Exodus 24

1 And to Moses he said, “Come up to the Lord — you and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel — and they are to bow down to the Lord from a distance. 2 Moses alone is to come near to God; the others are not to come near, and the people are not to come up with them.” 3 So Moses went in and told the people all the words of God and the rules; and all the people answered with one voice, “All the words the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will listen.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. And Moses got up early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent out the young men of the children of Israel, and they brought up whole burnt offerings, and they sacrificed young calves to God as an offering of well-being. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and poured it into bowls, and half of the blood he poured out against the altar. 7 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “Everything the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will listen.” 8 And Moses took the blood and flung it over the people, and said, “Look — the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.”

9 Then Moses went up, with Aaron and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the council of elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the place where the God of Israel stood; and under his feet it was like a pavement of sapphire slabs, and like the very look of the sky’s expanse in its clearness. [a] 11 And of the chosen men of Israel not one was lost. They appeared in the place of God, and they ate and drank. [b]

12 And the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets — the law and the commands — that I have written, to give them as their law.” 13 And Moses rose with Joshua, the man who attended him, and they went up onto the mountain of God; 14 and to the elders they said, “Wait here quietly until we come back to you. Look — Aaron and Hur are with you. If a case comes up for anyone, let him go to them.” 15 So Moses and Joshua went up onto the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 And the glory of God came down on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day the Lord called Moses out of the middle of the cloud. 17 And the look of the glory of the Lord was like a blazing fire on the top of the mountain, in front of the children of Israel. 18 And Moses went into the middle of the cloud and went up the mountain. And Moses was there on the mountain forty days and forty nights.