And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.
The sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire. Though it had such an appearance to the spectators in the plain, Moses sojourned near to it, during a prolonged stay on the mount, without being injured; but he went there in the character of mediator (cf. Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 10:11; Hebrews 10:24), and he might have been miraculously protected as well as sustained. In fact, it must have been by divine help he was emboldened to enter at all within the canopy of the cloud; because when he did not possess such aid, he shrunk from entering the thick darkness caused by the same cloud in the tabernacle (Exodus 40:35).