After the thunder and the twelve-mile retreat, the people beg Moses to speak to them instead of God. And Moses answers with a line that still echoes. "Fear not; for the glory of the Lord is revealed to try you, whether His fear is before your faces, that ye may not sin" (Exodus 20:17, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan).
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan sharpens a paradox that the Hebrew already carries. Moses says fear not — and then gives the reason: so that you may have His fear before your faces. How can fear not be fear?
The distinction is the entire Jewish theology of yirah. There are two kinds of fear. One is pachad — terror, the animal flinching of a creature expecting to be crushed. The other is yirah — awe, the trembling of a soul that knows it stands in the presence of the Infinite. Moses tells Israel: do not feel pachad. Feel yirah. The difference is everything.
And notice what the Targum says the revelation was for: to try you. The thunder, the fire, the twelve-mile distance — all of it was a test. Not a test of courage. A test of whether Israel could absorb the experience and come away changed, carrying a fear that prevents future sin instead of a terror that prevents future encounter.
The takeaway: the right kind of fear is the beginning of freedom, because it keeps you from doing the things that would truly be worth being afraid of.