Exodus 24:2

2 And Moses alone shall draw nigh to God; and they shall not draw nigh, and the people shall not come up with them.

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 And to Moses he said, Go up to the Lord, thou and Aaron and Nadab and Abiud, and seventy of the elders of Israel: and they shall worship the Lord from a distance.

2 And Moses alone shall draw nigh to God; and they shall not draw nigh, and the people shall not come up with them.

3 And Moses went in and related to the people all the words of God and the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, saying, All the words which the Lord has spoken, we will do and be obedient.

4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 And he sent forth the young men of the children of Israel, and they offered whole burnt-offerings, and they sacrificed young calves as a peace-offering to God.