19:20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. 19:21 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down and solemnly warn 3 the people, lest they force their way through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish. 4
32:7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go quickly, descend, 5 because your 6 people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly.
32:15 Moses turned and went down from the mountain with 7 the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides – they were written on the front and on the back.
1 sn The image is that of a large kiln, as in Gen 19:28.
2 tn This is the same word translated “trembled” above (v. 16).
1 tn The imperative הָעֵד (ha’ed) means “charge” them – put them under oath, or solemnly warn them. God wished to ensure that the people would not force their way past the barriers that had been set out.
2 tn Heb “and fall”; NAB “be struck down.”
1 tn The two imperatives could also express one idea: “get down there.” In other words, “Make haste to get down.”
2 sn By giving the people to Moses in this way, God is saying that they have no longer any right to claim him as their God, since they have shared his honor with another. This is God’s talionic response to their “These are your gods who brought you up.” The use of these pronoun changes also would form an appeal to Moses to respond, since Moses knew that God had brought them up from Egypt.
1 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) serves here as a circumstantial clause indicator.
1 tn Heb “and it was when.”
2 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the
3 tn Both verbs, “stand” and “speak,” are perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutive.