Exodus 24:13

24:13 So Moses set out ¹  with ²  Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up the mountain of God.

Exodus 24:15

24:15 Moses went up the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

Exodus 24:18

24:18 Moses went into the cloud when he went up ³  the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. ⁴ 

Exodus 20:21

20:21 The people kept ⁵  their distance, but Moses drew near the thick darkness ⁶  where God was. ⁷ 

Numbers 16:5

16:5 Then he said to Korah and to all his company, “In the morning the Lord will make known who are his, and who is holy. He will cause that person ⁸  to approach him; the person he has chosen he will cause to approach him.

Jeremiah 30:21

30:21 One of their own people will be their leader.

Their ruler will come from their own number. ⁹ 

I will invite him to approach me, and he will do so. ¹⁰ 

For no one would dare approach me on his own. ¹¹ 

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹² 

Jeremiah 49:19

49:19 “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan ¹³ 

scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. ¹⁴ 

So too I will chase the Edomites off their land. ¹⁵ 

Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. ¹⁶ 

For there is no one like me, and there is no one who can call me to account. ¹⁷ 

There is no ¹⁸  ruler ¹⁹  who can stand up against me.

Hebrews 9:24

9:24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands – the representation ²⁰  of the true sanctuary ²¹  – but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us.

Hebrews 10:21-22

10:21 and since we have a great priest ²²  over the house of God, 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, ²³  because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience ²⁴  and our bodies washed in pure water.

[24:13]  ¹ tn Heb “and he arose” meaning “started to go.”

[24:13]  ² tn Heb “and.”

[24:18]  ³ tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive; here, the second clause, is subordinated to the first preterite, because it seems that the entering into the cloud is the dominant point in this section of the chapter.

[24:18]  ⁴ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 750) offers this description of some of the mystery involved in Moses’ ascending into the cloud: Moses ascended into the presence of God, but remained on earth. He did not rise to heaven – the ground remained firmly under his feet. But he clearly was brought into God’s presence; he was like a heavenly servant before God’s throne, like the angels, and he consumed neither bread nor water. The purpose of his being there was to become familiar with all God’s demands and purposes. He would receive the tablets of stone and all the instructions for the tabernacle that was to be built (beginning in chap. 25). He would not descend until the sin of the golden calf.

[20:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “and they stood”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:21]  ⁶ sn The word עֲרָפֶל (’arafel) is used in poetry in Ps 18:9 and 1 Kgs 8:12; and it is used in Deut 4:11, 5:22 [19].

[20:21]  ⁷ sn It will not be hard to expound the passage on the Ten Commandments once their place in scripture has been determined. They, for the most part, are reiterated in the NT, in one way or another, usually with a much higher standard that requires attention to the spirit of the laws. Thus, these laws reveal God’s standard of righteousness by revealing sin. No wonder the Israelites were afraid when they saw the manifestation of God and heard his laws. When the whole covenant is considered, preamble and all, then it becomes clear that the motivation for obeying the commands is the person and the work of the covenant God – the one who redeemed his people. Obedience then becomes a response of devotion and adoration to the Redeemer who set them free. It becomes loyal service, not enslavement to laws. The point could be worded this way: God requires that his covenant people, whom he has redeemed, and to whom he has revealed himself, give their absolute allegiance and obedience to him. This means they will worship and serve him and safeguard the well-being of each other.

[16:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “him.”

[30:21]  ⁹ sn The statement their ruler will come from their own number accords with the regulation in Deut 17:15. They would not be ruled by a foreign leader but by one of their own people. In v. 9 he is specifically said to come from the Davidic line. See the study note there.

[30:21]  ¹⁰ sn Ordinarily this prerogative was confined to the priests and the Levites and even then under strict regulations (cf., e.g., Num 8:19; 16:10; Lev 16:10; 21:17; 22:3). Uzziah king of Judah violated this and suffered leprosy for having done so (2 Chr 26:16-20). It is clear, however, that both David and Solomon on occasion exercised priestly functions in the presence of the ark or the altar which it was normally lawful for only the priests to approach (cf., e.g., 2 Sam 6:13-14; 1 Kgs 8:22, 54-55). Here reference is probably not to the normal prerogatives of offering sacrifice or burning incense but access to God’s special presence at special times for the purpose of consultation.

[30:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “For who is he who would pledge his heart to draw near to me.” The question is a rhetorical one expecting the answer “no one” and is a way of expressing an emphatic negative (see BDB 566 s.v. מִי f[c]). The concept of “pledging” something refers to putting up security in guarantee of payment. Here the word is used figuratively of “putting up one’s heart [i.e., his very being (cf. BDB 524 s.v. לֵב 7 and Ps 22:26)]” for the privilege of access to God. The rhetorical question denies that any one would do that if he were not bidden by God to do so.

[30:21]  ¹² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[49:19]  ¹³ tn See the study note on Jer 12:5 for the rendering of this term.

[49:19]  ¹⁴ tn “The pasture-ground on the everflowing river” according to KBL 42 s.v. I אֵיתָן 1. The “everflowing river” refers to the Jordan.

[49:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Behold, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan into the pastureland of everflowing water so [reading כֵּן (ken) for כִּי (ki); or “indeed” (reading כִּי as an asseverative particle with J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 719, n. 6)] I will suddenly chase him [Edom] from upon it [the land].” The sentence has been restructured to better conform with contemporary English style and the significance of the simile drawn from the comparison has been spelled out for the sake of clarity. The form אַרְגִּיעָה (’argi’ah) is functioning here as an adverbial modifier in a verbal hendiadys (cf. GKC 386 §120.g).

[49:19]  ¹⁶ tn For the use of the interrogative מִי (mi) in the sense of “whoever” and functioning like an adjective see BDB 567 s.v. מִי g and compare the usage in Prov 9:4, 16.

[49:19]  ¹⁷ tn For the meaning of this verb in the sense of “arraign” or “call before the bar of justice” compare Job 9:19 and see BDB 417 s.v. יָעַד Hiph.

[49:19]  ¹⁸ tn The interrogative מִי (mi) is rendered “there is no one” in each of the last three occurrences in this verse because it is used in a rhetorical question that expects the answer “no one” or “none” and is according to BDB 566 s.v. מִי f(c) equivalent to a rhetorical negative.

[49:19]  ¹⁹ tn The word “shepherd” (רֹעֶה, ro’eh) has been used often in the book of Jeremiah to refer metaphorically to the ruler or leader (cf. BDB 945 s.v. I רָעָה Qal.1.d(2) and compare usage, e.g., in Jer 2:8; 23:1).

[9:24]  ²⁰ tn Or “prefiguration.”

[9:24]  ²¹ tn The word “sanctuary” is not in the Greek text at this point, but has been supplied for clarity.

[10:21]  ²² tn Grk “and a great priest,” continuing the construction begun in v. 19.

[10:22]  ²³ tn Grk “in assurance of faith.”

[10:22]  ²⁴ sn The phrase our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience combines the OT imagery of the sprinkling with blood to give ritual purity with the emphasis on the interior cleansing provided by the new covenant: It is the heart that is cleansed and the conscience made perfect (cf. Heb 8:10; 9:9, 14; 10:2, 16).