Exodus 19:20

20 The LORD came down on top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So 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 All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the LORD had come down on it in fire. Smoke rose from the mountain like the smoke from a kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently.

19 As the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, Moses was speaking, and the voice of God answered him.

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

21 The LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people not to force their way through [the boundary] to see the LORD, or many of them will die.

22 Even the priests who are allowed to come near the LORD must set themselves apart as holy, or the LORD will violently kill them."