Deuteronomy 4:36
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He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
But the Lord had spoken to Israel chiefly down from heaven (cf. Exo 20:19 [22]), and that out of the great fire, in which He had come down upon Sinai, to chastise it. יסּר does not mean "to instruct the people with regard to His truth and sovereignty," as Schultz thinks, but "to take them under holy discipline" (Knobel), to inspire them with a salutary fear of the holiness of His ways and of His judgments by the awful phenomena which accompanied His descent, and shadowed forth the sublime and holy majesty of His nature.
Open source ↗In this chapter we have, I. A most earnest and pathetic exhortation to obedience, both in general, and in some particular instances, backed with a great variety of very pressing arguments, repeated again and again, and set before them in the most moving and affectionate manner imaginable (v. 1-40). II. The appointing of the cities of refuge on that side Jordan (Deu 4:41-43). III. The particular description of the place where Moses delivered the following repetition of the law (Deu 4:44, etc.).
Open source ↗4:36 great fire: God revealed the covenant law at Mount Sinai with a magnificent and terrifying display of power and glory comparable to the eruption of a great volcano (see study note on 1:33; see Exod 3:1-4; 24:16-18).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you, and they will always put their trust in you.” And Moses relayed to the LORD what the people had said.
And as the sound of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.
Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived?
You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.
See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?
For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm;
and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.