Page 301 of 384
297 ‘All that Yahweh hath spoken we will do.' And Moses brought the people's words unto Yahweh." Having received this acceptance, “Yahweh said unto Moses: Behold, I shall be coming unto thee in a thick cloud, enabling the people to hear when I speak with thee, so that in thee too they shall have faith." And the Lord ordered Moses to have the people consecrate themselves and be ready for three days hence, informing them that "on the third day shall Yahweh come down upon Mount Sinai, in full sight of all the people." The landing, Yahweh indicated to Moses, would create a danger for anyone coming too near. "Thou shall set bounds round about" the Mount, Moses was told, to keep the people at a distance, telling them to dare not try to go up or even touch the Mount's edge, "for whosoever toucheth it shall surely be put to death." As these instructions were followed, “it was on the third day, when it was morning," that the promised Landing of Yahweh upon the Mount of Elohim began. It was a fiery descent and a noisy one: "There were thundering sounds and flashes of lightning, and a dense cloud [was] upon the Mount, and a Shofar sound, exceedingly strong; and all the people in the encampment were terrified." As the descent of the Lord Yahweh began, "Moses brought forth the people from the encampment toward the Elohim, and they stationed themselves at the foot of the Mount," at the boundary that Moses had marked out all around the Mount. Yahweh And Mount Sinai was completely engulfed by smoke, for Yahweh had descended upon it in a fire. And the smoke thereof rose up like that of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And the sound of the Shofar continued to wax louder; As Moses spoke, the Elohim answered him in a loud voice. (The term Shofar associated in this text with the sounds emanating from the Mount is usually translated "horn." Lit- erally, however, it means "Amplifier"—a device, we believe, The Greatest Theophany