What Does Exodus 19:12 Mean?

So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman." The "do not go near a woman" instruction for the two-day preparation period is the sexual abstinence requirement for the pre-theophany consecration.

The abstinence is not about sexuality being impure in itself but about focused, undivided attention to the divine encounter: the community's full physical and emotional orientation is directed toward YHWH's approaching presence during the preparation days. Sexual abstinence for a defined period before sacred events appears in other Old Testament contexts (1 Samuel 21:4-5, the warriors abstaining before holy war).

The "be ready for the third day" instruction is the Sinai covenant's most condensed preparation command: readiness for the divine encounter is the goal of the two-day consecration. "Ready" (nakhon, established/prepared/set) is the stance of the community that has done everything required to approach the divine encounter: washed, sexually abstinent, boundaries observed, hearts oriented. The preparation is not meritorious earning of the divine approach, YHWH is coming regardless, but the community's appropriate orientation toward the overwhelmingly significant event they will experience.

Paul's "do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer" (1 Corinthians 7:5) echoes the sexual abstinence for sacred focused prayer principle established at Sinai. The temporary abstinence for prayer-concentration in the New Covenant is the application of the Sinai preparation principle to the ongoing prayer life of the covenant community: there are moments of focused divine encounter that call for the whole person's orientation, including the body's habits being temporarily reordered around the spiritual priority.