Exodus 19:14

And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:9-15 The solemn manner in which the law was delivered, was to impress the people with a right sense of the Divine majesty. Also to convince them of their own guilt, and to show that they could not stand in judgment before God by their own obedience. In the law, the sinner discovers what he ought to be, what he is, and what he wants. There he learns the nature, necessity, and glory of redemption, and of being made holy. Having been taught to flee to Christ, and to love him, the law is the rule of his obedience and faith.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Touch it - Rather "touch him." The person who had touched the mount was not to be touched, since the contact would be pollution.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-15. The Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come … in a thick cloud, &c.—The deepest impressions are made on the mind through the medium of the senses; and so He who knew what was in man signalized His descent at the inauguration of the ancient church, by all the sensible tokens of august majesty that were fitted to produce the conviction that He is the great and terrible God. The whole multitude must have anticipated the event with feelings of intense solemnity and awe. The extraordinary preparations enjoined, the ablutions and rigid abstinence they were required to observe, the barriers erected all round the base of the mount, and the stern penalties annexed to the breach of any of the conditions, all tended to create an earnest and solemn expectation which increased as the appointed day drew near.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Moses sanctified the people, by commanding them to sanctify themselves, and directing them how to do it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Moses went down from the mount unto the people,.... The same day that he went up, the fourth day of the month:

and sanctified the people; instructed them and ordered them what they should do for their sanctification, in order to their hearing the law from the mouth of the Lord:

and they washed their clothes; as the Lord had directed Moses to enjoin them, and as he had commanded them; see Gill on Exodus 19:10.

Geneva Study Bible

And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14–15. The sequel in E to vv. 10, 11a. Moses comes down from the mountain, and sanctifies the people as instructed in vv. 10, 11a.

15b. Cf. 1 Samuel 21:4; and the Minaean inscr. cited in ATLAO. p. 433.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - In obedience to the commands which he had received (ver. 10), Moses returned to the camp at the foot of Sinai, and issued the order that the people were to purify themselves and wash their garments during that day and the next, and be ready for a great solemnity on the third day. He must also, at the same time, have given directions for the construction of the fence, which was to hedge in the people (ver. 12), and which he speaks of as constructed in ver. 23. Exodus 19:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

God then commanded Moses to prepare the people for His appearing or speaking to them: (1) by their sanctification, through the washing of the body and clothes (see Genesis 35:2), and abstinence from conjugal intercourse (Exodus 19:15) on account of the defilement connected therewith (Leviticus 15:18); and (2) by setting bounds round the people, that they might not ascend or touch the mountain. The hedging or bounding (הגבּיל) of the people is spoken of in Exodus 19:23 as setting bounds about the mountain, and consisted therefore in the erection of a barrier round the mountain, which was to prevent the people form ascending or touching it. Any one who touched it (קצהוּ, "its end," i.e., the outermost or lowest part of the mountain) was to be put to death, whether man or beast. "No hand shall touch him" (the individual who passed the barrier and touched the mountain), i.e., no one was to follow him within the appointed boundaries, but he was to be killed from a distance either by stones or darts. (יּיּרה for יוּרה, see Gesenius, 69.) Not till "the drawing out of the trumpet blast," or, as Luther renders it, "only when it sounded long," could they ascend the mountain (Exodus 19:13). היּבל, from יבל to stream violently with noise, is synonymous with היּבל קרן (Joshua 6:5), and was really the same thing as the שׁופר, i.e., a long wind instrument shaped like a horn. היּבל משׁך is to draw the horn, i.e., to blow the horn with tones long drawn out. This was done either to give a signal to summon the people to war (Judges 3:27; Judges 6:34), or to call them to battle (Judges 7:18; Job 39:24-25, etc.), or for other public proclamations. No one (this is the idea) was to ascend the mountain on pain of death, or even to touch its outermost edge; but when the horn was blown with a long blast, and the signal to approach was given thereby, then they might ascend it (see Exodus 19:21), - of course not 600,000 men, which would have been physically impossible, but the people in the persons of their representatives the elders. בּהר עלות signifies to go up the mountain in Exodus 19:13 as well as in Exodus 19:12, and not merely to come to the foot of the mountain (see Deuteronomy 5:5).