Exodus 24:18
in Exodus 24Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
KJV
And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
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This verse in Exodus 24
Commentary
13 notes on this verseIf, 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.
This site's exposition
like devouring fire on the top of the mount
on Exodus 24:17-18
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Moses himself was so purified and freed from his body by a fast of forty days that his whole self took on a glorious appearance of divinity. Still in the darkness of our body, he gleamed with the full radiance of divinity. The eyes of …
A commentator
Philoxenus of Mabbug13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence · Written before 523.
proposed
And like this holy man the blessed Moses also was twice deemed worthy to go unto the thick darkness and to receive the law upon the tablets; and he was made pure by fasting like unto this, and then he was deemed worthy of the …
Do you now recognize the harm caused by intemperance? Look in turn at the instances of good behavior due to fasting. The great Moses, after keeping his fast for forty days, was able to get the tables of the law. When he came down from the mountain and saw the people's sin, the tablets which he had been successful in obtaining through such intercession he threw down and smashed, thinking it was preposterous that an indulgent and sinful people should receive laws of the Lord's own making.
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 1 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Christ was such a Center in His ascension. It is written in Exodus: "Moses passed into the midst of the cloud, and there he stayed for forty days and forty nights." And this is what Christ was in His ascension.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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.
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Moses went into the midst of the cloud - It was an extraordinary presence of mind, which the grace of God furnished him with, else he durst not have ventured into the cloud, especially when it broke out in devouring fire.
And Moses went into the midst of the cloud,....
8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the L ORD hath made with you concerning all these words. The first two verses record the appointment of a second session upon mount Sinai, for the making of laws, when an end was put to the first.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
During this period of forty days, and the second period when the tables were renewed, Moses neither ate bread nor drank water. Compare marginal references. In like manner, Elijah fasted for forty days, when he visited the same spot 1Ki 19:8. The two who met our Saviour on the Mount of Transfiguration Mat 17:3, the one representing the law, the other representing the Prophets, thus shadowed forth in their own experience the Fast of Forty days in the wilderness of Judaea.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיָּבֹ֥א | vaiyavo' | and he went | H935 → | 2568 times |
| מֹשֶׁ֛ה | mosheh | Moses | H4872 → | 765 times |
| בְּת֥וֹךְ | betokh | in [the] midst of | H8432 → | 418 times |
| הֶעָנָ֖ן | heanan | the cloud | H6051 → | 87 times |
| וַיַּ֣עַל | vaiyaal | and he went up | H5927 → | 890 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| הָהָ֑ר | hahar | the mountain | H2022 → | 546 times |
| וַיְהִ֤י | vayhi | and he was | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| מֹשֶׁה֙ | mosheh | Moses | H4872 → | 765 times |
| בָּהָ֔ר | bahar | on the mountain | H2022 → | 546 times |
| אַרְבָּעִ֣ים | ʾarbaim | forty | H705 → | 136 times |
| י֔וֹם | yom | day[s] | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| וְאַרְבָּעִ֖ים | vearbaim | and forty | H705 → | 136 times |
| לָֽיְלָה׃ פ | layelah | night[s] | H3915 → | 233 times |
וַיָּבֹ֥אand he went
vaiyavo'H935 →2568 times
מֹשֶׁ֛הMoses
moshehH4872 →765 times
בְּת֥וֹךְin [the] midst of
betokhH8432 →418 times
הֶעָנָ֖ןthe cloud
heananH6051 →87 times
וַיַּ֣עַלand he went up
vaiyaalH5927 →890 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
הָהָ֑רthe mountain
haharH2022 →546 times
וַיְהִ֤יand he was
vayhiH1961 →3559 times
מֹשֶׁה֙Moses
moshehH4872 →765 times
בָּהָ֔רon the mountain
baharH2022 →546 times
אַרְבָּעִ֣יםforty
ʾarbaimH705 →136 times
י֔וֹםday[s]
yomH3117 →2304 times
וְאַרְבָּעִ֖יםand forty
vearbaimH705 →136 times
לָֽיְלָה׃ פnight[s]
layelahH3915 →233 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Deuteronomy 9:18Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you…
it leads to
- Exodus 34:28
So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 9:9
When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.…
- Exodus 34:28
Through
Exodus 34:28So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 9:18
Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 9:25
So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 34:1
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
- Deuteronomy 4:13
He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow—the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.
- Exodus 32:16
The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
- Deuteronomy 9:18
Through
Deuteronomy 10:10I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 9:18–19
Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you…
- Deuteronomy 9:18–19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Exodus
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 2.110; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 1; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1:7; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Peter Chrysologus, SERMON 166 and Philoxenus of Mabbug, 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence.