A Commentary on Hebrews 12:20-21, by John Owen. The following contains an excerpt from his work.

(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
~ Hebrews 12:20-21

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.
~ Deuteronomy 33:2

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
~ Romans 3:19-20

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
~ Galatians 2:19

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
~ Galatians 3:10

There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
~ Exodus 19:13

And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
~ Exodus 19:16

And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
~ Exodus 19:19

My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.
~ Psalm 119:120

The second evidence which he gives of the dreadful promulgation of the law, and consequently of the miserable estate of them that are under its power, is in what befell Moses on this occasion. And we may consider,

1. The person in whom he giveth the instance.

2. The cause of the consternation ascribed unto him.

3. How he expressed it.

1. The person is Moses. The effect of this terror extended itself unto the meanest of beasts, and unto the best of men. Moses was,

(1.) A person holy, and abounding in grace above all others of his time; the meekest man on the earth.

(2.) He was accustomed unto divine revelations, and had once before beheld a representation of the divine presence Exodus 3:0.

(3.) He was the internuncius, the messenger, the mediator between God and the people, at that time. Yet could none of these privileges exempt him from an amazing sense of the terror of the Lord in giving the law. And if with all these advantages he could not bear it, much less can any other man so do. The mediator himself of the old covenant was not able to sustain the dread and terror of the law: how desperate then are their hopes who would yet be saved by Moses!

2. The cause of his consternation was the sight, it was “so terrible:” “Visum quod apparebat;” that which appeared, and was represented unto him. And this takes in not only what was the object of the sight of his eyes, but that of his ears also, in voices, and thundering, and the sound of the trumpet. The whole of it was “terrible,” or “dreadful.” It was “so dreadful,” unto such an incomprehensible degree.

3. His expression of the consternation that befell him hereon is in these words, “I exceedingly fear and tremble.” He said so; we are assured of it by the Holy Ghost in this place. But the words themselves are not recorded in the story. They were undoubtedly spoken then and there, where, upon this dreadful representation of God, it is said that he spake; but not one word is added of what he spake: Exodus 19:19, “And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice;” yet nothing is added, either of what Moses spake, or of what God answered. Then, no doubt, did he speak these words: for it was immediately upon his sight of the dreadful appearance; unto which season the apostle assigns them.

The expositors of the Roman church raise hence a great plea for unwritten traditions; than which nothing can be more weak and vain. For,

(1.) How do they know that the apostle had the knowledge hereof by tradition? Certain it is, that in the traditions that yet remain among the Jews there is no mention of any such thing. All other things he had by immediate inspiration, as Moses wrote the story of things past.

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