Exodus 24

1Then he said to Moses, “Come up to Yahweh, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance.

2Moses alone is to come near Yahweh. The others must not come near, and the people must not come up with him.”

3Moses came and told the people all of Yahweh’s words and all the rulings. All the people answered with one voice, “We will do everything Yahweh has said.”

4Moses wrote down all of Yahweh’s words. He got up early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

5He sent young men of the Israelites, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to Yahweh.

6Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half he splashed against the altar.

7Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people. They said, “We will do everything Yahweh has said, and we will obey.”

8Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

9Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,

10and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

11But God did not raise his hand against the leaders of the Israelites. They saw God, and they ate and drank.

12Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandments I have written for their instruction.”

13So Moses set out with Joshua his assistant, and Moses went up the mountain of God.

14He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute can go to them.”

15When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered the mountain.

16The glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day Yahweh called to Moses from within the cloud.

17To the Israelites the glory of Yahweh looked like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain.

18Moses entered the cloud and went up the mountain, and he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.