Exodus 19:1-25

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19:1 BA CHODESH HA SHELISHI LE TSE'T BENEY YISRA-EL ME ERETS MITSRAYIM BA YOM HA ZEH BA'U MIDBAR SINAI

בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁלִישִׁי לְצֵאת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם בַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה בָּאוּ מִדְבַּר סִינָי

KJ (King James translation): In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

BN (BibleNet translation): On Rosh Chodesh of the third month after the Beney Yisra-El left Mitsrayim, on that same day came they into the desert of Sinai.

BA YOM HA ZEH: The unspecific specificity of the day, if I may call it that, can only infer the New Moon, the first day of the month, which is Rosh Chodesh in Yehudit. Hence my translation as "On Rosh Chodesh...on that same day". "In the third month... the same day", as per the King James, is actually meaningless.

The last chapter was already in the desert of Sin. Are Sin and Sinai then different places? Or do we have two versions again? And if Sinai is where the archaeologists believe it is, why would you cross the Red Sea eastwards, and then come all the way back to here?

Or perhaps this means that this is the third month of their journey, not of the year. They left on the 15th of Aviv-Nisan, and "that same day" would then imply that three months takes us to the 15th of Sivan, fully nine days after Shavu'ot, which falls on the 6th of Sivan, 50 days after Passover; three months is 90 days, so they missed Shavu'ot for this year, but Shavu'ot is traditionally the date on which the Law was given. Theologically, then, this cannot be the third month of their journey, but has to be the 3rd month in the calendar, and therefore Rosh Chodesh, with the law-giving five days hence.

It is, either way, rather longer than the 3-day journey which Mosheh had insisted on to Pharaoh.

19:2 VA YIS'U ME REPHIYDIM VE YAVO'U MIDBAR SINAI VA YACHANU BA MIDBAR VA YICHAN SHAM YISRA-EL NEGED HA HAR

וַיִּסְעוּ מֵרְפִידִים וַיָּבֹאוּ מִדְבַּר סִינַי וַיַּחֲנוּ בַּמִּדְבָּר וַיִּחַן שָׁם יִשְׂרָאֵל נֶגֶד הָהָר

KJ: For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

BN: And they left Rephiydim, and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the desert; and there Yisra-El camped before the mountain.

And this, almost more than any other, is the question that has troubled scholars for centuries: where exactly is this mountain? No one knows. Somewhere between forty and fifty days to get there, but even 1.5 million people, including children and elderly, and driving flocks and herds, could manage five miles in a day, so pick a spot two hundred miles from Rephiydim... the point is, we cannot calculate it from the narrative, nor even from a mdern map, though we can note where Rephiydim is believed to be, which is in the middle of the Sinai desert, and the Red Sea theory has the Beney Yisra-El scores of miles south-east of that. All we can say is that this was their destination, the goal of their pilgrimage, and that they have now arrived.

And was Sinai Chorev, or Chorev Sinai? Like saying they arrived at Himalaya, which may mean the range, or it may mean Everest, or both, or neither.

19:3 U MOSHEH ALAH EL HA ELOHIM VA YIKRA ELAV YHVH MIN HA HAR LEMOR KOH TOMAR LE VEYT YA'AKOV VE TAGEYD LIVNEY YISRA-EL

וּמֹשֶׁה עָלָה אֶל הָאֱלֹהִים וַיִּקְרָא אֵלָיו יְהוָה מִן הָהָר לֵאמֹר כֹּה תֹאמַר לְבֵית יַעֲקֹב וְתַגֵּיד לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל

KJ: And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;

BN: And Mosheh went up to Ha Elohim, and YHVH called to him out of the mountain, saying: "Thus shall you say to the house of Ya'akov, and tell the Beney Yisra-El...

HA ELOHIM, the gods. This mountain is sacred to a polyarchy of deities, not a single god; but YHVH is reckoned amongst them, one of many, possibly, as we shall see, the Zeus or Jupiter to their middle-management roles.

House of Ya'akov... Beney Yisra-El: Almost as though there are two different groups here... as there are also two versions of the story here, in one of which the god is Ha Elohim and the people Beit Ya'akov (the house of Jacob), and in the other the god is YHVH and the people Beney Yisra-El (the children of Israel); which may also be stateable as: one version reflects the southern kingdom of Yehudah and Bin-Yamin, the other whatever was left of the northern kingdom of Ephrayim (Yisra-El), two hundred years now since the northern tribes were carried off into captivity - this the view of the Documentary Hypothesists, though it is not supported by TheBibleNet (see my notes throughout The Book of the Return from Exile for why not).

19:4 ATEM RE'IYTEM ASHER ASIYTI LE MITSRAYIM VE ES'A ET'CHEM AL KANPHEY NESHARIM VA AVI ET'CHEM ELAI

אַתֶּם רְאִיתֶם אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי לְמִצְרָיִם וָאֶשָּׂא אֶתְכֶם עַל כַּנְפֵי נְשָׁרִים וָאָבִא אֶתְכֶם אֵלָי

KJ: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.

BN: "You have seen what I did to Mitsrayim, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to me...

Confirming again that (in this version) this was the goal and destination of their pilgrimage. This, not Kena'an.

KANPHEY NESHARIM: for everything you could possibly want to know about Biblical eagles, click here. For a disagreement as to whether NESHARIM are eagles or vultures, see Micah 1:16, Job 39:27, Proverbs 30:17...

But perhaps more significant than the literal bird is the mythological one; two thousand years of seeking Mount Sinai anywhere from Goshen to the Gulf of Persia has failed to find anything, but only to speculate, or worse, to fantasise, like the Emperor Constantine's mother. And what if there never was a Mount Sinai? What if, like Valhalla and Mount Olympus and Ararat, there may well have been a mountain range, and even a highest mountain in that range, but the point about it being the habitation of the gods was its height, not its being mountain; a way of bridging the gulf between the Earth and the wider Cosmos, a physical Rakiy'a, more palpable than an atmospheric "firmament"? Any high mountain could, indeed would, therefore be Sinai, to those inhabiting its purlieus, especially one in which the gods were clearly living, because the smoke of their anger and thefire of their fury was even now spewing from its mouth. And how do you access a mythological mountain? As Muhammad was brought to Yeru-Shala'im on the unsaddled back of a winged horse (click here), so the Beney Yisra-El were brought here AL KANPHEY NESHARIM.

19:5 VE ATAH IM SHAMO'A TISHME'U BE KOLI U SHEMARTEM ET BERITI VE HEYIYTEM LI SEGULAH MI KOL HA AMIM KI LI KOL HA ARETS

וְעַתָּה אִם שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ בְּקֹלִי וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת בְּרִיתִי וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל הָעַמִּים כִּי לִי כָּל הָאָרֶץ

KJ: Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

BN: And now, if you will pay close attention to my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my personal treasure from among all the peoples; for all the Earth is mine...

SHAMO'A TISHME'U: yet again prefiguring the key line of the central credo that will shortly be instituted.

BERITI: The first time in the Exodus story that we have heard about the covenant; in Genesis it was constant.The inference, yet again, is that the laws and statutes etc which we have been hearing about do indeed pre-exist Sinai, given through the previous covenants; so to understand what laws etc this refers to, we simply have to go back and see what was explicitly given previously, and then check this against those about to be given, and we will see what was old and what, if anything (lots, actually) was new.

The concept of the Chosen People, which needs an essay at the very least. But by a theologian, not a comparative mythologist. Good luck, guys! (Actually the entire answer is in the next verse).

19:6 VE ATEM TIHEYU LI MAMLECHET KOHANIM VE GOY KADOSH ELEH HA DEVARIM ASHER TEDABER EL BENEY YISRA-EL

וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים וְגוֹי קָדוֹשׁ אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר תְּדַבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל

KJ: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

BN: "You shall be to me a kingdom of Kohanim, and a nation set apart. These are the words which you shall speak to the Beney Yisra-El."

MAMLECHET KOHANIM: "A kingdom of priests"! We can well imagine that the mutterers and moaners, hearing this, would rise in rebellion and start marching back to Mitsrayim (Egypt) without waiting for an answer. But in fact, at the end of a long pilgrimage to a holy mountain, this phrase is the one that they, and we, really ought to have expected: the denotion of "hajji" status (I guess that should be CHAGI in Yehudit) on all the participants, both now, in the event, and perhaps even more importantly afterwards, when the status of having "been there" becomes residual. Judaism has developed this latter to mean much more, encompassing the whole nation for all time, through the personalisation of the Passover story in the Haggadah, including the descendants of the participants who were not there, but "as if" they had been there, and acquiring thereby the same covenantal commitments and responsibilities. Another long essay required here too, but this gives the gist of it!

19:7 VA YAV'O MOSHEH VA YIKRA LE ZIKNEY HA AM VA YASEM LIPHNEYHEM ET KOL HA DEVARIM HA ELEH ASHER TSIVA'HU YHVH

וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה וַיִּקְרָא לְזִקְנֵי הָעָם וַיָּשֶׂם לִפְנֵיהֶם אֵת כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר צִוָּהוּ יְהוָה

KJ: And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.

BN: And Mosheh came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which YHVH had commanded him.

VA YAV'O: It is not clear if Mosheh went up to the mountain - in which case VA YAV'O should be translated as "came down" and not simply as "came" - or if the priest of YHVH came down to him from whatever shrine there was up there (and yes, I realise that it had never occurred to you until this moment that there might already be some kind of a shrine at the holy mountain; but how can there have been a holy mountain of such stature, and no shrine, in a world where there were shrines at every oak and palm tree, in every orchard and vineyard, in every house?). The latter is the more logical (though the erupting volcano may have driven him some distance away). We have to imagine the pilgrims arriving at the desert shrine, where they are expected, and the high priest coming down to welcome them, probably from that low cave in the foothills of the mountain where Eli-Yahu (Elijah) later took refuge (and experienced an earthquake, not insignificantly for our tale here; 1 Kings 19:11-13) honouring them as a holy people for making the pilgrimage; and that his words were addressed in the form of a blessing, possibly even the words of verses 3-6, the way we would say a She Hecheyanu today in similar circumstances, with the words of the next verse as the correct liturgical response.

Which then leads me to wonder: maybe Yitro was that priest? Worth looking again at the establishment of the structures for the law, which Yitro brought with in the last chapter; maybe he didn't just come for the birth and bris, but to welcome the arriving pilgrims - he, after all, trained Mosheh, and sent him back to Egypt to fetch them.

19:8 VA YA'ANU CHOL HA AM YACHDAV VA YOMRU KOL ASHER DIBER YHVH NA'ASEH VA YASHEV MOSHEH ET DIVREY HA AM EL YHVH

וַיַּעֲנוּ כָל הָעָם יַחְדָּו וַיֹּאמְרוּ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהוָה נַעֲשֶׂה וַיָּשֶׁב מֹשֶׁה אֶת דִּבְרֵי הָעָם אֶל יְהוָה

KJ: And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.

BN: And all the people answered together, and said: "All that YHVH has spoken we will do." And Mosheh repeated the words of the people to YHVH.

VA YASHEV: Generally translations render VA YASHEV as "reported", as though Mosheh went back up the mountain and told YHVH that the people had affirmed. But as with the Barechu prayer today - the prayer which introduces the SHEMA, and therefore precisely equivalent here - the SHALI'ACH TSIBUR (he who represents the congregation as prayer leader) and the congregation each state the affirmation; it is therefore translated here, and anyway more correctly, as "repeated", though the technical term for this is "responsa" (not to be confused with a Rabbinical responsum, which is the Jewish equivalent of a Papal Bull or a Moslem fatwah).

KOL ASHER: The phrase might best be understood as an extended form of "amen", nodding and agreement rendered liturgically. And in Deuteronomy 27:15 ff, when the curses are given at the repetition of the law, it will indeed be a simple "amen" that will be said.

19:9 VA YOMER YHVH EL MOSHEH HINEH ANOCHI BA ELEYCHA BE AV HE ANAN BA AVUR YISHMA HA AM BE DABRI IMACH VE GAM BECHA YA'AMIYNU LE OLAM VA YAGED MOSHEH ET DIVREY HA AM EL YHVH

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי בָּא אֵלֶיךָ בְּעַב הֶעָנָן בַּעֲבוּר יִשְׁמַע הָעָם בְּדַבְּרִי עִמָּךְ וְגַם בְּךָ יַאֲמִינוּ לְעוֹלָם וַיַּגֵּד מֹשֶׁה אֶת דִּבְרֵי הָעָם אֶל יְהוָה

KJ: And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.

BN: Then YHVH said to Mosheh: "Behold, I come to you wrapped in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you for ever." And Mosheh recited the words of the people to YHVH.

BE AV HA ENAN: The thick cloud, as before, may be the torch carried at the vanguard of the pilgrimage, and now presumably mounted as a kind of NER TAMID or eternal lamp; or else it may be a cloud of incense, which we would expect in a prayer service; but it is also possible, and the text will continue to suggest this, that the cloud is in fact volcanic, and that the real reason for the pilgrimage is the eruption of the volcano, regarded by the ancients as the ultimate "speaking" of the gods. Either way, it is a metaphorical denotion of the presence of YHVH among the people, a ceremonial act to render the ground sacred on which they are worshipping.

VA YAGED: Most translations render this as "And Mosheh spoke the words of the people to YHVH"; and generally we are given VA YEDABER, which does indeed mean "he spoke". But here we are given VA YAGED, which is normally used for "to tell"; however, as we are in the midst of a prayer service which Mosheh is leading, "recited" seems to me rather more accurate. As SHALI'ACH TSIBUR, he leads the prayers on behalf of the people. We are not told what the words of the prayers were on this occasion, but given the traditional form of Jewish prayer, as developed at and after the time of the Redactor, it is not unreasonable to assume that verse 8 would be repeated, even several times (in which case the modern equivalent would not be "amen" but "ken yehi ratson").

19:10 VA YOMER YHVH EL MOSHEH LECH EL HA AM VE KIDASHTAM HA YOM U MACHAR VE CHIVSU SIMLOTAM

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה לֵךְ אֶל הָעָם וְקִדַּשְׁתָּם הַיּוֹם וּמָחָר וְכִבְּסוּ שִׂמְלֹתָם

KJ: And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,

BN: Then YHVH said to Mosheh: "Go to the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes...

Not simply washing after a long journey through the desert, but the act of ritual purification that was, and today still is, normal when one enters a holy place in order to participate in a religious ceremony. It is the act of washing that renders them holy. Mikveh in the Jewish world, Baptism in the Christian, Ghusl in the Moslem, Snanam in the Hindu.

19:11 VE HAYU NECHONIM LA YOM HA SHELISHI KI BA YOM HA SHELISHI YERED YHVH LE EYNEY CHOL HA AM AL HAR SINAI

וְהָיוּ נְכֹנִים לַיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי כִּי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִשִׁי יֵרֵד יְהוָה לְעֵינֵי כָל הָעָם עַל הַר סִינָי

KJ: And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.

BN: "And be ready by the third day; for on the third day YHVH will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai...

YOM HA SHELISHI: Why the third day? If they arrived on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, and Mosheh went up the following day, this would be the 5th, and the following day the 6th - the traditional date of Shavu'ot as the giving of the Law; though previously it was the summer harvest of the first fruits, and still has that secondary role in Judaism as well. 

YERED: Odd for YHVH to speak about himself in the 3rd person. Again, I am reading this as liturgy, not conversation.

19:12 VE HIGBALTA ET HA AM SAVIV LEMOR HISHAMRU LACHEM ALOT BA HAR U NEGO'A BE KATS'EHU KOL HA NOG'E'A BA HAR MOT YUMAT

וְהִגְבַּלְתָּ אֶת הָעָם סָבִיב לֵאמֹר הִשָּׁמְרוּ לָכֶם עֲלוֹת בָּהָר וּנְגֹעַ בְּקָצֵהוּ כָּל הַנֹּגֵעַ בָּהָר מוֹת יוּמָת

KJ: And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:

BN: "And you shall set bounds for the people all around, saying:Take heed to yourselves, that you do not go up onto the mountain, or touch its border; whoever touches the mountain shall surely die...

Defining the holy space, in the same way that the Mishkan will later define the boundary between the sacred and the profane, and later still the architecture of the Temple. The mountain is itself the Holy of Holies, where the god lives, and this is why no one may go there except the High Priest, which is Mosheh. However, mountains do not have clearly defined bottoms, so we have to assume that the bounds were set physically, whether with stones, rocks, date palms, branches of desert trees, even a constructed fence. Sadly we are not given the detail.

MOT YUMAT: Will be put to death, as by men; or will die, as by the hand of god? If what is being described here are the geographical limits of a volcanic eruption, then we only have to think of Pompeii to understand the methodology. But the next verse makes clear that death will be by the hand of men, with the inference that Mosheh is expected to place armed guards around the boundary, with instructions to "shoot to kill".

19:13 LO TIGA BO YAD KI SAKOL YISAKEL O YARO'AH YIYAREH IM BEHEMAH IM ISH LO YIHEYEH BIMSHOCH HA YOVEL HEMAH YA'ALU VAHAR

לֹא תִגַּע בּוֹ יָד כִּי סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל אוֹ יָרֹה יִיָּרֶה אִם בְּהֵמָה אִם אִישׁ לֹא יִחְיֶה בִּמְשֹׁךְ הַיֹּבֵל הֵמָּה יַעֲלוּ בָהָר

KJ: There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.

BN: "No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through [with arrows]; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live; when the ram's horn sounds the Jubilee, they shall come up to the mountain."

YOVEL: The word that will later sound the Jubilee, blown on a ram's horn, which is to say a shofar, rather than a man-made horn, known as a chatsotsrah (see my note at Exodus 16:9). The intention is that there will be a call to prayer, and it is surprising that we are not told who was given the honour of sounding it. Verse 16 confirms that it was a shofar, so it was definitely a religious and not a secular summoning. Was it indeed a Jubilee, and this the reason for the covenant renewal ceremony? If so, can we now deduce a 7-yearly ceremony of renewal of the covenant - as Yehoshua would institute later (Joshua 24)? Seven for YHVH makes perfect sense. And the use of the word Yovel here as our clarification.

BIMSHOCH HA YOVEL: Usually translated as "the long sound", but every Jew who has ever heard the shofar sounded knows that the long sound is the Tekiyah. There is also the Tekiyah Gedolah, which is even longer.

YA'ALU BA HAR: Are they then allowed in the sanctum at the time of prayer, but not at other times? Or does the sounding of the Yovel indicate, as Rashi suggests, that the divine presence retreats at that time, de-sanctifying the holy place and thereby making it permissible to enter?

Or perhaps (because there are so many versions amalgamated into the single one), there was a guard placed around the volcano, and the shofar was sounded - using different permutations presumably from the calls to prayer - as an alarm signal, letting people know when the volcano was erupting, letting them know when the lava-flow had ceased. Verse 16 confirms both the shofar (rather than a chatsotsrah), and the reason.

19:14 VA YERED MOSHEH MIN HA HAR EL HA AM VA YEKADESH ET HA AM VA YECHABSU SIMLOTAM

וַיֵּרֶד מֹשֶׁה מִן הָהָר אֶל הָעָם וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֶת הָעָם וַיְכַבְּסוּ שִׂמְלֹתָם

KJ: And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

BN: And Mosheh went down from the mountain to the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their garments.

This time it is clear that Mosheh did go up the mountain. But I am now even more convinced that Eli-Yahu's cave was the shrine where all this was taking place; or perhaps there were several caves. The issue is one of time. The Sinai range is not the Alps, but it is still vast. For Mosheh to go up to the top of the mountain would take days in each direction; and on foot, alone, without a Sherpa to guide him, and ropes, would be physically impossible. He goes back and forth with great regularity - which a short trip to the shrine-cave could achieve very easily. (Just for the comparison, tour companies reckon 3 days to the summit of Mont Blanc, between 7 and 9 hours for Ben Nevis, between 5 and 7 for Mount Snowdon...)

19:15 VA YOMER EL HA AM HEYU NECHONIM LI SHELOSHET YAMIM AL TIGSHU EL ISHAH

וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל הָעָם הֱיוּ נְכֹנִים לִשְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים אַל תִּגְּשׁוּ אֶל אִשָּׁה

KJ: And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.

BN: And he said to the people: "Be ready three days from now; do not go near a woman."

AL TIGSHU: It is not the intercourse that is the problem, it is the risk of becoming ritually impure if the woman is at the wrong point of her menstrual cycle. But this implies that the purity laws were already in place.

ISHAH: The text does not say "wives"; it says "a woman", singular, without any definition of her social status.

19:16 VA YEHI VA YOM HA SHELISHI BI HEYOT HA BOKER VA YEHI KOLOT U VERAKIM VE ANAN KAVED AL HA HAR VE KOL SHOPHAR CHAZAK ME'OD VA YECHERAD KOL HA AM ASHER BA MACHANEH

וַיְהִי בַיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי בִּהְיֹת הַבֹּקֶר וַיְהִי קֹלֹת וּבְרָקִים וְעָנָן כָּבֵד עַל הָהָר וְקֹל שֹׁפָר חָזָק מְאֹד וַיֶּחֱרַד כָּל הָעָם אֲשֶׁר בַּמַּחֲנֶה

KJ: And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

BN: And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and the sound of the shofar, very loud; and all the people in the camp trembled.

And now we know for rather-more-certain: the mountain is clearly volcanic, and erupting, and YHVH understood to be the volcano-god. No wonder they set bounds beyond which people could not go, and threatened death for any who broke bounds!

19:17 VA YOTS'E MOSHEH ET HA AM LIKRA'T HA ELOHIM MIN HA MACHANEH VA YIT'YATSVU BE TACHTIT HA HAR

וַיּוֹצֵא מֹשֶׁה אֶת הָעָם לִקְרַאת הָאֱלֹהִים מִן הַמַּחֲנֶה וַיִּתְיַצְּבוּ בְּתַחְתִּית הָהָר

KJ: And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

BN: And Mosheh brought the people out of the camp to meet Ha Elohim; and they stood at the rear part of the mount.

HA ELOHIM: All of a sudden, and for the very first time from the perspective of Mosheh (elsewhere it was Yitro), the god, or actually gods, in question, are Ha Elohim, not YHVH.

19:18 VE HAR SINAI ASHAN KULO MIPNEY ASHER YARAD ALAV YHVH BA ESH VA YA'AL ASHANO KE ESHEN HA KIVSHAN VA YECHERAD KOL HA HAR ME'OD

וְהַר סִינַי עָשַׁן כֻּלּוֹ מִפְּנֵי אֲשֶׁר יָרַד עָלָיו יְהוָה בָּאֵשׁ וַיַּעַל עֲשָׁנוֹ כְּעֶשֶׁן הַכִּבְשָׁן וַיֶּחֱרַד כָּל הָהָר מְאֹד

KJ: And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

BN: Now mount Sinai was covered entirely with smoke, because YHVH descended upon it in fire; and the smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

The academic sceptics, and the deeply faithful, have both insisted that my argument for a volcanic eruption is simply rubbish. Please read this verse again, slowly, and thoughtfully, and tell me if this is a volcano, or a variation upon 1 Kings 19:8-13.

19:19 VA YEHI KOL HA SHOPHAR HOLECH VE CHAZAK ME'OD MOSHEH YEDABER VE HA ELOHIM YA'ANENU VE KOL

וַיְהִי קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר הוֹלֵךְ וְחָזֵק מְאֹד מֹשֶׁה יְדַבֵּר וְהָאֱלֹהִים יַעֲנֶנּוּ בְקוֹל

KJ: And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

BN: And when the sound of the shofar grew louder and louder, Mosheh spoke, and Ha Elohim answered him with a voice that was just as loud.

It must have been the most incredible experience, to have stood there, at the very foot of an erupting volcano, with the shofar sounding, and the smoke, and the molten lava, and Mosheh shouting at the eruption like King Canute at the waves. But what was he shouting? Some Yehudit equivalent of the Kaddish ("you are great, you are mighty, you are powerful...")? If only we could know.

And here, precisely here, we can feel the power of the gods in all their primal immensity, the awe men felt for them, the reason why religion grew up in the first place. Without benefit of Einsteinian physics, how else do you explain what you are witnessing, except by naming it "the gods", the E (Elohim) that equals MC²?

YA'ANENU VE KOL: What kind of a voice? Still and small, like Eli-Yahu's (the one at 1 Kings 19 referenced above), or booming and violent, like Yesha-Yahu's in Isaiah 40:9? Actually, that isn't what the Yehudit means; the phrase BE KOL is an idiom, still in use today, sometimes with RAM added: "out loud".

HA ELOHIM: Again.

19:20 VA YERED YHVH AL HAR SINAI EL ROSH HA HAR VA YIKRA YHVH LE MOSHEH EL ROSH HA HAR VA YA'AL MOSHEH

וַיֵּרֶד יְהוָה עַל הַר סִינַי אֶל רֹאשׁ הָהָר וַיִּקְרָא יְהוָה לְמֹשֶׁה אֶל רֹאשׁ הָהָר וַיַּעַל מֹשֶׁה

KJ: And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.

BN: And YHVH came down upon mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and YHVH called Moshe to the top of the mountain; and Mosheh went up.

The mushroom cloud descending after the initial eruption. And ash, whitish-grey ash, the sort that gets on your skin and makes you think you have the plague of leprosy (cf Numbers 12:10 ff); the sky full of it, splattering the people. Please don't tell me it was just a very small eruption, mere puff-puff like some Cherokee hookah. Brave man though, our Mosheh.

YHVH descends only to the top of the mountain. From where? From the heavens, where he really lives? But only to the top of the mountain, because that is where the crater is, from which the smoke is rising? The way it is written, it seems that YHVH is himself the physical eruption.

And if it was an active volcano, then we have to assume the local priest, and the shrine, were always at the foot of the mountain, where the bounds were set; which adds weight to the view, in verse 7 and elsewhere, that Mosheh did not ascend to the summit of the mountain at any stage. And why anyway do we assume that "ascending the mountain" has to mean going to the top, when one also ascends, just to get into the foothills where the cave was, the one that presumably had been a shrine since troglodytic times.

19:21 VA YOMER YHVH EL MOSHEH RED HA'ED BA AM PEN YEHERSU EL YHVH LIR'OT VE NAPHAL MIMENU RAV

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה רֵד הָעֵד בָּעָם פֶּן יֶהֶרְסוּ אֶל יְהוָה לִרְאוֹת וְנָפַל מִמֶּנּוּ רָב

KJ: And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.

BN: Then YHVH said to Mosheh: "Go down, inform the people, lest they break through and look at YHVH, and many of them perish...

Still hard to determine the extent of the eruption. Yes, of course, the theology is that they must not look upon the divine, but the divine is present in the form of the eruption, so it is the looking on the eruption that causes the danger.

RED: Not much confidence in Mosheh is there? In verse 12 YHVH instructed Mosheh to place guards and boundaries, with clear permission to use the rifles, not just the tasers and the tear-gas. Now he's sending him back down to check; Yitro would not approve. "Mosheh, you have done the right thing, by delegating responsibility. But when you delegate responsibility, you have to delegate authority as well, and with authority accountability. This is the Second and the Third Commandment".

HA'ED particularly interests me. KJ translates it as "charge the people", not meaning "bill them + sales tax", but in the sense of "give them this instruction", and it is the word "instruction" that I want to focus on. MITZVAH, which will be used for "commandment", connects with TSEVA, which is the military, where orders are orders. HA'ED is the Hiphil form of YA'DA = "to know", and therefore should be literally translated as "make them know", which is "instruction" in the school sense, and connects to TORAH, which is "enlightenment", and also yields MORAH, which is a female teacher, or MOREH in the masculine. At which end of the pyramid of Bloom's Taxonomy should we be reading this? The sense is that Mosheh is going to give out rules, but also explain the whys and wherefores so that they are meaningfully understood, which is education, rather than giving out rules, and putting people on duty to inform against those who break them, and then to take the offenders off for stoning as a consequence, which is despotism. But the text does not, alas, confirm this reading, and the tale of the Korach rebellion later serves to undermine it.

19:22 VE GAM HA KOHANIM HA NIGASHIM EL YHVH YITKADSHU PEN YIPHROTS BA HEM YHVH

וְגַם הַכֹּהֲנִים הַנִּגָּשִׁים אֶל יְהוָה יִתְקַדָּשׁוּ פֶּן יִפְרֹץ בָּהֶם יְהוָה

KJ: And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.

BN: "And let the priests too, the ones who will approach YHVH, sanctify themselves, lest YHVH break forth upon them."

HA KOHANIM: So there were priests among the Beney Yisra-El already? Several chapters before YHVH establishes the priesthood, and they are already there. Egyptian priests of Ra or Hor or Eshet or Osher? Priests of YHVH or Elohim? To whatever deity - priests.

YITKADSHU: We are dealing here with constructs so primitive that we cannot possibly fathom them. Purification has already taken place, and we can assume the priests were included. So what further sanctification is required? No sanctification that is described in any of the holy scriptures, short of wearing a teflon suit, is going to be much use against a volcano. Yet clearly they believed that holiness at a certain level gave protection. And as the next verse clarifies, Mosheh shared my bewilderment.

PEN YIPHROTS: There is a play on words going on here, between YEHERSU in verses 21 and 24, which means "break through", and YIPHROTS here, which means something like "break over": they penetrate the boundary, he covers them with molten lava or at least with volcanic ash. How will YHVH "break forth", if this is not volcanic? Again this convinces me that there is a physical danger-of-death, not just a spiritual or moral one; and that the descriptions make plain it is volcanic, and that YHVH is himself the physical volcano (which makes him rather more Logi than Wotan, as I noted at Exodus 3:4!).

19:23 VA YOMER MOSHEH EL YHVH LO YUCHAL HA AM LA'ALOT EL HAR SINAI KI ATAH HA'EDOTAH BANU LEMOR HAGBEL ET HA HAR VE KIDASHTO

וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל יְהוָה לֹא יוּכַל הָעָם לַעֲלֹת אֶל הַר סִינָי כִּי אַתָּה הַעֵדֹתָה בָּנוּ לֵאמֹר הַגְבֵּל אֶת הָהָר וְקִדַּשְׁתּוֹ

KJ: And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.

BN: Then Mosheh said to YHVH: "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for you instructed us, saying: Set bounds about the mount, and set it apart as a holy ground."

19:24 VA YOMER ELAV YHVH LECH RED VE ALIYTA ATAH VE AHARON IMACH VE HA KOHANIM VE HA AM AL YEHERSU LA'ALOT EL YHVH PEN YIPHRATS BAM

וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו יְהוָה לֶךְ רֵד וְעָלִיתָ אַתָּה וְאַהֲרֹן עִמָּךְ וְהַכֹּהֲנִים וְהָעָם אַל יֶהֶרְסוּ לַעֲלֹת אֶל יְהוָה פֶּן יִפְרָץ בָּם

KJ: And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them.

BN: Then YHVH said to him: "Go! Go back down, and when you come back up, bring Aharon with you. But do not allow the priests and the people to break through and come up to YHVH, lest he break forth upon them."

LECH, RED: Go down, come up, come down, go up. Not surprising that Mosheh is bewildered - and probably exhausted too from all this toing and froing. Go up. Come down. Come up and then go down again but this time come back up with Aharon. Yes priests. No priests. The only thing that is clear is that the people are in danger and that YHVH is a lousy boss.

Again the odd use of the 3rd person.

19:25 VA YERED MOSHE EL HA AM VA YOMER ALEYHEM

וַיֵּרֶד מֹשֶׁה אֶל הָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם

KJ: So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.

BN: So Moshe went down unto the people, and told them.

The very tone of this last verse, its very shortness, seems to imply that Mosheh had had enough, and just thought, what the hell I'm not arguing any more, I don't understand what he wants me to do, or say, but I shall go and do and say it anyway. So much for the almighty and omnipotent one!

Samech break.

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