Deuteronomy 33:2,3

Deuteronomy 33:2 a

‘And he said,

Yahweh came from Sinai,

And rose from Seir to them;

He shone forth from mount Paran,

And he came from the ten thousands of holiness (quodesh),

At his right hand was a fiery law for them.

Yes, he loves the peoples;'

This is a vivid description of Yahweh in His glory coming to His people on Mount Sinai. Seir is Edom in which Mount Sinai is found, Paran the rough area in which it is, so that it, or a related mountain, could be called Mount Paran (compare Habakkuk 3:3). The writer is looking back to that glorious day and giving rough directions of its whereabouts which will have been known to the people. These areas were not strictly defined. There were no maps that showed their boundaries, and place names for the same sites were many and varied as used by different peoples. But all knew that Seir and Paran referred to the wilderness to the South.

He came to His people from the multitudes of angels who formed His court, ‘ten thousands of holiness', an indefinitely large number. And at His right hand He had a law written in fire, a heavenly Law, the law of the One Who appeared in fire, Who was like a flaming fire. And He came because of His love for His people, who were at that stage ‘peoples' including a mixed multitude from many nations (Exodus 12:38).

For a similar description of Yahweh's coming from Mount Seir see Judges 5:4; compare also Psalms 68:7; Habakkuk 3:3.

Deuteronomy 33:3 b

“All his holy ones are in your hand,

And they sat down at your feet;

Every one shall receive of your words.”

Here the ‘holy ones' may well in this case represent His people, which He had previously called ‘a holy nation' (Exodus 19:6), who are also the holy servants of Yahweh. The change from ‘His' to ‘your' suggests that it is spoken to Moses. Thus Yahweh's holy people are described as in Moses' hand and sitting at His feet. He is their supreme authority and teacher. They would all receive his words, the words of that fiery Law that he had received from Yahweh. Moses was establishing his authority as the giver of the blessing to generations yet unborn.

Others see this as referring to the angels receiving Yahweh's words that they might pass them on to Moses. For the Law was conveyed to him ordained of angels at the hand of a mediator (Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19). ‘All His holy ones' would then be a technical term for His angelic hosts. And the second person verbs would then be seen as addressed to either Yahweh or Moses depending on viewpoint.