Exodus 24

1He said to Moses, "Come up to Yahweh—you, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of Israel's elders—and worship from afar."

2Moses alone shall approach Yahweh, but they shall not approach, nor shall the people go up with him.

3Moses came and declared to the people all the words of Yahweh and all the judgments; all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do."

4Moses wrote all Yahweh's words, rose early in the morning, built an altar beneath the mountain, and twelve pillars for Israel's twelve tribes.

5He sent young men among the sons of Israel, who offered up burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of bulls to Yahweh.

6Moses took half the blood and put it in the basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

7He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will obey."

8Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "See, this is the blood of the covenant that Yahweh made with you concerning all these matters."

9Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel ascended.

10They saw the God of Israel, and under his feet was like the workmanship of a sapphire pavement, like the substance of the heavens in its clarity.

11He did not stretch out his hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel. They beheld God, and ate and drank.

12Yahweh said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the law, and the commandment that I have written to instruct them."

13Moses arose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.

14He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. See, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has matters may approach them.”

15Moses ascended the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

16Yahweh's glory rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

17The appearance of Yahweh's glory resembled consuming fire on the mountaintop before the eyes of the children of Israel.

18Moses entered the midst of the cloud and went up to the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.