The Blood of the Covenant

24 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance.^{(A) 2} Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

³ Moses went and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances, and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”^{(B) 4} And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning, built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel.^{(C) 5} He sent young men of the Israelites, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the Lord. ⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar.^{(D) 7} Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”^{(E) 8} Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “Here is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”^(F)

On the Mountain with God

⁹ Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,^{(G) 10} and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.^{(H) 11} God^[a] did not lay his hand on the chief men of the Israelites; they beheld God, and they ate and drank.