¹⁸ Now when all the people saw ^(A)the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid^[a] and trembled, and they stood far off

¹⁶ On the morning of the ^(A)third day there were ^(B)thunders and lightnings and ^(C)a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud ^(D)trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp ^(E)trembled. ¹⁷ Then ^(F)Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Now ^(G)Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and ^(H)the whole mountain trembled greatly.

A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken

¹⁸ For you have not come to ^(A)what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest ¹⁹ and ^(B)the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words ^(C)made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

^23 (A)“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away?