Exodus 19:3

3 And Moses went up to God, and Yahweh called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you will say to the house of Jacob and you will tell the {Israelites},

Exodus 19:3 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 19:3

And Moses went up unto God
Who was in the pillar of cloud upon the top of the mount; this was on the second day, according to the Targum of Jonathan: "the Lord called unto him out of the mountain"; or had called unto him, as Aben Ezra, since without his leave he could not have gone up. He called to him out of the cloud upon the top of the mountain to come up, and being come near him, he called to him, and spoke with an articulate voice, as follows:

saying, thus shalt thou say, to the house of Jacob, and tell the
children of Israel;
which are the same, and are described as descending from the same person, who was called by both names; the one was his name in the former and lower state of his life, the other in the latter and more prosperous one; and his posterity are called by these two names, as Bishop Patrick observes, to put them in mind, that they who had lately been as low as Jacob, when he went to Padanaram, were now grown as great as God made him when he came from thence, and was called Israel.

Exodus 19:3 In-Context

1 In the third month after the {Israelites} went out from the land of Egypt, on this day they came to the Sinai desert.
2 They set out from Rephidim, and they came to the desert of Sinai, and they camped in the desert, and Israel camped there in front of the mountain.
3 And Moses went up to God, and Yahweh called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you will say to the house of Jacob and you will tell the {Israelites},
4 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and [how] I bore you on eagles' wings and I brought you to me.
5 And now if you will carefully listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will be a treasured possession for me out of all the peoples, {for all the earth is mine},

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.