1 Then he said to Moses, “Go up to Yahweh, you, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu with seventy of the elders of Israel, and let them worship from a distance.
2 Moses alone shall go forward to Yahweh but not the others, nor shall the people go up with him.”
Conclusion of the Covenant
3 Moses came and told the people all the words of Yahweh and all his laws. The people replied with one voice: “Everything that Yahweh has said, we shall do.”
4 Moses wrote down all the words of Yahweh, then rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve raised stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.
5 He then sent young men from among the sons of Israel to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice bullocks as peace offerings to Yahweh.
6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; and with the other half of the blood he sprinkled the altar.
7 He then took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. They said, “All that Yahweh said we shall do and obey.”
8 Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people saying, “Here is the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
9 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the seventy elders of Israel.
10 They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was what seemed like a pavement of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.
11 And he did not let his hand overpower these chosen men from among the sons of Israel; they looked on God and ate and drank.
Moses is given the Law
12 Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there. I will give you the slabs of stone, the Teaching and commandment which I have written for their instruction.”
13 So Moses arose with his servant, Joshua, and before going up the mountain of God,
14 Moses said to the elders, “Remain here until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you; let who ever has a dispute to settle, go to them.”
15 When Moses went up the mountain a cloud covered it.
16 The Glory of Yah weh rested on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day He called to Moses from within the cloud.
17 The Glory of Yahweh appeared like a con suming fire on the top of the mountain: so it was as it appeared to the Isra elites.
18 And Moses entered the cloud and went up the mountain.
[Bol] Moses stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
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Comments Exodus, Chapter 24
• 24.3 The most important events of the Bible are at times the most briefly related. At the foot of Mount Sinai the Covenant which would govern the life of Israel was signed.
Two scenes depict the celebration of the Covenant. First, Moses and the elders of Israel witness the Glory of Yahweh over Mount Si nai. Later, upon Moses’ return, the people seal the Covenant by means of a solemn sacrifice.
Moses went up with the seventy elders. The Covenant was something of such supre macy, that it was not fitting that the commitment of the people be guaranteed only by the spiritual experiences of Moses. Seventy witnesses would be able to relate what they had seen. They climb up the mountain, impressive in its aloneness, the blue transparency of the sky, the brilliance of the sun—all these prepared them to see the Glory of God. Yahweh became present and they saw him in some way, in so far as peo ple can meet the living God, “Whom no one has ever seen” (Jn 1:18).
Here is the blood of the Covenant… According to the custom of the time, both parties to the contract were sprinkled with the blood of the victims. Since the altar represented Yahweh, it received this sprinkled blood on his behalf. These details should be remembered when we read what Jesus declares at the Last Supper, “This is the blood of the Cove nant which will be shed for the multitude” (Mk 14:24).
With the slabs of stone, the people will preserve the memory of the meeting at Sinai. Together with other remembrances of the time in the desert, these would be kept in a vessel of precious wood called the Ark of the Covenant.
With the passage of time, the people of Is rael would forget the commitment from which the Slabs of the Law originated. They would consider the Ark as a miraculous object providing them with God’s protection (1 S 4:4). Therefore the Ark would lose its original significance and God would permit it to disappear in the midst of the national catastrophe.
According to the oldest account, Moses wrote on the slabs of stone while God dictated (Ex 34:28). Later stories amplified the event, as usual, and said: the writing was God’s (31:18; 32:16).
This contradiction should help us to understand what is God’s inspiration in the Bible. We know that the Bible is the Word of God, and yet it is also just as truly the work of those who have written it, each one in his own style, according to his culture and his temperament. We have already seen many strange details, primitive ideas characteristic of an era and a culture. Af fir mations in one place should be balanced by those in another. Teaching that is valid at one time will be corrected when people have made further progress. God is res ponsible for the book as a whole, but not for details taken in isolation.
• 18. The continuation of this reading is found in 31:18. Chapters 32–34 were artificially put in the place they now occupy in the Bible for the purpose of separating chapters 25–31, wherein Yahweh orders the construction of the Sanctuary, from chapters 35–40, wherein Moses constructs the Sanctuary.
The Book of Exodus is apparently in disorder, due to the fact that its purpose was to combine elements of different ages. Ancient traditions clearly state the commandments of the Covenant (ch. 20 and 34:10): justice and service of the only God. But much later, when the Jews had returned from exile, it would consider that worship celebrated in the Temple of Jerusalem was the first duty of the nation. It was then that the long chapters 25–31 and 35–40 were inserted to show that cult was already at the heart of God’s revelation to Moses.
Centuries after Moses’ time, the traditions of the Hebrew people recalled how, in the desert, the Ark of God was kept in a tent. The Ark was a box of precious wood that contained the slabs of stone on which the Law had been engraved, together with a little manna and other remembrances of the wonders God had performed in the desert.
When the priests of Israel wrote these chapters, the people of God had a wonderful Temple in Jerusalem where the Ark was kept. It pleased them to think that the Tent of the desert had some similarity with the Temple; deliberately, they gave it dimensions half the size of the Temple of Jerusalem and they thought that Moses had built that tent, following detailed instructions from God.
Later on, the verses 25:40 and 26:30 would be interpreted in a different way, as if Moses had been shown a heavenly Sanctuary of which the Tent in the desert, and then the temple of Jerusalem would be the earthly image. See Wis 9:8; Sir 24:10; Rev 11:19.