Deuteronomy 33:2
And he said: The Lord came from Sinai, and from Seir he rose up to us: he hath appeared from mount Pharan, and with him thousands of saints. In his right hand a fiery law.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et ait : Dominus de Sinai venit, et de Seir ortus est nobis : apparuit de monte Pharan, et cum eo sanctorum millia. In dextera ejus ignea lex.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν Κύριος ἐκ Σεινὰ ἥκει, καὶ ἐπέφανεν ἐκ Σηεὶρ ἡμῖν· καὶ κατέσπευσεν ἐξ ὄρους Φαρὰν σὺν μυριάσιν Κάδης, ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ ἄγγελοι μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּאמַ֗ר יְהוָ֞ה מִסִּינַ֥י בָּא֙ וְזָרַ֤ח מִשֵּׂעִיר֙ לָ֔מוֹ הוֹפִ֨יעַ֙ מֵהַ֣ר פָּארָ֔ן וְאָתָ֖ה מֵרִבְבֹ֣ת קֹ֑דֶשׁ מִֽימִינ֕וֹ אשדת לָֽמוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Pharan. Habacuc iii. 3, mentions this apparition. See also Psalm lxvii. 9.
Saints. God was accompanied by legions of angels, when he delivered the law to the Israelites, who are styled a nation of saints, Numbers xvi. 3. Septuagint, "he hastened from Mount Pharan, with ten thousands to Cades. At his right hand are his angels attending." (Haydock)
Kodesh does not mean saints, but holiness, or the city of Cades; and the preceding word, which Protestants translate, with ten thousands, more probably refers to another title of the city, as it is specified Meriba-Cadesh, chap. xxxii. 51., and Ezechiel xlviii. 28. (Kennicott)
Law. Chaldean, "from the midst of the fire he has given us a law, written with his own hand." We may translate, "He hath shone from Mount Pharan, and multitudes accompanied him. The Holy One, who hath in his hand fire and the law." See Isaias vi. 3. God conducted his people, like a victorious general, through the wilderness, frequently appearing to them to strike terror into the rebellious. (Calmet)
When he first descended upon Sinai, his glory shone on Pharan and Seir, as it were in its progress thither. (Menochius)
The law is styled fiery, not only because it was given from the midst of flames, but also because it was to be put in execution with the utmost rigour. (Haydock)
But doth is Chaldean, and no where else used for the law in the books written before the captivity, nor is it acknowledged by the Septuagint, Syriac, &c. Perhaps it was originally aur, as it is in the Samaritan version, "shone forth," conformably to a similar passage, Habacuc iii. 4. "His brightness was as the sun, horns, or rather splendours (issuing forth) from his hand," &c. (Kennicott)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 12.18-24
[1.] Wonderful indeed were the things in the Temple, the Holy of Holies; and again awful were those things also that were done at Mount Sina, “the fire, the darkness, the blackness, the tempest.” (Cf. Deut. xxxiii. 2 .) For, it says, “God appeared in Sina,” and long ago were these things celebrated. The New Covenant, however, was not given with any of these things, but has been given in simple discourse by God.