Deuteronomy 33:2
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir to them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir to them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
American Standard Version (ASV)
And he said, Jehovah came from Sinai, And rose from Seir unto them; He shined forth from mount Paran, And he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
He said, The Lord came from Sinai, dawning on them from Seir; shining out from Mount Paran, coming from Meribath Kadesh: from his right hand went flames of fire: his wrath made waste the peoples.
Webster's Revision
And he said, the LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir to them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
World English Bible
He said, "Yahweh came from Sinai, And rose from Seir to them. He shone forth from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
English Revised Version (ERV)
And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, And rose from Seir unto them; He shined forth from mount Paran, And he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law unto them.
Definitions for Deuteronomy 33:2
Barnes's Deuteronomy 33:2 Bible Commentary
By "Seir" is to be understood the mountain-land of the Edomites, and by "mount Paran" the range which forms the northern boundary of the desert of Sinai (compare Genesis 14:6 note). Thus the verse forms a poetical description of the vast arena upon which the glorious manifestation of the Lord in the giving of the covenant took place.
With ten thousands of saints - Render, from amidst ten thousands of holy ones: literally from myriads of holiness, i. e., holy Angels (compare Zechariah 14:5). God is represented as leaving heaven where He dwells amidst the host of the Angels 1 Kings 22:19 and descending in majesty to earth Micah 1:3.
A fiery law - more literally as in the margin, with perhaps an allusion to the pillar of fire Exodus 13:21. The word is much disputed.
Wesley's Deuteronomy 33:2 Bible Commentary
33:2 The Lord came — Namely, to the Israelites, manifested himself graciously and gloriously among them.
From Sinai — Beginning at Sinai, where the first appearance of God was, and so going on with them to Seir and Paran.
And rose up — He appeared or shewed himself, as the sun doth when it riseth.
From Seir — From the mountain or land of Edom, to which place the Israelites came, Numbers 20:14, etc. and from thence God led them on towards the land of promise, and then gloriously appeared for them in subduing Sihon and Og before them. But because the land of Edom is sometimes taken more largely, and so reacheth even to the Red-sea, and therefore mount Sinai was near to it, and because Paran was also near Sinai, being the next station into which they came from the wilderness of Sinai: all this verse may belong to God's appearance in mount Sinai, where that glorious light which shone upon mount Sinai directly, did in all probability scatter its beams into adjacent parts, such as Seir and Paran were. And if so, this is only a poetical expression of the same thing in divers words, and God coming or rising or shining from or to or in Sinai and Seir and Paran note one and the same illustrious action of God appearing there with ten thousands of his saints or holy angels, and giving a fiery law to them.
Paran — A place where God eminently manifested his presence and goodness both in giving the people flesh which they desired, and in appointing the seventy elders and pouring forth his spirit upon them.
With ten thousands of saints — That is, with a great company of holy angels, Psalms 68:17, which attended upon him in this great and glorious work of giving the law, as may be gathered from Acts 7:53.
From his right hand — Which both wrote the law and gave it to men. An allusion to men who ordinarily write and give gifts with their right hand.
A fiery law — The law is called fiery, because it is of a fiery nature purging and searching and inflaming, to signify that fiery wrath which it inflicteth upon sinners for the violation of it, and principally because it was delivered out of the midst of the fire.