Exodus 24King James Version
Moses reads the book of the covenant to the people. They answer with one voice: all that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient. Moses sprinkles the blood of the covenant on them. He goes up the mountain into the cloud. The glory of the Lord rests on Sinai for six days. On the seventh day God calls him. Moses stays on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascend the mountain. They see God: pavement of sapphire, clear as sky, under his feet. They eat and drink in his presence and are not killed. Moses and Joshua go up further. Moses enters the cloud for forty days. He tells the people all of God's words; they agree collectively. Moses writes the covenant down, reads it, sprinkles blood on the people as the blood of the covenant. Then he ascends again.
Covenant ratification in Israel's tradition involves community consent, written documents, blood, a shared meal, and physical presence with God.
v8: "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" -- Jesus quotes this verse at the last supper when he says 'this is my blood of the covenant.'
Mount Sinai, the cloud-covered summit. Seventy elders is the council number from Israel's administrative structure. Sapphire or lapis lazuli was the rarest blue stone in the ancient Near East, associated with sky and heaven. The pavement under God's feet described in verse 10 is a visual parallel to ancient Near Eastern temple iconography where gods stood on cosmic platforms.
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, Aaron's sons; seventy elders of Israel; Joshua waits as Moses' attendant at the boundary; God appears on the mountain in a form they see but the text does not describe beyond sapphire and clarity.
The seventy elders eating before God on a mountain is one of the most remarkable visionary scenes in the Torah and usually passes without enough attention. These are not prophets or priests but representatives eating in the divine presence. The blood-of-the-covenant phrase echoes through Hebrews 9 and 10 and is the source of one of Jesus' most deliberate ritual quotations.
For when you want a moment where the distance between human and divine collapses and the relationship is sealed in the most concrete terms possible. Seventy people eat a meal in the presence of God and live. That is what this chapter says.
1And 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.
2And Moses alone shall come near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.
3And 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.
4And 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.
5And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.
6And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
7And 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.
8And 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.
9Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
10And 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.
11And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.
12And 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.
13And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.
14And 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.
15And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.
16And 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.
17And 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.
18And 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.