Exodus 19:12-19

19:12 You must set boundaries ¹  for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed ²  to yourselves not to go up on the mountain nor touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death! 19:13 No hand will touch him ³  – but he will surely be stoned or shot through, whether a beast or a human being; ⁴  he must not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast they may ⁵  go up on the mountain.”

19:14 Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. 19:15 He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives.” ⁶ 

19:16 On ⁷  the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense ⁸  cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud ⁹  horn; ¹⁰  all the people who were in the camp trembled. 19:17 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain. 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, ¹¹  and the whole mountain shook ¹²  violently. 19:19 When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, ¹³  Moses was speaking ¹⁴  and God was answering him with a voice. ¹⁵ 

Exodus 20:18

20:18 All the people were seeing ¹⁶  the thundering and the lightning, and heard ¹⁷  the sound of the horn, and saw ¹⁸  the mountain smoking – and when ¹⁹  the people saw it they trembled with fear ²⁰  and kept their distance. ²¹ 

Exodus 24:17

24:17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in plain view ²²  of the people.

Deuteronomy 4:11

4:11 You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, a mountain ablaze to the sky above it ²³  and yet dark with a thick cloud. ²⁴ 

Deuteronomy 5:22-26

The Narrative of the Sinai Revelation and Israel’s Response

5:22 The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. ²⁵  Then he inscribed the words ²⁶  on two stone tablets and gave them to me. 5:23 Then, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was ablaze, all your tribal leaders and elders approached me. 5:24 You said, “The Lord our God has shown us his great glory ²⁷  and we have heard him speak from the middle of the fire. It is now clear to us ²⁸  that God can speak to human beings and they can keep on living. 5:25 But now, why should we die, because this intense fire will consume us! If we keep hearing the voice of the Lord our God we will die! 5:26 Who is there from the entire human race ²⁹  who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of the fire as we have, and has lived?

Romans 6:14

6:14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 8:15

8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ³⁰  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ³¹  by whom ³²  we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:2

8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit ³³  in Christ Jesus has set you ³⁴  free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 1:7

1:7 To all those loved by God in Rome, ³⁵  called to be saints: ³⁶  Grace and peace to you ³⁷  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

[19:12]  ¹ tn The verb is a Hiphil perfect (“make borders”) with vav (ו) consecutive, following the sequence of instructions.

[19:12]  ² tn The Niphal imperative (“guard yourselves, take heed to yourselves”) is followed by two infinitives construct that provide the description of what is to be avoided – going up or touching the mountain.

[19:13]  ³ sn There is some ambiguity here. The clause either means that no man will touch the mountain, so that if there is someone who is to be put to death he must be stoned or shot since they could not go into the mountain region to get him, or, it may mean no one is to touch the culprit who went in to the region of the mountain.

[19:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “a man.”

[19:13]  ⁵ tn The nuance here is permissive imperfect, “they may go up.” The ram’s horn would sound the blast to announce that the revelation period was over and it was permitted then to ascend the mountain.

[19:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “do not go near a woman”; NIV “Abstain from sexual relations.”

[19:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it was on.”

[19:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “heavy” (כָּבֵד, kaved).

[19:16]  ⁹ tn Literally “strong” (חָזָק, khazaq).

[19:16]  ¹⁰ tn The word here is שֹׁפָר (shofar), the normal word for “horn.” This word is used especially to announce something important in a public event (see 1 Kgs 1:34; 2 Sam 6:15). The previous word used in the context (v. 16) was יֹבֵל (yovel, “ram’s horn”).

[19:18]  ¹¹ sn The image is that of a large kiln, as in Gen 19:28.

[19:18]  ¹² tn This is the same word translated “trembled” above (v. 16).

[19:19]  ¹³ tn The active participle הוֹלֵךְ (holekh) is used to add the idea of “continually” to the action of the sentence; here the trumpet became very loud – continually. See GKC 344 §113.u.

[19:19]  ¹⁴ tn The two verbs here (“spoke” and “answered”) are imperfect tenses; they emphasize repeated action but in past time. The customary imperfect usually is translated “would” or “used to” do the action, but here continuous action in past time is meant. S. R. Driver translates it “kept speaking” and “kept answering” (Exodus, 172).

[19:19]  ¹⁵ tn The text simply has בְּקוֹל (bÿqol); it could mean “with a voice” or it could mean “in thunder” since “voice” was used in v. 16 for thunder. In this context it would be natural to say that the repeated thunderings were the voice of God – but how is that an answer? Deut 4:12 says that the people heard the sound of words. U. Cassuto (Exodus, 232-33) rightly comments, “He was answering him with a loud voice so that it was possible for Moses to hear His words clearly in the midst of the storm.” He then draws a parallel from Ugaritic where it tells that one of the gods was speaking in a loud voice.

[20:18]  ¹⁶ tn The participle is used here for durative action in the past time (GKC 359 §116.o).

[20:18]  ¹⁷ tn The verb “to see” (רָאָה, ra’ah) refers to seeing with all the senses, or perceiving. W. C. Kaiser suggests that this is an example of the figure of speech called zeugma because the verb “saw” yokes together two objects, one that suits the verb and the other that does not. So, the verb “heard” is inserted here to clarify (“Exodus,” EBC 2:427).

[20:18]  ¹⁸ tn The verb “saw” is supplied here because it is expected in English (see the previous note on “heard”).

[20:18]  ¹⁹ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the following clause, which receives the prominence.

[20:18]  ²⁰ tn The meaning of נוּעַ (nua’) is “to shake, sway to and fro” in fear. Compare Isa 7:2 – “and his heart shook…as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.”

[20:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “and they stood from/at a distance.”

[24:17]  ²² tn Heb “to the eyes of” which could mean in their opinion.

[4:11]  ²³ tn Heb “a mountain burning with fire as far as the heart of the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[4:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “darkness, cloud, and heavy cloud.”

[5:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he added no more” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NLT “This was all he said at that time.”

[5:22]  ²⁶ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the words spoken by the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his glory and his greatness.”

[5:24]  ²⁸ tn Heb “this day we have seen.”

[5:26]  ²⁹ tn Heb “who is there of all flesh.”

[8:15]  ³⁰ tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ³¹ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

[8:15]  ³² tn Or “in that.”

[8:2]  ³³ tn Grk “for the law of the Spirit of life.”

[8:2]  ³⁴ tc Most mss read the first person singular pronoun με (me) here (A D 1739^c 1881 Ï lat sa). The second person singular pronoun σε (se) is superior because of external support (א B {F which reads σαι} G 1506* 1739*) and internal support (it is the harder reading since ch. 7 was narrated in the first person). At the same time, it could have arisen via dittography from the final syllable of the verb preceding it (ἠλευθέρωσεν, hleuqerwsen; “has set free”). But for this to happen in such early and diverse witnesses is unlikely, especially as it depends on various scribes repeatedly overlooking either the nu or the nu-bar at the end of the verb.

[1:7]  ³⁵ map For location see JP4 A1.

[1:7]  ³⁶ tn Although the first part of v. 7 is not a complete English sentence, it maintains the “From…to” pattern used in all the Pauline letters to indicate the sender and the recipients. Here, however, there are several intervening verses (vv. 2-6), which makes the first half of v. 7 appear as an isolated sentence fragment.

[1:7]  ³⁷ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”