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Then Yahweh said to Moses. “Come up to me {on top of this mountain}, you and Aaron and {his sons} Nadab and Abihu. Also take along seventy of the Israelite elders. You will all worship me at an {appropriate} distance. 2 Moses, you will come near to me alone. The others must not come near, and the rest of the people must not come up the mountain with you.”3 Moses went and told the people everything that Yahweh had said and all that he had commanded. The people all replied together, saying, “We will do everything that Yahweh has told us to do.” 4 Then Moses wrote down everything that Yahweh had commanded. Moses woke early the next morning and built an altar at the bottom of the mountain. He also set up twelve stones, one for each of the Israelite tribes. 5 Then he sent some young Israelite men to burn sacrifices to Yahweh and to sacrifice some bulls as offerings to promise friendship with Yahweh. 6 Moses took half of the blood of the animals that they slaughtered and put it in bowls. The other half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he loudly read the scroll on which he had written everything that Yahweh and the people were promising each other so all the people could hear it. Then all the people said, “We will do everything that Yahweh has told us to do. We will obey everything.”
8 Then Moses took the blood {that was in the bowls} and threw it on the people. He said, “This is the blood that confirms what Yahweh is agreeing with you—what you just heard and agreed to.”
9 Then Moses and Aaron along with Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy Israelite elders went up {the mountain}, 10 and they saw God, the one whom the Israelites worship. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of blue stones called sapphires. They were as clear as the sky is when there are no clouds. 11 God did not harm those Israelite elders {even though they saw him}. They saw God, and they ate and drank together.
12 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on top of this mountain and wait there. I will give you stone slabs, my law, and my commandments, all of which I have written so that you may teach them to the people.”
13 Then Moses started out with his assistant Joshua. He went {part of the way} up the mountain where God was. 14 Moses told the elders, “Stay here until we return. Do not forget that Aaron and Hur will be with you, so if anyone disputes {with his neighbor while I am gone}, he can go to them {and they will judge it}.”
15 Then Moses went {the rest of the way} up the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 Yahweh’s glory came down onto the mountain and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day, Yahweh called to Moses from the middle of the cloud. 17 To the Israelites, Yahweh’s glory looked like a fire consuming the top of the mountain. 18 Moses went into the cloud on top of the mountain and was there for 40 days and nights.