Israel Was Instructed to Ascend Sinai, but Were Afraid of Revelation

After the Israelites arrive at Mount Sinai, Moses ascends the mountain. YHWH instructs him to tell the people that YHWH will form a covenant with them and the people accept it (Exod 19:1–8a).^[1] Moses then ascends the mountain a second time (v. 8b) and YHWH tells him that He will descend upon the mountain in a pillar of cloud, and will speak to Moses in the hearing of the Israelites so that all will believe in Moses’ election (v. 9).

YHWH then offers a new set of instructions for the people, beginning with how they must prepare for the day of YHWH’s descent:

^{שמות יט:י} וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה לֵךְ אֶל הָעָם וְקִדַּשְׁתָּם הַיּוֹם וּמָחָר וְכִבְּסוּ שִׂמְלֹתָם. ^יט:יא וְהָיוּ נְכֹנִים לַיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי כִּי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִשִׁי יֵרֵד יְ־הוָה לְעֵינֵי כָל הָעָם עַל הַר סִינָי.

^{Exod 19:10} YHWH said to Moses, “Go to the people and warn them to stay pure today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes. ^19:11 Let them be ready for the third day; for on the third day YHWH will come down, in the sight of all the people, on Mount Sinai.”^[2]

The verses continue with imposing a strict prohibition against touching the mountain, punishable by death. The restriction is not intended to be indefinite. YHWH commands Moses to make sure the people only ascend the mountain after they hear a long shofar [ram’s horn] blast:

^{שמות יט:יב} וְהִגְבַּלְתָּ אֶת הָעָם סָבִיב לֵאמֹר הִשָּׁמְרוּ לָכֶם עֲלוֹת בָּהָר וּנְגֹעַ בְּקָצֵהוּ כָּל הַנֹּגֵעַ בָּהָר מוֹת יוּמָת. ^יט:יג לֹא תִגַּע בּוֹ יָד כִּי סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל אוֹ יָרֹה יִיָּרֶה אִם בְּהֵמָה אִם אִישׁ לֹא יִחְיֶה בִּמְשֹׁךְ הַיֹּבֵל הֵמָּה יַעֲלוּ בָהָר.

^{Exod 19:12} “You shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, ‘Beware of going up the mountain or touching the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death: ^19:13 no hand shall touch him, but he shall be either stoned or shot; beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn (yovel) sounds a long blast, they shall go up on the mountain.”

The formulation indicates that they should go up the mountain, but YHWH wants them to wait for the blast of the horn. If verse 13 mentions an impending shofar blast, where is it actually described? The answer is straightforward; indeed, a loud, increasingly intense shofar sound is detailed at the start of the revelation just several verses later:

^{שמות יט:טז} וַיְהִי בַיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי בִּהְיֹת הַבֹּקֶר וַיְהִי קֹלֹת וּבְרָקִים וְעָנָן כָּבֵד עַל הָהָר וְקֹל שֹׁפָר חָזָק מְאֹד וַיֶּחֱרַד כָּל הָעָם אֲשֶׁר בַּמַּחֲנֶה.

^{Exod 19:16} On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the shofar; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.

It seems reasonable to conclude that this shofar blast is the long blast of the yovel “ram’s horn” referred to in verse 13, implying that now the people should go up the mountain (as indeed Malbim reads, see below).

Jericho and the Ram’s Horn Blast

As Haim Sabato of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe and Jonathan Grossman of Bar Ilan University and Herzog College both note,^[3] going up into an area following a long blast of the ram’s horn/shofar also appears in the Israelite siege of Jericho. YHWH instructs Joshua to have the Israelites circle the city once a day for six days along with seven priests holding seven שׁוֹפְרוֹת הַיּוֹבְלִים “ram’s horn shofars.” Then:

^{יהושע ו:ד} ...וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי תָּסֹבּוּ אֶת הָעִיר שֶׁבַע פְּעָמִים וְהַכֹּהֲנִים יִתְקְעוּ בַּשּׁוֹפָרוֹת. ^ו:ה וְהָיָה בִּמְשֹׁךְ בְּקֶרֶן הַיּוֹבֵל (בשמעכם) [כְּשָׁמְעֲכֶם] אֶת קוֹל הַשּׁוֹפָר יָרִיעוּ כָל הָעָם תְּרוּעָה גְדוֹלָה וְנָפְלָה חוֹמַת הָעִיר תַּחְתֶּיהָ וְעָלוּ הָעָם אִישׁ נֶגְדּוֹ.

^{Josh 6:4} …On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. ^6:5 And when a long blast is sounded on the horn—as soon as you hear that sound of the shofar—all the people shall give a mighty shout. Thereupon the city wall will collapse, and the people shall go up, every man straight ahead.

Joshua informs the people, and they carry out the divine instructions. When they get to the seventh circle on the seventh day, everything goes as planned:

^{יהושע ו:כ} וַיָּרַע הָעָם וַיִּתְקְעוּ בַּשֹּׁפָרוֹת וַיְהִי כִשְׁמֹעַ הָעָם אֶת קוֹל הַשּׁוֹפָר וַיָּרִיעוּ הָעָם תְּרוּעָה גְדוֹלָה וַתִּפֹּל הַחוֹמָה תַּחְתֶּיהָ וַיַּעַל הָעָם הָעִירָה אִישׁ נֶגְדּוֹ וַיִּלְכְּדוּ אֶת הָעִיר.

^{Josh 6:20} So the people shouted and the horns were sounded. When the people heard the sound of the horns, the people raised a mighty shout and the wall collapsed. The people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they captured the city.

Grossman and Sabato note that both Jericho and Sinai involve periods of restriction leading up to a significant event. Just as the sound of the ram’s horn signaled to the people surrounding Jericho to ascend and enter the city after a seven-day restriction, so too at Sinai, the continuing sound of the ram’s horn served as a sign for them to ascend the mountain after three days of restriction.

Tradition: No Going Up the Mountain for the Revelation

Despite what appears to be a simple reading of the text, the consensus among medieval commentators is that the people were prohibited from ascending the mountain while the shekinah (divine presence) was resting upon it. This reading goes back as far as the LXX, which translates v. 13:

^{Exod 19:13 [LXX]} A hand shall not touch it. For he shall be stoned with stones or shot with an arrow. Whether animal or whether human, it shall not live. Whenever the sounds and the trumpets and the cloud leave the mountain, they shall come up on the mountain.^[4]

The Septuagint does not seem to be preserving an alternative Vorlage (Hebrew original), but its description of a cessation of theophany, that effectively changes the verse’s meaning, was likely a conscious correction, intended to suggest that the shofar blast marks the removal of the Shekinah from the mountain.^[5]

Building on earlier sources,^[6] Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040–1105) also understands the text to be limiting the permission to ascend to after the divine presence leaves:

^{רש"י שמות יט:יג} "במשוך היובל" – כשימשוך היובל קול ארוך, הוא סימן סילוק השכינה והפסקת הקול. וכיון שאסתלק, הן רשאין לעלות.

^{Rashi Exod 19:13} “Bimshokh the ram’s horn”—When the rams horn makes a long blast, it is a sign that the divine presence has left, and then the sound [i.e., the thunder of the revelation] will stop. Once I (=God) have left, they are permitted to ascend.

Rashi maintains that the time of the ram’s horn blast will coincide with Moses’ blowing of the shofar after the construction of the Tabernacle, a time when the divine presence is absent from the mountain. In practice, no shofar is blasted in the chapters following the construction of the tabernacle. Why do LXX and rabbinic tradition read these verses to be about after the revelation instead of during, if the shofar is indeed sounded at the beginning?^[7]

Warning the People Not to Break Through to YHWH

Following the blast of the shofar on the day of revelation, Moses brings the people to the foot of the mountain:

^{שמות יט:יז} וַיּוֹצֵא מֹשֶׁה אֶת הָעָם לִקְרַאת הָאֱלֹהִים מִן הַמַּחֲנֶה וַיִּתְיַצְּבוּ בְּתַחְתִּית הָהָר. ^יט:יח וְהַר סִינַי עָשַׁן כֻּלּוֹ מִפְּנֵי אֲשֶׁר יָרַד עָלָיו יְ־הוָה בָּאֵשׁ וַיַּעַל עֲשָׁנוֹ כְּעֶשֶׁן הַכִּבְשָׁן וַיֶּחֱרַד כָּל הָהָר מְאֹד.

^{Exod 19:17} Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. ^19:18 Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for YHWH had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently.

At this point, the shofar blast gets stronger:

^{שמות יט:יט} וַיְהִי קוֹל הַשּׁוֹפָר הוֹלֵךְ וְחָזֵק מְאֹד מֹשֶׁה יְדַבֵּר וְהָאֱלֹהִים יַעֲנֶנּוּ בְקוֹל.

^{Exod 19:19} The blare of the shofar grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in sound.

In keeping with the earlier instructions (v. 13), at this point, the people here are invited to climb the mountain and receive the revelation directly. But this is not what happens; instead, God descends to the mountain a second time and tells Moses to come to the top again, apparently by himself:

^{שמות יט:כ} וַיֵּרֶד יְ־הוָה עַל הַר סִינַי אֶל רֹאשׁ הָהָר וַיִּקְרָא יְ־הוָה לְמֹשֶׁה אֶל רֹאשׁ הָהָר וַיַּעַל מֹשֶׁה.

^{Exod 19:20} YHWH came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and YHWH called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.

YHWH then warns him of the lethal danger to anyone who tries to approach YHWH:

^{שמות יט:כא} וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה רֵד הָעֵד בָּעָם פֶּן יֶהֶרְסוּ אֶל יְ־הוָה לִרְאוֹת וְנָפַל מִמֶּנּוּ רָב.

^{Exod 19:21} YHWH said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people not to break through to YHWH to gaze, lest many of them perish.”

If, as explained above, the Israelites were supposed to ascend the mountain at this point, why does God issue a warning against doing so now?

Separate Traditions?

Samuel E. Loewenstamm (1907–1987) of Hebrew University argues that there is no way to read this story coherently. Instead, the command for the people to ascend the mountain after the shofar is blown (v. 13) is a fragment of a lost tradition that the Israelites did, in fact, go up the mountain to receive the revelation:

...כאמור הייתה זו התגלות לעיני כל העם, אך ניכרים הבדלי מסורת בשתי שאלות הקשורות כנראה זו לזו, ואלו הן: באיזה מקום עמד העם בשעת ההתגלות, ואם דיבר ה' אותה שעה אל העם במישרין או אל משה.

…It was a revelation for the whole people to see, but there are differences in tradition on two questions that are probably related to each other, namely: where the people stood at the time of the revelation, and whether God spoke directly to the people at that time or to Moses.

המסורת העיקרית קובעת שהעם עמד אותה שעה בתחתית ההר, והיא אף מדגישה מאוד את האיסור שנאסר על העם לעלות בהר. אבל נשאר גם שריד למסורת אחרת: "במשך היובל המה יעלו בהר."

The main tradition states that the people stood at the foot of the mountain at that time, and it even strongly emphasizes the prohibition against the people going up the mountain. But there is also a remnant of another tradition: “While the ram’s sounds a long blast, they will go up the mountain.”^[8]

Similarly, a common source critical approach, following the Documentary Hypothesis, is to argue that the blowing of the shofar before the revelation does not stem from the same source as the command to remain at the foot of the mountain until the ram’s horn sounds. Thus, in no source are the people to go up the mountain while YHWH is there.^[9] Yet, as the source critics themselves note, this leaves the J text choppy and does not take us much farther than Loewenstamm’s tradition fragment.

Distinguishing Between the Prohibitions

A way to read the text as a coherent unit presents itself once we understand that these verses do not merely echo or extend the restrictions found earlier (vv. 12–13). Instead, several details distinguish this new set of warnings from the original set:

1. Human vs. Divine Execution—The restriction before the revelation, when YHWH is not yet on the mountain, threatens human-facilitated execution, either by stoning or shooting. Here, YHWH is directly warning or threatening consequences for approaching him.
2. Certain Total vs. Possible Partial Fatalities—The original restriction required that any person touching the mountain be executed, but here the text vaguely says that many Israelites may die if they try to “break through” to YHWH.
3. Just the Priests—YHWH then adds a specific warning to the priests, who will apparently, unlike the people, be encountering YHWH on the mountain:

^{שמות יט:כב} וְגַם הַכֹּהֲנִים הַנִּגָּשִׁים אֶל יְ־הוָה יִתְקַדָּשׁוּ פֶּן יִפְרֹץ בָּהֶם יְ־הוָה.

^{Exod 19:22} The priests also, who come near YHWH, must stay pure, lest YHWH break out against them.

This distinction between priests and regular Israelites for this purpose is also new to this passage. Indeed, earlier (v. 10), all of the Israelites are commanded to sanctify themselves, since, ostensibly, they are all about to encounter the divine presence on the mountain.

These distinctions make sense against their narrative contexts: during the three days of the original restriction, the divine presence has not yet settled over the mountain. As a result, anyone approaching the mountain faces death by human means, as there is no immediate risk of “natural” death caused by the divine presence.

Once YHWH has descended upon the mountain, however, YHWH is not prohibiting the Israelites from ascending, but warning that many, but not all, would die if they sought to approach the divine. This warning is in reaction to their not coming up the mountain upon hearing the shofar sound. YHWH’s desire is for all to ascend, but those who are worthy will live, those who are not, shall perish.^[10]

But why is YHWH so negative about the Israelites’ possibility of surviving the encounter, and why hadn’t the Israelites already gone up the mountain as instructed? Indeed, this seems to be what Moses tries to explain.

The People Cannot Come Up to Mount Sinai

Moses responds to YHWH’s new command by explaining that the people actually cannot come up the mountain:

^{שמות יט:כג} וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל יְ־הוָה לֹא יוּכַל הָעָם לַעֲלֹת אֶל הַר סִינָי כִּי אַתָּה הַעֵדֹתָה בָּנוּ לֵאמֹר הַגְבֵּל אֶת הָהָר וְקִדַּשְׁתּוֹ.

^{Exod 19:23} But Moses said to YHWH, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You warned us saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain and sanctify it.’”

This verse has baffled many commentators. For example, Rabbi Saadia Gaon, as quoted by Abraham ibn Ezra in his long commentary (ad loc.) notes:

כי שנים רבות חשב בפסוק הזה ולא ידע טעמו.

For many years I pondered this verse and could not decipher its meaning.

Moses’ response is difficult for several reasons. First, why is Moses retelling YHWH His own prohibition? Second, YHWH did not say to sanctify the mountain but to sanctify the people. Third, this verse ignores the second half of the command, that the prohibition ends once the shofar is blown. How do we explain these discordances?

The key is the phrase לֹא יוּכַל “cannot.” The Hebrew root for “can” (י.כ.ל) denotes physical or technical inability, but also emotional incapacity. For instance, in Genesis, Judah reminds Joseph why they did not wish to bring Benjamin to Egypt:

^{בראשית מד:כב} וַנֹּאמֶר אֶל אֲדֹנִי לֹא יוּכַל הַנַּעַר לַעֲזֹב אֶת אָבִיו וְעָזַב אֶת אָבִיו וָמֵת.

^{Gen 44:22} We said to my lord, “The boy cannot leave his father; if he were to leave him, his father would die.”^[11]

Another example is when David “cannot” seek the Lord because he is afraid of the angel’s sword:

^{דברי הימים א כא:ל} וְלֹא יָכֹל דָּוִיד לָלֶכֶת לְפָנָיו לִדְרֹשׁ אֱלֹהִים כִּי נִבְעַת מִפְּנֵי חֶרֶב מַלְאַךְ יְ־הוָה.

^{1 Chron 21:30} And David could not go before him to seek God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of YHWH.

Similarly, Moses is suggesting that the people are emotionally unprepared to ascend because God’s three-day prohibition accompanied by severe warnings of death, made them too afraid to go up now, even though the shofar already sounded.

From this we can also understand why Moses alters God's original command: To the people, this mountain represents forbidden territory; it is the mountain — not them — that is holy and restricted. Moses defends the Israelites, empathizing with the frightened people.

YHWH seems to accept Moses’ explanation, and changes the terms yet again, this time including the priests with the people and asking only for Aaron to ascend:

^{שמות יט:כד} וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו יְ־הוָה לֶךְ רֵד וְעָלִיתָ אַתָּה וְאַהֲרֹן עִמָּךְ וְהַכֹּהֲנִים וְהָעָם אַל יֶהֶרְסוּ לַעֲלֹת אֶל יְ־הוָה פֶּן יִפְרָץ בָּם. ^יט:כה וַיֵּרֶד מֹשֶׁה אֶל הָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם.

^{Exod 19:24} So YHWH said to him, “Go down, and come back together with Aaron; but let not the priests or the people break through to come up to YHWH, lest He break out against them.” ^19:25 And Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

It would seem, therefore, that the people’s fear of going up brought about YHWH’s new warning not to break through to YHWH, this time telling the people not to come up at all. In addition to this fear, the possibility also exists that many of the people had not adequately sanctified themselves during the days of preparation, and thus would face a lethal result if they approached YHWH’s presence in their current state.

Malbim’s Peshat Reading

The earliest gloss suggesting Israel was meant to ascend the mountain can be traced back to the 19th-century commentator Malbim (Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Wisser, 1809–1879) who understood the text to mean the Israelites should have alighted once they heard the first shofar blast in order to witness the revelation. In answer to why they didn’t in fact go up, he too suggested that they were simply too afraid:

^{מלבים שמות יט:יג} התנה תנאי שזה יהיה רק בתחלה שלא הוכשרו עדיין לעלות בהר… שאם היו מתחזקים ולא היו מתיראים מפני האש ולא היו חרדים …ואז היה להם יובל וחרות לעלות בהר כמו שעלה אח״כ משה ואהרן ושבעים מזקני ישראל...

^{Malbim Exod 19:13} He set a condition that this would only be at the , when they were not yet prepared to ascend the mountain… If they had been strong and not been afraid… then they would have had a jubilee and freedom to ascend the mountain as Moses, Aaron, and the seventy elders of Israel did later...^[12]

In a gloss on an earlier verse, where the Israelites are told to prepare, Malbim explains what he sees as the original plan and why it failed:

^{מלבים שמות יט:ט} ...ובאמת מבואר בדברי חז״ל שאם היו זוכים לזה אז ולא היו מתיראים מן האש, היו כולם עולים בהר ה׳ והיו מקבלים כל התורה מפי הקב״ה בעצמו והיו למדין ולא שכחין.

^{Malbim Exod 19:9} ... And indeed, it is explained in the words of the sages that if they had merited this then and had not been afraid of the fire, all of them would have ascended the mountain of God and received the entire Torah from the Blessed Holy One Himself, and would have learned it and never forgotten it.

As a traditionalist, Malbim was eager to reconcile this reading with the rabbinic interpretation. He gives a nod to this by saying “it is explained in the words of the sages,” but offers no exact source for this claim; as far as I can tell, no such source exists. Instead, in a move of desperation, he offers an indirect reference found in the Mekhilta indicating that the Israelites longed for a face-to-face revelation.

ואמר במכילתא רבי אומר וכי מה אמרו ישראל לאמור למקום אמרו רצוננו לשמוע מפי מלכנו.

And it is said in the Mekhilta, “Rabbi says: “And what did Israel say? They said to God, ‘It is our desire to hear from the mouth of our King.’”

Following Malbim’s reading, I suggest that Exodus 19 can be understood as a narrative progression, in which the back and forth between Moses and YHWH explains why the Israelites did not come up the mountain as they were supposed to.

Neumann’s Psychological Reading: Israel’s Avoidance

Erich Neumann, a secular Jewish protégé of Carl Jung, who employed analytical psychology to examine the Mount Sinai event, read that the narrative in Exodus this way as well.^[14] He posits that the stages of the story, beginning with the potential for the people to enter the place of revelation and ending with the revocation of this plan, represent an understandable, psychological progression:

At first, they still believed that the people could enter the place of revelation [i.e. Mount Sinai] at a certain point in time... But in the end, Moses went alone. The people “trembled with fear,” as the mountain “trembled with fear”...

This rejection of direct revelation by the people, who were unable to cope with it, is a central phenomenon of Jewish existence, regardless of whether we see the text as original, as its psychological results attest, or whether we assume that its authors were aware of this central phenomenon, and under its guidance, edited it…^[15]

Neumann’s analysis tackles the core problem narratively, by highlighting the tension in the story between wanting to partake in the revelation yet finding it too overwhelming.^[16]

Initially, the days of restriction and preparation were necessary because inadequate preparation for holy manifestations could be deadly. Following this, the people's fear of direct revelation leads them to resist it, resulting in a warning against possible divine punishment (19:22), as they are not yet sufficiently prepared and such revelation could prove lethal. Ultimately unable to endure the revelation, the Israelites turn to Moses for mediation.^[17]

A Priestly Nation: The Theme of the Chapter

The narrative progression makes even more sense when we return to God’s first message at the mountain, namely, the promise that the people will be a nation of priests:

^{שמות יט:ד} אַתֶּם רְאִיתֶם אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי לְמִצְרָיִם וָאֶשָּׂא אֶתְכֶם עַל כַּנְפֵי נְשָׁרִים וָאָבִא אֶתְכֶם אֵלָי. ^יט:ה וְעַתָּה אִם שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ בְּקֹלִי וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת בְּרִיתִי וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל הָעַמִּים כִּי לִי כָּל הָאָרֶץ. ^יט:ו וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים וְגוֹי קָדוֹשׁ...

^{Exod 19:4} “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me. ^19:5 Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is Mine, ^19:6 but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…”

The original divine plan for the Mount Sinai revelation was to elevate the people who had just left Egypt as a nation of slaves to a nation of a priestly kingdom. By definition, the priesthood is meant to be closer to the divine than other people.^[18] Establishing this close bond was the reason God wanted all Israelites to witness the revelation.

Such an event necessitated three days of preparation and sanctification, similar to the purification rituals the priests performed to enter the tabernacle.^[19] Nevertheless, emerging from their recent enslavement in Egypt, the people falter at this crucial juncture, struggling to shed their slave mentality and rise to the stature of a priestly nation.

In loving memory of my beloved father Isaac Meir Hershkoviz Z"L
who passed away on the 5^th of Elul 5781.