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Thursday, August 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

King James Version

Exodus 19:15

And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at 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."
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."
New English Translation
He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives."
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 And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord . 10 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, 11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. 12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: 13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. 14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. 15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at 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
But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
Genesis 19:5
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
Genesis 19:7
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
Genesis 19:8
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
Genesis 19:17
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
Genesis 19:22
Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
Genesis 19:24
Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
Genesis 19:25
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
Genesis 19:27
And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord :
2 Corinthians 6:2
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, 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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