Exodus - Chapter 19

¹ Three months to the day after leaving Egypt, the Israelites reached the desert of Sinai.

² Setting out from Rephidim, they reached the desert of Sinai and pitched camp in the desert; there, facing the mountain, Israel pitched camp.

³ Moses then went up to God, and Yahweh called to him from the mountain, saying, 'Say this to the House of Jacob! Tell the Israelites,

⁴ "You have seen for yourselves what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you away on eagle's wings and brought you to me.

⁵ So now, if you are really prepared to obey me and keep my covenant, you, out of all peoples, shall be my personal possession, for the whole world is mine.

⁶ For me you shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." Those are the words you are to say to the Israelites.'

⁷ So Moses went and summoned the people's elders and acquainted them with everything that Yahweh had bidden him,

⁸ and the people all replied with one accord, 'Whatever Yahweh has said, we will do.' Moses then reported to Yahweh what the people had said.

⁹ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Look, I shall come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear when I speak to you and believe you ever after.' Moses then told Yahweh what the people had said.

¹⁰ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Go to the people and tell them to sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes

¹¹ and be ready for the day after tomorrow; for the day after tomorrow, in the sight of all the people, Yahweh will descend on Mount Sinai.

¹² You will mark out the limits of the mountain and say, "Take care not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Anyone who touches the mountain will be put to death.

¹³ No one may lay a hand on him: he must be stoned or shot by arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live." When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they must go up the mountain.'

¹⁴ So Moses came down from the mountain to the people; he made the people sanctify themselves and they washed their clothes.

¹⁵ He then said to the people, 'Be ready for the day after tomorrow; do not touch a woman.'

¹⁶ Now at daybreak two days later, there were peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, dense cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast; and, in the camp, all the people trembled.

¹⁷ Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the bottom of the mountain.

¹⁸ Mount Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because Yahweh had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke rose like smoke from a furnace and the whole mountain shook violently.

¹⁹ Louder and louder grew the trumpeting. Moses spoke, and God answered him in the thunder.

²⁰ Yahweh descended on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain; and Moses went up.

²¹ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Go down and warn the people not to break through to look at Yahweh, or many of them will perish.

²² Even the priests, who do have access to Yahweh, must sanctify themselves, or Yahweh may burst out against them.'

²³ Moses said to Yahweh, 'The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, since you yourself warned us to mark out the limits of the mountain and declare it sacred.'

²⁴ Yahweh said, 'Away with you! Go down! Then come back bringing Aaron with you. But do not allow the priests and people to break through to come up to Yahweh, or he may burst out against them.'

²⁵ So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

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