Exodus 24

The Covenant Ceremony

24Then He said to Moses, “Go up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders, ^xand bow in worship at a distance. ²Moses alone is to approach the Lord, but the others are not to approach, and the people are not to go up with him.”

³Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.” ^y4And Moses wrote ^zdown all the words of the Lord. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain. ⁵Then he sent out young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. ⁶Moses took half the blood and set it in basins; the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people. They responded, “We will do and obey everything that the Lord has commanded.”

⁸Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.” ^a

⁹Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders, ¹⁰and they saw ^bthe God of Israel. Beneath His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire ^cstone, as clear as the sky itself. ^d11God did not harm ^ethe Israelite nobles; they saw ^fHim, and they ate and drank.

¹²The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets ^gwith the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

¹³So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God. ^h14He told the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Whoever has a dispute should go to them.” ¹⁵When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud ⁱcovered it. ¹⁶The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day He called to Moses from the cloud. ^j17The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire ^kon the mountaintop. ¹⁸Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. ^l