24 God said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu [Aaron’s sons], and seventy of Israel’s elders, and worship at a distance.
2 Moses alone shall come near the Lord; the others shall not come near, and neither shall the people come up with him.
3 Moses came and told the people all that the Lord had said and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, All that the Lord has spoken we will do.
4 Moses [a]wrote all the words of the Lord. He rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve pillars representing Israel’s twelve tribes.
5 And he sent young Israelite men, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.
6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar.
7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people; and they said, All that the Lord has said we will do, and we will be obedient.
8 And Moses took the [remaining half of the] blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.(A)
9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up [the mountainside].
10 And they saw the God of Israel [that is, a convincing manifestation of His presence], and under His feet it was like pavement of bright sapphire stone, like the very heavens in clearness.(B)
11 And upon the nobles of the Israelites He laid not His hand [to conceal Himself from them, to rebuke their daring, or to harm them]; but they saw [the manifestation of the presence of] God, and ate and drank.(C)
12 And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to Me into the mountain and be there, and I will give you tables of stone, with the law and the commandments which [b]I have written that you may teach them.(D)
13 So Moses rose up with Joshua his attendant; and Moses went up into the mountain of God.
14 And he said to the elders, Tarry here for us until we come back to you; remember, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a cause, let him go to them.
15 Then Moses went up into the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
16 The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day [God] called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
17 And the glory of the Lord appeared to the Israelites like devouring fire on the top of the mountain.
18 Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and nights.
Footnotes
- Exodus 24:4 The contemporary evidence, supplied by archaeology, that writing had long been in common use before the time of Moses now makes conjectures about the contents of the earlier books of the Old Testament being handed down orally look absurd. Not only is much of the misleading criticism of the Bible now recognized as unjustified, it is out of harmony with the scientific outlook of the present day (Sir Charles Marston, New Bible Evidence).
- Exodus 24:12 The two tables were “written with the finger of God” (Exod. 31:18), and “the tables were the work of God” (Exod. 32:16). A man may be said to write what a secretary writes at his dictation; but if he expressly states that certain things are written with his own hand, it is unreasonable to suppose that they were written by the hand of another (J.P. Lange, A Commentary).