Deuteronomy 33:2-4

And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

The lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them, х laamow (H3807a), to them-the poetic singular]. Since no persons are mentioned before Yahweh's appearance here described, it has been conjectured, that the proper reading of the text should be [lª`amow], 'to his people.' But the conjecture is not supported by manuscript authority. [The Septuagint translators must have seen the Hebrew word laanuw (H3807a), in the first person plural, because they translate it as: heemin, 'to us.' So also do the Syriac and Vulgate versions, with the Targum of Onkelos. But this also is unwarranted.] There is no occasion for inserting 'to them' in our version; for, as Henderson ('On Inspiration,' p. 476) correctly remarks, 'the dative of the pronoun is here, as frequently, redundant after an intransitive verb of motion.'

And he came with ten thousands of saints, х wª'aataah (H857) meeribbot (H7233) qodesh (H6944)] = ten thousand (Judges 20:10), and frequently any large, indefinite number (Genesis 24:60; Psalms 91:7; Song of Solomon 5:10; Ezekiel 16:7). х Qodesh (H6944), holiness. Being governed by the preceding word, it is here equivalent to an adjective 'holy myriads;' and no objection can be made to this view on the ground of rªbaabowt (H7233) being in the feminine plural, since this numeral is feminine, and occurs in a similar connection with angels (Psalms 68:17). The Septuagint, however, having read qaadesh (H6945), translates sun muriasi Kadees, with myriads at Kadesh.

Kennicott ('Dissertations,' vol. 1:, p. 426) and Ewald ('Geschichte') adopt this interpretation, and taking both Hebrew words in a geographical sense, render them, 'from Meribah-kadesh.' They vindicate their translation --

(1) On the circumstance of the three preceding clauses containing names of places, and of the fourth having one, too, by the change of a single letter.

(2) That this name, Meribah-kadesh, occurs at the close of the last chapter;

and

(3) That the word constantly used for his saints is qªdoshaayw (H6918).]

From his right hand went a fiery law for them, х miymiynow (H3225) 'eesh (H784) daat (H1881) laamow (H3807a)]. These words have occasioned much perplexity. Gesenius renders them, 'at His (Yahweh's) right hand, fire a law to them'-namely, to the Israelites; and we may understand, perhaps, 'the pillar of fire guiding their way in the desert.' This interpretation, however, is rejected as unsatisfactory; and the generality of critics have the phrase, 'a fire of law,' as equivalent to "fiery law." [Vulgate, 'legem igneam,' deeming it the intention of the sacred historian, by using this uncommon mode of expression, to give prominence to the awful phenomena that marked its promulgation.]

"A fiery law" - so called both because of the thunder and lightning which accompanied its promulgation (Exodus 19:16; Deuteronomy 4:11), and of the fierce, unrelenting curse denounced against the violation of its precepts (2 Corinthians 3:7). Notwithstanding those awe-inspiring symbols of Majesty that were displayed on Sinai, the law was really given in kindness and love (Deuteronomy 33:3), as a means of promoting both the temporal and eternal welfare of the people; and it was "the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob," not only from the hereditary obligation under which that people were laid to observe it, but from its being the grand distinction, the special privilege of the nation. Verse 3. All his saints are in thy hand, х qªdoshaayw (H6918), his holy ones]. х bªyaadekaa (H3027), in thy hand, is an idiomatic expression, signifying simply with thee.] There is observable here a very abrupt transition from the third person, "His" holy ones, to the second, "thy" hand. [The Septuagint has: ek dexioon autou angeloi met' autou, and on His right angels were with Him-a translation which, whatever may be said of it in other respects, preserves the parallelism with 'holy myriads,' in the preceding line.]

And they sat down at thy feet, х tukuw (H8497), lay down (an hapax legomenon).] Gesenius, who regards х qªdoshaayw (H6918)] "his saints" as meaning the Israelites, renders this clause, 'they are laid down (encamped) at thy feet' - i:e., at the foot of mount Sinai. But the major part of interpreters, considering this verse as a continuation of the preceding, apply it to the lowly prostration of the angelic hosts, 'They fall down, they bow at thy feet.'

Every one shall receive of thy words. Gesenius, of course, regards this as said of the Israelite people accepting the divine oracle; while others, who take the verb in its full signification, to take up so as to bear away, refer it to the ministry of angels at the delivery of the law (cf. Psalms 68:17).

Under a beautiful metaphor, borrowed from the dawn and progressive splendour of the sun, the Majesty of God is sublimely described as a divine light which appeared in Sinai, and scattered its beams on all the adjoining region in directing Israel's march to Canaan. In these descriptions of a theophania, God is represented as coming from the south, and the allusion is in general to the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai; but other mountains in the same direction are mentioned with it. The location of Seir was on the east of the Ghor; mount Paran was either the chain on the west of the Ghor, or rather the mountains on the southern border of the desert toward the peninsula (Robinson: cf. Judges 5:4; Psalms 68:7; Habakkuk 3:3).

Verse 4. Moses commanded us a law. So far as respected the agency of Moses, he acted as the commissioned legate of Yahweh.

The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob, х mowraashaah (H4181), possession]. The law was so called as being one of the distinguishing privileges of Israel, the word implying a hereditary claim (Ezekiel 11:15; Ezekiel 25:4; Ezekiel 25:10: cf. Psalms 119:111, where the Psalmist speaks of the law as his heritage, a different word, however, being used).