Deu 4:36 | KD | STEP | But the Lord had spoken to Israel chiefly down from heaven (cf. [22]), and that out of the great fire, in which He had come down upon Sinai, to chastise it. יסּר does not mean “to instruct the people with regard to His truth and sovereignty,” as Schultz thinks, but “to take them under holy discipline” ( Knobel ), to inspire them with a salutary fear of the holiness of His ways and of His judgments by the awful phenomena which accompanied His descent, and shadowed forth the sublime and holy majesty of His nature.

‏ Deuteronomy 4:36

But the Lord had spoken to Israel chiefly down from heaven (cf. Exo 20:19 [22]), and that out of the great fire, in which He had come down upon Sinai, to chastise it. יסּר does not mean “to instruct the people with regard to His truth and sovereignty,” as Schultz thinks, but “to take them under holy discipline” (Knobel), to inspire them with a salutary fear of the holiness of His ways and of His judgments by the awful phenomena which accompanied His descent, and shadowed forth the sublime and holy majesty of His nature.