Exodus 24:1

1 And he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the chiefs of Israel; and give me worship from a distance.

Exodus 24:1 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 24:1

And he said unto Moses
Who said? no doubt a divine Person, and yet what this Person said is,

come up unto the Lord;
meaning either to himself, or one divine Person called to Moses to come up to another: according to the Targum of Jonathan, it was Michael, the prince of wisdom; not a created angel, but the eternal Word, Wisdom, and Son of God; who said this on the seventh day of the month, which was the day after the giving of the law, or ten commands; though Jarchi says this paragraph was before the ten commands, and was said on the fourth of Sivan; but the Targumist seems most correct:

come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy
of the elders of Israel;
Nadab and Abihu were the two eldest sons of Aaron, ( Exodus 6:23 ) and the seventy elders were not all the elders of Israel, but were so many of them selected out of them, the chief and principal; who were heads of tribes and families, and were no doubt many, if not all of them, of those who by the advice of Jethro were chosen to be rulers of thousands, hundreds, and fifties; these were called to come up to the Lord on the mountain, but not to the top of it, only Moses went thither:

and worship ye afar off:
from the people, and even at a distance from Moses; for he only was admitted near to God, as the following verse shows.

Exodus 24:1 In-Context

1 And he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the chiefs of Israel; and give me worship from a distance.

2 And Moses only may come near to the Lord; but the others are not to come near, and the people may not come up with them.

3 Then Moses came and put before the people all the words of the Lord and his laws: and all the people, answering with one voice, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do.

4 Then Moses put down in writing all the words of the Lord, and he got up early in the morning and made an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 And he sent some of the young men of the children of Israel to make burned offerings and peace-offerings of oxen to the Lord.