Hebrew Word Study – A Border  Qarah   Qop Resh Hei

Exodus 19:12: “And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:”

Exodus 19:17: “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount.”

God set up “bounds” around Mt. Sinai where he would meet with His people and give them the Torah. To many Jews, the Torah is like a marriage contract with God and this time at the foot of Mt. Sinai was to be God’s marriage to His people.   

The word “bound” in Hebrew is gabal which is the word for boundaries or the extreme edge.  It is also the word for borders. Borders are established to keep unwanted people out of one’s country. They are allowed to cross the border only after they have been properly vetted.  

As a child, my family often took a vacation to Canada to go fishing.  During many fall seasons, my father would take a couple of weeks to travel with my uncle and cousins to Canada to go deer hunting. When reaching the Canadian border we would go through what my father called the “shakedown” where a border agent would step up to our car and ask if we were taking in anything that Canada did not want us to take into their country, like fireworks or drugs. If it was questionable, like a hunting rifle, you would have to declare it.  

I recall my father telling me how one time he and my uncle drove to Canada on a hunting trip a day later than their cousin who went up in a pickup truck. They put everything, their camping equipment, luggage, and other traveling necessities in the pickup truck, all except their rifles and my uncle’s 45 caliber pistol which they carried in their car which was a little Volkswagen bug. As they passed through the border the agent met them and immediately grew very suspicious as there were two young men with rifles and a pistol but no camping equipment or luggage other than an overnight bag. When the agent asked a second time why they were going to Canada my father replied they were going deer hunting. The agent walked around the car and asked: “Oh yeah? And just where are you gonna put ‘em.”  It took a little explaining and a photo of the pickup truck to finally convince the agent that their hunting trip was indeed hunting for deer.  

Obviously, the border agent did not want any American terrorist posing as deer hunters in their country.  That is why they had a border and border agents. To keep the unclean and impure out. God was going to descend upon Mt. Sinai to deliver His Torah and He did not want anyone who had no business in God’s presence anywhere near His holy ground.  Should one who was not pure and sanctified themselves try to cross that gabal it would be under the pain of death. 

That is of course the main reason why a gabal was established but there was another reason we find in verse seventeen. It is less dramatic and I believe a more adorable reason. Deuteronomy 33:2 tells us that the “Lord came misinay ba’”  that is “The Lord came from Mt. Sinai” not “to Mt. Sinai.”   Exodus 19:17 tells us that “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God;”  In the Hebrew this literally reads “And Moses brought the people liqarat God” that is “toward” God. In other words, the people did not go to meet God, God came to meet them. However, unless the people were pure and sanctified He could not approach them and for them to approach God would be death. 

The word liqarat, comes from the root word qarat, which means to meet or toward  However, it is so closely related to the word laqach that many Jewish scholars believe liqarat is an intentional word play off the word laqach. Laqach is a bridal word.  It is what a man who has just proposed marriage with a woman would declare to his community when he becomes engaged: “Laqach myself a bride.”  “I have taken myself a bride.” 

So we can look at Exodus 19:12 as establishing boundaries that the pain of death one may not cross unless they are pure and acceptable or as God establishing boundaries to announce His people to be a bride. A bride that He has declared to be so pure and acceptable that she is worthy to be His bride. 

Of course, there is only one way we can become a pure and acceptable bride to God and that is through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross to carry all our sins, and our impurities and to sanctify us as a proper bride for our Bridegroom.  

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