Exodus 19:20

20 God descended to the peak of Mount Sinai. God called Moses up to the peak and Moses climbed 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 Mount Sinai was all smoke because God had come down on it as fire. Smoke poured from it like smoke from a furnace. The whole mountain shuddered in huge spasms.

19 The trumpet blasts grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered in thunder.

20 God descended to the peak of Mount Sinai. God called Moses up to the peak and Moses climbed up.

21 God said to Moses, "Go down. Warn the people not to break through the barricades to get a look at God lest many of them die.

22 And the priests also, warn them to prepare themselves for the holy meeting, lest God break out against them."