Hebrews 12:18 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For, &c. As if he had said, Take heed of apostatizing from Christianity to Judaism again, because of the great privileges you enjoy by the gospel above what your fathers enjoyed by the law: which privileges contain a strong reason why you should attend to these exhortations and cautions; ye Who are proselyted to Christianity; are not come unto the mount that might Or could; be touched That is, of an earthly, material, or tangible nature; but which the people were prohibited to approach, and much more to touch. And that burned with fire Unto the midst of heaven, (Deuteronomy 4:11,) to show that God is a consuming fire to the impenitent; and to blackness and darkness An emblem of the obscurity of the Mosaic dispensation; and to tempest Josephus tells us, ( Antiq., lib. 3. c. 5,) that at the giving of the law strong winds came down, and manifested the presence of God. “Perhaps,” says Macknight, “this prefigured what happened when the new law, the gospel, was given. For, previous to the descent of the Holy Ghost, there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind: and the sound of a trumpet Formed, without doubt, by the ministry of angels, and which at length waxed exceeding loud, (Exodus 19:18-19,) preparatory to the voice of words That is, the ten commandments, written afterward on the two tables of stone. For (all other noises, as of thunder, the trumpet, &c., ceasing) God caused a loud voice, speaking those ten commandments articulately in their own language, to be heard by the whole congregation, men, women, and children, in the station wherein they were placed at the foot of the mount; and this voice was so great and terrible that the people were not able to bear it: for although they were terrified with the dreadful appearances on the mount, yet was it this speaking of God that utterly overwhelmed them. See Deuteronomy 5:22. Which they that heard Namely, the whole assembly or congregation, strongly impressed with the holiness and power of their Lawgiver and Judge, and being exceedingly terrified; entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more Or that the word or speaking of God to them should not be continued. The verb παρητησαντο, here rendered entreated, is twice translated to refuse, Hebrews 12:25. The meaning is, they deprecated the hearing of the word in that manner any more, which they did doubtless by their officers and elders, who both themselves being terrified, and observing the dread of the whole congregation, made request for themselves and the rest to Moses; and because they did it with a good intention, out of reverence for the majesty of God, without any design of declining obedience, it was accepted.