ויאמר ה' אל משה רד העד וגו' ויאמר משה לא יוכל וגו' תימה מה השיב לו משה להקב"ה וכי לא מצינו כמה מצות שיש בהן כמה אזהרות. ועוד על מה השיב לו הקב"ה אחרי כן לך רד וכו' ועלית. וי"ל הפשט דקרא לפי שלא התרה משה את ישראל על מצות הגבלה שהיא במיתה רק על מצות פרישה הזהירם כמו שתמצא למעלה לפיכך אמר לו הקב"ה לך העד בעם דיותר היה לך להזהירם על מצות הגבלה שהיא במיתה יותר מן המצות כולן ועל זה השיב לו לא יוכל העם לעלות כי אתה העדות בנו וגו' כלומר גם אני ואהרן בכלל ציווי ההגבלה וכיון שנהיה עמהם שם נתרה בהם ולא יעלו ועל זה השיב לו הקב"ה לך רד ותזהירם מעתה ועלית אתה וגו' כלומר לא תהיה עמהם בשעת מעשה ולא יהיה להם מי שיזהירם מיד וירד משה ויאמר אליהם מצות הגבלה: 'ויאמר ה' אל משה לך רד העד וגו, “the Lord said to Moses: “go on down and warn the people, etc.;” ויאמר משה אל ה' לא יוכל העם לעלות אל ההר, Moses said to the Lord: “the people cannot ascend the mountain;” ויאמר אליו ה' לך רד ועלית אתה ואהרן עמך, “the Lord said to him: “go down and you and Aaron with you will ascend towards the mountain.” G–d’s answer to Moses claiming that the people could not ascend the mountain (as they had been warned not to) is difficult to understand. Neither for that matter, was Moses’ answer. Do we not have numerous laws in the Torah which have been repeated several times? Furthermore, why did G–d tell Moses to descend and to subsequently ascend again? We need to understand the plain meaning of these verses as follows: Moses had warned the people not to ascend the mountain and violate the fenced off area, but he had not spelled out that to do so would result in the person doing so being executed. (Compare verse 15) G–d had spelled out the penalty for violation to him in verse 12, but he is not on record as having included this in his asking the people to prepare for the revelation. This is why G–d had to tell him to first descend and remedy this omission. [Moses, being who he was, had thought that his fencing off the area was sufficient. The idea that anyone would dare disobey had not occurred to him. Ed.] He was told that this warning not to breach the fence was a greater violation than the disobedience of many other commandments, which do not carry the death penalty. Moses’ reply that the people could not try and ascend the mountain was based on the assumption that seeing that both he and Aaron would be there, they would surely be able to prevent this. They too had been included in the warning not to try and ascend or even touch the mountain. G–d responded that not as he thought that he too could not ascend the mountain, he would be asked to do so, and even Aaron would be able to approach closer than the people. This is why he had to warn the people once more not to violate the prohibition on pain of death. Thereupon Moses immediately descended and carried out G–d’s command.