For they could not cope with the command, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
Parallel translations
- WEB for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”;
- KJV (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
- BSB For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”
- NKJV (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.”
- NLT They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”
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
The people could not bear the command that even an animal touching the mountain must be stoned. The holiness of God under the law demanded fearful separation.
Overview
Citing Exodus 19:12–13, the author recalls how the boundary around Sinai was so strict that even a beast straying onto it had to be killed. The severity expressed God's unapproachable holiness and the people's exclusion from his presence. Such was the weight of the old covenant, from which the new covenant's nearness is a glorious deliverance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Exod 19:12–13You shall set bounds to the people all around, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t go up onto the mountain, or touch its border. Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to death.
- Gal 3:10For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
- 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.
- Gal 2:19For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
- 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.
- Rom 3:19–20Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
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Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 12:20 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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