Exodus 24:2

2 Only Moses may come near to the LORD. The others shouldn't come near, while the people shouldn't come up with him at all."

Exodus 24:2 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 24:2

And Moses alone shall come near the Lord
Into the cloud where he was, and talk with him face to face, as a man talketh with his friend; which was great nearness indeed, and a peculiar favour and high honour was this:

but they shall not come nigh;
Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel:

neither shall the people go up with him;
not any of them, much less the whole body. It seems, by this account, that Moses had been down from the mount after he had received the laws recorded in the two preceding chapters; though as yet he had not related them to the people, but did before he went up again by the above order, as appears from what follows.

Exodus 24:2 In-Context

1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel's elders, and worship from a distance.

2 Only Moses may come near to the LORD. The others shouldn't come near, while the people shouldn't come up with him at all."

3 Moses came and told the people all the LORD's words and all the case laws. All the people answered in unison, "Everything that the LORD has said we will do."

4 Moses then wrote down all the LORD's words. He got up early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He set up twelve sacred stone pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 He appointed certain young Israelite men to offer entirely burned offerings and slaughter oxen as well-being sacrifices to the LORD.