Exodus 3:5

3:5 God ¹  said, “Do not approach any closer! ²  Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ³  ground.” ⁴ 

Exodus 15:11

15:11 Who is like you, ⁵  O Lord, among the gods? ⁶ 

Who is like you? – majestic in holiness, fearful in praises, ⁷  working wonders?

Joshua 5:15

5:15 The commander of the Lord’s army answered Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.

Joshua 5:1

5:1 When all the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites while they ⁸  crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites. ⁹ 

Joshua 3:4-7

3:4 But stay about three thousand feet behind it. ¹⁰  Keep your distance ¹¹  so you can see ¹²  which way you should go, for you have not traveled this way before.”

3:5 Joshua told the people, “Ritually consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will perform miraculous deeds among you.” 3:6 Joshua told the priests, “Pick up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they picked up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.

3:7 The Lord told Joshua, “This very day I will begin to honor you before all Israel ¹³  so they will know that I am with you just as I was with Moses.

Job 9:11

9:11 If ¹⁴  he passes by me, I cannot see ¹⁵  him, ¹⁶ 

if he goes by, I cannot perceive him. ¹⁷ 

Job 33:14

Elihu Disagrees With Job’s View of God

33:14 “For God speaks, the first time in one way,

the second time in another,

though a person does not perceive ¹⁸  it.

Psalms 68:35

68:35 You are awe-inspiring, O God, as you emerge from your holy temple! ¹⁹ 

It is the God of Israel ²⁰  who gives the people power and strength.

God deserves praise! ²¹ 

Isaiah 8:13

8:13 You must recognize the authority of the Lord who commands armies. ²² 

He is the one you must respect;

he is the one you must fear. ²³ 

¹ tn Heb “And he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² sn Even though the Lord was drawing near to Moses, Moses could not casually approach him. There still was a barrier between God and human, and God had to remind Moses of this with instructions. The removal of sandals was, and still is in the East, a sign of humility and reverence in the presence of the Holy One. It was a way of excluding the dust and dirt of the world. But it also took away personal comfort and convenience and brought the person more closely in contact with the earth.

³ sn The word קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holy”) indicates “set apart, distinct, unique.” What made a mountain or other place holy was the fact that God chose that place to reveal himself or to reside among his people. Because God was in this place, the ground was different – it was holy.

⁴ tn The causal clause includes within it a typical relative clause, which is made up of the relative pronoun, then the independent personal pronoun with the participle, and then the preposition with the resumptive pronoun. It would literally be “which you are standing on it,” but the relative pronoun and the resumptive pronoun are combined and rendered, “on which you are standing.”

⁵ tn The question is of course rhetorical; it is a way of affirming that no one is comparable to God. See C. J. Labuschagne, The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament, 22, 66-67, and 94-97.

⁶ sn Verses 11-17 will now focus on Yahweh as the incomparable one who was able to save Israel from their foes and afterward lead them to the promised land.

⁷ tn S. R. Driver suggests “praiseworthy acts” as the translation (Exodus, 137).

⁸ tc Another textual tradition has, “while we crossed.”

⁹ tn Heb “their heart[s] melted and there was no longer in them breathe because of the sons of Israel.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “But there should be a distance between you and it, about two thousand cubits in measurement.”

¹¹ tn Heb “do not approach it.”

¹² tn Heb “know.”

¹³ tn Or more literally, “to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel.”

¹⁴ tn The NIV has “when” to form a temporal clause here. For the use of “if,” see GKC 497 §159.w.

¹⁵ tn The imperfect verbs in this verse are consistent with the clauses. In the conditional clauses a progressive imperfect is used, but in the following clauses the verbs are potential imperfects.

¹⁶ tn The pronoun “him” is supplied here; it is not in MT, but the Syriac and Vulgate have it (probably for translation purposes as well).

¹⁷ sn Like the mountains, Job knows that God has passed by and caused him to shake and tremble, but he cannot understand or perceive the reasons.

¹⁸ tn The Syriac and the Vulgate have “and he does not repeat it,” a reading of the text as it is, according to E. Dhorme (Job, 403). But his argument is based on another root with this meaning – a root which does not exist (see L. Dennefeld, RB 48 [1939]: 175). The verse is saying that God does speak to man.

¹⁹ tn Heb “awesome [is] God from his holy places.” The plural of מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash, “holy places”) perhaps refers to the temple precincts (see Ps 73:17; Jer 51:51).

²⁰ tn Heb “the God of Israel, he.”

²¹ tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”

²² tn Heb “the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts], him you must set apart.” The word order is emphatic, with the object being placed first.

²³ tn Heb “he is your [object of] fear, he is your [object of] terror.” The roots יָרֵא (yare’) and עָרַץ (’arats) are repeated from v. 12b.