Exodus 19:18 - Exposition

Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke . Literally, smoked, all of it. Kalisch suggests that "the dense clouds from which the thunders broke forth had the appearance of smoke." But the reason assigned—"because the Lord descended on it in fire," seems to imply real smoke; and. the same re-suits from the comparison of it to "the smoke of a furnace." The whole mount quaked greatly . Scarcely "through the vehemence of the thunder" (Kalisch), for thunder does not shake the earth, though it shakes the air—but rather by an actual earthquake. Compare Psalms 18:7 ; Matthew 27:51-54 ; Acts 4:31 ; Acts 16:26 .