(2)"And he said, Jehovah came from Sinai,

And dawned upon them from Seir;

He shone forth from mount Paran.

And there came from the ten thousands of holiness,

From His right hand, a fire of law [10] for them."

[10] On this expression see an additional note at the end of the book.

The appearance of God on Sinai is described as a sunrise. His light rose from Sinai, and the tops of the hills of Seir caught its rays. The full blaze of light shone on Paran. (Comp. Psalm 1:2 : "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.") He came with ten thousands of saints is a mere mistranslation. The preposition is "from," not "with." If the verb "he came," in the fourth line, is taken to refer to God, we must translate: "He came from ten thousands of saints" (to sinful men). Rashi takes "from" to mean "part of." "There came some of His ten thousands of saints, but not all of them." I believe the true translation is what I have given. The law itself was "ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator" (Galatians 3:19). It is called "the word spoken by angels" in Hebrews 2:2. The language of Daniel 7:10--"A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him"--supplies a complete parallel. The fiery law came from the ten thousands on "His right hand;" or ADDITIONAL NOTE ON Deuteronomy 33:2. "A FIERY LAW."

THE original expression, eshdath or esh dath, sometimes written as one word, and sometimes as two, has created some difficulty. Esh is "fire," and dath, if taken as a distinct word, is "law." But dath does not appear elsewhere in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, until we meet it in the book of Esther, where it occurs frequently. It is also found in Ezra 8:36. In the Chaldee of Daniel and Ezra it occurs six times. Modern authorities assert that it is properly a Persian word. But since it is found in the Chaldee of Daniel, it was in use among the Chaldaeans before the Persian empire. The word has Semitic affinities. The Hebrewsyllable theth would have nearly the same meaning. A datum (or dictum) is the nearest equivalent that we have. There seems no reason to doubt that the word dath had obtained a place both in Chaldee and in Hebrew at the time of the Captivity. It is perfectly possible that its existence in Chaldee dates very much earlier. We must remember that Chaldee was the language of the family of Abraham before they adopted Hebrew. "A Syrian ready to perish was my father," is the confession dictated by Moses in Deuteronomy 26:5. Syriac and Chaldee in the Old Testament are names of the same language. In the Babylonish captivity the Jews really returned to their ancestral language. It is therefore quite conceivable that Chaldaean words lingered among them until the Exodus; and this word dath, if it be a true Chaldaean word, may be an example. But, obviously, these Chaldaean reminiscences would be fewer as the years rolled on. The three Targums all take dath to be "law" in this place. The LXX. has "angels" (???????), instead of the combination eshdath. Possibly the word was taken as ashdoth (plural of the Chaldee ashda), meaning "rays" (of light?) and so "angels." Comp., "He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire;" they "ran and returned as a flash of lightning" (Psalm 104:4; Ezekiel 1:14). It is also possible that the LXX. read r instead of d in the word which they had before them, and that they arrived at the meaning "angels" through the Hebrew word sharath, "to minister." The confusion between r and d, which are extremely alike in Hebrew, is very common. The parallels referred to in the notes on the verse show that "fiery law" will yield a good sense. The only question is whether dath, "law," can be reasonably supposed to have occurred in the Mosaic writings. If the word were at all generally known at that period, to whatever language it properly belonged, it would hardly have escaped such a man as Moses. I think it quite possible that the common translation may be right. The Hebrew commentators accept it. The only alternative I can suggest is that of the LXX., which cannot be verified with certainty.

Verse 2. - And he said. Here begin the words of Moses. He commences by depicting the majesty of Jehovah as he appeared to Israel when he came to make the covenant with them and give them his Law. The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them, etc. Seir is the mountain land of Edom to the cast of Sinai. Mount Paran is probably the range of lofty hills which form the southern boundary of the Promised Land to the north of the desert of Et-Tih. These places are not mentioned as scenes of different manifestations of the Divine glory, but as indicating the extent to which the one manifestation given at Sinai reached. The light of the Divine glory that rested on Sinai was reflected also from the mountains of Seir and Paran (cf. Hebrews 3:3; Judges 5:4). He came with ten thousands of saints; rather, he came from ten thousands of holy ones; literally, out from myriads of holiness; i.e. "from his celestial seat, where myriads of angels surround his throne" (Rosenmüller). The rendering "with," though that of the Targum, LXX., and Vulgate, cannot be retained; nor does Scripture represent God as attended by angels when he comes forth to manifest his glory to men. They are represented as surrounding his throne in heaven (1 Kings 22:19; Job 1:6; Daniel 7:10), as his servants awaiting his behest, and his host that do his pleasure (Genesis 28:12; Genesis 32:2, 3; Psalm 103:21); and God is represented as dwelling in the midst of them (Psalm 68:17). Hence he is represented here as coming forth from among them to manifest himself to his people. A fiery law. There is a various reading here; instead of אֵשׁ םדּת, fire of law, many codices have אשׁדת in one word, and this is supported by the Samaritan text and other authorities, and is accepted by most critics and interpreters. It is a fatal objection to the textual reading that דַּת is not a Semitic word, but one of Persian origin, brought by the Jews from Babylonia, and found only in the post-exilian books (Esther 1:8, 19; Esther 2:8, 12; Esther 3:8, 14; Esther 4:11, 15; Ezra 7:12, 21; Ezra 8:36; Daniel 2:9, 13, 15; Daniel 6:5, 9, 13, 16); and in them as applied to the Law of God only by heathens. It is, therefore, altogether improbable that this word should be found in any Hebrew writing anterior to the Captivity. Besides, what is the sense of אֵשׁ דַּת, supposing דת to mean "law?" The words cannot be rendered, as in the Authorized Version, by "fiery law;" they can only be rendered by "a fire, a law," or "a fire of law," and What either of these may mean it is not easy to see. The ancient versions vary here very considerably: LXX., ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ ἄγγελοι μετ αὐτοῦ: Vulgate, fin dextera ejus ignea lex; Targum of Onkelos, "Written by his right hand, from the midst of the fire, a law gave he to us;" Syriac, "With myriads of his saints at his right hand. He gave to them, and also caused all peoples to love them." The best Hebrew manuscripts have אשׁדת as one word. The Masoretic note is, "The Chatiph is one word, and the K'ri two." The word אשׁדת is best explained as a compound of אֵשׁ, fire, and שׁדא, an Aramaic word signifying to throw or dart; the Syriac , or the Hebrew יָדָה, having the same signification, so that the meaning is "fire-dartings:" from his right hand went rays of fire like arrows shot forth (cf. Habakkuk 3:4; Exodus 19:16). To them; i.e. to the Israelites, to whom this manifestation was vouchsafed.

33:1-5 To all his precepts, warnings, and prophecies, Moses added a solemn blessing. He begins with a description of the glorious appearances of God, in giving the law. His law works like fire. If received, it is melting, warming, purifying, and burns up the dross of corruption; if rejected, it hardens, sears, pains, and destroys. The Holy Spirit came down in cloven tongues, as of fire; for the gospel also is a fiery law. The law of God written in the heart, is a certain proof of the love of God shed abroad there: we must reckon His law one of the gifts of his grace.And he said,.... What follows, of which, in some things, he was an eye and ear witness, and in others was inspired by the Spirit of God, to deliver his mind and will concerning the future case and state of the several tribes, after he had observed the common benefit and blessing they all enjoyed, by having such a law given them in the manner it was:

the Lord came from Sinai; there he first appeared to Moses, and sent him to Egypt, and wrought miracles by him, and delivered his people Israel from thence, and when they were come to this mount he came down on it, as Aben Ezra, from Gaon, or he came "to" it; so to Zion, Isaiah 59:20, is "out of" or "from Zion", Romans 11:26; here he appeared and gave the law, and from thence went with Israel through the wilderness, and conducted them to the land of Canaan:

and rose up from Seir unto them: not to the Edomites which inhabited Seir, as say Jarchi, and the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, but to the Israelites when they compassed the land of Edom; and the Lord was with them, and gave them some signal proofs of his power and providence, kindness and goodness, to them; particularly, as some observe, by appointing a brazen serpent to be erected for the cure those bitten by fiery ones, which was a type of the glorious Redeemer and Saviour, and this was done on the borders of Edom, see Numbers 21:4; for the words here denote some illustrious appearance of the Lord, like that of the rising sun; so the Targum of Onkelos,"the brightness of his glory from Seir was shown unto us;''and that of Jonathan,"and the brightness of the glory of his Shechinah went from Gebal:"

he shined forth from Mount Paran: in which the metaphor of the sun rising is continued, and as expressive of its increasing light and splendour: near to this mount was a wilderness of the same name, through which the children of Israel travelled, and where the Lord appeared to them: here the cloud rested when they removed from Sinai; here, or near it, the Spirit of the Lord was given to the seventy elders, and from hence the spies were sent into the land of Canaan, Numbers 10:12; in this wilderness Ishmael and his posterity dwelt, Genesis 21:21; but it was not to them the Lord shone forth here, as say the above Jewish writers, and others (d); but to the Israelites, for here Moses repeated the law, or delivered to them what is contained in the book of Deuteronomy, see Deuteronomy 1:1; beside, in a literal sense, as these mountains were very near one another, as Saadiah Gaon observes, the great light which shone on Mount Sinai, when the Lord descended on it, might extend to the other mountains and illuminate them, see Habakkuk 3:3,

and he came with ten thousands of saints: or holy angels, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and so Jarchi; which sense is confirmed by the authorities of Stephen the protomartyr, and the Apostle Paul, who speak of the law as given by the disposition of angels, they being present, attending and assisting on that solemn occasion, Acts 7:57; see Psalm 68:17; the appearance of those holy spirits in such great numbers added to the grandeur and solemnity of the giving of the holy law to the people of Israel, as the attendance of the same on Christ at his second coming will add to the lustre and glory of it, Luke 9:26,

from his right hand went a fiery law for them: the Israelites; Aben Ezra thinks the phrase, "his right hand", is in connection with the preceding clause; and the sense is, that fire came from the law, thousands of saints were at the right hand of God to surround Israel, as the horses of fire and chariots of fire surrounded Elisha; and the meaning of the last words, "a law for them", a law which stands or abides continually; and so the Septuagint version is,"at his right hand angels with him:''no doubt that law is meant which came from God on Mount Sinai, by the ministration of angels, into the hand of Moses; called a fiery law, because it was given out of the midst of the fire, Deuteronomy 5:26; so the Targum of Onkelos,

"the writing of his right hand out of the midst of fire, the law he gave unto us;''and because of its effects on the consciences of men, where it pierces and penetrates like fire, and works a sense of wrath and fiery indignation in them, by reason of the transgressions of it, it being the ministration of condemnation and death on that account; and, because of its use, it serves as a lantern to the feet, and a light to the path of good men: this law may include the judicial and ceremonial laws given at this time; but it chiefly respects the moral law, and which may be said to come from God, who, as Creator, has a right to be Governor of his creature, and to enact what laws he pleases, and from his right hand, in allusion to men's writing with their right hand, this being written by the finger of God; and because a peculiar gift of his to the Israelites, gifts being given by the right hand of men; and may denote the authority and power with which this law came enforced, and Christ seems to be the person from whose right hand it came: see Psalm 68:17.

(d) Vid. Pirke Eliezer, c. 41.