Exodus 19:13

13. Not a hand touch it So sacred and so awful was that mount to be esteemed that no one unsanctified and unbidden might touch it, on the peril of life . Not even a beast would be permitted to touch it, and live . This rigorous requirement was adapted to inculcate reverence for the law .

When the trumpet soundeth long Hebrews, in the drawing out of the yobel. The word יובל , here translated trumpet, appears to have been some kind of a wind instrument . In Joshua 6:4-5; Joshua 6:8, we find the word employed to qualify קרן , horn, or cornet, and in Leviticus 25:10, it denotes the fiftieth year year of liberty and joy commonly known as “the year of jubilee . ” The Targum and the rabbins understand a wind instrument made of a ram’s horn . The exact meaning is doubtful . Gesenius regards it as an onomatopoetic word, signifying a joyful shout, and, perhaps, is best understood here as the sound of some instrument, rather than the instrument itself . The drawing out of the yobel would thus mean the prolonged tones of a signal call, without specifying the particular instrument employed . See further on Exodus 19:16, where the trumpet is mentioned .

They shall come up to the mount Who? Certainly not the people generally, who were forbidden to touch it, (comp . Exodus 19:23-24,) but chosen representatives and elders of the people, (see Exodus 24:1-2,) whom the writer does not here stop to specify. We see from Exodus 19:20 that only Moses went up at first; subsequently Aaron was permitted to accompany him, (Exodus 19:24,) but the priests and the people were forbidden.