Exodus 19:20

20 The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. The LORD called Moshe to the top of the mountain, and Moshe went up.

Exodus 19:20 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 19:20

And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai
In the above visible tokens of his presence and power; otherwise he is the incomprehensible Jehovah, that immense and omnipotent Being, who fills heaven and earth, and cannot be contained and circumscribed in either:

on the top of the mount;
where the fire he descended in rested, and where the smoke and thick cloud were, as a token of his presence:

and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount;
who either was at the bottom of it with the people, or in a higher ascent of it between God and them:

and Moses went up;
to the top of it, where the Lord was, as he ordered him: a certain traveller ^F25 tells us that the top of this mount was scarce thirty feet in circumference.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Baumgarten Peregrinatio, l. 1. c. 24. p. 61.

Exodus 19:20 In-Context

18 Mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked, because the LORD descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

19 When the sound of the shofar grew louder and louder, Moshe spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

20 The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. The LORD called Moshe to the top of the mountain, and Moshe went up.

21 The LORD said to Moshe, "Go down, charge the people, lest they break through to the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.

22 Let the Kohanim also, who come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth on them."