Ver. 2. The Lord came from Sinai— Moses endeavours, in the first place, to make the Israelites sensible of that most signal benefit which God had bestowed upon them, in assuming them to be his peculiar people: as if he had said, "Israel is the favourite nation to whom God was pleased, with most awful solemnity, to declare his laws, and take them into special covenant with himself at mount Sinai;" which mountain, as it was celebrated for the most awful display of the Divine Majesty, and for the grand covenant there made, has here the first place. As fire was a symbol of the Divine Presence, its moving from one place to another before the Israelites in their journies, is obliquely compared to the sun's rising: he rose up; he shined forth. Seir and Paran, and the other places mentioned in Habakkuk 3:3 either denote some of the principal encampments of the Israelites in the wilderness; or if, as many learned men think, they are only different parts of the same ridge of mountains as Sinai, they may be considered only as an amplification of what went before. Houbigant, whom Durell follows, reads unto us, instead of unto them. The change of persons, concerning which we spoke in the preceding Chapter s, is very frequent in this prophetic ode.
He came with ten thousands of saints, &c.— Houbigant renders this, He came with ten thousands of his saints, who are at his right hand, and minister unto him. Durell renders it,
The Holy One came with multitudes; From his right hand issued streams unto them:
That is, says he, streams of light; God having been represented before as rising like the sun, then shining forth, and now issuing thunderings and lightnings from his right hand, as was the case at the delivery of the law. For his critical explanation of the Hebrew word, we refer to his note; which word, thus explained, he observes, will make this law answer exactly to part of the 4th verse of the song of Habakkuk above-mentioned. There were rays of light (diverging from a point, not unlike a horn) issuing out of his hand. According to the common interpretation of the passage, the sacred writer refers to the ministering angels who attended at the giving of the law, therefore called fiery, because it was given out of the midst of the appearance of fire. See the passages in the Margin of our Bibles, and Exodus 16:18. Deuteronomy 4:12; Deuteronomy 5:22; Deuteronomy 5:33.