7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment, sin became alive 10 and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

'And God said to Aharon, 'Go to meet Moshe in the wilderness'': This is that which is written (Job 37:5), 'God thunders wonders with His voice' - what is it that he thunders? When the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the Torah at Sinai, He showed wonders of wonders to Israel. How is it? The Holy One, blessed be He would speak and the voice would go out and travel the whole world: Israel would hear the voice coming to them from the South and they would run to the South to meet the voice; and from the South, it would switch for them to the North, and they would all run to the North; and from the North, it would switch to the East, and they would run to the East; and from the East, it would switch to the West, and they would run to the West; and from the West, it would switch [to be] from the heavens, and they would suspend their eyes [to the heavens], and it would switch [to be] in the earth, and they would stare at the earth, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 4:36), 'From the Heavens did He make you hear His voice, to discipline you.' And Israel would say one to the other, 'And wisdom, from where can it be found' (Job 28:12). And Israel would say, from where is the Holy One, blessed be He, coming, from the East or from the South? As it is stated (Deuteronomy 33:2), 'The Lord came from Sinai, and shone from Seir (in the East) to them'; and it is written (Habakuk 3:3), 'And God will come from Teiman (in the South).' And it is stated (Exodus 20:15), 'And all the people saw the sounds (literally, voices)' - it is not written, 'sound,' here, but rather, 'sounds.' Rabbi Yochanan said, 'The voice would go out and divide into seventy voices for the seventy languages, so that all the nations would hear. And each and every nation would hear in the language of the nation and their souls would depart. But Israel would hear and they were not injured.' How did the voice go out? Rabbi Tanchuma said, 'It would come go with two faces; [one] would kill the idolaters who did not accept it, and [one] would give life to Israel that did accept it.'