Exodus 19:1

19:1-8 Moses was called up the mountain, and was employed as the messenger of this covenant. The Maker and first Mover of the covenant, is God himself. This blessed charter was granted out of God's own free grace. The covenant here mentioned was the national covenant, by which the Israelites were a people under the government of Jehovah. It was a type of the new covenant made with true believers in Christ Jesus; but, like other types, it was only a shadow of good things to come. As a nation they broke this covenant; therefore the Lord declared that he would make a new covenant with Israel, writing his law, not upon tables of stone, but in their hearts, Jer 31:33; Heb 8:7-10. The covenant spoken of in these places as ready to vanish away, is the national covenant with Israel, which they forfeited by their sins. Unless we carefully attend to this, we shall fall into mistakes while reading the Old Testament. We must not suppose that the nation of the Jews were under the covenant of works, which knows nothing of repentance, faith in a Mediator, forgiveness of sins, or grace; nor yet that the whole nation of Israel bore the character, and possessed the privileges of true believers, as being actually sharers in the covenant of grace. They were all under a dispensation of mercy; they had outward privileges and advantages for salvation; but, like professing Christians, most rested therein, and went no further. Israel consented to the conditions.

They answered as one man, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. Oh that there had been such a heart in them! Moses, as a mediator, returned the words of the people to God. Thus Christ, the Mediator, as a Prophet, reveals God's will to us, his precepts and promises; and then, as a Priest, offers up to God our spiritual sacrifices, not only of prayer and praise, but of devout affections, and pious resolutions, the work of his own Spirit in us.

In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt,.... Which was the month Sivan, and answers to part of May and part of June: the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai; which had its name from the mountain situated in it, and that from the bushes which grew upon it. Justin (z) calls it Synan, which he says Moses occupied, and Strabo (a), Sinnan. Hither they came either on the same day they came from Rephidim; which, according to Bunting (b), were eight miles from it, or on the same day of the month, as to number, that is, on the third day of the third month; and so Jerom (c) and others say it was on the forty seventh day after their coming out of Egypt, three days after which they received the law on Mount Sinai, it being a generally received notion that the law was given fifty days after the passover; hence the feast of weeks is called from thence the feast of pentecost, or fifty days: or rather this was the first day of the month, as Jarchi and R.

Moses; with which agrees the Targum of Jonathan; and so was the forty fifth of their coming out of Egypt, five days after which they received the law; it being a tradition with the Jews, as Aben Ezra observes, that that was given on the sixth of Sivan, and may be accounted for thus; on the first day they came to Sinai, and encamped there, on the day following Moses went up to God, Exodus 19:3, on the third day Moses gathered the elders together, Exodus 19:7, and declared to them the words of God, and on the third day after that, which was the sixth, the law was delivered to them. (z) E Trogo, l. 36. c. 2.((a) Geograph. l. 16. p. 520. (b) Travels, p. 82. (c) Epist. Fabiolae de 42 mansion. fol. 15. c. 1. tom. 3.

Exodus 19:1 . In the third month — After they came out of Egypt, including the latter part of May and the former part of June. It is computed that the law was given just fifty days after their coming out of Egypt, in remembrance of which the feast of pentecost was observed the fiftieth day after the passover, and in compliance with which the Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, at the feast of pentecost, fifty days after the death of Christ. Mount Sinai was a place which nature, not art, had made conspicuous, for it was the highest in all that range of mountains. Thus God put contempt upon cities and palaces, setting up his pavilion on the top of a mountain, in a barren desert. It is called Sinai, from the multitude of thorny bushes that overspread it.

In the {a} third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same {b} day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. (a) Which was in the beginning of the month of Sivan, containing part of May and part of June. (b) That they departed from Rephidim.

Verse 1. - In the third month. The month Sivan, corresponding nearly with our June. When the children of Israel were gone forth. Rather, "after the children of Israel had gone forth," or "after the departure of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt." Compare Exodus 16:1 , where the expression used is the same. The same day . Literally, "on that day" - which can only mean "on the day that the month began" - on the 1st of Sivan. The wilderness of Sinai . The plain Er-Rahah; as is now generally allowed, since the true character of the Wady Sebaiyeh has been shown by Dean Stanley ( Sinai and Palestine , p. 76) and others. Exodus 19:1

1 . the same day ] The day of the month must in some way have fallen out in the early part of the verse. the wilderness of Sinai ] The area in front of the mountain, whether ‘Sinai’ be J. Serbâl or J. Mûsâ (see p. 186 ff.): so v. 2, Leviticus 7:38 b, Numbers 1:1 ; Num Exo 1:19; Numbers 3:14 ; Numbers 9:1 ; Numbers 10:12 ; Numbers 26:64 ; Numbers 33:15-16 (all P). If Sinai be J. Serbäl, the ‘wilderness’ will be the stretch of W. Feiran, ¾ mile long, between W. ‘Ajeleh and W. ‘Aleyat (cf. on Exodus 17:1 a), 3 miles N. of J. Serbâl, and separated from J. Serbǎl itself by a chaos of rugged hills (cf. p. 182, and see the map): if Sinai be J. Mûsâ, then the ‘wilderness’ will be the plain er-Râḥah, about 1½ mile long, and ½ mile broad, fronting it on the NW., and, according to the best route (p. 182), 37 miles above Feiran. Er-Râḥah, it may be added, is 3000 ft. above Feiran, and 5000 ft. above the sea. 1, 2 . a (P). Arrival of the Israelites at Sinai. The ‘when’ in v. 2. is intended to remove a difficulty: the Heb. is, And they took their journey …, and came …, and pitched , &c.; these words, however, beginning with the departure from Rephidim, would naturally precede v. 1, which, stating the new fact of the date of their arrival at Sinai, would as naturally then follow.

And this doubtless was the original order, viz.: And they took their journey ( Exodus 16:1 ) from Rephidim, and came to the wilderness of Sinai , and pitched in the wilderness: in the third month after, &c., came they into the wilderness of Sinai . For the form of v. 2a, comp. now Exodus 16:1 , Numbers 33:16 .

CHAPTER 19 Ex 19:1-25. Arrival at Sinai. 1. In the third month—according to Jewish usage, the first day of that month—"same day."—It is added, to mark the time more explicitly, that is, forty-five days after Egypt—one day spent on the mount (Ex 19:3), one returning the people's answer (Ex 19:7, 8), three days of preparation, making the whole time fifty days from the first passover to the promulgation of the law. Hence the feast of pentecost, that is, the fiftieth day, was the inauguration of the Old Testament church, and the divine wisdom is apparent in the selection of the same reason for the institution of the New Testament church (Joh 1:17; Ac 2:1).The people come to Sinai, Exodus 19:1,2. God’s proposal to them by Moses. Of the terms of the covenant, Exodus 19:3-6. Moses lays before them what God had commanded, Exodus 19:7. The people’s acceptance of the same, Exodus 19:8. God directeth Moses how to sanctify the people, Exodus 19:10,11; to set bounds to the people that they touch not the mount, Exodus 19:12. The punishment of those that did, Exodus 19:13. Moses sanctifying the people, Exodus 19:14; commands them to keep from their wives, Exodus 19:15. The manner of God’s appearing, Exodus 19:16,18,19. God talketh with Moses, Exodus 19:21-24. BC 1491 Heb. Third new moon, called Sivan, including the latter part of May, and the former part of June.

The same day, Heb. in that day, to wit, when the month or new moon began, and when they departed from Rephidim, to note, that there was no station between these two. This is set down thus accurately, because it gives an account of the original of the feast of pentecost, because the giving of the law, which was three or four days after this time, was fifty days after the passover, whereof forty-six or forty-seven were past at their first coming to Sinai, reckoning from the fifteenth day of the first month, when they came out of Egypt, to this time.