The people hear and are afraid Anxiety taketh hold on the inhabitants of the land of the Philistines; The princes of Edom quake, Terror taketh hold on the mighty men of Moab, All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Let fear and dread fall upon them, by thy mighty arm, Let them become stiff as stone, Till thy people pass over, O Lord, Till the people which thou hast purchased pass over. Bring them in, plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, To the place of thy dwelling which thou thyself hast prepared, To the sanctuary which thy hands have built. Jehovah reigns for ever and ever.—Exod. xv. “This first victory, which ennobled Israel as a people, was destined to be the forerunner of a series of victories, till its greatest, that over all nations, shall be won. This first song of triumph has given the model to a number of similar compositions, all of which refer to it. “Israel was now made free. But this was scarcely accomplished when it was made also a holy nation, and on the fiftieth day after the departure from Egypt, God gave to our fathers that treasure which hallows them above every other people, the law upon mount Sinai. Yonder in the desert, in the midst of a sandy and naked region, rises a mountain, with two summits, of which the lower is called Horeb, the higher Sinai. Northward from them are two valleys, terminating in a plain, in which the people was encamped. In this impressive solitude, cut off from all other nations of the earth, surrounded with steep and pointed rocks, beneath a burning sky, amidst the thunders and the lightnings of Jehovah’s presence, they received the law. “Jehovah declared to Moses that Israel should be to him a kingdom of priests and a holy people.[30] For this purpose they were commanded to wash their garments and keep themselves holy to the third day, and it was forbidden that man or beast should ascend the mountain, or even touch it with his foot. The third day came. Early in the morning ‘there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether in a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount trembled greatly. And the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and grew louder and louder, and Moses spake, and the Lord answered him with a voice.’ Footnote 30: Exod. xix. 6.