He said, “The LORD came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. Pharan. Habacuc 3:3, mentions this apparition. See also Psalms 67:9.—Saints. God was accompanied by legions of angels, when he delivered the law to the Israelites, who are styled a nation of saints. Numbers 16:3. Septuagint “he hastened from Mount Pharan, with ten thousands to Cades. At his right hand are his angels attending.” Bible.—Kodesh does not mean saints, but holiness, or the city of Cades; and the preceding word, which Protestants translate, with ten thousands, more probably refers to another title of the city, as it is specified Meriba-Cadesh. Calmet. 32:51. Ezekiel 48:28. Ken.—Law. Chal. “from the midst of the fire he has given us a law, written with his own hand.” We may translate, “He hath shone from Mount Pharan, and multitudes accompanied him. The Holy One, who hath in his hand fire and the law.” See Isaiah 6:3. God conducted his people, like a victorious general, through the wilderness, frequently appearing to them to strike terror into the rebellious. Calmet.—When he first descended upon Sinai, his glory shone on Pharan and Seir, as it were in its progress thither. Menochius.—The law is styled fiery, not only because it was given from the midst of flames, but also because it was to be put in execution with the utmost rigour. Bible.—But doth is Chaldee, and no where else used for the law in the books written before the captivity, nor is it acknowledged by the Septuagint Syr. and so forth Perhaps it was originally aur, as it is in the Sam. version, “shone forth,” conformably to a similar passage, Habakkuk 3:4. “His brightness was as the sun, horns, or rather splendours (issuing forth) from his hand,” and so forth Ken.
another manuscript reads “He came with myriads of holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes.”