The phrase "and I brought you to Me" refers to the moment God gathered Israel before Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. But Rabbi Akiva added a detail to this scene that transforms it from a simple gathering into one of the most physically dramatic events in all of Jewish tradition.
According to Rabbi Akiva, when God spoke each of the Ten Commandments, the sheer force of the divine voice caused the entire nation of Israel to recoil backward — not a few steps, but twelve mil. A mil is roughly a kilometer, so the people were hurled back approximately twelve kilometers by the power of God's speech. Then, after each pronouncement, they gathered their courage and returned those same twelve mil back to the foot of the mountain.
Do the math: twelve mil backward and twelve mil forward equals twenty-four mil of travel for each single commandment. Multiply that by ten pronouncements, and the people of Israel traveled approximately 240 mil — nearly 240 kilometers — during the revelation at Sinai, all while standing in one place. The ground itself became a kind of treadmill of divine encounter.
The Mekhilta then notes that the verse contains a second promise beyond Sinai. "And I will bring you" — this points forward to the Temple in Jerusalem. God's plan had two destinations: first Sinai for the Torah, then the Temple for His permanent dwelling among His people. The journey from revelation to habitation was always the divine itinerary.