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Bible in Basic English

Exodus 19:15

And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do not come near a woman.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Israel;   Purification;   Sinai;   Trumpet;   Scofield Reference Index - Israel;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Exodus;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Uncleanness;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Abstain, Abstinence;   Forgiveness;   Prophet, Prophetess, Prophecy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Commandments, the Ten;   Festivals, Religious;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Exodus, the;   Mediator;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Exodus, Book of;   Sex, Biblical Teaching on;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Clean and Unclean;   Exodus;   Mediator, Mediation;   Sanctification, Sanctify;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Sina, Sinai ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Sinai;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Encampment at Sinai;   Events of the Encampment;   Proclamation of the Law;   Tabernacle, the;   Peculiarities of the Law of Moses;   Law of Moses, the;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Essenes, the;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ascetics;   Essenes;   Euphemism;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
He said to the people, "Be ready by the third day. Don't have sexual relations with a woman."
King James Version
And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
Lexham English Bible
And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day. Do not go near to a woman."
New Century Version
Then Moses said to the people, "Be ready in three days. Do not have sexual relations during this time."
New English Translation
He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives."
Amplified Bible
He said to the people, "Be prepared for the third day; do not be intimate with a woman."
New American Standard Bible
He also said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman."
Geneva Bible (1587)
And he said vnto the people, Be ready on the third day, and come not at your wiues.
Legacy Standard Bible
And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman."
Contemporary English Version
He told them to be ready in three days and not to have sex in the meantime.
Complete Jewish Bible
He said to the people, "Prepare for the third day; don't approach a woman."
Darby Translation
And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day; do not come near [your] wives.
Easy-to-Read Version
Then Moses said to the people, "Be ready for the meeting with God in three days. Until that time do not have sexual relations."
English Standard Version
And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman."
George Lamsa Translation
And he said to the people, Be ready on the third day; do not touch your wives.
Good News Translation
and Moses told them, "Be ready by the day after tomorrow and don't have sexual intercourse in the meantime."
Christian Standard Bible®
He said to the people, “Be prepared by the third day. Do not have sexual relations with women.”
Literal Translation
And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not approach a woman.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And he sayde vnto them: Be ready agaynst the thirde daye, and no man come at his wife.
American Standard Version
And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not near a woman.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he sayd vnto the people: be redy agaynst the thirde day, and come not at [your] wyues.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And he said unto the people: 'Be ready against the third day; come not near a woman.'
King James Version (1611)
And hee said vnto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wiues.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he said to the people, Be ready: for three days come not near to a woman.
English Revised Version
And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not near a woman.
Berean Standard Bible
"Be prepared for the third day," he said to the people. "Do not draw near to a woman."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
he seide to hem, Be ye redi in to the thridde dai, neiye ye not to youre wyues.
Young's Literal Translation
and he saith unto the people, `Be ye prepared for the third day, come not nigh unto a woman.'
Update Bible Version
And he said to the people, Be ready against the third day: don't come near a woman.
Webster's Bible Translation
And he said to the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at [your] wives.
World English Bible
He said to the people, "Be ready by the third day. Don't have sexual relations with a woman."
New King James Version
And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives."
New Living Translation
He told them, "Get ready for the third day, and until then abstain from having sexual intercourse."
New Life Bible
He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman."
New Revised Standard
And he said to the people, "Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman."
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And he said unto the people, Be ready, by the third day, - do not approach a woman.
Douay-Rheims Bible
He said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.
Revised Standard Version
And he said to the people, "Be ready by the third day; do not go near a woman."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman."

Contextual Overview

9 And the Lord said to Moses, See, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that what I say to you may come to the ears of the people and they may have belief in you for ever. And Moses gave the Lord word of what the people had said. 10 And the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and make them holy today and tomorrow, and let their clothing be washed. 11 And by the third day let them be ready: for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai, before the eyes of all the people. 12 And let limits be marked out for the people round the mountain, and say to them, Take care not to go up the mountain or near the sides of it: whoever puts his foot on the mountain will certainly come to his death: 13 He is not to be touched by a hand, but is to be stoned or have an arrow put through him; man or beast, he is to be put to death: at the long sounding of a horn they may come up to the mountain. 14 Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and made the people holy; and their clothing was washed. 15 And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do not come near a woman.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Be ready: Amos 4:12, Malachi 3:2, Matthew 3:10-12, Matthew 24:44, 2 Peter 3:11, 2 Peter 3:12

the third: Exodus 19:11, Exodus 19:16

come not: 1 Samuel 21:4, 1 Samuel 21:5, Joel 2:16, Zechariah 6:3, Zechariah 7:3, Zechariah 12:12-14, 1 Corinthians 7:5

Reciprocal: Genesis 22:4 - third Exodus 19:10 - sanctify Exodus 19:22 - sanctify Leviticus 15:18 - unclean Numbers 8:6 - cleanse them Numbers 11:18 - Sanctify Numbers 19:12 - third day 1 Samuel 16:5 - sanctify yourselves 1 Chronicles 15:12 - sanctify 2 Chronicles 5:11 - sanctified 2 Chronicles 29:5 - sanctify now 2 Chronicles 35:6 - sanctify Nehemiah 12:30 - themselves Ecclesiastes 3:5 - a time to embrace John 11:55 - to purify

Cross-References

Genesis 19:4
But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town;
Genesis 19:5
And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them.
Genesis 19:7
And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.
Genesis 19:8
See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof.
Genesis 19:17
And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction.
Genesis 19:22
Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar.
Genesis 19:24
Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Genesis 19:25
And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.
Genesis 19:27
And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:
2 Corinthians 6:2
(For he says, I have given ear to you at a good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation: see, now is the good time; now is the day of salvation):

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he said unto the people, be ready against the third day,.... The third day from thence, the sixth of the month Sivan, against which day they were to prepare themselves, by washing their garments, and all other outward acts of sanctification and purity they were directed to, that they might be ready for the service of that day, to hear and receive the law from God himself: Aben Ezra has this note on the passage,

"perhaps not a man slept that night, that he might hear the voice of the Lord in the morning, as was the way or custom of the high priest on the day of atonement;''

that is, not to sleep the night before:

come not at your wives; or, "do not draw nigh to a woman" q, to lie with her; meaning not with a strange woman, or one that was not his wife, for that was not lawful at any time; nor with a menstruous woman who was unclean, and so forbidden, but with a man's own wife: what was lawful must now be abstained from, for the greater sanctification and solemnity of the service of this day, see 1 Corinthians 7:5, so Chaeremoh r the stoic says of the Egyptian priests, that when the time is at hand that they are to perform some very sacred and solemn service, they spend several days in preparing for it; sometimes two and forty, sometimes more, sometimes less, but never under seven; when they abstain from all animals, and from all kind of herbs and pulse, and especially from venereal conversation with women; and to this latter Juvenal s the poet has respect.

q תגשו אל אשה μη προσελθητε γυναικι Sept. "to a woman", Ainsworth. r Apud Porphyr, de Abstinentia, l. 4. sect. 7. Vid Clement. Alexand Stromat. l. 1. p. 306. s "Ille petit veniam quoties non abstinet uxor, "Concubitu, sacris observandisque diebus". Juvenal, Satyr 6.


 
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