Exoduschapter 24
18 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the LORD has spoken, we will do.”
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
This chapter is the day the covenant made at Sinai was sealed. Moses stands between the LORD and the people through all of it, going up, coming down and going up again. A first hearer knew the steps of a treaty in that world: terms written and read aloud, witnesses set up, blood, and a shared meal. Listen for each of those steps, and for the answer the people give. The chapter ends with Moses entering the cloud, and the next seven chapters are what he heard there.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, a people the covenant blood had been thrown on
- What
- The sealing of the covenant at Sinai with a reading of the law, sacrifices, blood and a meal before God.
- Where
- An altar with twelve standing stones at the foot of Mount Sinai, and then the mountain and the cloud on its summit.
- When
- The third month after the exodus, about 1446 BC on the early date this site follows, just before Moses spent forty days on the mountain.
- Why
- To bind Israel to the LORD by a formal act the whole nation witnessed and answered.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the law Exodus says Moses wrote at God's command, recorded at 17:14, at 24:4 and at 34:27, while he was going up and down the mountain between God and the people. The critical reading takes the legal sections for a later compilation from several sources, a position argued by Julius Wellhausen and the tradition following him, and the site states no verdict on it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 8 more paragraphs
Verse 4 records Moses writing the words down, and he acts through the chapter as the mediator between the two parties.
The occasion is a treaty ratification carried out in full, with the terms written and read aloud, the people answering twice, and twelve standing stones set up for the twelve tribes.
A first hearer knew that erected pillars served as covenant witnesses across that region, as they do between Jacob and Laban at Genesis 31:43 to 47.
He knew what a blood rite meant, and here the blood is divided, half thrown against the altar and half sprinkled on the people.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the division as half on each party to the transaction.
A hearer also knew that a meal in the presence of the overlord was the customary close of a covenant.
Seventy elders with Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu go up, see the God of Israel and eat and drink, and Albert Barnes reads the meal as taken from the peace offerings of verse 5.
Adam Clarke, citing Calmet, reads verse 4 as the drawing up of an act, so that the memory of the transaction would be preserved.
Significance
Israel said that all the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient, and they were bound by blood and by a shared table.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter ends with Moses going up into the cloud for forty days and forty nights, which is the gap the people fail to survive in chapter 32.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The chapter seals the covenant in blood and sends Moses into the cloud. The classical reading is mostly a reading of its order and its dates. Rashi holds that the call to come up was spoken before the Ten Words were given, and dates it to the fourth of Sivan (Rashi on Exodus 24:1:1, citing Shabbat 88a). The telling of the words to the people falls on that same day. The early rising of the fourth verse falls on the fifth of Sivan (Rashi on Exodus 24:3:1 and 24:4:2). What Moses wrote at that point Rashi limits to the Torah from its beginning up to the giving of the law, together with the commands given at Marah. The book of the covenant of the seventh verse has the same contents (Rashi on Exodus 24:4:1 and 24:7:1). The young men who offered the sacrifices are the firstborn sons (Rashi on Exodus 24:5:1, citing Zevachim 115b and Onkelos). The two basins hold the blood of the burnt offering and of the peace offerings. From them the Rabbis drew the three acts by which Israel entered the covenant, circumcision, immersion and the sprinkling of blood (Rashi on Exodus 24:6:2, citing Keritot 9a). The seeing of the God of Israel at the tenth verse is read as a fault rather than a gift. The nobles "gazed intently and failing in this they peeped", and the punishment was held back so that the joy of the giving of the Torah would stand (Rashi on Exodus 24:10:1). The cloud that covered the mountain for six days is a point the Rabbis themselves differ on. Rashi reports their difference rather than settling it (Rashi on Exodus 24:16:1). Through that cloud God made a path for Moses (Rashi on Exodus 24:18:1, citing Yoma 4b). Rashi is quoted from the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition of 1929 to 1934, public domain. Ibn Ezra comments at Exodus 24:1:1, 24:2:1, 24:5:1, 24:9:1, 24:15:1 and 24:17:1 under a licence that keeps his text off this page.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud draw on this chapter, cited here by reference. The covenant meal and the sprinkled blood are read in Avot DeRabbi Natan at 1:1, 1:8, 20:1 and 36:3. Its second recension carries them at 1:2, 25:7 and 46:16. The Ein Yaakov collections read them at Keritot 2:1, Nedarim 3:7, Nedarim 3:12 and Rosh Hashanah 2:2. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael reads the chapter at Tractate Bachodesh 2:25 and 3:2, and at Tractate Pischa 16:25. Bamidbar Rabbah carries it at 9:48, 11:3, 12:3 and 12:9. It carries it again at 15:21, 15:24, 17:5 and 19:33. The ascent and the forty days are drawn into the Jerusalem Talmud at Taanit 4:2:12 and 4:5:2. The same Talmud reads them at Megillah 1:11:5 and Rosh Hashanah 2:8:1. The Babylonian Talmud reads them at Berakhot 48b:10, Bava Metzia 82a:7 and Bava Kamma 46b:5. Midrash Lekach Tov reads the chapter at Exodus 24:2:1, 24:3:1 and 24:17:1, and Aggadat Bereshit at 72:1 and 74:2.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 24:1 to 24:18, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, 1040 to 1105; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 24:1:1, 24:2:1, 24:5:1, 24:9:1, 24:15:1 and 24:17:1, cited by reference, CC-BY-NC, 1089 to 1164; Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 88a, Zevachim 115b, Keritot 9a and Yoma 4b, as Rashi cites them, and Berakhot 48b:10, cited by reference; Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 2:25 and 3:2 and Tractate Pischa 16:25, cited by reference; Avot DeRabbi Natan, 1:1, 1:8, 20:1 and 36:3, and Recension B 1:2, 25:7 and 46:16, cited by reference; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/exodus/24.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026; MannaFest, the commentators and their dates, src/app/featured/the-jewish-writings/page.tsx, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Blood of the Covenant
The summons sets three distances at once. Seventy elders with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu are called up the mountain and told to worship afar off, the people stay below, and Moses alone comes near. Nadab and Abihu are named here among the men who will see God, and named again at Leviticus 10:1-2, where fire goes out from the LORD and kills them for offering strange fire.
Exodus 24:1
“He is, therefore, commanded to take with him Aaron his brother, and Nadab and Abihu, together with seventy of the elders of the people. This was the number of witnesses selected to behold the glory of God. Before, however, they ascended the mount, a sacrifice was offered by the whole people, and the Book of the Law was read.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Exodus 24:1
“Before they came near, they must worship. Thus we must enter into God's gates with humble and solemn adorations, draw near as those that know our distance, and admire the condescensions of God's grace in admitting us to draw near. Are great princes approached with the profound reverences of the body?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 24:1
“Are placed by some with great probability between Exo 24:8-9.”
Exodus 24:2
“Moses alone shall come near - The people stood at the foot of the mountain. Aaron and his two sons and the seventy elders went up, probably about half way, and Moses alone went to the summit.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 24:2
“For it is not everyone who may draw near to God but only one who, like Moses, can bear the glory of God. Moreover, before this, when the law was first given, the trumpet blasts, and lightnings, and thunders, and darkness, and the smoke of the whole mountain, and the terrible threats that if even a beast touched the mountain it should be stoned, and other like alarms kept back the rest of the people, for whom it was a great privilege, after careful purification, merely to hear the voice of God.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · ORATION 2.92patristic
Israel gives its consent three times in six chapters, at 19:8 before the law was spoken, here after the words and the judgments are read out, and again at verse 7 with and be obedient added to it. The answer comes with one voice and nothing in the text compels it. Chapter 32 stands forty days on the other side of this sentence.
Exodus 24:3
“Moses - told the people all the words of the Lord - That is, the ten commandments, and the various laws and ordinances mentioned from the beginning of the 20th to the end of the 23d chapter.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
This is the first occurrence of the word wrote in Scripture, and the first command to write anything came seven chapters earlier at 17:14, over Amalek. Moses writes the covenant here, and at 31:18 the tables are written with the finger of God, which is the phrase Egypt's own magicians reached for at 8:19. The altar stands for one party to the agreement and the twelve pillars for the other, one pillar to a tribe.
Exodus 24:4
“Pillars according to the number of the tribes - These were to represent the people, the other party to the covenant; and we may suppose they were set up over against the altar, and that Moses as mediator passed to and fro between them. Probably each tribe set up and knew its own pillar, and their elders stood by it. He then appointed sacrifices to be offered upon the altar.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Young men do the sacrificing because Israel has no priesthood yet, since the order for Aaron and his sons is given at chapter 29 and carried out at Leviticus 8. Burnt offerings and peace offerings are brought, the first given up whole and the second eaten, which is what makes the meal at verse 11 possible. Moses then divides the blood into two equal parts, half into basons and half sprinkled on the altar, so both parties to the covenant are marked with the same blood.
Exodus 24:5
“Young men of the children of Israel - See Exo 19:22; Exo 28:1; Lev 1:5. Burnt offerings ... peace offerings - The burnt offerings Lev. 1 figured the dedication of the nation to Yahweh, and the peace offerings Lev. 3 their communion with Yahweh and with each other.”
Exodus 24:6
“And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins,.... Half of the blood of the above sacrifices, this he put into basins, and set by, in order to sprinkle on the people: and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar; the Targum of Onkelos adds, to atone for the people. But the altar here seems to represent the Lord, who was one of the parties covenanting, and therefore is sprinkled with blood as a ratification of the covenant on his part, and the promises of it.”
he took the Book of the Covenant: The book is read out loud before the blood touches anybody, so the people agree to terms they have heard in full. Moses sprinkles the reserved half on them and calls it the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words. Hebrews 9:19-20 quotes this scene, and at the last supper Jesus takes the same words for himself, this is my blood of the new testament, at Matthew 26:28.
Exodus 24:7
“The book of the covenant - See Exo 20:22 note. The people had to repeat their assent to the book of the covenant before the blood was thrown upon them. Compare 2Ki 23:2, 2Ki 23:21; 2Ch 34:30.”
Cross references
Exodus 24:8
- Quoted inHebrews 9:20saying, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”
'This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you'
ConnectionsHebrews 9:20, Luke 22:20, Matthew 26:28
They Saw God and Ate
Seventy four men go up, and the text says without hedging that they saw the God of Israel. What it then describes is the pavement under his feet, a paved work of sapphire stone as clear as the body of heaven, and it gives no form and no face. Ezekiel 1:26 sets a throne of sapphire above the firmament in the same terms, and Matthew Henry notes that the Septuagint renders this line as the place where the God of Israel stood.
Exodus 24:9
“It would appear that Moses, Aaron with his two sons, and seventy of the elders Exo 19:7 went a short distance up the mountain to eat the meal of the covenant (compare Gen 31:43-47), which must have consisted of the flesh of the peace offerings Exo 24:5. Joshua accompanied Moses as his servant Exo 24:13.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 24:9
“Nadab, and Abihu--the two oldest sons of Aaron [Ex 6:23]. seventy of the elders--a select number; what was the principle of selection is not said; but they were the chief representatives, the most conspicuous for official rank and station, as well as for their probity and weight of character in their respective tribes.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Exodus 24:10
“They saw the place where the God of Israel stood (so the LXX.), something that came near a similitude, but was not; whatever they saw, it was certainly something of which no image nor picture could be made, and yet enough to satisfy them that God was with them of a truth.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 24:10
“And they saw the God of Israel--That there was no visible form or representation of the divine nature, we have expressly intimated (De 4:15). But a symbol or emblem of His glory was distinctly, and at a distance, displayed before those chosen witnesses.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Here the nobles see God, eat and drink, and are not struck, while at 33:20 the same book says there shall no man see me, and live. Exodus sets the two beside each other and reconciles neither, and 33:11 adds a third, that the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. John 1:18 says no man hath seen God at any time and points to the Son who declared him. Readers who take the appearances of God in the Old Testament as appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ read this verse that way, and others hold that what was shown was a glory rather than an unveiled sight.
Exodus 24:11
“He laid not his hand - i. e. He did not strike them. It was believed that a mortal could not survive the sight of God Exo 33:20; Gen 32:30; Jdg 6:22; Jdg 13:22: but these rulers of Israel were permitted to eat and drink, while they were enjoying in an extraordinary degree the sense of the divine presence, and received no harm.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 24:11
“They feasted upon the sacrifice, before God, in token of their cheerful consent to the covenant now made, their grateful acceptance of the benefits of it, and their communion with God, in pursuance of that covenant. Thus believers eat and drink with Christ at his table, Luke xxii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Moses Enters the Cloud
God calls Moses higher and says the tables carry commandments which I have written, so the writing at verse 4 was Moses' hand and this writing is God's own. Joshua goes up as his minister, and he first appears eight chapters back choosing men to fight Amalek at 17:9. He is still with Moses coming down at 32:17, where he hears the noise in the camp and takes it for the sound of war.
Exodus 24:12
"Come up, and I will give thee a law, that thou mayest teach them. " Moses taught them nothing but what he had received from the Lord, and he received nothing from the Lord but what he taught them; for he was faithful both to God and Israel, and did neither add nor diminish, but kept close to his instructions.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 24:12
Many Jews understand the “tables of stone” to denote the Ten Commandments; “a law,” the law written in the Pentateuch; and the “commandments” (or “the commandment”), the oral or traditional law which was in after ages put into writing in the Mishna and the Gemara. But it is more probable that the Ten Commandments alone are spoken of, and that the meaning is, “the tables of stone with the law, even the commandment.”
Exodus 24:12
“Come up to me into the mount, and be there - We may suppose Moses to have been, with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, about midway up the mount; for it plainly appears that there were several stations on it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 24:13
“Moses went up into the mount of God--He was called to receive the divine transcript. Joshua was taken a little higher, and it would be a great comfort for the leader to have his company during the six days he was in patient waiting for the call on the seventh or sabbath day.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 24:13
“Joshua was a type of Christ, and (as the learned bishop Pearson well observes) Moses takes him with him into the mount, because without Jesus, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, there is no looking into the secrets of heaven, nor approaching the glorious presence of God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 24:13
“And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua,.... In order to go up higher on the mount. Joshua, and he only, was to go up higher with him, though not to the top of the mount, at least not into the cloud upon it, as Moses did.”
Moses leaves a working court behind him, which is Jethro's arrangement from chapter 18 running for the first time without him. Aaron and Hur are named together because they are the two who held up his hands at Rephidim while Israel fought Amalek, at 17:12. The last instruction he gives before the cloud takes him is that any man with a matter should bring it to Aaron, and Exodus 32:1 opens with the people bringing Aaron a request of a different kind.
Exodus 24:14
“Tarry ye here for us - Probably Moses did not know that he was to continue so long on the mount, nor is it likely that the elders tarried the whole forty days where they were: they doubtless, after waiting some considerable time, returned to the camp; and their return is supposed to have been the grand cause why the Israelites made the golden calf, as they probably reported that Moses was lost.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The cloud covers the mountain for six days and on the seventh God calls Moses out of the middle of it. What Moses receives up there, in chapters 25 to 31, comes in seven speeches, and the seventh of them is the sabbath at 31:12-17. Genesis 1 and 2 put six days of making before a seventh that is blessed and sanctified, and the tabernacle account keeps that count from this verse onward.
Exodus 24:15
“And Moses went up into the mount,.... To the top of it, and as it seems alone, leaving Joshua behind in a lower part of the mountain: and a cloud covered the mount; in which cloud Jehovah was.”
Exodus 24:16
“And the seventh day he called - It is very likely that Moses went up into the mount on the first day of the week; and having with Joshua remained in the region of the cloud during six days, on the seventh, which was the Sabbath, God spake to him, and delivered successively to him, during forty days and forty nights, the different statutes and ordinances which are afterwards mentioned.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 24:16
“A cloud covered the mount six days - A visible token of God's special presence there, for he so shews himself to us, as at the same time to conceal himself from us, he lets us know so much as to assure us of his power and grace, but intimates to us that we cannot find him out to perfection.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
From the camp the glory looked like fire eating the top of the mountain, and Moses walked into the middle of it. Hebrews 12:18-29 sets this mountain against mount Sion and closes by saying that our God is a consuming fire. He stays forty days and forty nights, a span matched by his second ascent at 34:28, by Elijah at 1 Kings 19:8 and by Jesus in the wilderness at Matthew 4:2, and Deuteronomy 9:9 says he neither ate bread nor drank water.
Exodus 24:17
“The glory of the Lord was like devouring fire - This appearance was well calculated to inspire the people with the deepest reverence and godly rear; and this is the use the apostle makes or it, Heb 12:28, Heb 12:29, where he evidently refers to this place, saying, Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a Consuming Fire.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 24:18
“Divine grace animated and supported him to enter with holy boldness. Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights--The six days spent in waiting are not included. During that protracted period he was miraculously supported (De 9:9), on a peak scarcely thirty paces in compass.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3 more voices on this verse
Exodus 24:18
“If, then, any one desires to see this Image of God, he must love God, that he may be loved by God; and be no longer a servant but a friend, because he has kept the commandments of God, that he may enter into the cloud where God is.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 2.110patristic
Exodus 24:18
“Moses was sure that he who called him would protect him; and even those glorious attributes of God which are most terrible to the wicked the saints with a humble reverence rejoice in. He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly, is able to dwell even with this devouring fire, as we are told, Isa. xxxiii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 24:18
“Forty days and forty nights - During the whole of this time he neither ate bread nor drank water; see Exo 34:28; Deu 9:9. Both his body and soul were so sustained by the invigorating presence of God, that he needed no earthly support, and this may be the simple reason why he took none. Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights, sustained by the same influence, 1Ki 19:8; as did likewise our blessed Lord, when he was about to commence the public ministry of his own Gospel, Mat 4:2.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Covenant ratification narrative, the sealing of the Book of the Covenant read aloud to the people, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| All that the LORD has spoken we will do, said three times | The people answer at verse 3 with one voice, all the words that the LORD has spoken, we will do. At verse 7, after the book is read aloud, they answer again and add that they will be obedient. Counted in the Berean text of the chapter the consent is given twice by the people and written down once by Moses at verse 4. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the second answer as the renewed acceptance of the terms that the sprinkling of blood then ratified.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Exodus 24:6. | Exodus 24:3, Exodus 24:4, Exodus 24:7 |
| The blood divided in two | Verse 6 puts half the blood in bowls and throws half against the altar. Verse 8 takes the half in the bowls and sprinkles it on the people. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the division as the sign of a solemn ratification, half on each party to the transaction. The altar stands for one party and the twelve pillars of verse 4 for the other.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Exodus 24:6. | Exodus 24:4, Exodus 24:6, Exodus 24:8 |
| The three distances up the mountain | Verses 1 and 2 set the order of approach before anyone moves. The people stay at the foot, the seventy elders with Aaron and his two sons worship at a distance, and Moses alone comes near. Adam Clarke reads the elders as going probably about half way and Moses alone to the summit, and says plainly that this is his own reckoning of the several stations on the mountain.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Exodus 24:2. | Exodus 24:1, Exodus 24:2, Exodus 24:9, Exodus 24:13 |
The chapter closes the covenant that chapter 19 opened and that chapters 20 to 23 filled in. The dossier of this book anchors the covenant on Exodus 19:5 and 24:8, and names the Book of the Covenant here as the constitution the rest of the Torah is built on. Everything after this chapter in Exodus is either the pattern of the tabernacle or the breaking and repair of this covenant.
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter is also where the book records its own writing. Verse 4 says that Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD, and verse 12 promises tablets written by God. The book's claim about its own authorship rests partly here, and the dossier lists 17:14, 24:4 and 34:27 as the places Exodus records Moses writing at God's command.
The witnesses
Verse 10 is the one place in this chapter where the ancient versions part from the received Hebrew, and Matthew Henry records the difference. The Hebrew as the Berean gives it says that they saw the God of Israel. Henry notes that the Septuagint reads instead that they saw the place where the God of Israel stood. He takes the softer reading as evidence that whatever they saw came near a similitude without being one.
The New Testament's use
Verse 8 is quoted at Hebrews 9:19 and 20. The writer describes Moses taking the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkling the scroll and all the people. The words he gives Moses are, this is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep. The words of verse 8 are then set against the blood of Christ at Hebrews 9:11 to 14.
The same words stand behind Matthew 26:28, where Jesus says at the table, this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. A reader who wants to know why that sentence was intelligible to the men at the table should read verse 8 first.
Verse 17 is used at Hebrews 12:28 and 29, where the consuming fire on the mountaintop becomes the reason to worship with reverence and awe. Adam Clarke points to that place and reads the appearance as calculated to inspire godly fear.
The debated reading
What verse 11 means is the chapter's contested point, and it is contested against the rest of the book. Albert Barnes states the difficulty plainly. It was believed that a mortal could not survive the sight of God, and he cites Exodus 33:20, Genesis 32:30, Judges 6:22 and Judges 13:22. These rulers of Israel saw Him, ate and drank, and received no harm. Barnes reads verse 11 as meaning that God did not strike them, and holds that they were enjoying the sense of the divine presence in an extraordinary degree. Matthew Henry takes the other route and softens what was seen, following the Septuagint. The two readings agree that the text records a real sight and differ on what was seen.
Verse 12 carries a second dispute that Barnes reports rather than holds. Many Jews, he writes, understand the tablets of stone to mean the Ten Commandments and the law to mean the law written in the Pentateuch. The commandment on that reading is the oral law, later written down in the Mishnah and the Gemara. Barnes holds it more probable that the Ten Commandments alone are spoken of throughout the verse.
Where to go deeper
The covenant sealed here stands at the Mosaic covenant, with the blood at the blood and the later covenant at the new covenant. The mountain itself stands at the mountain. The words read aloud stand at the Ten Commandments. Moses as mediator stands at Moses wrote of me.
Keep studying
Words12
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Exodus 24:4, citing Calmet; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Exodus 24:9 and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Exodus 24:6.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.