Be sure they are ready on the third day, for on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai as all the people watch.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- KJV And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
- BSB and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
- NKJV And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
- NASB and have them ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They were to be ready on the third day, when Yahweh would descend on Sinai before all the people. God appoints a set time to reveal His glory.
Overview
The people are to prepare for the awesome moment when God Himself will come down in sight of the nation. The deliberate timetable heightens anticipation of this holy meeting. God's coming down to dwell with His people finds its climax when the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us (John 1:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Exod 19:16On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.
- John 3:13No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
- Deut 33:2He said, “Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
- Exod 34:5Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name.
- Num 11:17I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you not bear it yourself alone.
- Ps 144:5Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
- John 6:38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
- Hab 3:3–6God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth.
- Exod 3:8I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
- Isa 64:1–2Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.
- Ps 18:9He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
- Exod 19:18All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
- Exod 19:20Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 19:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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