Keluaran 19:15

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

Imamat 15:18

15:18 When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman and there is a seminal emission, ²  they must bathe in water and be unclean until evening.

[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.

[15:18]  ² tn Heb “And a woman who a man lies with her a lying of seed.”