Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 19:15
And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at [your] wives.
Abstain from the use of the marriage-bed, partly because your wives may haply have their uncleanness upon them, though unknown to themselves, at least to you, whereby you may be legally defiled; see Lev 15:18; and partly that your minds may be abstracted from all sensual delights, and wholly employed about this great and holy work and service. There is a like command 1Co 7:5; but both this and that do indifferently concern both ministers and people, and are limited to a certain time, and therefore are very impertinently alleged for the perpetual celibacy of ministers. See also 1Sa 21:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he said unto the people, be ready against the third day,…. The third day from thence, the sixth of the month Sivan, against which day they were to prepare themselves, by washing their garments, and all other outward acts of sanctification and purity they were directed to, that they might be ready for the service of that day, to hear and receive the law from God himself: Aben Ezra has this note on the passage,
“perhaps not a man slept that night, that he might hear the voice of the Lord in the morning, as was the way or custom of the high priest on the day of atonement;”
that is, not to sleep the night before:
come not at your wives; or, “do not draw nigh to a woman” q, to lie with her; meaning not with a strange woman, or one that was not his wife, for that was not lawful at any time; nor with a menstruous woman who was unclean, and so forbidden, but with a man’s own wife: what was lawful must now be abstained from, for the greater sanctification and solemnity of the service of this day, see 1Co 7:5, so Chaeremoh r the stoic says of the Egyptian priests, that when the time is at hand that they are to perform some very sacred and solemn service, they spend several days in preparing for it; sometimes two and forty, sometimes more, sometimes less, but never under seven; when they abstain from all animals, and from all kind of herbs and pulse, and especially from venereal conversation with women; and to this latter Juvenal s the poet has respect.
q Sept. “to a woman”, Ainsworth. r Apud Porphyr, de Abstinentia, l. 4. sect. 7. Vid Clement. Alexand Stromat. l. 1. p. 306. s “Ille petit veniam quoties non abstinet uxor, “Concubitu, sacris observandisque diebus”. Juvenal, Satyr 6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(15) Come not at your wives.Comp. 1Sa. 21:4-5 :1Co. 7:5. It was the general sentiment of antiquity that a ceremonial uncleanness attached even to the chastest sexual connection. (Herod. I. 189, ii. 64; Hesiod. Op. et D., 11. 733-4: Tibull, Carni. ii. 1, 11. 11, 12; Porphyr., De Abstinentia, 4:7.) The Levitical law took the same view (Lev. 15:18), as did the Indian law (Menu, v. 63), the Persian (Zendavesta, quoted by Bhr, Symbolik, vol. ii., p. 466), and the Mahometan (Koran, iv. 5).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 21:31Sa 21:3 , compared with 1Co 7:5 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 19:15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at [your] wives.
Ver. 15. Be ready against the third day. ] If the word of a command expected such readiness, what shall the word of promise? &c.
Come not at your wives.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Be ready: Amo 4:12, Mal 3:2, Mat 3:10-12, Mat 24:44, 2Pe 3:11, 2Pe 3:12
the third: Exo 19:11, Exo 19:16
come not: 1Sa 21:4, 1Sa 21:5, Joe 2:16, Zec 6:3, Zec 7:3, Zec 12:12-14, 1Co 7:5
Reciprocal: Gen 22:4 – third Exo 19:10 – sanctify Exo 19:22 – sanctify Lev 15:18 – unclean Num 8:6 – cleanse them Num 11:18 – Sanctify Num 19:12 – third day 1Sa 16:5 – sanctify yourselves 1Ch 15:12 – sanctify 2Ch 5:11 – sanctified 2Ch 29:5 – sanctify now 2Ch 35:6 – sanctify Neh 12:30 – themselves Ecc 3:5 – a time to embrace Joh 11:55 – to purify
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
19:15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at [your] {f} wives.
(f) But give yourselves to prayer and abstinence, that you may at this time attend only upon the Lord, 1Co 7:5.