Exodus 19 Study Notes

19:7-8 Moses explained the covenant to the elders, who apparently explained it to all the people, who accepted it unanimously.

19:9-25 The preparations for a meeting between the Lord and the Israelites continue the extended metaphor that compares the Lord to a great king issuing a covenant to his vassal. The Lord had chosen to come to Mount Sinai in a way designed to reveal his presence and to communicate with the Israelites, making it “private property,” where no one should expect to wander in and out oblivious to the wishes of the owner. For as long as the Lord visited that place, it was holy ground, an extension of his royal court. Approaching the mountain required a royal summons. It was not a casual meeting of equals.

19:9 This statement of God’s intention increases the gravity of future failures by the people to believe Moses.

19:10 The requirements to be purified and to wear clean clothes involved everyone in the preparation. When Pharaoh summoned him, Joseph likewise changed his clothes before appearing at court (Gn 41:14; cp. Gn 35:2; Nm 8:7; Rv 22:14).

19:12 Refusal to observe boundaries was a sign of disrespect. Those who violated the warning would die. Such was the case even with merely human kings whose sanctity and security measures had been violated (Est 4:11).

19:15 Abstaining from sex would prevent contact with semen, which caused ritual uncleanness (Lv 15:16-18). Considering the pagan practice of mixing sexual activity with religious rituals, this prohibition may also have contributed to separating such practices from worship of the Lord. If nothing else, it marked a life change and redirection of attention for the Israelites (cp. 1Co 7:5).

19:16-17 All these phenomena are associated with occasions when God revealed his presence (40:34; Jdg 5:4-5; 1Kg 19:11-12; Ps 18:6-15; Is 29:6; 30:30; 64:1-3; Rv 4:1,5).

19:18 Like the smoke of a furnace uses the word for “furnace” that also appears in 9:8,10. Its only other use is to describe the source of the smoke compared with what came from the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 19:28). The whole mountain shook violently uses the same Hebrew verb as the statement that “all the people in the camp shuddered” (v. 16).

19:21 Moses’s warning not . . . to see the Lord on penalty of death shows God’s concern to protect the Israelites and to reveal to them his awesome, personal reality. He cannot be treated as an object of curiosity that one might walk up to, examine at will, and then walk away from without personal engagement.

19:22 Some interpreters think reference to priests here and in v. 24 is anachronistic, since Aaron and his sons were appointed as priests at a later time (28:1; 40:12-15). Based on ancient practices, however, it would have been normal for selected Israelites to have functioned as priests even before the formal appointment of the Aaronic priesthood. Knowledge of sacrifices, intercession, consecration, and priestly activities is taken for granted throughout Genesis and Exodus (cp. Gn 14:18-20). In later years disobedient Israelites appointed priests to suit their own purposes (Jdg 17:1-5; 1Kg 13:33).