Hebrews 12:20

New Living Translation

They staggered back under God's command: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death."

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
They did not want to hear the command: "If anything, even an animal, touches the mountain, it must be killed with stones."

Revised Standard Version
For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For they were not able to abyde that which was spoken. If a beast had touched the mountayne it must have bene stoned or thrust thorowe with a darte:

Hebrew Names Version
for they could not stand that which was enjoined, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned;"

New American Standard Bible
For they could not cope with the command, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."

New Century Version
They did not want to hear the command: "If anything, even an animal, touches the mountain, it must be put to death with stones."

Update Bible Version
for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned;

Webster's Bible Translation
(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

English Standard Version
For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."

World English Bible
for they could not stand that which was enjoined, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned;"

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For they could not bear that which was commanded, If even a beast touch the mountain, let it be stoned.

Weymouth's New Testament
For they could not endure the order which had been given, "Even a wild beast, if it touches the mountain, shall be stoned to death;"

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For thei beren not that that was seid, And if a beeste touchide the hil, it was stonyd.

English Revised Version
for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned;

Berean Standard Bible
For they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned."

Contemporary English Version
because they could not obey its commands. They were even told to kill any animal that touched the mountain.

Amplified Bible
For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A WILD ANIMAL TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED [to death]."

American Standard Version
for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned;

Bible in Basic English
For the order which said, If the mountain is touched even by a beast, the beast is to be stoned, seemed hard to them;

Complete Jewish Bible
for they couldn't bear what was being commanded them, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it is to be stoned to death";

Darby Translation
(for they were not able to bear what was enjoined: And if a beast should touch the mountain, it shall be stoned;

International Standard Version
For they could not endure the command that was given: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death."Exodus 19:12-13">[fn]Exodus 19:13;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
For they could not endure that which was commanded. For if an animal should approach to the mountain, it was to be stoned:

Murdock Translation
for they could not endure what was commanded. And even a beast, if it approached the mountain, was to be stoned.

King James Version (1611)
For they could not indure that which was commaunded: And if so much as a beast touch the Mountaine, it shall be stoned, or thrust thorow with a dart.

New Life Bible
They could not stand to listen to His strong words, "Even if an animal comes to the mountain, it must be killed."

New Revised Standard
(For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death."

Geneva Bible (1587)
(For they were not able to abide yt which was commaunded, yea, though a beast touche the mountaine, it shalbe stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

George Lamsa Translation
For they could not survive that which was commanded, for if even a beast drew near the mountain, it would be stoned.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For they could not bear, that which was being enjoined, - and, should a beast be touching the mountain, it shall be stoned;

Douay-Rheims Bible
For they did not endure that which was said: and if so much as a beast shall touch the mount, it shall be stoned.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
(For they dyd not abyde that which was commaunded. If a beast touche the mountaine, it shalbe stoned, or thrust through with a darte.

Good News Translation
because they could not bear the order which said, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death."

Christian Standard Bible®
for they could not bear what was commanded: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.

King James Version
(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

Lexham English Bible
For they could not endure what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned."

Literal Translation
for they could not bear the thing enjoined: "Even" "if a beast" "touches the mountain, it will be stoned, or shot through" with a dart. Ex. 19:12, 13

Young's Literal Translation
for they were not bearing that which is commanded, `And if a beast may touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or with an arrow shot through,'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
for they were not able to abyde that which was spoken. And yf a beest had touched the mountayne, it must haue bene stoed, or thrust thorow with a darte.

Mace New Testament (1729)
nor could they endure that threat, "if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned."

New English Translation
For they could not bear what was commanded: " If even an animal touches the mountain , it must be stoned ."

New King James Version
(For they could not endure what was commanded: "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned [fn] or shot with an arrow." Exodus 19:12, 13">[fn]

Simplified Cowboy Version
When they heard God say that if even an animal steps foot on the mountain it must be killed, they quaked in their boots.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED."

Legacy Standard Bible
For they could not bear what was being commanded, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned."

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. ¹⁹ For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. ²⁰ They staggered back under God's command: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death." ²¹ Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, "I am terrified and trembling." ²² No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. ²³ You have come to the assembly of God's firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. ²⁴ You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel. ²⁵ Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! ²⁶ When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: "Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also." ²⁷ This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

For they: Deuteronomy 33:2, Romans 3:19, Romans 3:20, Galatians 2:19, Galatians 3:10

if so much: Exodus 19:13, Exodus 19:16

Reciprocal: Exodus 3:5 - Draw not Exodus 19:12 - or touch Exodus 34:3 - General Leviticus 20:16 - and the beast Nehemiah 4:14 - great Ezekiel 20:40 - in mine

Cross-References

Genesis 12:6
Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.

Genesis 12:11
As he was approaching the border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, "Look, you are a very beautiful woman.

Genesis 12:14
And sure enough, when Abram arrived in Egypt, everyone noticed Sarai's beauty.

Genesis 12:15
When the palace officials saw her, they sang her praises to Pharaoh, their king, and Sarai was taken into his palace.

Exodus 18:27
Soon after this, Moses said good-bye to his father-in-law, who returned to his own land.

Proverbs 21:1
The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord ; he guides it wherever he pleases.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For they could not endure that which was commanded,.... In the law; not that they disliked and despised the law, as unregenerate men do; but they could not endure it, or bear it, as a yoke, it being a yoke of bondage; nor as a covenant of works, it requiring perfect obedience, but giving no strength to perform; and as it showed them their sins, but did not direct them to a Saviour; as it was an accusing, cursing, and condemning law; and, as a fiery one, revealing wrath, and filling the conscience with it; unless this should have any respect to the following edict, more particularly:

and if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart; and, if a beast, much more a man: and, how easily, through inadvertence, might this be done? and how terrible was the punishment? nothing less than death, by stoning, or being shot: and this they could not bear to hear, or think of: the last clause, "or thrust through with a dart", is wanting in the Alexandrian and Beza's Claromontane copies, in the Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions; and yet is necessary to be retained, being in the original text, in Exodus 19:12.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For they could not endure that which was commanded - They could not sustain the awe produced by the fact that God uttered his commands himself. The meaning is not that the commands themselves were intolerable, but that the manner in which they were communicated inspired a terror which they could not bear. They feared that they should die; Exodus 20:19.

And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned - Exodus 19:13. The prohibition was, that neither beast nor man should touch it on pain of death. The punishment was to be either by stoning, or being “shot through.”

Or thrust through with a dart - Exodus 19:13. “Or shot through.” This phrase, however, though it is found in the common editions of the New Testament, is wanting in all the more valuable manuscripts; in all the ancient versions; and it occurs in none of the Greek ecclesiastical writers, with one exception. It is omitted now by almost all editors of the New Testament. It is beyond all doubt an addition of later times, taken from the Septuagint of Exodus 19:13. Its omission does not injure the sense.