Exodus 20:19

And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
said	וַיֹּֽאמְרוּ֙ vai.yo.me.Ru	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Moses	מֹשֶׁ֔ה mo.Sheh	H4872	Mosheh · proper noun, a man's name
Speak	דַּבֵּר da.ber-	H1696	perhaps properly · verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
hear	וְנִשְׁמָ֑עָה ve.nish.Ma.'ah	H8085	to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal infinitive construct, 1st person common plural
God	אֱלֹהִ֖ים 'E.lo.Him	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
speak	יְדַבֵּ֥ר ye.da.Ber	H1696	perhaps properly · verb, piel jussive, 3rd person masculine singular
die	נָמֽוּת na.Mut	H4191	to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Deuteronomy 18:16 According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the…
Acts 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received…
Exodus 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
Deuteronomy 5:23-27 And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto…
Genesis 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Deuteronomy 5:5 (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to shew you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up…
Galatians 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was o…
Hebrews 12:19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any mor…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 20:18-21

I. The extraordinary terror with which the law was given. Never was any thing delivered with such awful pomp; every word was accented, and every sentence paused, with thunder and lightning, much louder and brighter, no doubt, than ordinary. And why was the law given in this dreadful manner, and with all this tremendous ceremony? 1. It was designed (once for all) to give a sensible discovery of the glorious majesty of God, for the assistance of our faith concerning it, that, knowing the terror of the Lord, we may be persuaded to live in his fear. 2. It was a specimen of the terrors of the general judgment, in which sinners will be called to an account for the breach of this law: the archangel…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 20:19

let not God speak with us, lest we die, &c.--The phenomena of thunder and lightning had been one of the plagues so fatal to Egypt, and as they heard God speaking to them now, they were apprehensive of instant death also. Even Moses himself, the mediator of the old covenant, did "exceedingly quake and fear" (Heb 12:21). But doubtless God spake what gave him relief--restored him to a frame of mind fit for the ministrations committed to him; and hence immediately after he was enabled to relieve and comfort them with the relief and comfort which he himself had received from God (Co2 1:4).

Adam Clarke on Exodus 20:18

And all the people saw the thunderings, etc. - They had witnessed all these awful things before, (see Exo 19:16), but here they seem to have been repeated; probably at the end of each command, there was a peal of thunder, a blast of the trumpet, and a gleam of lightning, to impress their hearts the more deeply with a due sense of the Divine Majesty, of the holiness of the law which was now delivered, and of the fearful consequences of disobedience. This had the desired effect; the people were impressed with a deep religious fear and a terror of God's judgments; acknowledged themselves perfectly satisfied with the discoveries God had made of himself; and requested that Moses might be constitu…

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The Church Fathers

But notice how it happened there and how it happened here. There, the people stood a long way off; there was an atmosphere of dread, not of love. I mean, they were so terrified that they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself, and do not let the Lord speak to us, lest we die." So God came down, as it is written, on Sinai in fire; but he was terrifying the people who stood a long way off, and "writing with his finger on stone," not on the heart.Here, however, when the Holy Spirit came, the faithful were gathered together as one; and he didn't terrify them on a mountain but came in to them in a house. There came a sudden sound, indeed, from heaven, as of a fierce squall rushing upon them; it made a noise, but nobody panicked. You have heard the sound, now see the fire too, because each was there on the mountain also, both fire and sound; but there, there was smoke as well, here, though, the fire was clear. "There appeared to them," Scripture says, you see, "divided tongues, as of fire." Terrifying them from a long way off? Far from it. Because "it settled upon each one of them, and they began to talk in languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Hear a person speaking a language, and understand the Spirit writing not on stone but on the heart.
— Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 155.6

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Moral law given — Moral law given
Law Of Moses, The · Terror of Israel at receiving — Terror of Israel at receiving
Reverence · REVERENCE — REVERENCE

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Exodus 20:19

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 20:18-21

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 20:19

Adam Clarke on Exodus 20:18

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Exodus 20:19

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 20:18-21

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 20:19

Adam Clarke on Exodus 20:18

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Gill on Exodus 20:19

John Calvin on Exodus 20:18-21

Keil & Delitzsch on Exodus 20:18-19

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Exodus 20:18-26

Rashi on Exodus 20:19