V. 20.— For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart. They could not bear that which was commanded ; the fiery law was too broad for them. It is true that only the moral law, contained in the ten commandments, is here spoken of, but it was necessarily connected with the rest of the Jewish dispensation, the meats and drinks and carnal ordinances, else it would not have been a shadow of good things to come. However insufficient the blood of bulls and goats might be to take away sin, such sacrifices were necessary for the time then present to keep up the expectation of the sacrifice of Christ. To increase the terror and awfulness of the scene, and to make Israel feel their distance from God, “ who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who cannot look upon sin, but hateth all the workers of iniquity,” "if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it was to be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.”