Deuteronomy 4:11

11 you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds.

Deuteronomy 4:11 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:11

And ye came near and stood under the mountain
At the foot of it, in the lower part of the mountain, as the Targum of Jonathan, and agrees with ( Exodus 19:17 )

and the mountain burnt with fire unto the midst of heaven;
the flame and smoke went up into the middle of the air: with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness; which thick darkness was occasioned partly by the smoke, which went up like the smoke of a furnace, and partly by the thick clouds, which were on the mount, and covered the face of the heavens, which were black and tempestuous with them; the Septuagint renders it a "tempest", ( Exodus 19:18 ) ( Hebrews 12:18 ) , which denotes the obscurity of the law, and the terrors it works in the minds of men.

Deuteronomy 4:11 In-Context

9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children—
10 how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, "Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so";
11 you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds.
12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
13 He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.