Chapter 24

¹And he said to Moses: Come up to the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel, and you shall adore afar off. ²And Moses alone shall come up to the Lord, but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people come up with him. ³So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice: We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken. ⁴And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord: and rising in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mount, and twelve titles according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵And he sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and sacrificed pacific victims of calves to the Lord. ⁶Then Moses took half of the blood, and put it into bowls: and the rest he poured upon the altar. ⁷And taking the book of the covenant, he read it in the hearing of the people: and they said: All things that the Lord hath spoken we will do, we will be obedient. ⁸And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. ⁹Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel went up: ¹⁰And they saw the God of Israel: and under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven, when clear. ¹¹Neither did he lay his hand upon those of the children of Israel, that retired afar off, and they saw God, and they did eat and drink. ¹²And the Lord said to Moses: Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and the law, and the commandments which I have written: that thou mayst teach them. ¹³Moses rose up, and his minister Josue: and Moses going up into the mount of God, ¹⁴Said to the ancients: Wait ye here till we return to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you: if any question shall arise, you shall refer it to them. ¹⁵And when Moses was gone up, a cloud covered the mount. ¹⁶And the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days: and the seventh day he called him out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. ¹⁸And Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: and he was there forty days, and forty nights.