Exodus 24:1-18 - The Covenant Ceremony

¹ And to Moses he said, "Go up to Yahweh--you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel--and you will worship at a distance. ² And Moses {alone} will come near to Yahweh, and they will not come near, and the people will not go up with him."

³ And Moses came, and he told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the regulations. And all the people answered with one voice, and they said, "All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do." ⁴ And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and he rose early in the morning, and he built an altar at the base of the mountain and [set up] twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ And he sent young men from the {Israelites}, and they offered burnt offerings, and they sacrificed sacrifices [as] fellowship offerings to Yahweh [using] bulls. ⁶ And Moses took half of the blood, and he put [it] in bowls, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ And he took the scroll of the covenant and read [it] in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen."

⁸ And Moses took the blood and sprinkled [it] on the people, and he said, "Look, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words."

⁹ And Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel went up. ¹⁰ And they saw the God of Israel, and [what was] under his feet [was] like sapphire tile work and like the very heavens for clearness. ¹¹ And toward the leaders of the {Israelites} he did not stretch out his hand, and they beheld God, and they ate, and they drank.

¹² And Yahweh said to Moses, "Come up to me [on] the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone and the law and the commandments that I have written to instruct them."

¹³ And Moses got up, and Joshua, his assistant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. ¹⁴ And to the elders he said, "Wait for us here until we return to you. And look, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever {has a dispute} will bring [it] to you." ¹⁵ And Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶ And the glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it [for] six days, and he called to Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷ And the appearance of the glory of Yahweh [was] like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of the {Israelites}. ¹⁸ And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.