Exodus 19:20

20 And the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount, and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses 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 And all Mount Sinai smoked because the LORD had descended upon it in fire, and its smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

19 And the voice of the shofar sounded long and waxed louder and louder; Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

20 And the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount, and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up.

21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people lest they break through the bounds to gaze upon the LORD, and many of them perish.

22 And also let the priests who come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves lest the LORD break forth upon them.