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Exodus 19: What the Passage Says

74 claims across 25 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Exodus 19 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

In the third month after leaving Egypt, on that same day, Israel comes into the wilderness of Sinai and camps in front of the mountain. God speaks to Moses from the mountain and sets out a condition: if the people obey his voice and keep his covenant, they will be his treasured possession out of all peoples, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The people say they will do everything the LORD has said, and Moses is told to set the people apart and to put a boundary around the mountain. On the third day the LORD comes down on Sinai in fire, with thunder, thick cloud, smoke and a very loud horn blast, and he calls Moses to the top and then sends him back down to warn the people.

Claim by Claim

  1. 19:1
    • In the third month after the children of Israel went out of the land of Egypt, on that same day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
  2. 19:2
    • They set out from Rephidim.
    • They came to the wilderness of Sinai.
    • They camped in the wilderness.
    • Israel camped there in front of the mountain.
  3. 19:3
    • Moses went up to God.
    • The LORD called to Moses from the mountain.
    • The LORD told Moses to say the following to the house of Jacob and to declare it to the children of Israel.
  4. 19:4
    • God said the people had seen what he did to Egypt.
    • God said he carried them on eagles' wings.
    • God said he brought them to himself.
  5. 19:5
    • God said that if they would indeed listen to his voice and keep his covenant, they would be his treasured possession out of all the peoples.
    • God said that all the earth belongs to him.
  6. 19:6
    • God said they would be to him a kingdom of priests.
    • God said they would be a holy nation.
    • God said these are the words Moses is to speak to the children of Israel.
  7. 19:7
    • Moses came and summoned the elders of the people.
    • Moses set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him.
  8. 19:8
    • All the people answered together.
    • The people said they would do everything the LORD had spoken.
    • Moses brought the words of the people back to the LORD.
  9. 19:9
    • The LORD said to Moses that he was coming to him in a thick cloud.
    • The LORD said this was so the people would hear when he spoke with Moses.
    • The LORD said this was so the people would also trust Moses forever.
    • Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.
  10. 19:10
    • The LORD told Moses to go to the people.
    • The LORD told Moses to consecrate the people today and tomorrow.
    • The LORD said the people were to wash their clothes.
  11. 19:11
    • The LORD said they were to be ready for the third day.
    • The LORD said that on the third day he would come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
  12. 19:12
    • The LORD told Moses to set a boundary for the people around the mountain.
    • The people were to be warned not to go up into the mountain.
    • The people were to be warned not to touch the edge of the mountain.
    • Whoever touched the mountain was to be put to death.
  13. 19:13
    • No hand was to touch it: the Hebrew leaves it unclear whether the thing not to be touched is the mountain or the condemned person.
    • The offender was to be stoned or shot through.
    • The rule applied whether the offender was an animal or a person.
    • The offender was not to live.
    • When the ram's horn sounded a long blast, they were to go up the mountain.
  14. 19:14
    • Moses went down from the mountain to the people.
    • Moses consecrated the people.
    • The people washed their clothes.
  15. 19:15
    • Moses told the people to be ready after three days.
    • Moses told the people not to approach a woman.
  16. 19:16
    • On the third day, when morning came, there were thunders and lightnings.
    • A heavy cloud was on the mountain.
    • There was a very loud sound of a ram's horn.
    • All the people in the camp trembled.
  17. 19:17
    • Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God.
    • The people took their stand at the foot of the mountain.
  18. 19:18
    • Mount Sinai was entirely in smoke.
    • The reason was that the LORD had come down on it in fire.
    • Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace.
    • The whole mountain trembled greatly.
  19. 19:19
    • The sound of the ram's horn went on and grew very loud.
    • Moses spoke.
    • God answered him with a voice: the Hebrew word can mean either a voice or thunder.
  20. 19:20
    • The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain.
    • The LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain.
    • Moses went up.
  21. 19:21
    • The LORD told Moses to go down.
    • The LORD told Moses to warn the people.
    • The LORD said the warning was so the people would not break through to the LORD to look.
    • The LORD said that otherwise many of them would fall.
  22. 19:22
    • The LORD said the priests who come near to him must also consecrate themselves.
    • The LORD said that otherwise he would break out against them.
  23. 19:23
    • Moses said to the LORD that the people could not come up Mount Sinai.
    • Moses gave as the reason that the LORD had warned them, saying to set a boundary around the mountain and to consecrate it.
  24. 19:24
    • The LORD told Moses to go down.
    • The LORD told Moses to come up, with Aaron with him.
    • The LORD said the priests and the people must not break through to come up to the LORD.
    • The LORD said that otherwise he would break out against them.
  25. 19:25
    • Moses went down to the people.
    • Moses spoke to them, and what he said is not given.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

19:1
Months in the Hebrew calendar follow the moon and are here counted from the departure from Egypt, so this is roughly six weeks after the escape. "On that same day" most likely means the same day of the month on which they had left.
19:2
Rephidim was the previous stopping place, where the people had quarreled with Moses over water and had been attacked by the Amalekites (Exodus 17).
19:3
Jacob, the ancestor of the twelve tribes, was also called Israel. "House of Jacob" and "people of Israel" name the same group; the two lines say the same thing twice, a normal pattern in Hebrew speech.
19:4
The Hebrew bird covers both the eagle and the griffon vulture, the great soaring birds of the region. The picture is of a bird carrying its young on its wings, and of a journey made by the bird's strength rather than the passenger's.
19:5
A covenant was a formal, binding agreement, of the kind a great king made with a lesser ruler: it set out obligations on both sides and was sworn to, not merely agreed. The words behind "special treasure" refer to a king's private hoard, the property he kept as personally his own as distinct from the wealth of the realm.
19:6
A priest was someone permitted to approach God directly and to act as go-between on behalf of others. "Holy" here means set apart and reserved for God's use; it describes status, not moral character.
19:7
The elders were the heads of families and clans, the recognized leaders who spoke for the people and through whom decisions reached everyone.
19:9
The thick cloud let the people hear God without seeing him. It showed he was right there and hid him at the same time.
19:10
"Set apart" (older versions say "sanctify") means putting people through the ritual preparation that made them fit to come near God: washing, clean clothing, avoiding whatever left a person temporarily unfit. It concerns ritual condition, not moral improvement.
19:12
The boundary was a physical marker set around the base of the mountain, showing how close anyone could come.
19:13
"No hand is to touch him" means the offender was to be killed from a distance, by stones or arrows, so that no one else made contact with a person who had touched the mountain. The instrument is a ram's horn, blown as a signal, not a metal trumpet.
19:15
This means abstaining from sexual relations. Under Israel's rules sexual intercourse left both partners ritually unfit for a set time, again a matter of ritual condition, not of wrongdoing.
19:17
"The nether part" simply means the lower part. They stood at the bottom of the mountain, right up against the boundary line.
19:18
A furnace here is a kiln for smelting metal or burning lime, the hottest, smokiest fire people of the time knew.
19:19
The Hebrew word means both "voice" and "thunder," and the text can be read either way: God answered in words, or God answered in the thunder. The ambiguity is in the original.
19:21
"Charge the people" means give them a strong order, not just a suggestion. The worry is that people will crowd forward to get a look and cross the line out of curiosity.
19:22
Aaron's priesthood has not yet been set up at this point in the story, so who these priests are is unclear. They may be the men who had traditionally offered sacrifices for their families, firstborn sons or clan heads.
19:24
Aaron was Moses' older brother, who had been acting as his spokesman since the confrontations with Pharaoh.

Read Exodus 19