Keluaran 19:15

19:15 He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives.” ¹ 

Keluaran 19:1

Israel at Sinai

19:1 ² In the third month after the Israelites went out ³  from the land of Egypt, on the very day, ⁴  they came to the Desert of Sinai.

1 Samuel 21:4-5

21:4 The priest replied to David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread at my disposal. Only holy bread is available, and then only if your soldiers ⁵  have abstained from sexual relations with women.” ⁶  21:5 David said to the priest, “Certainly women have been kept away from us, just as on previous occasions when I have set out. The soldiers’ ⁷  equipment is holy, even on an ordinary journey. How much more so will they be holy today, along with their equipment!”

[19:15]  ¹ tn Heb “do not go near a woman”; NIV “Abstain from sexual relations.”

[19:15]  sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 537) notes that as the people were to approach him they were not to lose themselves in earthly love. Such separations prepared the people for meeting God. Sinai was like a bride, forbidden to anyone else. Abstinence was the spiritual preparation for coming into the presence of the Holy One.

[19:1]  ² sn This chapter is essentially about mediation. The people are getting ready to meet with God, receive the Law from him, and enter into a covenant with him. All of this required mediation and preparation. Through it all, Israel will become God’s unique possession, a kingdom of priests on earth – if they comply with his Law. The chapter can be divided as follows: vv. 1-8 tell how God, Israel’s great deliverer promised to make them a kingdom of priests; this is followed by God’s declaration that Moses would be the mediator (v. 9); vv. 10-22 record instructions for Israel to prepare themselves to worship Yahweh and an account of the manifestation of Yahweh with all the phenomena; and the chapter closes with the mediation of Moses on behalf of the people (vv. 23-25). Having been redeemed from Egypt, the people will now be granted a covenant with God. See also R. E. Bee, “A Statistical Study of the Sinai Pericope,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 135 (1972): 406-21.

[19:1]  ³ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive to form a temporal clause.

[19:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “on this day.”

[21:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “servants.”

[21:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “have kept themselves from women” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “haven’t had sexual relations recently”; NLT “have not slept with any women recently.”

[21:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “servants’.”