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13 No hand shall touch them, but they must be stoned to death or killed with arrows. Whether human being or beast, they must not be allowed to live. Only when the ram’s horn sounds may they go up on the mountain.[a] 14 Then Moses came down from the mountain to the people and had them sanctify themselves, and they washed their garments. 15 He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not approach a woman.”

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Footnotes

  1. 19:13 May they go up on the mountain: in vv. 12–13a, a later Priestly reshaping of an earlier version of the instructions governing how the people are to prepare for the encounter with God (vv. 10–11, 13b), the people are to be restrained from ascending the mountain, which is suffused with the holiness of God and too dangerous for their approach. In the earlier version, as v. 13b suggests, the sanctified people must come near, in order to hear God speaking with Moses (v. 9) and in this way receive confirmation of his special relationship with God.

13 They are to be stoned(A) or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn(B) sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”(C)

14 After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes.(D) 15 Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain(E) from sexual relations.”

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