Exodus 24

1 He said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, 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 the LORD, but they shall not come near. The people shall not go up with him.”

3 Moses came and told the people all the LORD’s words, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which the LORD has spoken will we do.”

4 Moses wrote all the LORD’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 the LORD.

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 the LORD 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 the LORD 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 The LORD 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 The LORD’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 the LORD’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.

Around Exodus 24

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

Exodus 24 · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this chapter says

The covenant is sealed in a ceremony. Moses comes down and tells the people all the LORD's words, and they answer with one voice: “All the words which the LORD has spoken will we do.” Moses writes them down, builds an altar with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes, and sends young men to offer sacrifices. He reads the book of the covenant aloud, and again the people say they will obey. Then he sprinkles them with the blood and says, “this is the blood of the covenant”

Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy elders go up the mountain. They see the God of Israel, with something like sapphire under his feet, and they eat and drink.

Then Moses goes further, with Joshua. The glory of the LORD settles on Sinai like fire, and Moses enters the cloud for forty days and forty nights.

Background

This is the formal making of the covenant between God and Israel at Sinai. The blood ceremony is echoed in the New Testament, where Jesus speaks of the blood of the covenant at the Last Supper (see Matthew 26) and the book of Hebrews connects the two (see Hebrews 9). Christians read these links in different ways. The meal on the mountain is a moment of close fellowship. The forty days lead to the instructions for the tabernacle in Exodus 25 and to the golden calf in Exodus 32.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 22 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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World English Bible. Public-domain source and edition notes