V. 18.— For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness, and tempest.
On the third month after leaving Egypt Israel came to mount Sinai, “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.” Exodus 19:17. On that occasion God delivered the ten commandments in the hearing of all Israel, assuring them of His peculiar favor and protection if they obeyed His voice. Exodus 19:5-6. Thus they came to a mount that might be touched, a material mountain, which burned with fire, and to blackness and tempest. Hence it is called a fiery law, Deuteronomy 33:2, and its being given was accompanied with everything calculated to inspire terror and apprehension.
The blackness and darkness and tempest intimated the obscurity of the dispensation , under which the Jewish lawgiver wore a vail. 2 Corinthians 3:13.