Cutting the Covenant at Sinai

24 Then to Moses He said, “Come up to Adonai, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ² Moses alone is to approach Adonai, but the others may not draw near, nor are the people to go up with him.”

³ So Moses came and told the people all the words of Adonai as well as all the ordinances. All the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which Adonai has spoken, we will do.”

⁴ So Moses wrote down all the words of Adonai, then rose up early in the morning, and built an altar below the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ He then sent out young men of Bnei-Yisrael, who sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings of oxen to Adonai. ⁶ Then Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and the other half he poured out against the altar. ⁷ He took the Scroll of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. Again they said, “All that Adonai has spoken, we will do and obey.”

⁸ Then Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which Adonai has cut with you, in agreement with all these words.”^[a]

⁹ Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up. ¹⁰ They saw the God of Israel, and under His feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the very heavens. ^{[b] 11} Yet He did not raise His hand against the nobles of Bnei-Yisrael. So they beheld God, and ate and drank.

¹² Then Adonai said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the Torah and the mitzvot, which I have written so that you may instruct them.”

¹³ So Moses rose up along with his attendant Joshua, and Moses went up onto the mountain of God. ¹⁴ To the elders he said, “Wait for us here until we come back to you. See, Aaron and Hur are with you—whoever has a dispute should go to them.”

¹⁵ When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it. ¹⁶ The glory of Adonai settled upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. Then on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷ The appearance of the glory of Adonai was like a consuming fire^[c] on the top of the mountain in the sight of Bnei-Yisrael. ¹⁸ So Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up onto the mountain. Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.