1 He said to Moses, “Come up to Yahweh, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship from a distance. 2 Moses alone shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near. The people shall not go up with him.” 3 Moses came and told the people all Yahweh’s words, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which Yahweh has spoken will we do.” 4 Moses wrote all Yahweh’s words, 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 of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of cattle to Yahweh. 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 all that Yahweh has said, and be obedient.” 8 Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words.” 9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up. 10 They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness. 11 He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank. 12 Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them.” 13 Moses rose up with Joshua, his servant, and Moses went up onto God’s Mountain. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us, until we come again to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them.” 15 Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 Yahweh’s glory settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud. 17 The appearance of Yahweh’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. 18 Moses entered into the middle of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Exodus · World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)
Exodus 24 World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- "World English Bible" is a trademark of eBible.org; the text is shown unaltered.
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)