Exodus 19:15

19:15 He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives.” ¹ 

Exodus 19:1

Israel at Sinai

19:1 ² In the third month after the Israelites went out ³  from the land of Egypt, on the very day, ⁴  they came to the Desert of Sinai.

Exodus 21:4-5

21:4 If his master gave ⁵  him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself. 21:5 But if the servant should declare, ⁶  ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out ⁷  free,’

Joel 2:16

2:16 Gather the people;

sanctify an assembly!

Gather the elders;

gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom

and the bride from her private quarters. ⁸ 

Zechariah 7:3

7:3 by asking both the priests of the temple ⁹  of the Lord who rules over all and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, ¹⁰  fasting as we have done over the years?”

Zechariah 12:12-14

12:12 The land will mourn, clan by clan – the clan of the royal household of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the clan of the family of Nathan ¹¹  by itself and their wives by themselves; 12:13 the clan of the descendants of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; and the clan of the Shimeites ¹²  by itself and their wives by themselves – 12:14 all the clans that remain, each separately with their wives.”

[19:15]  ¹ tn Heb “do not go near a woman”; NIV “Abstain from sexual relations.”

[19:1]  ² sn This chapter is essentially about mediation. The people are getting ready to meet with God, receive the Law from him, and enter into a covenant with him. All of this required mediation and preparation. Through it all, Israel will become God’s unique possession, a kingdom of priests on earth – if they comply with his Law. The chapter can be divided as follows: vv. 1-8 tell how God, Israel’s great deliverer promised to make them a kingdom of priests; this is followed by God’s declaration that Moses would be the mediator (v. 9); vv. 10-22 record instructions for Israel to prepare themselves to worship Yahweh and an account of the manifestation of Yahweh with all the phenomena; and the chapter closes with the mediation of Moses on behalf of the people (vv. 23-25). Having been redeemed from Egypt, the people will now be granted a covenant with God. See also R. E. Bee, “A Statistical Study of the Sinai Pericope,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 135 (1972): 406-21.

[19:1]  ³ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive to form a temporal clause.

[19:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “on this day.”

[21:4]  ⁵ sn The slave would not have the right or the means to acquire a wife. Thus, the idea of the master’s “giving” him a wife is clear – the master would have to pay the bride price and make the provision. In this case, the wife and the children are actually the possession of the master unless the slave were to pay the bride price – but he is a slave because he got into debt. The law assumes that the master was better able to provide for this woman than the freed slave and that it was most important to keep the children with the mother.

[21:5]  ⁶ tn The imperfect with the infinitive absolute means that the declaration is unambiguous, that the servant will clearly affirm that he wants to stay with the master. Gesenius says that in a case like this the infinitive emphasizes the importance of the condition on which some consequence depends (GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[21:5]  ⁷ tn Or taken as a desiderative imperfect, it would say, “I do not want to go out free.”

[2:16]  ⁸ sn Mosaic law allowed men recently married, or about to be married, to be exempt for a year from certain duties that were normally mandatory, such as military obligation (cf. Deut 20:7; 24:5). However, Joel pictures a time of such urgency that normal expectations must give way to higher requirements.

[7:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[7:3]  ¹⁰ sn This lamentation marked the occasion of the destruction of Solomon’s temple on August 14, 586 b.c., almost exactly 70 years earlier (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8).

[12:12]  ¹¹ sn By the time of Zechariah the line of descent from David had already been transferred from the Solomon branch to the Nathan branch (the clan of the family of Nathan). Nathan was a son of David (2 Sam 5:14) through whom Jesus eventually came (Luke 3:23-31). Matthew traces Jesus’ ancestry back through Solomon (Matt 1:6-16) but apparently this is to tie Joseph into the Davidic (and thus messianic) line. The “official” descent of Jesus may be viewed as passing through Solomon whereas the “physical” descent came through Nathan.

[12:13]  ¹² sn The Shimeites were Levites (Exod 6:16-17; Num 3:17-18) who presumably were prominent in the postexilic era. Just as David and Nathan represented the political leadership of the community, so Levi and Shimei represented the religious leadership. All will lament the piercing of the Messiah.