FOR YOU HAVE NOT COME TO A MOUNTAIN THAT MAY BE TOUCHED: Ou gar proseleluthate (2SRAI: proserchomai = drawn near) pselaphomeno (PPPNSD):

In this next section Hebrews 12:18-24, the author again draws a contrast between the Old Covenant given by God to Moses at Mt Sinai and the New Covenant of grace through the shed blood of the Messiah.

Come (4334) (proserchomai from prós = facing + érchomai = come) means literally to come facing toward and so to approach or come near. To come to visit or associate with. It describes the approach to or entry into a deity’s presence. In the Septuagint (LXX) proserchomai was the verb used to describe the approach of the priests to Jehovah for worship and to perform of their priestly (Levitical) functions. But here in Hebrews, under the New covenant, all seven uses of  proserchomai refer to believers possessing the privilege of access to God the Father through Christ the Great High Priest.

Here are the seven uses of this proserchomai in Hebrews...

Hebrews 4:16 (note) Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. (Comment: "Let us..." emphasizes that this privilege is always available to those under the New Covenant. Do we really comprehend and avail ourselves of the profundity of this privilege?)

Hebrews 7:25 (note) Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near (present tense = emphasizes continual activity) to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 10:1 (note) For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.

Hebrews 10:22 (note) let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 11:6 (note) And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes (drawn near) to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Hebrews 12:18 (note) For you have not come (drawn near) to  a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,

Hebrews 12:22 (note) But you have come (drawn near) to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels

Those Jewish hearers (as well as any modern day hearer who says for example he want to go to a Messianic Jewish congregation where they seek to keep the Law) who are tempted to return to the Old (conditional) Covenant of the Law should remember these terrifying circumstances attending the giving of the Law and should draw the clear spiritual lessons from them that this was not the way to life but to death and fearfulness. If the Law brings the person to the end of their efforts, it can however lead them to seek the life found in the New Covenant of grace, so in that sense the Law is good.

The scene was Mount Sinai, a literal, tangible mountain where the fire reached to heaven, the wind swirled as an angry tempest and thick clouds of darkness billowed up forming a backdrop for lightning and peals of thunder. This entire mountain was enveloped in a pall or veil that made everything seem indistinct, obscure, and nebulous. The writer of Hebrews is telling his readers that in contrast to this appropriately terrifying picture at Mt. Sinai, they who have become genuine possessors of life indeed by grace through faith in the New Covenant, have drawn near to the Heavenly City, Mt. Zion and to the throne of the living God and no longer needed to fear death's sting which the Law brings. Paul echoes this thought writing...

O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Cor 15:55-57)

When the writer describes this mountain as one “that can be touched” he is not saying that the Israelites had permission to approach the mountain and touch it. He is merely acknowledging that it was a material, earthly mountain that could be touched as opposed to the “heavenly” nature of the second mountain (see note Hebrews 11:22).

AND TO A BLAZING FIRE AND TO DARKNESS AND GLOOM AND WHIRLWIND: kai kekaumeno (RPPNSD) puri kai gnopho kai zopho kai thuelle:

Darkness (1105) (gnophos from néphos = a cloud) describes a thick dark cloud. It signifies half-darkness, gloom, nebulousness, as the darkness of evening or the gathering gloom of death. It is a darkness which does not entirely conceal color.  Gnophos is half-darkness, gloom, nebulousness; as the darkness of evening or the gathering gloom of death. It is a darkness which does not entirely conceal colour. Thus  dnophos the earlier and poetic form of gnophos, is used by Homer of water which appears dark against the underlying rock, or is tinged by mire.

Gloom (2217) (skotos from  skia = shadow) refers to physical darkness. Skotos is darkness that conceals as opposed to light.

Whirlwind (2366) (thuella form thúo = to rush on or along, speaking of wind or a storm or from thuein = to boil or foam) describes a storm characterized by strong and sudden winds, a tempest, a squall,  or a whirlwind. There are sudden and violent gusts of winds, often from varied directions.  It is a brief, violent, sudden, destructive blast, sometimes working upward and carrying objects into the upper air. Such is the description of Sinai which the writer to the Hebrews gives as a picture of the First Testament. He assures them that his readers, in drawing near to Messiah and His Cross, are not approaching such a place as Sinai.

1) Fire

For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. (Judges 13:20)

Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. (1Ki 18:38)

2) Darkness

Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud (KJV = Darkness) (1Ki8:12)

3) Tempest

The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet. (Nah 1:3)

4) The trumpet

Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. (Ex 19:18-19)

The trumpet is also associated with the end time when God will manifest himself

And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (Mt 24:51) (Comment: At the end of the Great Tribulation)

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (1Cor 15:51-52)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. (1 Th 4:16)

The picture the writer draws is one that strikes terror into the heart. The point of his description of Mt Sinai and the giving of the law is that the Old Covenant aroused unbearable fear. The sight of the burning mountain and the ever-increasing blare of a trumpet, the darkness, storm and fearful threats directed even toward dumb beasts, created such fear in the people that they begged Moses to plead with God for relief. Even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning (Exodus 20:20)

AND TO THE BLAST OF A TRUMPET AND THE SOUND OF WORDS WHICH [SOUND WAS SUCH THAT] THOSE WHO HEARD BEGGED THAT NO FURTHER WORD SHOULD BE SPOKEN TO THEM: kai salpiggos echo kai phone rhematon, es oi akousantes (AAPMPN) paretesanto (3PAMI) me prostethenai (APN) autois logon kai salpiggos echo:

Blast (2279) (echos) is a sound and can also mean a loud or confused noise ("echo") or a roar.

Trumpet (4536) (salpigx) is a musical instrument which today would be the equivalent of a brass musical instrument with a flared bell and a bright, penetrating tone. The Jewish people were familiar with trumpets, because trumpets were used to declare war, to announce special times and seasons, and to gather the people for a journey (Nu 10). In the Roman Empire, trumpets were used to announce the arrival of a great person. When God gave the Law to Israel, the event was preceded by a trumpet blast

Exodus 19:13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the ram's horn (Lxx = salpigx) sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.

Words (4487) (rhema from verb rheo = to speak - to say, speak or utter definite words) refers to the spoken word, especially a word as uttered by a living voice. Laleo is another word translated speak but it refers only to uttering a sound whereas rheo refers to uttering a definite intelligible word. Rhema refers to any sound produced by the voice which has a definite meaning. It focuses upon the content of the communication. For example in Luke we read...

 Begged (3868)  (paraiteomai from pará = aside and in this word gives a nuance of aversion or repudiation + aitéo = ask, beg) is literally to ask along side. To seek to turn aside by asking. As in Mark 15:6, this verb can mean to beg or request (a prisoner to be freed on the occasion of the Passover). In Luke 14:18, it conveys the sense of to beg off or of wanting to be excused from a positive response, in this verse one excusing himself for not accepting a wedding invitation. Finally, in the pastoral epistles (1,2 Timothy, Titus - see below), the meaning is to decline, refuse,  to refuse to pay attention to, to shun, to avoid, to reject. In secular Greek a wrestler was declared the victor when his opponents declined to engage him upon seeing his unclothed physique.

FOR THEY COULD NOT BEAR THE COMMAND "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN IT WILL BE STONED: ouk epheron (3PIAI) gar to diastellomenon, (PPPNSA) Kan therion thige (3SAAS) tou orous, lithobolethesetai; (3SFPI):

The command (1291) (diastellomai from diá = denoting transition, + stéllo = send) means to state with force and/or authority what others must do. The present tense presents the command as ringing constantly in their ears.

The command that nothing touch the mountain indicates the holiness and separateness of the mountain. Killing by stoning was prescribed so that those taking part in it would not need to touch the mountain themselves. They knew that if it meant death to a dumb, uncomprehending animal, how much more surely would it mean death to those who understood the warning.

AND SO TERRIBLE WAS THE SIGHT, [THAT] MOSES SAID: kai outo phoberon en (3SISA) to phantazomenon (PPPNSN) Mouses eipen (3SAAI):

Terrible (5398) (phoberos from phobos = fear from phébomai  = flee from) means frightful, formidable: fearful, dreadful, terrible, horrifying.

Phoberos was used also in Hebrews 10...

Hebrews 10:27 but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries....10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Phoberos gives a further indication of the awesomeness of it all. The words quoted are not found in the Sinai narrative but do occur at the time of the golden calf

For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, but the LORD listened to me that time also. (Dt 9:19).

The picture is of an awful and overpowering occasion, one that affected all the people and terrified even Moses, the man of God the one with whom God would speak “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend”. (Ex 33:11)

I AM FULL OF FEAR AND TREMBLING:Ekphobos eimi (1SPAI) kai entromos:

Luke describes a different event but same reaction by Moses

'I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS, THE GOD OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC AND JACOB.' And Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look. (Acts 7:32)