In this chapter we have an account of the coming of the children of Israel to Mount Sinai, Ex 19:1, of the covenant made with them there, the proposal on the part of God, and their acceptance of it, Ex 19:3, the previous notice God gave three days before of his appearance on the mount, the orders for their preparation to meet him, and the execution of them, Ex 19:9, the awful and tremendous appearance of God upon the mount, Ex 19:6 and the strict charge given, that neither people nor priests should come near and gaze, only Moses and Aaron with him were to come up, bounds being set to prevent the rest, Ex 19:21, and the chapter is closed with observing, that Moses went down from the mount, and delivered to the people what the Lord spoke to and by him, Ex 19:25.
Ver. 1. 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 calls it Synan, which he says Moses occupied, and Strabo , Sinnan. Hither they came either on the same day they came from Rephidim; which, according to Bunting , 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 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, Ex 19:3, on the third day Moses gathered the elders together, Ex 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.
E Trogo, l. 36. c. 2. Geograph. l. 16. p. 520. Travels, p. 82. Epist. Fabiolae de 42 mansion. fol. 15. c. 1. tom.