Hebrews 12:21

the sight "the splendour of the spectacle" (τὸ φανταζόμενον, here only in N.T.). The true punctuation of the verse is And so fearful was the spectacle Moses said …

I exceedingly fear and quake No such speech of Moses at Sinai is recorded in the Pentateuch. The writer is either drawing from the Jewish Hagadah or (by a mode of citation not uncommon) is compressing two incidents into one. For in Deuteronomy 9:19 Moses, after the apostasy of Israel in worshipping the Golden Calf, said, "I was afraid (LXX. καὶ ἔκφοβός εἰμι) of the anger and hot displeasure of the Lord," and in Acts 7:32 we find the words "becoming a-tremble" (ἔντρομος γενόμενος) to express the fear of Moses on seeing the Burning Bush (though here also there is no mention of any trembling in Exodus 3:6). The tradition of Moses" terror is found in Jewish writings. In Shabbath f. 88. 2 he explains "Lord of the Universe I am afraid lest they (the Angels) should consume me with the breath of their mouths." Comp. Midrash Kohelethf. 69. 4.