Exodus 24:12-18

The Start of Forty Days and Nights on Mount Sinai

12 And Yahweh said to Moses, "Come up to me [on] the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone and the law and the commandments that I have written to instruct them."

13 And Moses got up, and Joshua, his assistant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.

14 And to the elders he said, "Wait for us here until we return to you. And look, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever {has a dispute} will bring [it] to you."

15 And Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

16 And the glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it [for] six days, and he called to Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud.

17 And the appearance of the glory of Yahweh [was] like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of the {Israelites}.

18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Exodus 24:12-18 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

• [a]. Literally "[is] owner of words"
• [b]. Or "in the sight of"
• [c]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"