Exodus 19

¹ Three months after they came out of the land of Egypt… on that day the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sinai.[*a]

² From Rephidim they set out again; and when they reached the wilderness of Sinai, there in the wilderness they pitched their camp; 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, declare this to the sons of Israel,

⁴ “You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.

⁵ From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own for all the earth is mine.

⁶ I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.” Those are the words you are to speak to the sons of Israel.’

⁷ So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people, putting before them all that Yahweh had bidden him.

⁸ Then all the people answered as one, ‘All that Yahweh has said, we will do.’ And Moses took the people’s reply back to Yahweh.

⁹ Yahweh said to Moses, ‘I am coming to you in a dense cloud so that the people may hear when I speak to you and may trust you always’. And Moses took the people’s reply back to Yahweh.

¹⁰ Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and tell them to prepare themselves today and tomorrow.

¹¹ Let them wash their clothing and hold themselves in readiness for the third day, because on the third day Yahweh will descend on the mountain of Sinai in the sight of all the people.

¹² You will mark out the limits of the mountain and say, “Take care not to go up the mountain or to touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain will be put to death.

¹³ No one must lay a hand on him: he must be stoned or shot down by arrow, whether man or beast; he must not remain alive.” When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they are to go up the mountain.’

¹⁴ So Moses came down from the mountain to the people and bade them prepare themselves; and they washed their clothing.

¹⁵ Then he said to the people, ‘Be ready for the third day; do not go near any woman’.

¹⁶ Now at daybreak on the third day there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a dense cloud, and a loud trumpet blast, and inside the camp all the people trembled.

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

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

¹⁹ Louder and louder grew the sound of the trumpet. Moses spoke, and God answered him with peals of thunder.

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

²¹ Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Go down and warn the people not to pass beyond their bounds to come and look on Yahweh, or many of them will lose their lives.

²² The priests, the men who do approach Yahweh,[*b] even these must purify themselves, or Yahweh will break out against them.’

²³ Moses answered Yahweh, ‘The people cannot come up the mountain of Sinai because you warned us yourself when you said, “Mark out the limits of the mountain and declare it sacred”‘.

²⁴ ‘Go down,’ said Yahweh to him ‘and come up again bringing Aaron with you. But do not allow the priests or the people to pass beyond their bounds to come up to Yahweh, or he will break out against them.’

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