Chapter 19

¹In the third month of the departure of Israel out of the land of Egypt, on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai: ²For departing out of Raphidim, and coming to the desert of Sinai, they camped in the same place, and there Israel pitched their tents over against the mountain. ³And Moses went up to God: and the Lord called unto him from the mountain, and said: Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ⁴You have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, how I have carried you upon the wings of eagles, and have taken you to myself. ⁵If therefore you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my peculiar possession above all people: for all the earth is mine. ⁶And you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation. Those are the words thou shalt speak to the children of Israel. ⁷Moses came, and calling together the elders of the people, he declared all the words which the Lord had commanded. ⁸And all the people answered together: All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. And when Moses had related the people's words to the Lord, ⁹The Lord said to him: Lo, now will I come to thee in the darkness of a cloud, that the people may hear me speaking to thee, and may believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. ¹⁰And he said to him: Go to the people, and sanctify them to day, and to morrow, and let them wash their garments. ¹¹And let them be ready against the third day: for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. ¹²And thou shalt appoint certain limits to the people round about, and thou shalt say to them: Take heed you go not up into the mount, and that ye touch not the borders thereof: every one that toucheth the mount dying he shall die. ¹³No hands shall touch him, but he shall be stoned to death, or shall be shot through with arrows: whether it be beast, or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet shall begin to sound, then let them go up into the mount. ¹⁴And Moses came down from the mount to the people, and sanctified them. And when they had washed their garments, ¹⁵He said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives. ¹⁶And now the third day was come, and the morning appeared: and behold thunders began to be heard, and lightning to flash, and a very thick cloud to cover the mount, and the noise of the trumpet sounded exceeding loud, and the people that was in the camp, feared. ¹⁷And when Moses had brought them forth to meet God from the place of the camp, they stood at the bottom of the mount. ¹⁸And all mount Sinai was on a smoke: because the Lord was come down upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible. ¹⁹And the sound of the trumpet grew by degrees louder and louder, and was drawn out to a greater length: Moses spoke, and God answered him. ²⁰And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, in the very top of the mount, and he called Moses unto the top thereof. And when he was gone up thither, ²¹He said unto him: Go down, and charge the people: lest they should have a mind to pass the limits to see the Lord, and a very great multitude of them should perish. ²²The priests also that come to the Lord, let them be sanctified, lest he strike them. ²³And Moses said to the Lord: The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou did charge, and command, saying: Set limits about the mount, and sanctify it. ²⁴And the Lord said to him: Go, get thee down: and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people pass the limits, nor come up to the Lord, lest he kill them. ²⁵And Moses went down to the people and told them all.