Moses said to Yahweh, “The people can’t come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain, and sanctify it.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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Moses said to Yahweh, “The people can’t come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain, and sanctify it.’ ”
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And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
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And Moses said unto the LORD: 'The people cannot come up to mount Sinai; for thou didst charge us, saying: Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.'
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Exodus 19:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 19:12 You shall set bounds to the people all around, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t go up onto the mountain, or touch its border. Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to death.
- Joshua 3:4-5 Yet there shall be a space between you and it of about two thousand cubits by measure—don’t come closer to it—that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way before.” Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 19:23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The…
Exo 19:23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
Ver. 23. The people cannot come up,] i.e., Siquid ego aut capio, aut sapio, they cannot: that which I know not teach thou me.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The people are sufficiently admonished in that particular, because…
The people are sufficiently admonished in that particular, because as thou didst command this same thing before, Exo 19:12, so I have informed and warned them of it; so that it may seem superfluous for me to go down again to acquaint them herewith. But God, who better knew the dulness and the hardness of their hearts than Moses did, saw it necessary to repeat the same command again and again. Some read the words interrogatively, lo for halo, as it is 2Sa 13:26; 2Ki 5:26; Job 2:10; Mal 2:15; May not the people (i.e. some of the people, the priests at least, which, as thou hast now said, may come near to the Lord) go up? Is this a universal prohibition? To this answer is given by a distinction in the next verse, that he and Aaron might come up, but no other.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Moses said unto the Lord,.... Upon his giving…
And Moses said unto the Lord,.... Upon his giving such strict orders both with respect to the people and the priests:
the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; suggesting as if there was no need for him to go down on that account, to give them a charge not to break through and gaze; since, as he thought, there was no probability that they ever would attempt it, seeing such a solemn charge had been given, nor any possibility of it, since such a fence was made:
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for thou chargedst us, saying, set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it; and accordingly bounds have been set, that the people may not go up it, and the place has been declared sacred, that so none will presume to do it, according to the solemn charge that has been given: some (a) read the preceding clause by way of interrogation, "may not the people come up to Mount Sinai?" may not any of them? or, if any of them, who may? and there was the greater reason for asking such a question, since the priests that drew near to God might not, and so the next words are conceived to be an answer to it.
(a) So some in Vatablus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 23. The people cannot come up] Either because…
Verse 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's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The people. Glassius understands this with an interrogation, "Can…
The people. Glassius understands this with an interrogation, "Can no one?" God exempts Aaron from the common law, ver. 24. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 23. thou] the pron. is emphatic, thou thyself.
23. thou] the pron. is emphatic, thou thyself.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (23) The people cannot come up.—Moses probably means that…
(23) The people cannot come up.—Moses probably means that they cannot do so unwittingly; he
Does not contemplate the case of an intentional trespass. But it was this which God knew to be contemplated, and was desirous of preventing.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The people cannot come up. Moses can only have…
The people cannot come up. Moses can only have meant, that the people could not approach the mount unwittingly, since the fence commanded (ver. 12) was made. But to scale the fence, or break through it, was of course possible. (See ver 13.)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 get down
get down
"go down"
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break through the barrier
God spoke about walking past the boundary as if they might break down a barrier and walk through it. See how you translated a similar phrase in Exodus 19:21. AT: "go beyond the boundary" or "go through the barrier" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
command
set apart
Aaron
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.