Lectionary Calendar
the First Sunday, December 28th, 2025
the Sunday after Christmas
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

New Century Version

Exodus 19:15

Then Moses said to the people, "Be ready in three days. Do not have sexual relations during this time."

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 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.
Bible in Basic English
And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do not come 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, "I will come to you in a thick cloud and speak to you. The people will hear me speaking with you and will always trust you." Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said. 10 The Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and have them spend today and tomorrow preparing themselves. They must wash their clothes 11 and be ready by the day after tomorrow. On that day I, the Lord , will come down on Mount Sinai, and all the people will see me. 12 But you must set a limit around the mountain that the people are not to cross. Tell them not to go up on the mountain and not to touch the foot of it. Anyone who touches the mountain must be put to death 13 with stones or shot with arrows. No one is allowed to touch him. Whether it is a person or an animal, he will not live. But the trumpet will make a long blast, and only then may the people go up on the mountain." 14 After Moses went down from the mountain to the people, he made them prepare themselves for service to God, and they washed their clothes. 15 Then Moses said to the people, "Be ready in three days. Do not have sexual relations during this time."

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
Before bedtime, men both young and old and from every part of Sodom surrounded Lot's house.
Genesis 19:5
They called to Lot, "Where are the two men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sexual relations with them."
Genesis 19:7
He said, "No, my brothers! Do not do this evil thing.
Genesis 19:8
Look! I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. I will give them to you, and you may do anything you want with them. But please don't do anything to these men. They have come to my house, and I must protect them."
Genesis 19:17
After they brought them out of the city, one of the men said, "Run for your lives! Don't look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Run to the mountains, or you will be destroyed."
Genesis 19:22
But run there fast, because I cannot destroy Sodom until you are safely in that town." (That town is named Zoar, because it is little.)
Genesis 19:24
The Lord sent a rain of burning sulfur down from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah
Genesis 19:25
and destroyed those cities. He also destroyed the whole Jordan Valley, everyone living in the cities, and even all the plants.
Genesis 19:27
Early the next morning, Abraham got up and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord .
2 Corinthians 6:2
God says, "At the right time I heard your prayers. On the day of salvation I helped you." Isaiah 49:8 I tell you that the "right time" is now, and the "day of salvation" is now.

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.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile