Exodus 24:1-9

Confirming the Covenant

1 And to Moses he said, "Go up to Yahweh--you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel--and you will worship at a distance.
2 And Moses {alone} will come near to Yahweh, and they will not come near, and the people will not go up with him."
3 And Moses came, and he told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the regulations. And all the people answered with one voice, and they said, "All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do."
4 And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and he rose early in the morning, and he built an altar at the base of the mountain and [set up] twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.
5 And he sent young men from the {Israelites}, and they offered burnt offerings, and they sacrificed sacrifices [as] fellowship offerings to Yahweh [using] bulls.
6 And Moses took half of the blood, and he put [it] in bowls, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
7 And he took the scroll of the covenant and read [it] in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen."
8 And Moses took the blood and sprinkled [it] on the people, and he said, "Look, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words."
9 And Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel went up.

Exodus 24:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 24

In this chapter we have an account that Moses was ordered to come up to the Lord alone, Ex 24:1,2, but that before he did go up, he related to the people all the above laws delivered to him, which they promised obedience to, and so a covenant was made between God and the people by sacrifice, and by the sprinkling of blood, Ex 24:3-8, upon which he and Aaron, and his two sons and seventy elders of Israel, went up part of the mountain, and had a vision of God, Ex 24:9-11, when Moses with Joshua was called, and went up higher, until at length he entered into the cloud where the Lord was, and continued forty days and forty nights, Ex 24:12-18.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Or "by himself"; literally "to the solitude of him"
  • [b]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [c]. Or "we will attentively do" or "we will obediently do"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.