Deuteronómio 4:36 Comentario: Ibn Ezra, Sforno, Or HaChaim & Haamek Davar

to discipline you It is for this reason that he made you hear his voice: so that you would revere Him (as it is written: “let God not speak to us, lest we die” [Exodus 20: 16]). What you saw frightened you; what you heard frightened you; but He continued to speak after making you hear his voice because he loved your fathers: Abraham, Yiṣḥaq, and Yaaqov.

ליסרך, to bring you to the level of prophecy on the occasion of your receiving the Torah, Your experience at that time paralleled the experience of the prophet Eliyahu at the same mountain in Kings I 19,11 when he first experienced a tremendously powerful wind, etc. He also, like you experienced the fire (Kings I 19,12), before being addressed by G’d.

מן השמים השמיעך את קולו ליסרך, "He made you hear His voice out of the heaven in order to discipline you, etc." The meaning of this verse is similar to what I have explained on Exodus 20,1. I have already referred to it on verse 12 in our chapter where Moses underlined that the people did not see a visual, image during the revelation at Mount Sinai. We mentioned that the people heard the first two of the Ten Commandments directly from G'd. This is what Moses meant when he said: "out of the heaven, etc." The meaning of the word ליסרך is "in order to remove the residual pollutants from you;" we have explained this concept already repeatedly. When Moses said ועל הארץ הראך את אשו, "He showed you His fire on the earth," he referred to the manner in which the Israelites heard the other eight of the Ten Commandments. He alluded to the people "seeing" those sounds in the form of fiery flames which had been "hewn" from G'd's words. I have explained already that Exodus 20,15 referred to this phenomenon with the verse: "and the whole nation observed the sounds, etc." Moses elaborated on this once more in verse 12 of our chapter which mentioned the absence of a visual image for the people to see at that time.