Exodus 19:12 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

By this symbolical injunction God designed,

1. To restrain men's curious and bold inquiries into the things of God.

2. To possess the Israelites then present, and all succeeding generations, with the dread and reverence of the Divine Majesty, and of his holy law.

3. To prepare and inure the people to the obedience of God's commands, even when they discern not the reasons of them.

4. To make them sensible of their own impurity and infirmity, and of their absolute need of a mediator, through whom they might have access to God. See Galatians 3:19.

Exodus 19:12

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: