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The Promise Sealed with Blood

24 The Lord said to Moses, “You and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s leaders come up the mountain to me and worship at a distance. Moses may come near the Lord, but the others may not. The people must not come along with Moses.”

Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and legal decisions. Then all the people answered with one voice, “We will do everything the Lord has told us to do.” So Moses wrote down all the Lord’s words.

Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and ⌞set up⌟ 12 sacred stones for the 12 tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they sacrificed bulls as burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it into bowls, and he threw the other half against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Lord’s Promise [a] and read it while the people listened. They said, “We will obey and do everything the Lord has said.”

Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, “Here is the blood which seals the promise that the Lord has made to you based on everything you have just heard.”

Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s leaders. 10 They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made out of sapphire as clear and blue as the sky itself. 11 God didn’t harm these leaders of the Israelites. So they saw God, and then they ate and drank.

Moses Goes up the Mountain to Receive God’s Words Written on Stone

12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the teachings and the commandments I have written for the people’s instruction.”

13 Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the leaders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Take all your disagreements to them.”

15 So Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered it. 16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from inside the cloud. 17 To the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a raging fire on top of the mountain. 18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain. He stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.

Footnotes

  1. 24:7 Or “Covenant.”

24 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.

And Moses alone shall come near the Lord: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.

And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do.

And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord.

And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

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

10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.

11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

12 And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

13 And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.

14 And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.

15 And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.

16 And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

17 And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.