Exodus 24

₁The Lord said to Moses: ‘Come up the mountain to Me, you, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and 70 leaders_of_Israel. When you are far from Me, you must bow. ₂Then you, Moses, must come to Me alone. The other men must not come near Me and no one must come with you up the mountain.’

₃Later Moses went to the people and he told them what the Lord had said, and all the laws that the Lord had given him. All the people said: ‘We will do everything that the Lord has said.’

₄Moses wrote down all the words that the Lord had said and early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He put up 12 stone pillars, one pillar for each tribe_of_Israel. ₅Moses sent the young Israelite men and they sacrificed burnt-offerings to the Lord and bulls for peace-offerings. ₆Moses took half of the blood and he poured it into bowls. He poured out the other half of the blood against the side of the altar. ₇He took the book in which he had written everything about the covenant that God had made with them. He read it to the people and they said: ‘We will do everything that the Lord has said. We will listen to Him.’

₈Then Moses took the blood in bowls and he sprinkled it on the people and he said: ‘This blood shows that the Lord has made a covenant with you and that you promise to keep it.’

₉Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and 70 leaders_of_Israel went up the mountain ₁₀and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was a floor of sapphire. It was as blue as the sky. ₁₁The Lord did not cause the leaders_of_Israel to die. They saw God and then they ate and drank together.

₁₂The Lord said to Moses: ‘Come up the mountain to Me and stay here. I will give you the flat stones on which I have written the laws. You must teach these laws to the people.’

₁₃Moses and Joshua, the one who helped him, got up and Moses went up the mountain of God. ₁₄Moses said to the leaders: ‘Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you. If anyone has a problem, he must go to Aaron and Hur.’

₁₅Moses went up the mountain and a cloud covered the mountain. ₁₆The glory of the Lord came down on Mount Sinai and the cloud stayed on the mountain for 6 days. On the 7th day the Lord called Moses from the cloud. ₁₇To the Israelites it looked like a big fire on top of the mountain. ₁₈Moses went into the cloud and he went up the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights.