The Covenant Ceremony

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

³ Moses 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.”^{(B) 4} And Moses wrote^(C) down 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. ⁵ Then he sent out young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. ⁶ Moses took half the blood and set it in basins; the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ He 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.”

⁸ Moses 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.”^(D)

⁹ Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders, ¹⁰ and they saw^(E) the God of Israel. Beneath His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire^[a] stone, as clear as the sky itself.^{(F) 11} God did not harm^[b] the Israelite nobles; they saw^(G) Him, and they ate and drank.

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

¹³ So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God.^{(I) 14} He 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.” ¹⁵ When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud^(J) covered it. ¹⁶ The 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.^{(K) 17} The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire^(L) on the mountaintop. ¹⁸ Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.^(M)