Exodus 19:19

19:19 When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, ¹  Moses was speaking ²  and God was answering him with a voice. ³ 

Exodus 20:18

20:18 All the people were seeing ⁴  the thundering and the lightning, and heard ⁵  the sound of the horn, and saw ⁶  the mountain smoking – and when ⁷  the people saw it they trembled with fear ⁸  and kept their distance. ⁹ 

Exodus 19:16

19:16 On ¹⁰  the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense ¹¹  cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud ¹²  horn; ¹³  all the people who were in the camp trembled.

[19:19]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The participle is used here for durative action in the past time (GKC 359 §116.o).

[20:18]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn The verb “saw” is supplied here because it is expected in English (see the previous note on “heard”).

[20:18]  ⁷ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the following clause, which receives the prominence.

[20:18]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they stood from/at a distance.”

[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”).