Hebrews 12:20

20 For the order which said, If the mountain is touched even by a beast, the beast is to be stoned, seemed hard to them;

Hebrews 12:20 Meaning and Commentary

Hebrews 12:20

For they could not endure that which was commanded
In the law; not that they disliked and despised the law, as unregenerate men do; but they could not endure it, or bear it, as a yoke, it being a yoke of bondage; nor as a covenant of works, it requiring perfect obedience, but giving no strength to perform; and as it showed them their sins, but did not direct them to a Saviour; as it was an accusing, cursing, and condemning law; and, as a fiery one, revealing wrath, and filling the conscience with it; unless this should have any respect to the following edict, more particularly:

and if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or
thrust through with a dart;
and, if a beast, much more a man: and, how easily, through inadvertence, might this be done? and how terrible was the punishment? nothing less than death, by stoning, or being shot: and this they could not bear to hear, or think of: the last clause, "or thrust through with a dart", is wanting in the Alexandrian and Beza's Claromontane copies, in the Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions; and yet is necessary to be retained, being in the original text, in ( Exodus 19:12 Exodus 19:13 ) .

Hebrews 12:20 In-Context

18 You have not come to a mountain which may be touched, and is burning with fire, and to a black cloud, and a dark smoke, and a violent wind,

19 And to the sound of a horn, and the voice of words, the hearers of which made request that not a word more might be said to them:

20 For the order which said, If the mountain is touched even by a beast, the beast is to be stoned, seemed hard to them;

21 And the vision was so overpowering that even Moses said, I am shaking and full of fear.

22 But you have come to the mountain of Zion, to the place of the living God, to the Jerusalem which is in heaven, and to an army of angels which may not be numbered,