Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 19:21
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.
21. break through ] viz. the barriers that had been erected ( v. 12). Lit. pull or tear down (Jdg 6:25 al.). So v. 24.
perish ] lit. fall, i.e. be struck down suddenly by the lightning.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Through curiosity to know in what form or manner I appear to thee.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. the Lord said unto Moses, Godown, charge the peopleNo sooner had Moses proceeded a littleup the mount, than he was suddenly ordered to return, in order tokeep the people from breaking through to gazea course adopted toheighten the impressive solemnity of the scene. The strictinjunctions renewed to all, whatever their condition, at a time andin circumstances when the whole multitude of Israel were standing atthe base of the mount, was calculated in the highest degree tosolemnize and awe every heart.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord said unto Moses, go down,…. As soon as he was got to the top of the mount he was bid to go down again to the bottom, with a message to the people:
charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze; to see if they could observe any similitude or likeness of God, that they might have an idea of it in their minds, or make an image like unto it; to prevent which, the Lord, knowing the vanity and curiosity of their minds, ordered Moses to give them a strict charge not to transgress the bounds set them, or to break down or break through the fence of stones and sand, or hedge of bushes, brambles, and branches of trees, or whatever was placed for bounds:
and many of them perish; or “fall” z; by the hand of God; either fall by death, or into some grievous calamity, as the men of Bethshemesh perished through looking into the ark, 1Sa 6:19.
z Sept. “et corruant”, Pagninus, Tigurine version; “et cadat”, Montanus; “cadant”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius so Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
21. And the Lord said unto Moses. By God’s command the same prohibition is repeated, that the people should not pass over the bounds, because, without doubt, it was not enough to have forbidden them once, as we may gather from the reply of Moses; for he thought that since they were all admonished, there was no necessity for a new prohibition. But God insists with greater vehemence, and again with threatenings, orders them to be charged that they take diligent heed to themselves. He knew, forsooth, that He had to do with the rebellious, for whose subjugation a sorer dread of punishment would be necessary. Now, since we are no better than they, let us not be surprised if God often spurs us on by the application of many exhortations, and redoubles His threats, for else forgetfulness of all which He has once enjoined would creep over us. This passage also confirms the fact, that the curiosity which influences men’s minds is greatly displeasing to God; for He expressly commands that they should not break through to gaze, — not because He would have anything concealed or hidden which it was profitable for them to know, but because their inquiries ought to be sober; and this is the legitimate limit of knowledge, humbly to learn at God’s mouth what He voluntarily teaches, — not to advance with too anxious longings, but to follow Him as He leads us.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) Lest they break throughi.e., force their way through the barrier which Moses had erected.
To gaze, and many of them perish.Some might have perished by the execution of the orders given in Exo. 19:13. But the allusion is perhaps rather to such a heaven-sent plague as destroyed the men of Beth-shemesh to the number of 50,070 (1Sa. 6:19).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
GODS WARNING TO THE PEOPLE AGAINST A TOO NEAR APPROACH.
(21-25) Warning was given, as soon as God announced His intention of descending upon Sinai, that the people must not approach too near. Bounds were set, and the people required to keep within them. Actual contact with the mountain was forbidden under penalty of death (Exo. 19:12). It is evident from Exo. 19:23 that the command to set bounds had been obeyed, and a fence erected which it would have required some force to break through; nor can there be any doubt that Moses had promulgated the directions, which he had received from God, forbidding any approach to the mount, and threatening death to those who should touch it. Yet still it is evident from this concluding paragraph of the chapter (Exo. 19:21-25) that the first warning was insufficient. An intention to break through, to gaze, must have been entertained by many. To this intention the existing priesthood, whatever it was, were parties (Exo. 19:22). It always grates upon mens feelings to be told that they are less holy than others; and we can easily understand that those who had hitherto acted as priests to the nation would resent their exclusion from holy ground to which the sons of Amram were about to be admitted. Even of the people there may have been many who participated in the feeling, and thought that Moses and Aaron were taking too much upon them, seeing that the whole congregation was holy. Hence, a further very stringent command was requisite, and Moses, having reached the summit, was sent down again from the top to the bottom in order to enjoin upon priests and people alike, in the most solemn possible way, the necessity of their observing the bounds set.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
REPEATED CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE, Exo 19:21-25.
21. Go down, charge the people We here observe how Israel had to be admonished and taught by repeated commands . Once charging them solemnly is not enough, though even Moses (Exo 19:23) thought that the charge already given, and the bounds set about the mount, were all-sufficient. Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little, (Isa 28:10,) was God’s order in giving the knowledge of his laws, and this fact will account for the repetitions of sundry laws noticeable in the Pentateuch .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
EXPOSITION
The further warning to the people and the priests. It is very remarkable that, after all the directions given (Exo 19:10-13), and all the pains taken by Moses and the Israelites themselves (Exo 19:14, Exo 19:15, Exo 19:23), God should still have thought it necessary to interpose with a fresh warning, and to send Moses back from the top of the mount to the bottom, in order to communicate the renewed warning to the people. We can only suppose that, in spite of the instructions previously given and the precautions taken, there were those among the people who were prepared to “break through” the fence, and invade the mount, and who would have done so, to their own destruction (Exo 19:21), but for this second warning. The special mention of the “priests” (Exo 19:22, Exo 19:24) raises the suspicion, that this proud and rebellious spirit was particularly developed among them. Accustomed to the exercise of sacred functions, they may have been inclined to regard their own purity as equal to that of Moses and Aaron; and they may even have resented their exclusion from a sacred spot to which the two sons of Amram were admitted. Apparently, they had conceived that the injunction to go through the recognised ceremonies of purification (Exo 19:10) did not apply to them, and had neglected to do so, on which account a special command had.to be issued, addressed to them only (Exo 19:22).
Exo 19:21
Charge the people lest they break throughi.e; “lest they force a passage through the barrier made by Moses” in accordance with the command given in Exo 19:12. And many of them perish. Irreverent gazing on holy things was forbidden by the law (Num 4:20), and on one occasion (1Sa 6:19) was actually punished with death. It did not, however, require a law to make it an offence, natural reason being quite sufficient to teach the duty of reverence.
Exo 19:22
Let the priests also. It has been objected, that no priests had been as yet appointed, and that we have here therefore an anachronism. But every nation in ancient times had priests, appointed on one principle or another: and the Levitical priesthood must be regarded as having superseded one previously existent, not as the first priesthood known to Israel. We have a second mention of priests, previous to the appointment of Aaron’s sons to the office (in Exo 24:5), which confirms the present passage. Sanctify themselves. The verb used is identical with that which occurs in Exo 19:10; and there is no reason to believe that any different sanctification was intended. The natural inference is that the priests had neglected to sanctify themselves. (See the introductory paragraph.) Lest the Lord break forth. Compare 2Sa 6:8, where we have an instance of such a “breaking forth” upon Uzzah.
Exo 19:23
The people cannot come up. Moses can only have meant, that the people could not approach the mount unwittingly, since the fence commanded (Exo 19:12) was made. But to scale the fence, or break through it, was of course possible. (See Exo 19:13.)
Exo 19:24
And the Lord said Away, Get thee down. God wholly rejected the plea of Moses, that there was no need to give an additional warning. He knew best, and would not have issued the order to “go down and charge the people “(Exo 19:21), unless there had been a need for it. In the abrupt words “Away, get thee down,” we may see a rebuke, addressed to Moses, for his folly in thinking that he could change the purposes of God. Thou and Aaron with thee. This is the first express mention of Aaron as called to ascend with Moses. But it is quite possible that he may have accompanied his brother in either or both the previous ascents (Exo 19:3, Exo 19:20. Compare Exo 10:1, Exo 10:3; Exo 12:21, Exo 12:28; etc.) But let not the priests and the people break through. Both the priests and the people were to be again solemnly warned that it would be death to break through the fence. This warning seems to have been sufficient.
Exo 19:25
So Moses went down. After the sharp rebuke addressed to him in Exo 19:24, Moses made no further resistance, but returned to the camp, delivered the warning to priests and people, and having so done re-ascended the mount with Aaron.
HOMILETICS
Exo 19:22-24
The priestly office does not dispense a man from personal purity, but obliges him the more to it.
Holiness of office, of profession, of function is too often regarded as if it secured, by some occult power, the personal holiness of the individual, or even of the class, exercising it. The priest castes of Egypt, India, and other countries, assumed to stand on a completely different footing from the rest of the community in respect of nearness, and acceptability to God. And both under the Jewish and the Christian dispensation, there has been in different times and countries a vast amount of sacerdotal pretension, a wide-spread disposition to assume that official covers and includes personal holiness. But Holy Scripture abounds in warnings against any such assumption. “Let the priests sanctify themselves.” Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were chosen among the first of the Levitical priests (Exo 28:1); yet their priestly office did not prevent them from sinning grievously by offering “strange fire before the Lord,” and perishing for their impiety (Num 10:1, Num 10:2). Eli’s sons were “sons of Belial” (1Sa 2:12), whose “sin was very great before the Lord” (1Sa 2:17). Even among the apostles there was a “son of perdition.” Priests have to remember
I. THAT THE PRIESTLY OFFICE DOES NOT SECURE THEM AGAINST BEING TEMPTED. Even Christ, our great High Priestthe only true priest that the world has ever seen, was “in all points tempted like as we are” (Heb 4:15). Eli’s sons were tempted by greed and fleshly lusts (1Sa 2:16, 1Sa 2:22); Nadab and Abihu by pride; Judas by covetousness. All men have the same nature, like passions, similar appetites. The priest, after all, is a man. Satan watches for him no lessor rather much morethan for others. It is a greater triumph for him to lead astray the shepherd than the sheep. And the relations of a priest towards his flock are of such a natureso close, so private sometimesas to lay him open to special temptations.
II. THAT THE PRIESTLY OFFICE DOES NOT SECURE THEM AGAINST YIELDING TO TEMPTATION. Jesus alone was “in all points tempted, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). “ALL we the rest, although baptised and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things,” yield to the temptations which surround us, transgress the Divine law. Nadab, Abihu, Eli’s sons, Judas, were not only tempted, but fell. The priests of Judah, towards the close of the independent kingdom, were among those who provoked God the most (Jer 32:32; Zep 3:4). Christian ministers, even at the present day, too often disgrace their profession, bring shame upon their church, and even upon religion itself, by acts of sin or sometimes by scandalous lives, no better than those of the sons of Eli. These terrible examples should be a warning to all of their danger, and should render the minister distrustful of himself, circumspect, vigilant, and above all prayerful. Only by God’s help can he hope to stand upright.
III. THAT SIN IS WORSE IN THE PRIEST THAN IN OTHERS, AND WILL ENTAIL A SORER PUNISHMENT. Ministers of Christ pledge themselves by special vows, over and above their baptismal vows, to lead godly lives. They are bound to be examples to the flock. They have greater opportunities of grace than others. Their offences cause greater scandal than the offences of others, and do greater damage to the cause of religion. There is something shocking, even to the worldly man, in the immorality of one whose business in life is to minister in holy things. The impure minister is a hypocrite; and hypocrisy is hateful to God, and even in the sight of man contemptible.
IV. THAT THE PRIESTLY PROFESSION BINDS TO HOLINESS. Priests are they whose office it is to “come near the Lord” (Exo 19:22)to draw closer to him than othersto lead others on to him, by exhortation, by example, by intercessory prayer. Without holiness they are impotent to perform their workthey are of no service either to God or manthey do but help forward the work of the devil. Ministering in a holy place, in holy things, with holy words continually in their mouths, if they have not holiness in their hearts, their lives must be a perpetual contradiction, a continual profanity. Again, as already observed, they take special vows: they profess before God and the congregation to have an inward call; they spontaneously promise to live as examples to others; they enter on their position in life on these conditions: they bind themselves. Not to live holy lives is to fly in the face of these obligationsto break the promises made to man and the vows offered to Godto violate faithto destroy, so far as lies in their power, the great bond of human society. And what must not the offence be to God which they commit, by continually drawing near to him with their lips, when their hearts are far from him? He is “of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” “Without holiness no one shall see him.” “Let the priests sanctify themselves.”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Exo 19:21. The Lord said unto Moses, Go down, &c. When Moses was advanced upon the mountain, the Lord, to shew the care he had for the people, and his desire to preserve them from destruction, orders Moses to go down again, and charge the people (whose curiosity, very likely, when the first awful impressions of fear were removed, might prompt them to advance beyond the bounds prescribed, Exo 19:12.to charge them not to advance. The original word signifies to conjure, or to adjure the people, by attesting to them their danger: and the meaning is, go down, testify to the people their danger; and so conjure them by all means to abstain from breaking through their bounds, to gaze upon the Lord, and thereby incur the penalty and destruction threatened (Exo 19:12-13.) as the sure consequence. Houbigant renders what we have translated charge, etiam atque etiam contestare; adjure them again and again. The verse would read better, if rendered thus; go down and strictly adjure the people, lest they break through their bounds, to gaze upon Jehovah, and many of them perish.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Sa 6:19 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 19:21 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.
Ver. 21. And many of them perish. ] As the men of Bethshemesh did for prying into the ark. 1Sa 6:19 Arcana Dei, sunt Arca Dei: God’s secrets are his ark. Eorum quae scire nec datur, nec fas est, docta est ignorantia; scientiae appetentia, insaniae species. a Not to know what is not fit to know, is a learned ignorance; to desire to know in that case is a kind of madness. He that curiously searcheth into God’s majesty, shall be oppressed of his glory.
a Calvin.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
charge: Heb. contest, Exo 19:12, Exo 19:13
break: Exo 3:3, Exo 3:5, Exo 33:20, 1Sa 6:19, Ecc 5:1, Heb 12:28, Heb 12:29
Reciprocal: Exo 19:24 – but let Exo 24:11 – laid not Exo 34:3 – General Num 4:18 – General Num 4:20 – they shall