Exodus 23:26-24:18

English Standard Version

²⁶^(A)None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the ^(B)number of your days. ²⁷I will send ^(C)my terror before you and will throw into ^(D)confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸And ^(E)I will send hornets^[a] before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. ²⁹^(F)I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. ³⁰Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. ³¹^(G)And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates,^[b] for ^(H)I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ³²^(I)You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. ³³They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, ^(J)it will surely be a snare to you.”

The Covenant Confirmed

24 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, ^(K)Nadab, and Abihu, and ^(L)seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ²Moses ^(M)alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

³Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and ^(N)all the rules.^[c] And all the people answered with one voice and said, ^(O)“All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” ⁴And ^(P)Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve ^(Q)pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. ⁶And ^(R)Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. ⁷Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, ^(S)“All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” ⁸^(T)And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

⁹Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and ^(U)seventy of the elders of Israel ^(V)went up, ¹⁰and they ^(W)saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of ^(X)sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. ¹¹And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ^(Y)ate and drank.

¹²The Lord said to Moses, ^(Z)“Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the ^(AA)tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” ¹³So Moses rose with his assistant ^(AB)Joshua, and Moses went up ^(AC)into the mountain of God. ¹⁴And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and ^(AD)Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”

¹⁵Then Moses went up on the mountain, and ^(AE)the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶^(AF)The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a ^(AG)devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. ¹⁸Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses ^(AH)was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.