Exodus 3:5

JPS Old Testament

And He said: 'Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.'

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
He said, "Don't come close. Take off your sandals from off your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground."

King James Version
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Lexham English Bible
And he said, "You must not come near to here. Take off your sandals from on your feet, because the place on which you are standing, it is holy ground."

New Century Version
Then God said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground.

New English Translation
God said, "Do not approach any closer! Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Amplified Bible
Then God said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet [out of respect], because the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

New American Standard Bible
Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then he saide, Come not hither, put thy shooes off thy feete: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then He said, "Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

Contemporary English Version
God replied, "Don't come any closer. Take off your sandals—the ground where you are standing is holy.

Complete Jewish Bible
He said, "Don't come any closer! Take your sandals off your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.

Darby Translation
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: loose thy sandals from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Easy-to-Read Version
Then God said, "Don't come any closer. Take off your sandals. You are standing on holy ground.

English Standard Version
Then he said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

George Lamsa Translation
And he said, Do not draw near; take your shoes from off your feet, for the place whereon you are standing is holy ground.

Good News Translation
God said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground.

Christian Standard Bible®
“Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Literal Translation
And He said, Do not come near here. Pull off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He sayde: Come not hither, put thy shues of thy fete, for the place where vpon thou stondest, is an wholy groude.

American Standard Version
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Bible in Basic English
And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he said: Draw not nigh hither, put thy shoes of thy feete, for the place whereon thou standest, is holy ground.

King James Version (1611)
And he said, Drawe not nigh hither: put off thy shooes from off thy feete, for the place whereon thou standest, is holy ground.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: loose thy sandals from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

English Revised Version
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Berean Standard Bible
"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the Lord seide, Neiye thou not hidur, but vnbynde thou the scho of thi feet, for the place in which thou stondist is hooli lond.

Young's Literal Translation
And He saith, `Come not near hither: cast thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place on which thou art standing is holy ground.'

Update Bible Version
And he said, Don't come any closer: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place whereon you stand is holy ground.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he said, Approach not hither: put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place on which thou standest [is] holy ground.

World English Bible
He said, "Don't come close. Take off your sandals from off your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground."

New King James Version
Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."

New Living Translation
"Do not come any closer," the Lord warned. "Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.

New Life Bible
God said, "Do not come near. Take your shoes off your feet. For the place where you are standing is holy ground."

New Revised Standard
Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And he said - Do not draw nigh hither, - put off thy sandals from thy feet, for, the place whereon thou art standing is holy ground.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place, whereon thou standest, is holy ground.

Revised Standard Version
Then he said, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

THE MESSAGE
God said, "Don't come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You're standing on holy ground."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

Contextual Overview

¹ Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the farthest end of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb. ² And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. ³ And Moses said: 'I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.' ⁴ And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said: 'Moses, Moses.' And he said: 'Here am I.' ⁵ And He said: 'Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.' ⁶ Moreover He said: 'I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Draw not: Exodus 19:12, Exodus 19:21, Leviticus 10:3, Hebrews 12:20

put off: Genesis 28:16, Genesis 28:17, Joshua 5:15, Ecclesiastes 5:1, Acts 7:33

Reciprocal: Exodus 3:1 - the mountain Exodus 24:1 - Come up Joshua 3:4 - a space 1 Kings 19:13 - he wrapped his face 2 Chronicles 8:11 - holy Psalms 68:17 - as in Sinai Isaiah 20:2 - put 1 Corinthians 3:17 - destroy 2 Peter 1:18 - the holy

Cross-References

Genesis 2:17
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.'

Genesis 3:2
And the woman said unto the serpent: 'Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;

Genesis 3:3
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said: Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'

Genesis 3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

Genesis 3:7
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves girdles.

Genesis 3:10
And he said: 'I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.'

Genesis 3:13
And the LORD God said unto the woman: 'What is this thou hast done?' And the woman said: 'The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.'

Genesis 3:14
And the LORD God said unto the serpent: 'Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou from among all cattle, and from among all beasts of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; they shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise their heel.'

Genesis 3:22
And the LORD God said: 'Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.'

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he said, draw not nigh hither,.... Keep a proper distance:

put off thy shoes from off thy feet; dust and dirt cleaving to shoes, and these being ordered to be put off from the feet, the instrument of walking, show that those that draw nigh to God, and are worshippers of him, ought to be of pure and holy lives and conversations:

for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground; not that there was any inherent holiness in this spot of ground more than in any other, which ground is not capable of; but a relative holiness on account of the presence of God here at this time, and was not permanent, only while a pure and holy God was there: hence, in after times, the temple being the place of the divine residence, the priests there performed their services barefooted, nor might a common person enter into the temple with his shoes on k; and to this day the Jews go to their synagogues barefooted on the day of atonement l, to which Juvenal m seems to have respect; and from hence came the Nudipedalia among the Heathens, and that known symbol of Pythagoras n, "sacrifice and worship with naked feet": in this manner the priests of Diana sacrificed to her among the Cretians and other people o; and so the priests of Hercules did the same p; the Brahmans among the Indians never go into their temples without plucking off their shoes q; so the Ethiopian Christians, imitating Jews and Gentiles, never go into their places of public worship but with naked feet r, and the same superstition the Turks and Mahometans observe s.

k Misn. Beracot, c. 9. sect. 5. l Buxtorf. Jud Synagog. c. 30. p. 571. m "Observant ub. festa mero pede Sabbata reges." Satyr. 6. n Jamblichus de Vita Pythagor. Symbol. 3. o Solin. Polyhistor. c. 16. Strabo, l. 12. p. 370. p Silius de Bello Punic, l. 3. q Rogerius de Relig. Brachman. l. 2. c. 10. apud Braunium de vest. sacerdot. l. 1. c. 3. p. 66. r Damianus a Goes apud Rivet. in loc. s Pitts's Account of the Relig. and Manners of the Mahometans, c. 6. p. 38. 81. Georgieviz. de Turc. Moribus, c. 1. p. 11. Sionita de Urb. Oriental. & Relig. c. 7. p. 18. c. 10. p. 34.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Put off thy shoes - The reverence due to holy places thus rests upon God’s own command. The custom itself is well known from the observances of the temple, it was almost universally adopted by the ancients, and is retained in the East.

Holy ground - This passage is almost conclusive against the assumption that the place was previously a sanctuary. Moses knew nothing of its holiness after some 40 years spent on the Peninsula. It became holy by the presence of God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 3:5. Put off thy shoes — It is likely that from this circumstance all the eastern nations have agreed to perform all the acts of their religious worship barefooted. All the Mohammedans, Brahmins, and Parsees do so still. The Jews were remarked for this in the time of Juvenal; hence he speaks of their performing their sacred rites barefooted; Sat. vi., ver. 158:

Observant ubi festa mero pede sabbata reges.

The ancient Greeks did the same. Jamblichus, in the life of Pythagoras, tells us that this was one of his maxims, Ανυποδητος θυε και προσκυνει, Offer sacrifice and worship with your shoes off. And Solinus asserts that no person was permitted to enter into the temple of Diana, in Crete, till he had taken off his shoes. "AEdem Numinis (Dianae) praeterquam nudus vestigio nulles licito ingreditur." Tertullian observes, de jejunio, that in a time of drought the worshippers of Jupiter deprecated his wrath, and prayed for rain, walking barefooted. "Cum stupet caelum, et aret annus, nudipedalia, denunciantur." It is probable that נעלים nealim, in the text, signifies sandals, translated by the Chaldee סנדל sandal, and סנדלא sandala, (see Genesis 14:23), which was the same as the Roman solea, a sole alone, strapped about the foot As this sole must let in dust, gravel, and sand about the foot in travelling, and render it very uneasy, hence the custom of frequently washing the feet in those countries where these sandals were worn. Pulling off the shoes was, therefore, an emblem of laying aside the pollutions contracted by walking in the way of sin. Let those who name the Lord Jesus Christ depart from iniquity. In our western countries reverence is expressed by pulling off the hat; but how much more significant is the eastern custom! "The natives of Bengal never go into their own houses with their shoes on, nor into the houses of others, but always leave their shoes at the door. It would be a great affront not to attend to this mark of respect when visiting; and to enter a temple without pulling off the shoes would be an unpardonable offence."-Ward.

The place whereon thou standest is holy ground. — It was not particularly sanctified by the Divine presence; but if we may credit Josephus, a general opinion had prevailed that God dwelt on that mountain; and hence the shepherds, considering it as sacred ground, did not dare to feed their flocks there. Moses, however, finding the soil to be rich and the pasturage good, boldly drove his flock thither to feed on it. - Antiq., b. ii., c. xii., s. 1.