Exodus 19:21 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The Lord said unto Moses, Go down, &c.— When Moses was advanced upon the mountain, the Lord, to shew the care he had for the people, and his desire to preserve them from destruction, orders Moses to go down again, and charge the people (whose curiosity, very likely, when the first awful impressions of fear were removed, might prompt them to advance beyond the bounds prescribed, Exodus 19:12.—to charge them not to advance. The original word signifies to conjure, or to adjure the people, by attesting to them their danger: and the meaning is, go down, testify to the people their danger; and so conjure them by all means to abstain from breaking through their bounds, to gaze upon the Lord, and thereby incur the penalty and destruction threatened (Exodus 19:12-13.) as the sure consequence. Houbigant renders what we have translated charge, etiam atque etiam contestare; adjure them again and again. The verse would read better, if rendered thus; go down and strictly adjure the people, lest they break through their bounds, to gaze upon Jehovah, and many of them perish.