¹⁶ On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.^{(A) 17} Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Now all of Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.^{(B) 19} As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.^{(C) 20} When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

¹⁸ You have not come to something^[a] that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,^{(A) 19} and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.^{(B) 20} (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.”^{(C) 21} Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”)^{(D) 22} But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,^{(E) 23} and to the assembly^[b] of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,^{(F) 24} and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.^(G)

²⁵ See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!^{(H) 26} At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”^{(I) 27} This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.^{(J) 28} Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for indeed our God is a consuming fire.^(K)