
God therefore descended to the very summit, and called Moses to it: for Moses was standing below the summit, and there he was conversing with God, while the people nearby, standing at the base of the mountain, listened. Hence here he is commanded by God to ascend to the peak of the mountain, to which likewise God descended in a denser cloud and greater glory. Therefore Calvin wrongly criticizes our Translator here, when he insists it should be rendered not "descended" but "had descended," namely already before verse 21.
Verse 25: And Moses Descended to the People
To promulgate to the people the precept about not crossing the boundary of the mountain: which done, he immediately ascended again some distance with his brother Aaron, as God had commanded him in verse 24, so that he was separated from the people standing at the base of the mountain, as is clear from chapter 20, verse 19; and there Moses, standing, heard the Decalogue proclaimed by the angel, and therefore afterwards, being summoned, he ascended to the summit, chapter 20, verse 21, to receive there from God other ceremonial and judicial laws, and then he sent Aaron and the people back to the camp, as is clear from Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 30.