Exodus 19:12

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:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) Thou shalt set bounds.—Here was another formal and mechanical direction, having for its object to deepen and intensify the lesson of God’s unapproachable majesty and holiness. Moses was required to “set bounds to the people,” i.e., to make a substantial fence between the camp and the base of Sinai, which should prevent both animals and men from coming in contact with the mountain. Modern travellers generally observe how abruptly the rocky precipice of Ras Sufsafeh rises from the plain in front of it, so that in many places it is quite possible to stand on the plain and yet touch the mountain. The idea that a line of natural mounds now to be seen near the base of Sinai represents the “bounds” of Moses (Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 43) is unsatisfactory, since the “bounds” of Moses were most certainly artificial ones. It is, however, possible that his “bounds” may have followed the line of the natural barrier.

That ye go not up into the mount.—Unless it had been forbidden, there might have seemed to be no reason why pious Israelites might not have ascended the height, to draw near to God in prayer. It is a praiseworthy feeling which breathes in the words, “Nearer, my God, to thee;” but the nation was not fit for close approach.

Benson Commentary

Exodus 19:12. Set bounds — Probably he drew a ditch round the foot of the hill, which none were to pass upon pain of death. This was to intimate, 1st, That lawful reverence which ought to possess the minds of all that worship God. 2d, The distance at which worshippers were kept under that dispensation, which we ought to take notice of, that we may the more value our privilege under the gospel, having “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,” Hebrews 10:19.

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

Set bounds unto the people - The low line of alluvial mounds at the foot of the cliff of Ras Safsafeh exactly answers to the bounds which were to keep the people off from touching the mount: but the bounds here spoken of were to be set up by Moses.

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

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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou shall set bounds to the people round about,.... That is, round about the mountain, by drawing a line, throwing up a foss or ditch, or else by laying up heaps of stones or sand, which might be come at easily, or bushes and branches of trees, which grew thick on the mount, from whence it had its name; but be it what will that were used, these were to signify, that so far the people might go, but no further, which their curiosity might prompt them to:

saying, take heed unto yourselves that ye go not up into the mount; so far were they from being allowed to go up to the top of it, that they were not allowed to ascend it at all, or to go any further than where the ascent or rise began; it was at their peril to ascend, and this was what they were to take heed unto, lest they incurred danger:

or touch the border of it; it being the mountain of God, and relatively holy through his presence on it:

whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death; which severe law was made to deter them from any attempt to go up the mountain, since it was death even to touch it, see Hebrews 12:18.

Geneva Study Bible

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:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. border] Heb. extremity, or edge (Exodus 13:20).

shall be surely put to death] Genesis 26:11, Jdg 21:15; and often in the laws, as ch. Exodus 21:12; Exodus 21:14-16, &c.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Thou shalt set bounds. The erection of a fence or barrier, between the camp and the mountain - not necessarily all round the mountain - seems to be meant. This barrier may have run along the line of low alluvial mounds at the foot of the cliff of Ras Sufsafeh, mentioned by Dean Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, p. 43), but cannot have been identical with them, since it was an artificial fence. That ye go not up into the mount. Curiosity might have tempted some to ascend the mount, if it had not been positively forbidden under the penalty of death; carelessness might have brought many into contact with it, since the cliff rises abruptly from the plain. Unless the fence had been made, cattle would, naturally, have grazed along its base. To impress the Israelites with a due sense of the awful majesty of God, and the sacredness of everything material that it brought into close relations with him, the mount itself was declared holy - none but Moses and Aaron might go up into it; none might touch it; even the stray beast that approached it must suffer death for its unwitting offence (ver. 13). Whosoever toucheth the mount. The mountain may be "touched" from the plain - it rises so abruptly. Shall be surely put to death. A terrible punishment, and one which, to modern ideas, seems excessive. But it was only by terrible threats, and in some cases by terrible punishments (2 Samuel 6:7), that the Israelites could be taught reverence. A profound reverence lies at the root of all true religious feeling; and for the education of the world, it was requisite, in the early ages, to inculcate the necessity of this frame of mind in some very marked and striking way. Exodus 19:12

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).