Discovery BoxExodus 19:10 
Context19:10 The Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and sanctify them 1 today and tomorrow, and make them wash 2 their clothes
Exodus 19:15
Context19:15 He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives.” 3
Exodus 19:22
Context19:22 Let the priests also, who approach the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break through 4 against them.”
1 tn This verb is a Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the force of the imperative preceding it. This sanctification would be accomplished by abstaining from things that would make them defiled or unclean, and then by ritual washings and ablutions.
2 tn The form is a perfect 3cpl with a vav (ו) consecutive. It is instructional as well, but now in the third person it is like a jussive, “let them wash, make them wash.”
3 tn Heb “do not go near a woman”; NIV “Abstain from sexual relations.”
sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 537) notes that as the people were to approach him they were not to lose themselves in earthly love. Such separations prepared the people for meeting God. Sinai was like a bride, forbidden to anyone else. Abstinence was the spiritual preparation for coming into the presence of the Holy One.
4 tn The verb יִפְרֹץ (yifrots) is the imperfect tense from פָּרַץ (parats, “to make a breach, to break through”). The image of Yahweh breaking forth on them means “work destruction” (see 2 Sam 6:8; S. R. Driver, Exodus, 174).
