¹² You are to set boundaries for the people all around, saying, ‘Be very careful not to go up onto the mountain, or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death. ¹³ Not a hand is to touch it, but he will surely be stoned or shot through. Whether it is an animal or a man, it will not live.’ When the shofar sounds, they may come up to the mountain.”

¹⁴ Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people, consecrated them, and then, they washed their clothing. ¹⁵ He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not draw near your wives.”

¹⁶ In the morning of the third day, there was thundering^[a] and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and the blast of an exceedingly loud shofar. All the people in the camp trembled. ¹⁷ Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the lowest part of the mountain. ¹⁸ Now the entire Mount Sinai was in smoke, because Adonai had descended upon it in fire. The smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace. The whole mountain quaked greatly.