Exo 19:9, 16 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 9. A thick cloud ] This is interpreted by : And Mount Sinai was altogether on a SMOKE- and the SMOKE thereof ascended as the SMOKE of a furnace ; his usual appearance was in the cloudy pillar, which we may suppose was generally clear and luminous . That the people may hear ] . The Jews consider this as the fullest evidence their fathers had of the Divine mission of Moses; themselves were permitted to see this awfully glorious sight, and to hear God himself speak out of the thick darkness: for before this, as Rabbi Maymon remarks, they might have thought that Moses wrought his miracles by sorcery or enchantment ; but now, hearing the voice of God himself, they could no longer disbelieve nor even doubt.

‏ Exodus 19:9

Verse 9. A thick cloud] This is interpreted by Ex 19:18: And Mount Sinai was altogether on a SMOKE-and the SMOKE thereof ascended as the SMOKE of a furnace; his usual appearance was in the cloudy pillar, which we may suppose was generally clear and luminous.

That the people may hear] See Clarke on Ex 15:9. The Jews consider this as the fullest evidence their fathers had of the Divine mission of Moses; themselves were permitted to see this awfully glorious sight, and to hear God himself speak out of the thick darkness: for before this, as Rabbi Maymon remarks, they might have thought that Moses wrought his miracles by sorcery or enchantment; but now, hearing the voice of God himself, they could no longer disbelieve nor even doubt.

‏ Exodus 19:16

Verse 16. Thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud-and the voice of the trumpet] The thunders, lightnings, &c., announced the coming, as they proclaimed the majesty, of God. Of the thunders and lightnings, and the deep, dark, dismal, electric cloud, from which the thunders and lightnings proceeded, we can form a tolerable apprehension; but of the loud, longsounding trumpet, we can scarcely form a conjecture. Such were the appearances and the noise that all the people in the camp trembled, and Moses himself was constrained to say, "I exceedingly fear and quake," Heb 12:21. Probably the sound of the trumpet was something similar to that which shall be blown by the angel when he sweareth, by Him that liveth for ever, There shall be time no longer!