The People Are To Prepare For What Yahweh Is Going To Do (Exodus 19:10-25).
This passage is also based on a chiastic construction as follows:
a Moses is told to prepare the people so that they will be ready (Exodus 19:10-11).
b Bounds are to be set, they must not touch the mount lest they die (Exodus 19:12-13).
c Moses sanctifies the people in readiness (Exodus 19:14-15).
d The awesome scene is described. Thunders and lightning and a thick cloud on the mount, and the sound of a trumpet, all the people tremble (Exodus 19:16).
e The people brought forth to meet with God (Exodus 19:17 a).
e The people stand at the bottom of the mount (Exodus 19:17 b).
d The awesome scene is described. The mount is on smoke, Yahweh descends in fire, smoke rises, the mount quakes, the voice of a trumpet sounds long, when Yahweh comes down on the top of the mount, and Moses goes up to meet Yahweh (Exodus 19:18-20).
c The priests to sanctify themselves lest Yahweh break forth on them (Exodus 19:21).
b The priests and people not to approach the mount lest Yahweh break forth on them (Exodus 19:23-24).
a Moses goes down to the people and speaks to them (Exodus 19:25).
The chiasmus is powerful. The opening and closing statements (a) show Moses in total control over the whole situation, while b at both ends stresses in contrast the need for the people not to approach the mount. They are not worthy. The chiasmus then brings out in d (‘surrounding' the people in e) the mighty and fearful things by which they were ‘surrounded' and the contrast between the people, of whom it is said, ‘all the people --- trembled', and Moses of whom it is said, ‘Moses went up (to the top of the mount)'. So the people tremble, while Moses goes boldly up to meet Yahweh. Note also the stress on each side of the description of the mount (in c) of their need to be sanctified, both people and priests in order to face this experience of Yahweh. And in the midst of all this, trembling and afraid are the people brought forth to meet God and at the bottom of the mount (e).
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes and be ready against the third day, for on the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai. And you will set bounds for the people round about, saying, ‘Take notice of yourselves that you do not go up the mount, or touch its border. Whoever touches the mount will surely be put to death. No hand shall touch him for he shall surely be stoned or shot through. Whether it be beast or man it shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long note they will go up the mount.' ” '
The conditions God lays down stress the sacredness of this experience. He Himself is going to descend in the full reality of His presence, although hidden by a cloud. So intense will be His presence that the mountain will be so holy that nothing earthly must touch it while He is there manifested to such an extent. Only Moses, and then Aaron, the men whom He has set apart to Himself, will be able to enter it.
So Moses is to set a boundary, some kind of physical indicator, beyond which the people may not come. That boundary and all above it will be sacred and must not be touched from the border upwards.
“Sanctify them today and tomorrow.” Possibly by the offering of sacrifice. ‘Sanctify them' may represent something to be done by Moses - compare Exodus 29:1 - but it could simply mean ‘arrange for them to sanctify themselves'. This must then be followed by them washing their clothes and avoiding contact with anything seen as ritually unclean, which included abstention from sexual intercourse (Exodus 19:15; compare Leviticus 15:16-18; 1 Samuel 21:4-5). It may well have included bathing themselves daily as a preparatory act, for the removing of earthiness in view of their approach to God (Exodus 30:20; Exodus 40:32). The washing of the clothes and waiting for a period was later regularly a way by which ‘cleansing' could finally be effected (Leviticus 11:28; Leviticus 11:40 and often) and in some cases bathing was also required (Leviticus 15:5 and often). The period of sanctifying demonstrated how pure they had to be.
“Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai.” The whole people are to be witnesses to this amazing event, Yahweh coming down on Mount Sinai.
“Whoever touches the mount shall surely be put to death.” This is because they will have come in contact with the mount where God is, in direct defiance of His commands, and will have defiled it. They must learn the holiness and ‘otherness' of God (compare Exodus 3:5).
“No hand shall touch him.” That is, shall touch any transgressor. This is because something of the ‘holiness' of the Mount is seen as imparted to him which none must come in contact with. Nothing that touches the mount at that time shall be allowed to live, even if it be a stray animal. Thus his death must be by stoning or by arrow shot, not by contact. Thus the holiness and total ‘otherness' (unlike anything known) of God is emphasised.
The purpose of all these restrictions is to bring home the supreme holiness and otherness of God and to prevent the people from treating His approach too lightly. God is not to be treated lightly, something we need to be more aware of in the present day.
“When the trumpet sounds a long note they shall go up (to) the mount.” At the long trumpet blast they are to go up the mount to the bounds marked by Moses. Alternately, but more unlikely, this may mean that the mount will no longer be seen as holy once there has been an extra long blast of the trumpet. Another suggestion is that ‘they' means the people's representatives, Moses and Aaron.
The point at which a mountain begins is always an open question as there will be slopes leading up to it. The boundary is to be decided by Moses. This then refers to coming up to that point.