1 And He said to Moses, “Come up to YHWH, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy from [the] elderly of Israel, and you have bowed yourselves far off”; 2 and Moses has drawn near to YHWH by himself; and they do not draw near, and the people do not go up with him. 3 And Moses comes in, and recounts to the people all the words of YHWH, and all the judgments, and all the people answer [with] one voice, and say, “All the words which YHWH has spoken we do.” 4 And Moses writes all the words of YHWH, and rises early in the morning, and builds an altar under the hill, and twelve standing pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel; 5 and he sends the youths of the sons of Israel, and they cause burnt-offerings to ascend, and sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings to YHWH—calves. 6 And Moses takes half of the blood and puts [it] in basins, and he has sprinkled half of the blood on the altar; 7 and he takes the Scroll of the Covenant, and proclaims [it] in the ears of the people, and they say, “All that which YHWH has spoken we do, and we obey.” 8 And Moses takes the blood and sprinkles [it] on the people, and says, “Behold, the blood of the covenant which YHWH has made with you, concerning all these things.” 9 And Moses goes up, Aaron also, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from [the] elderly of Israel, 10 and they see the God of Israel, and under His feet [is] as the work of a pavement of sapphire, and as the substance of the heavens for purity; 11 and He has not put forth His hand to those of the sons of Israel who are near, and they see God, and eat and drink. 12 And YHWH says to Moses, “Come up to Me [on] the mountain and be there, and I give to you the tablets of stone, and the Law, and the command, which I have written to direct them.” 13 And Moses rises—his minister Joshua also—and Moses goes up to the mountain of God; 14 and he has said to the elderly, “Abide for us in this [place] until we return to you, and behold, Aaron and Hur [are] with you—he who has matters comes near to them.” 15 And Moses goes up to the mountain, and the cloud covers the mountain; 16 and the glory of YHWH dwells on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covers it [for] six days, and He calls to Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud. 17 And the appearance of the glory of YHWH [is] as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain, before the eyes of the sons of Israel; 18 and Moses goes into the midst of the cloud, and goes up to the mountain, and Moses is on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Exodus · Literal Standard Version
Exodus 24 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Aaron
Moses' brother and spokesman, Israel's first high priest.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 4–40; Leviticus 8–10
Hur
The man who with Aaron held up Moses' hands during the battle with Amalek at Rephidim, and who was left with Aaron to settle disputes while Moses went up the mountain. Exodus 31:2…
Cited in the guide: Exodus 17:10; Exodus 17:12; Exodus 24:14
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Places
Mount Sinai
The location is strongly debated — traditional Jebel Musa in the southern Sinai Peninsula is only one of several proposals (approximate location). It is where the Law was given.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 19:20; Exodus 3:1; Exodus 24:12
Cross references (18)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Numbers 11:16; Exodus 6:23; Leviticus 10:1–2; Exodus 28:1; Exodus 19:24
- 2 Hebrews 10:21–22; Exodus 24:18; Exodus 24:15; Exodus 24:13; Jeremiah 30:21
- 3 Exodus 19:8; Exodus 24:7; Joshua 24:22; Deuteronomy 5:1; Deuteronomy 6:1
- 4 Genesis 28:18; Deuteronomy 31:9; Revelation 21:14; Galatians 2:9; Luke 22:30
- 5 Exodus 18:12; Leviticus 7:11–21; Exodus 19:22; Leviticus 1:1–17; Leviticus 3:1–17
- 6 1 Peter 1:19; Exodus 24:8; Hebrews 9:18; Leviticus 4:6; Hebrews 12:24
- 7 Deuteronomy 31:11–13; Hebrews 9:18–23; Exodus 24:3–4; 1 Thessalonians 5:27; Colossians 4:16
- 8 Hebrews 10:4–5; Exodus 24:6; Ezekiel 36:25; Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 13:20
- 9 Exodus 24:1
- 10 John 1:18; Ezekiel 10:1; Exodus 33:23; Genesis 32:30; Exodus 33:20
- 11 Exodus 18:12; Luke 15:23–24; Genesis 31:54; Genesis 16:13; Deuteronomy 12:7
- 12 Deuteronomy 5:22; Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:15–16; Hebrews 9:4; 2 Corinthians 3:3
- 13 Exodus 33:11; Numbers 11:28; Exodus 17:9–14; Exodus 3:1; Exodus 32:17
- 14 Exodus 17:12; Exodus 17:10; Genesis 22:5; Exodus 18:25–26; 1 Samuel 13:8–13
- 15 Exodus 19:9; Matthew 17:5; Exodus 19:16; 2 Chronicles 6:1
- 16 Exodus 16:10; Numbers 16:42; Ezekiel 1:28; Leviticus 9:23; Numbers 14:10
- 17 Hebrews 12:29; Deuteronomy 4:24; Exodus 3:2; Hebrews 12:18; Deuteronomy 4:36
- 18 Deuteronomy 9:9; Deuteronomy 10:10; Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:18; Deuteronomy 9:25
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For they declare that the twelve sons of Jacob, from whom also sprung twelve tribes,-- the breastplate of the high priest, which bore twelve precious stones and twelve little bells, --the twelve stones which were placed by Moses at the foot of the mountain, --the same number which was placed by Joshua in the river, and again, on the other …
A candid mind, if I may so speak, cannot but be anxious, for example, to ascertain what is meant by the fact that Moses and Elijah, and our Lord Himself, all fasted for forty days. And except by knowledge of and reflection upon the number, the difficulty of explaining the figure involved in this action cannot be got over.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
Moses, of a truth, was the first to abide fasting with God for forty days and again for another forty, and thus doubtless to afflict himself with hunger on the Sabbaths although the law forbade self-affliction on the Sabbath.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 9 (1899)