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Sunday, July 20th, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

Exodus 19:15

He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives."

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."
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 The Lord said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they will always believe in you." And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord . 10 The Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and make them wash their clothes 11 and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 You must set boundaries for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves not to go up on the mountain nor touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death! 13 No hand will touch him—but he will surely be stoned or shot through, whether a beast or a human being; he must not live.' When the ram's horn sounds a long blast they may go up on the mountain." 14 Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. 15 He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives."

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 they could lie down to sleep, all the men—both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom—surrounded the house.
Genesis 19:5
They shouted to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!"
Genesis 19:7
He said, "No, my brothers! Don't act so wickedly!
Genesis 19:8
Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. Only don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."
Genesis 19:17
When they had brought them outside, they said, "Run for your lives! Don't look behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!"
Genesis 19:22
Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.)
Genesis 19:24
Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord .
Genesis 19:25
So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground.
Genesis 19:27
Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord .
2 Corinthians 6:2
For he says, " I heard you at the acceptable time , and in the day of salvation I helped you ." Look, now is the acceptable time ; look, 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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