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Exodus

About this book

The Covenant Confirmed

Chapter 24

1 But to Moses the Lord said, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu,⁠ and seventy of the elders of Israel,⁠ and worship from a distance.⁠ 2 Moses alone may come near the Lord, but the others must not come near, nor may the people go up with him.” 3 Moses came and told the people all the Lord’s words and all the decisions. All the people answered together, “We are willing to do all the words that the Lord has said,” 4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and arranged twelve standing stones—according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 He sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings to the Lord.⁠ 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. 7 He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people,⁠ and they said, “We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken.” 8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people⁠ and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”⁠ 9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up,⁠ 10 and they saw the God of Israel.⁠ Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of blue sapphire, clear like the sky itself.⁠ 11 But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank.⁠ 12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments that I have written,⁠ so that you may teach them.”⁠ 13 So Moses set out with Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up the mountain of God. 14 He told the elders, “Wait for us in this place until we return to you.⁠ Here are Aaron and Hur with you. Whoever has any matters of dispute can approach them.” 15 Moses went up the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord resided on Mount Sinai,⁠ and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from within the cloud.⁠ 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in plain view of the people. 18 Moses went into the cloud when he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 24:11 and Isaiah 25:6

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Isaiah 25 recalls the Sinai vision where Israel’s elders saw God and ate with him. Isaiah reshapes it into a future moment of divine celebration on Zion and reimagines a covenant meal shared by a few leaders into a feast for all nations.

Passages

Exodus 24:11

Hebrew Bible
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of blue sapphire, clear like the sky itself. 11 But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank. 12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them.” 13 So Moses set out with Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up the mountain of God.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Isaiah 25:6

Hebrew Bible
4 For you are a protector for the poor, a protector for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat. Though the breath of tyrants is like a winter rainstorm, 5 like heat in a dry land, you humble the boasting foreigners. Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. 6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine—tender meat and choicest wine. 7 On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; 8 he will swallow up death permanently. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the Lord has announced it!
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

References

"... A sharp crescendo follows as the preceding pattern is repeated with extra-long lines. The long lines become very long and the short lines in another context might be considered long. The basic pattern of alternation between bicola and tricola is retained until the last line, when the climax is reached, expressed in a tricolon of extra-long lines. The bicolon that is built into the internal structure of the tricolon is surely not accidental. It is as if the previous strophe reached such a poetic climax that the poet had to stop for breath. Recall Revelation's half hour of silence before the seventh seal was broken. The rubric "It shall happen on that day" prepares the reader for the battle itself wherein Yahweh breaks through in all his power and glory to defeat the enemy and re-establish himself as king at Zion. Note the inclusio as the verb פקד opens the first line of the strophe and closes the last line of the tricolon. Yahweh charges the gods in heaven and the kings on earth. Note the assonance of 'aleph, sin and pe in the tricolon. The latter is another example of climactic parallelism. The expected bicolon to close the strophe is lengthened to a tricolon as the writer approached the climax. He used internal parallelism in the first line. The affirmation of Yahweh's victory was made in the second line harkening back to the royal hymns of the temple. The last line stands in chiasm with this affirmation underlining the epiphany of Yahweh on his mount in Jerusalem. The mention of the elders recalls an earlier epiphany of Yahweh on Mount Sinai recorded in Exodus 24:11. ..."
William R. Millar, Isaiah 24–27 and the Origin of Apocalyptic, HSM 11 (Missoula, MT: Scholars, 1976), 36–37.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Exodus 24:11 and Isaiah 25:6

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