The covenant sealed with blood
1Then he said to Moses, “Come up to Yahweh — you, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel — and bow down at a distance. 2Moses alone is to approach Yahweh; the others must not approach, and the people may not come up with him.” 3Moses went and told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the laws, and all the people answered with one voice, “Everything Yahweh has spoken, we will do.” 4Moses wrote down all the words of Yahweh. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5He sent young men of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to Yahweh. 6Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7Then he took the book of the covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, “Everything Yahweh has spoken, we will do and obey.” 8Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you, on the basis of all these words.” 9Then Moses went up, along with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11God did not raise his hand against the leaders of Israel; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
Moses ascends the mountain
12Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the instruction and the commandment I have written for their teaching.” 13So Moses set out with Joshua his assistant, and Moses went up the mountain of God. 14He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” 15Then Moses went up the mountain, and the cloud covered it. 16The glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from inside the cloud. 17To the Israelites, the glory of Yahweh looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18Moses entered the cloud and went up the mountain, and he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
