Exodus 19

¹In the third month of the departure of Israel out of the Land of Ægypt, this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

²For departing out of Raphidim, and coming to the desert of Sinai, they camped in the same place, & there Israel pitched their tents over against the mountain.

³And Moyses went up to God: and our Lord called him from the mountain, and said: This shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and shalt tell the children of Israel:

⁴Yourselves have seen what I have done to the Ægyptians, how I have carried you upon the wings of eagles, and have taken you unto me.

⁵If therefore you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my peculiar of all peoples: for all the earth is mine.

⁶And you shall be unto me a Priestly Kingdom, and a holy nation: these are the words that thou shalt speak to the children of Israel.

⁷Moyses came: and calling together the nations of the people, he declared all the words which our Lord had commanded him.

⁸And all the people answered together. All things that our Lord hath spoken, we will do. And when Moyses had reported the people's words to our Lord,

⁹our Lord said to him: Now presently will I come to thee in the darkness of a cloud, that the people may hear me speaking to thee, and may believe thee for ever. Moyses therefore told the people's words to our Lord.

¹⁰Who said to him: Go to the people, and sanctify them today, and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments.

¹¹And let them be ready against the third day: for in the third day the Lord will descend in the sight of all the people upon the mount Sinai.

¹²And thou shalt appoint certain limits to the people in circuit, and shalt say to them: Beware ye ascend not into the mount, & that you touch not the ends thereof: every one that toucheth the mount, dying shall die.

¹³Hand shall not touch him, but he shall be stoned to death, or shall be shot through with arrows: whether it be beast, or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet shall begin to sound, then let them ascend into the mount.

¹⁴And Moyses came down from the mount to the people, and sanctified them. And when they had washed their garments,

¹⁵he said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.

¹⁶And now the third day was come, and the morning appeared: and behold thunders began to be heard, and lightnings to flash, and a very thick cloud to cover the mount, & the noise of the trumpet sounded exceedingly: and the people, that was in the camp, feared.

¹⁷And when Moyses had brought them forth to meet with God from the place of the camp, they stood at the bottom of the mount.

¹⁸And all the mount Sinai smoked: for because our Lord was descended upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible.

¹⁹And the sound of the trumpet grew louder by little and little, and was drawn out a length: Moyses spake, and God answered him.

²⁰And our Lord descended upon the mount Sinai in the very top of the mount, and he called Moyses into the top thereof. Whither when he was ascended,

²¹he said unto him: Go down, and charge the people, lest perhaps they will pass their limits to see the Lord, and a very great multitude of them perish.

²²The Priests also that come to the Lord, let them be sanctified, lest he strike them.

²³And Moyses said to our Lord: The common people cannot ascend into the mount Sinai: for thou didst charge, and command, saying: Put limits about the mount, and sanctify it.

²⁴To whom our Lord said: Go, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, and Aaron with thee: but the Priests and the people let them not pass the limits, nor ascend to the Lord, lest perhaps he kill them.

²⁵And Moyses went down to the people, and told them all.