Exoduschapter 19
25 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
Exodus is given as the work of Moses, who had stood alone at this mountain at the burning bush and now returns with a nation. Its first hearers knew the treaties great kings made with lesser peoples, in which the king recited what he had done before he named any terms. The chapter is the threshold of the law, and from here to the end of the book Israel stays at the mountain. Listen for the offer God makes before any command. Listen also for the distance he keeps, and for the fire and the fence that belong together.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, the nation that was formed at this mountain
- What
- Exodus 19 is the account of Israel's arrival at Sinai, the covenant offer made there, and the three days of preparation before the LORD came down on the mountain.
- Where
- The Wilderness of Sinai, with Israel camped in front of the mountain; the mountain is unlocated, and Jebel Musa in the south of the peninsula is the traditional site among several proposed.
- When
- The third month after Israel left Egypt, and the exodus itself is dated to the fifteenth century BC or to the thirteenth century BC by the two main datings, both held, with Exodus 12:40 to 41 and 1 Kings 6:1 bearing on the question.
- Why
- It sets out what Israel was chosen to be and teaches the holiness of God before a single commandment is spoken.
Historical context
The chapter is the LORD's speech to Moses and Moses' carrying of it down to the elders and the people.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
It is dated in the text to the third month after the going out, on the same day of the month. The early dating puts it about 1446 BC from the four hundred and eighty years of 1 Kings 6:1 read literally, while Kenneth Kitchen and James Hoffmeier date the exodus to the thirteenth century from the store cities of Exodus 1:11, and the chapter names no Pharaoh and no year.
The place is the Wilderness of Sinai in front of the mountain, and which peak that is remains disputed, with the traditional Jebel Musa in the south of the peninsula, Jebel Sin Bishar in the west held by Menashe Har-El, Har Karkom in the Negev held by Emmanuel Anati and Jabal al-Lawz in Arabia each having its defenders, so the site marks the mountain as uncertain.
The occasion is the offer of a covenant and the three days of preparation for the day it was made.
A first hearer knew that washing and abstaining before approaching a god was the universal practice of that world, and what stands out here is that the whole nation prepares. He knew why no hand was to touch a man who broke through the boundary, since whatever had trespassed on holiness was itself dangerous to handle, so the offender was stoned or shot from a distance. He knew the ram's horn as the instrument that summoned an assembly and announced the presence of a king. He also knew the shape of the words the LORD speaks first, which recite what the great king has already done before any term is stated, and Meredith Kline reads that shape against the Hittite treaties between a great king and his vassal.
The offer itself is that Israel will be a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, which puts the whole people in the place of the go-between for the world.
Significance
A people who three months earlier had been state property were asked to consent to a covenant, and they answered with one voice that they would do everything the LORD had spoken.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The terror at the foot of the mountain was part of the lesson. The God who had carried them was not tame, and coming near him was going to need a way made for it.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The day this chapter describes has a feast of its own. This site's own note on Acts 2 records that Jewish tradition keeps Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Sinai. It cites the tractate Pesachim for the wording that it is the day on which the Torah was given. The same note records that the synagogue reads the book of Ruth at that feast by long custom. This site's table of the festival readings says the same of Ruth, and gives the reason usually offered, which joins the harvest the book is set in to Ruth coming under the covenant. A Christian reader knows the Greek name of the feast from the second chapter of Acts, which is Pentecost.
How it is read
The corpus keeps almost no English text for this chapter. Rashi comments at twenty-three places in it, and all but one of those stand by reference alone, because Sefaria reports no licence for the version held (Rashi on Exodus 19:4:1, 19:5:1, 19:16:1 and 19:18:1). The single kept note is at verse 10, in the Metsudah translation of 2009, where Rashi turns the verse on what the people had just said (Rashi on Exodus 19:10:1). Ibn Ezra comments at verse 7 and stands by reference as well. Chapters 3 and 8 of this book carry no kept text at all, and this chapter carries a single line of it, so on these three the reader is sent out to the links.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis take up the coming to Sinai at Avot DeRabbi Natan 1:1 and Aggadat Bereshit 17:2. On the eagles' wings they taught in Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:4. On the kingdom of priests they taught at Avot DeRabbi Natan 15:3 and Aggadat Bereshit 80:1. On the bounds set about the mountain they taught at Bava Kamma 54b:6 and 54b:8, and on the three days of preparation at Beitzah 5b:3. On the thunder and the trumpet they taught at Berakhot 6b:30 and Arakhin 11a:20, and on the mountain held over Israel at Avodah Zarah 2b:15.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 19:10:1, the Rashi Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 (CC-BY); and Rashi on Exodus 19:4:1, 19:5:1, 19:16:1 and 19:18:1 by ref alone; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 19:7:1, cited by ref alone under the corpus licence rule; This site's Hebraic note on Acts 2, src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts, for Shavuot kept as the day the Torah was given, and src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the festival reading of Ruth at Shavuot; The Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 54b:6 and 54b:8, Beitzah 5b:3, Berakhot 6b:30, Arakhin 11a:20 and Avodah Zarah 2b:15, cited by ref; The Midrash, Avot DeRabbi Natan 1:1 and 15:3, Aggadat Bereshit 17:2 and 80:1, and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:4, cited by ref.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Kingdom of Priests, a Holy Nation
Exodus 19:1-2
Israel reaches the mountain in the third month after leaving Egypt, and verse 2 traces the last stage from Rephidim, where the rock was struck and Amalek was fought. Exodus 3:12 had given Moses a sign he could only check after the errand was done, that ye shall serve God upon this mountain, and this is where it comes due. The mountain is called Horeb at 3:1 and again at 17:6, and it is Sinai from this verse onward.
Exodus 19:1
“In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt,.... Which was the month Sivan, and answers to part of May and part of June: the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai; which had its name from the mountain situated in it, and that from the bushes which grew upon it. Justin (z) calls it Synan, which he says Moses occupied, and Strabo (a), Sinnan.”
Israel camped there in front of the mountain: The verb for camped is singular in Hebrew, as if Israel camped in front of the mountain as one man with one heart. Albert Barnes sets the camp on the plain of Er Rahah below Ras Safsafeh, one candidate for Mount Sinai among several. Its location is uncertain.
Exodus 19:2
“For they were departed from Rephidim,.... After they had fought with Amalek, and came to the western part of the mount to Horeb, where the rock was smitten for them; and they were come from that now, and encamped at Sinai, after Jethro had paid a visit to Moses: and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in this wilderness; that is, of Sinai, as in the preceding verse: and there Israel encamped before the mount; Mount Sinai, from whence the desert or wilderness was called.”
Exodus 19:3-4
The covenant opens with history rather than with law, and the first thing God says at Sinai is what he has already done. Eagles' wings is the figure, and Deuteronomy 32:11 works it out at length, the eagle stirring up her nest and fluttering over her young and bearing them on her wings. The verse names the destination as God himself, brought you unto myself, and the land goes unmentioned.
Exodus 19:3
“Moses went up unto God - This seems to imply that the voice was heard by Moses as he was ascending the mount. House of Jacob - This expression does not occur elsewhere in the Pentateuch. It has a special fitness here, referring doubtless to the special promises made to the Patriarch.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 19:3
“Now when I go up eagerly into the mount—or, to use a truer expression, when I both eagerly long and at the same time am afraid (the one through my hope and the other through my weakness), to enter within the cloud and hold converse with God, for so God commands: If any be an Aaron, let him go up with me, and let him stand near, being ready, if it must be so, to remain outside the cloud.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · THEOLOGICAL ORATION 2:2patristic
The Hebrew nesher is the great bird of prey, and Adam Clarke reports James Bruce's argument that it names a bird the Arabs called rachama for its care of its young. You have seen for yourselves grounds the LORD's covenant on what the people saw done to Egypt, and the same words open the law of the altar at 20:22. Israel is the witness.
Exodus 19:4
“How I bare you on eagles’ wings - Mr. Bruce contends that the word נשר nesher does not mean the bird we term eagle; but a bird which the Arabs, from its kind and merciful disposition, call rachama, which is noted for its care of its young, and its carrying them upon its back. See his Travels, vol. vii., pl.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 19:4
“They were brought not only into a state of liberty and honour, but into covenant and communion with God. This, this was the glory of their deliverance, as it is of ours by Christ, that he died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Peculiar treasure occurs here for the first time in Scripture. The Hebrew behind it, segullah, is used of a personal hoard a king keeps apart from the public treasury, so the word carries private ownership rather than rank. The sentence then widens where a reader expects it to narrow, for all the earth is mine, which sets the choice of one nation inside a claim on every nation.
Exodus 19:5
“The reasonableness of this demand is, long after, pleaded with them, that in the day he brought them out of the land of Egypt this was the condition of the covenant, Obey my voice ( Jer. vii. 23 ); and this he is said to protest earnestly to them, Jer. xi. Only obey indeed, not in profession and promise only, not in pretence, but in sincerity.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 19:5
“A peculiar treasure - A costly possession acquired with exertion, and carefully guarded. The special relation in which Israel stands, taken out of the pagan world and consecrated to God, as His slaves, subjects, and children, determines their privileges, and is the foundation of their duties. The same principle applies even in a stronger sense to the Church. See Act 20:28; 1Co 6:20; 1Pe 2:9. All the earth is mine - It was a point of great practical importance, to impress upon the Jews that their God was no mere national Deity. Compare Deu 10:14; Psa 24:1.”
Kingdom of priests and an holy nation both occur here for the first time in Scripture, and both are said of the whole people at a point where Israel has no priesthood at all. 1 Peter 2:9 gathers the same phrases and lays them on the church, turning kingdom of priests into a royal priesthood and keeping an holy nation word for word. Revelation 1:6 and 5:10 use the figure again of those redeemed to God.
Exodus 19:6
“How indeed but in his body did Christ expiate the sins of the people? In what did he suffer, save in his body—even as we said: "Christ having suffered in the flesh"? In what is he a priest, save in that which he took unto himself the vocation of a priestly nation?”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.11.86patristic
Cross references
Exodus 19:6
- Quoted in1 Peter 2:9“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
'A royal priesthood, an holy nation' (church as new Israel, w/ Isa 43:20-21)
Connections1 Peter 2:9
Exodus 19:7-8
Moses lays the words before the elders and the answer comes back from the whole assembly at once, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. The same promise is given twice more in chapter 24, at 24:3 and again at 24:7, where they add and be obedient. Chapter 32 falls between that promise and the building of the tabernacle, and the text sets the two beside each other without comment.
Exodus 19:7
“The elders of the people - The head of each tribe, and the chief of each family, by whose ministry this gracious purpose of God was speedily communicated to the whole camp.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
So Moses brought their words back to the LORD: Moses carries the answer up the mountain, and Adam Clarke reads the exchange as a covenant now made, with both parties bound to each other. Matthew Henry sees in the double errand the work of Christ as mediator. He brings God's word down and the people's offering up.
Exodus 19:8
“And all the people answered, etc. - The people, having such gracious advantages laid before them, most cheerfully consented to take God for their portion; as he had graciously promised to take them for his people. Thus a covenant was made, the parties being mutually bound to each other. Moses returned the words - When the people had on their part consented to the covenant, Moses appears to have gone immediately up to the mountain and related to God the success of his mission; for he was now on the mount, as appears from Exo 19:14.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 19:8
“Thus Christ, the Mediator between us and God, as a prophet reveals God's will to us, his precepts and promises, and then as a priest offers up to God our spiritual sacrifices, not only of prayer and praise, but of devout affections and pious resolutions, the work of his own Spirit in us. Thus he is that blessed days-man who lays his hand upon us both.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Three Days to Be Made Ready
The cloud that led them out of Egypt at 13:21 settles on the mountain, and God gives a reason for the thickness of it. The people are to hear him speaking with Moses so that they will believe Moses afterward, which makes the appearing a matter of credentials as much as of glory. 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 looks back on that cloud and the sea together and calls them a baptism unto Moses.
Exodus 19:9
“The people then beheld the pillar of cloud, and it spoke to Moses. But who was the speaker? Obviously the pillar of cloud, which before appeared to the fathers in a corporeal form. And I have already shown that this was not directly and visibly the almighty God as such but the One whom we name as the Word of God, the Christ who was seen for the sake of the multitude of Moses and the people in a pillar of cloud, because it was not possible for them to see him like their fathers in human shape.”
Eusebius of Caesarea · written before 339 · PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 5.14.241patristic
Exodus 19:10-11
Two days of preparation are ordered before God comes down, and the outward sign of it is washed clothing. Sanctify first occurs in Scripture at 13:2, of the firstborn spared in Egypt, and here it reaches a whole nation that has neither priesthood nor tabernacle yet. The third day is fixed in advance, so the people know the hour of the appearing and can count toward it.
Exodus 19:10
“However, even the people had to be purified two or three days beforehand, so as to come clean to the sacrifice, as we read in the Old Testament. They even used to wash their clothes. If such regard was paid in what was only the figure, how much ought it to be shown in the reality! Learn then, priest and Levite, what it means to wash your clothes. You must have a pure body wherewith to offer up the sacraments.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Duties of the Clergy 1.50.258patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 19:10
“Sanctify them - See the meaning of this term, Exo 13:2. Let them wash their clothes - And consequently bathe their bodies; for, according to the testimony of the Jews, these always went together. It was necessary that, as they were about to appear in the presence of God, every thing should be clean and pure about them; that they might be admonished by this of the necessity of inward purity, of which the outward washing was the emblem.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 19:10
“Sanctify the people - As Job before sent and sanctified his sons, Job i, 5. Sanctify them, that is, call them off from their worldly business, and call them to religious exercises, meditation and prayer, that they may receive the law from God's mouth with reverence and devotion.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
in the sight of all the people: makes the descent public, and Deuteronomy 4:12 recalls that the nation heard the voice and saw no form. Origen reads every third day as a day of mysteries. He sets this one beside the third day of the Lord's resurrection.
Exodus 19:11
“Note, When we are to attend upon God in solemn ordinances it concerns us to sanctify ourselves, and to get ready beforehand. Wandering thoughts must be gathered in, impure affections abandoned, disquieting passions suppressed, nay, and all cares about secular business, for the present, dismissed and laid by, that our hearts may be engaged to approach unto God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A line is drawn around the mountain and the penalty for crossing it is death, which is the first thing done at Sinai before a single commandment is spoken. Hebrews 12:18-24 takes this scene as its own picture of the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, and sets mount Sion beside it. The writer of Hebrews quotes the fear of this chapter and answers it with a second mountain rather than by softening the first.
Exodus 19:12
“Thou shalt set bounds - Whether this was a line marked out on the ground, beyond which they were not to go, or whether a fence was actually made to keep them off, we cannot tell; or whether this fence was made all round the mountain, or only at that part to which one wing of the camp extended, is not evident. This verse strictly forbids the people from coming near and touching Mount Sinai, which was burning with Fire.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Trumpet occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and the first thing it sounds is a summons to come up to the mountain the people have just been forbidden to touch. The same instrument marks the feast at Leviticus 23:24, brings down Jericho in Joshua 6, and stands at the last trump in 1 Corinthians 15:52. The verse also puts the offender out of reach, since no hand is to touch him and he is stoned or shot through from a distance.
Exodus 19:13
“But if any is an evil and savage beast and altogether incapable of taking in the subject matter of contemplation and theology, let him not hurtfully and malignantly lurk in his den among the woods, to catch hold of some dogma or saying by a sudden spring and to tear sound doctrine to pieces by his misrepresentations. But let him stand yet afar off and withdraw from the mount, or he shall be stoned and crushed and shall perish miserably in his wickedness.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · THEOLOGICAL ORATION 2:2patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 19:13
“Touch it - Rather “touch him.” The person who had touched the mount was not to be touched, since the contact would be pollution.”
Moses carries out the order and the narrator reports it in the words of the command, sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. Verse 15 adds a third instruction that the chapter has not recorded God giving, come not at your wives, and it stands as Moses' own word to the people. Paul writes of a husband and wife consenting to a season apart for prayer at 1 Corinthians 7:5, and the two passages are often read together.
Exodus 19:14
“And Moses went down from the mount unto the people,.... The same day that he went up, the fourth day of the month: and sanctified the people; instructed them and ordered them what they should do for their sanctification, in order to their hearing the law from the mouth of the Lord: and they washed their clothes; as the Lord had directed Moses to enjoin them, and as he had commanded them; see Gill on Exo 19:10.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 19:14
“It becomes us to appear in clean clothes when we wait upon great men; so clean hearts are required in our attendance on the great God, who sees them as plainly as men see our clothes. This is absolutely necessary to our acceptably worshipping God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)Puritan
Thunder, Smoke, and a Trembling Mountain
Exodus 19:16-17
Everything promised for the third day arrives at once, thunders, lightnings, a thick cloud and a trumpet loud enough that the whole camp trembled. Moses then brings the people out of the camp to meet with God, so the trembling and the approach happen in the same hour. They stand at the nether part of the mount, inside the line drawn at verse 12 and as near as that line allows.
Exodus 19:16
“The third day, however, is always applied to mysteries. For when the people had departed from Egypt, they offer sacrifice to God on the third day and are purified on the third day. And the third day is the day of the Lord's resurrection. Many other mysteries also are anticipated in this day.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8:4patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 19:16
“These have natural causes; but the scripture directs us in a particular manner to take notice of the power of God, and his terror in them. Thunder is the voice of God, and lightning the fire of God, proper to engage both the learning senses of seeing and hearing.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
they stood at the foot of the mountain: Albert Barnes pictures the camp spread across the plain before the mountain, with room from one end of it to the other for the whole host. Deuteronomy 9:10 and 18:16 remember this gathering at the foot of the mountain as the day Israel assembled before God. Moses leads them out.
Exodus 19:17
“Out of the camp - The encampment must have extended far and wide over the plain in front of the mountain. From one entrance of the plain to the other there is space for the whole host of the Israelites.”
The mountain smokes and quakes, and the reason the verse gives is that the LORD descended upon it in fire. Genesis 19:28 used the same figure of the smoke over Sodom going up as the smoke of a furnace, so Sinai is described in the language of a judgment the reader of the Torah has already met. Then the trumpet grows louder, Moses speaks, and God answered him by a voice, which is the first exchange the people hear rather than only watch.
Exodus 19:18
“The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai. The Shechinah, or glory of the Lord, appeared in the sight of all the people; he shined forth from mount Paran with ten thousand of his saints, attended with a multitude of the holy angels. Hence the law is said to be given by the disposition of angels, Acts vii, 53.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Exodus 19:19
“But when she [the bride] has become worthy to have it said of her, as also it was said of Moses, that "Moses spoke, and God answered him," then there is fulfilled in her that which he says: "Make me to hear your voice." It is indeed high praise of her that is disclosed in that saying, "Sweet is your voice." For thus also said the most wise prophet David: "Let my speech be sweet to him."”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3.15patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 19:19
“This was done by the ministry of the angels, and we read of trumpets sounded by angels, Rev. viii. It was the sound of the trumpet that made all the people tremble, as those who knew their own guilt, and who had reason to expect that the sound of this trumpet was to them the alarm of war.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)Puritan
Exodus 19:19
“And this is pictured for you in the writings of Moses. For the God of all came down in the likeness of fire on Mt. Sinai, and there was a cloud, and darkness, and gloom and the voice of the trumpet with a loud ringing sound, according to the Scripture. The notes of the trumpet were, it says, few at first, but afterwards they waxed longer and became louder and louder continually. What then was it which the shadow of the law signified to us by these things?”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 60patristic
Exodus 19:20-21
God comes down to the top of the mountain and calls Moses up, and the first thing he says to him there is to go down again. The warning names curiosity as the danger, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, rather than rebellion or attack. Moses spends the whole chapter climbing and descending, and that traffic between the two is the office he holds.
Exodus 19:20
“The Lord came down - This was undoubtedly done in a visible manner, that the people might witness the awful appearance. We may suppose that every thing was arranged thus: the glory of the Lord occupied the top of the mountain, and near to this Moses was permitted to approach. Aaron and the seventy elders were permitted to advance some way up the mountain, while the people were only permitted to come up to its base.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
lest many of them perish: Matthew Henry sets the warning against breaking through to see the LORD beside Eden, where the wish to know what God had withheld ruined the first parents. 1 Samuel 6:19 records the men of Beth-shemesh struck down for looking into the ark. The word for perish is literally fall.
Exodus 19:21
“Note, In divine things we must not covet to know more than God would have us know; and he has allowed us as much as is good for us. A desire of forbidden knowledge was the ruin of our first parents. Those that would be wise above what is written, and intrude into those things which they have not seen, need this admonition, that they break not through to gaze.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 19:22-23
Priests are addressed at Sinai seven chapters before Aaron and his sons are consecrated in chapter 29, and readers have long divided over who they are. Adam Clarke argues from this verse that sacrifice and a priestly office already existed in Israel, since Moses had asked Pharaoh for leave to sacrifice; others read the word as reaching forward to the priesthood Moses is about to be given instructions for. Moses answers that the bounds are already set and the mount already sanctified, and the charge is repeated to him anyway.
Exodus 19:22
“Even the priests or princes, the heads of the houses of their fathers, who officiated for their respective families, and therefore are said to come near to the Lord at other times, must now keep their distance, and conduct themselves with a great deal of caution.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 19:22
“Let the priests also - sanctify themselves - That there were priests among the Hebrews before the consecration of Aaron and his sons, cannot be doubted; though their functions might be in a considerable measure suspended while under persecution in Egypt, yet the persons existed whose right and duty it was to offer sacrifices to God. Moses requested liberty from Pharaoh to go into the wilderness to sacrifice; and had there not been among the people both sacrifices and priests, the request itself must have appeared nugatory and absurd.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke reads cannot two ways, as a people who would never dare cross with death in front of them, or as a fence that made crossing impossible. Set it apart as holy renders the verb qadash in its plain sense, separating a thing from common use. The mountain itself is made holy.
Exodus 19:23
“The people cannot come up - Either because they had been so solemnly forbidden that they would not dare, with the penalty of instant death before their eyes, to transgress the Divine command; or the bounds which were set about the mount were such as rendered their passing them physically impossible. And sanctify it - וקדשהי vekiddashio. Here the word קדש kadash is taken in its proper literal sense, signifying the separating of a thing, person or place, from all profane or common uses, and devoting it to sacred purposes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 19:24-25
Aaron is named to come up with Moses, which is the first step toward the place he is given in chapters 28 and 29. The chapter closes with Moses going down and speaking to the people, and the next words in the book are God's own at 20:1. Sinai is arranged so that Israel hears the ten commandments with the mountain burning in front of it and a mediator standing between.
Exodus 19:24
“Let not the priests and the people break through - God knew that they were heedless, criminally curious, and stupidly obstinate; and therefore his mercy saw it right to give them line upon line, that they might not transgress to their own destruction.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
So Moses went down to the people: The verse never reports what Moses said. John Gill reports that the Jerusalem Targum supplies it, a summons to come and receive the ten words. Deuteronomy 5:5 has Moses standing between the LORD and the people while those words were spoken.
Exodus 19:25
“So Moses went down to the people,.... As the Lord commanded him: and spake unto them: charging them to keep their distance, and not presume to pass the line he had drawn, or the foss or fence he had made: in the Jerusalem Targum it is added,"come and receive the ten words;''the decalogue or ten commands; and the Targum of Jonathan,"come and receive the law with the ten words;''the ten commandments of the law, which are delivered in the following chapter.”
How this psalm is built
The form: A covenant narrative, with the offer, the people's acceptance and three days of preparation for the day it was made, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The third day, named three times before it comes | Verse 11 sets the third day, verse 15 repeats it to the people, and verse 16 opens with it arriving. Origen observes that the third day is the day Scripture attaches to its mysteries, and traces the pattern from the departure out of Egypt onward.Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Genesis 8:4, 253. | Exodus 19:11, Exodus 19:15, Exodus 19:16 |
| You have seen for yourselves, and I carried you on eagles' wings | Verses 4 to 6 are the LORD speaking to the people in the second person through Moses, and the speech begins with what they have already watched rather than with a command. Adam Clarke records that the Hebrew word rendered eagle is disputed and that Mr Bruce argued for a different bird.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Exodus 19:4. | Exodus 19:4, Exodus 19:5, Exodus 19:6 |
| The signs of the third morning, counted one after another | Verses 16 to 19 list thunder, lightning, a thick cloud, a very loud blast of the ram's horn, smoke rising like the smoke of a furnace, a mountain quaking violently, and a horn growing louder and louder. Seven signs are named in four verses, and the camp's trembling is reported between them. | Exodus 19:16, Exodus 19:18, Exodus 19:19 |
| A treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation | Verses 5 and 6 give three descriptions of the same people in three matched clauses, each one saying the offer again in other words. Albert Barnes reads the middle clause as a royal and priestly race, a dynasty of priests rather than a nation with priests in it.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on Exodus 19:6. | Exodus 19:5, Exodus 19:6 |
The chapter is the hinge of the whole book. Chapters 1 to 18 carry Israel out of Egypt and chapters 19 to 40 hold Israel at the mountain, and the seam runs through verse 1. Nothing after this chapter is about getting away from anything.
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
The pattern the chapter works by is the holy made approachable at a measured distance. The people are told to wash, to wait, to stand at a boundary, and then to come out and meet God. Albert Barnes observes that the low line of alluvial mounds at the foot of Ras Safsafeh answers exactly to the boundary the chapter describes, which is a note about the ground rather than about the text. Adam Clarke and Barnes both work verse 13 closely and agree that the one not to be touched is the man who trespassed rather than the mountain, because contact with what has trespassed on holiness carries the danger on.
The second pattern is consent. The people answer before they have heard a single commandment. Verse 8 is an answer to a person rather than to a list, and Exodus 24:3 and 24:7 have them answering the same way after the terms are known.
The New Testament's use
1 Peter 2:9 takes verse 6 directly and applies it to the church, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. Revelation 1:6 and 5:10 do the same with a kingdom and priests. Hebrews 12:18 to 21 sets this chapter against the mountain believers have come to, listing the fire, the darkness, the gloom, the storm, the trumpet blast and the voice, and it quotes the rule about the animal touching the mountain and Moses' own fear. The chapter is therefore used in the New Testament in two opposite directions at once, as the standing of the people and as the terror they were kept back from.
The debated points
Which mountain this is remains open. The traditional site is Jebel Musa in the south of the Sinai peninsula, and Albert Barnes writes his notes from the ground around Ras Safsafeh in the same group. Menashe Har-El proposed Jebel Sin Bishar in west central Sinai in The Sinai Journeys: The Route of the Exodus. Emmanuel Anati proposed Har Karkom in the Negev in The Riddle of Mount Sinai. A fourth line places the mountain in Arabia at Jabal al-Lawz. The site marks the mountain as uncertain and states no verdict, and no map on this site draws a confident line for the route.
Who the priests of verse 22 were is the second question. Aaron's priesthood has not been instituted at this point in the book. Albert Barnes holds that sacrifices had until then been offered by the firstborn or by the heads of families, and Matthew Henry reads the priests of this verse as the heads of the fathers' houses who officiated for their own. The chapter names them without explaining them.
The third is small and lexical. Adam Clarke records that the Hebrew word rendered eagle at verse 4 was argued by Mr Bruce to be a different bird, so the image of the bird carrying its young rests on a word whose identification is disputed.
Where to go deeper
The covenant made here is set out at the Mosaic covenant. The standing offered at verse 6 is set out at royal priesthood. The instrument of verse 16 is set out at the trumpet, and what the camp felt at the foot of the mountain at the fear of the LORD. The mountain itself has no page of its own yet, and this lane has added a row for it to docs/lanes/FEATURE-PAGES-OWED.md.
Keep studying
Studies9
Places1
Words12
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on Exodus 19:8; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Exodus 19:3 and Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Genesis 8 and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.