The Covenant Sealed
1 He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel and worship from a distance. 2 Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but they shall not come near. Nor shall the people go up with him.”
3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances, and all the people answered with one voice and said, “Every word which the Lord has spoken we will do.”
4 Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord, then rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the base of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 He sent young men from among the Israelites who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of cattle to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “We will do everything that the Lord has said and will be obedient.”
8 Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.”
9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up. 10 They saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as if it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, as if it were the body of heaven in its clarity. 11 And upon the nobles of the Israelites, he did not lay his hand. They saw God, and ate and drank.
Moses on the Mountain
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and remain here, and I will give you the stone tablets and a law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”
13 Moses rose up with his minister, Joshua, and Moses went up onto the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them.”
15 Moses went up on the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. 16 And the glory of the Lord stayed on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. The seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. 17 The sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the Israelites. 18 Moses entered into the midst of the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.