Exodus 20:18
And all the people saw the voices and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mount smoking: and being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off,
Open Exodus 20:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cunctus autem populus videbat voces et lampades, et sonitum buccinæ, montemque fumantem : et perterriti ac pavore concussi, steterunt procul,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς ἑώρα τὴν φωνὴν καὶ τὰς λαμπάδας καὶ τὴν φωνὴν τῆς σάλπιγγος καὶ τὸ ὄρος τὸ καπνίζον· φοβηθέντες δὲ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς ἔστησαν μακρόθεν,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְכָל הָעָם֩ רֹאִ֨ים אֶת הַקּוֹלֹ֜ת וְאֶת הַלַּפִּידִ֗ם וְאֵת֙ ק֣וֹל הַשֹּׁפָ֔ר וְאֶת הָהָ֖ר עָשֵׁ֑ן וַיַּ֤רְא הָעָם֙ וַיָּנֻ֔עוּ וַיַּֽעַמְד֖וּ מֵֽרָחֹֽק
Haydock's commentary
Saw. The Hebrews often substitute one organ of sense for another. (St. Augustine 9. 72; Jeremias ii. 30.)
The Samaritan reads, "the people heard the thunders and the sound of the trumpet, and beheld the lightning." Henceforward till chap. xxiv., Moses and Aaron alone heard the voice of God; and the laws delivered, chap. xxv. to xxxi., were revealed to Moses only.
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 Augustine On the Holy Trinity, Of the Appearance on Sinai. Whether the Trinity Spake in that Appearance or Some One Person Specially
25. But now of the clouds, and voices, and lightnings, and the trumpet, and the smoke on Mount Sinai, when it was said, “And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace; and all the people that was in the camp trembled; and when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” And a little after, when the Law had been given in the ten commandments, it follows in the text, “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking.” And a little after, “And [when the people saw it,] they removed and stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was, and the Lord said unto Moses,” etc. …