- it was first taken up by some ante-Mishnical rabbins.
36. The next thing which Moses did, by the command of God, after he returned from the mount, was to set bounds unto it and the people, that none of them might press to go up until the trumpet had done its long and last sounding,—a sign of the departure of the
476 PREPARATIONS FOR THE [EXERC. XIX.
presence of God: Verses 12, 18, “ And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: there shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.” The law, the sanction, and the duration of the obedience required, are here re- presented. The law expresseth an evil prohibited, both in itself and in the end of it. The evil itself, was going up into, or so much as touching by any means, the mountain or the border of it. The end wherefore this was prohibited was, that they might not gaze: Verse 21, “Charge the people, lest they break through unto the LorD to gaze.” The sanction is death, enjoined from the hand of men in these verses; and threatened from the hand of Heaven, verses 21, 24. The continuance of the observance was until the trumpet sounded long, or had done sounding; the sign of the departure of God’s special presence, which made the place holy only during its continuance.
37. For the law, it is said expressly that the mount was not to be touched; it might not be touched by man or beast. Yet our apostle, treating concerning it, calls it “The mount that might be touched,” Heb. xii. 18. For although de jure, whilst that temporary command continued in force, it might not be touched,—which seemed to render it glorious,—yet, saith the apostle, it was but a carnal thing, that might de facto be touched by man or beast, had they not been severely prohibited; and so is no way to be compared with that heavenly “mount Sion” which we are called unto in the wor- ship of God under the gospel.
38. The contexture of the words in our translation seems to have some difficulty: Exod. xix. 12, “ Whosoever toucheth the mount.” Verse 13, “There shall not an hand touch it,”—T) 12 yan-n>, It should seem that by “ it,” 12, the mount itself is intended, and that the law is re-enforced in a particular caution, that so much as an hand should not touch the mount. But it is far more probable that by “it,” “touch it,” the person, man or beast, that touched the mountain is intended; and that the words declare the manner how the offender should be destroyed. Being made anathema, devoted, accursed, by his presumptuous sin, no man was to touch him, or to lay hand on him to deliver him, lest he also contracted of his guilt. And this sense the ensuing words, with the series of them, evinceth: bpp IPD mn Nd VANTON MDTa“ON 17" TN; that is, “ No hand shall touch it,” either to save it or to punish it, “ but stoning it shall be stoned, or thrusting through it shall be thrust through; whether man or beast, it shall not live ;’—‘ Let none think, by laying hand on it, to deliver
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SECT. 37-41.] GIVING OF THE LAW. 477
it? Whence Aquila renders 7% 7" by forZjoe: ‘He shall be slain or destroyed cum impetu et horrore, with force and terror ; all being to cast stones at him, orto shoot him through with arrows, or thrust him through with darts.” So Aben Ezra: wand ons O22) ND yon DYYAD AN PM Os) DIDI Dip NNN ymbpp ps -—“The meaning is, ‘Men shall not gather about him to take him; but those that see him shall stone him from the place of their station. And if he be afar off, they shall shoot him through with arrows.’ ”
39. Touching the mountain, or the border, limit, or bound set unto it by God’s appointment, was the sin forbidden. And the end of it, as was said, was, that they should not break through nin, “ to see;” “to gaze,” say we, properly; to look with curiosity on the appearances of God’s glory,—for which cause he smote the men of Beth-shemesh upon their looking into the ark, 1 Sam. vi. 19: God intending by this prohibition to beget in the people an awe and re- verence of his holy majesty, as the great Lawgiver; and by the terror thereof to bring them and their posterity into that bondage frame of spirit, that servile awe, that was to abide upon them until such time as He came who was to give liberty and boldness to his church, by dispensing unto believers the Spirit of adoption, enabling them to ery, “ Abba, Father,” and to enter with boldness into the holy place, even to the throne of grace.
40, In case the punishment appointed were neglected by the people, God threatens to see to the execution of it himself: Exod. xix. 21, “ Lest they break through unto the Lorp to gaze, and many of them perish.” Verse 24, “ But let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lorp, lest he break forth upon them.” For to make them watchful in their duty, he lets them know that their miscarriage in this matter, devolving the punish- ment of the transgressor by their neglect upon him, should be im- puted by him unto the whole people; so that he would in such a case break forth upon them with his judgments, and many of them should be consumed, to the terror and warning of the remnant.