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LXX Exodus

Septuagint

About this book

The Call to Ascend

Chapter 24

1 He told Moses, “Go up to the Lord, you and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they will bow before the Lord from a distance. 2 Moses alone will approach God, but they will not approach, and the people will not come up with them.”

The Covenant and Its Book

3 Moses went in and recounted to the people all the words of God and the statutes. And all the people answered with one voice, saying, “We will do and listen to all the words the Lord has spoken.”

4 Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. Moses got up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and set up twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 He sent out the young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered whole burnt offerings, and they sacrificed young calves as a deliverance sacrifice to God.

6 Moses took half the blood and poured it into bowls, and half the blood he poured out toward the altar.

7 He took the book of the covenant and read it in the ears of the people, and they said, “We will do and listen to everything the Lord has said.”⁠

8 Moses took the blood and scattered it over the people, and said, “Look, the blood of the covenant, that the Lord made with you concerning all these words.”

The Place Where God Stood

9 Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s council of elders went up. 10 And they saw the place where the God of Israel stood.⁠ What was under his feet was like lapis lazuli brickwork, and like the appearance of the vault of the sky in its purity. 11 Not one of the chosen ones of Israel was missing, and they appeared in the place of God, and ate and drank.

Moses and Joshua Ascend

12 The Lord told Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and be there. I will give you the stone tablets, the law and the commands, that I wrote to legislate for them.”

13 Moses got up, and Joshua who attended him, and they went up into God’s mountain.

14 They told the elders, “Wait quietly here until we return to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you. If anyone has a case, let them go to them.”

15 Moses and Joshua went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

16 God’s glory came down on Mount Sinai,⁠ and the cloud covered it for six days. The Lord called Moses on the seventh day from the middle of the cloud. 17 The appearance of the Lord’s glory was like burning fire on the top of the mountain, before the sons of Israel.

18 Moses went into the middle of the cloud, and went up to the mountain, and was there on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

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Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Exodus 24:10 and Philo, On the Confusion of Tongues 95–97

Septuagint · Classical

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Summary

Philo reads Exodus 24 in the Greek Septuagint, where the elders see only the place where God stood rather than seeing God directly. The Greek version softens the Hebrew Bible’s claim that the elders saw God.

Passages

LXX Exodus 24:10

Septuagint
9 Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s council of elders went up. 10 And they saw the place where the God of Israel stood. What was under his feet was like lapis lazuli brickwork, and like the appearance of the vault of the sky in its purity. 11 Not one of the chosen ones of Israel was missing, and they appeared in the place of God, and ate and drank.
300–201 BCE Read in LXX Exodus

Philo, On the Confusion of Tongues 95–97

Classical
95 But it is the distinctive mark of those who serve the living God neither to concern themselves with the work of cup-bearers, or bakers, or cooks, or any other earthly employments, nor to trouble themselves about arranging or adorning their bodies like bricks, but to mount up with their reason to the height of heaven, having chosen Moses, the type of the race which loves God, to be the guide of their path; 96 for then “they will see the place which is visible,” on which the unchangeable and unalterable God stands; and the footstool beneath his feet, which is, as it were, a work of sapphire stone, and, as it were, a resemblance to the firmament of heaven, namely, the world perceptible by the outward senses, which he describes allegorically by these figures. 97 For it is very fitting for those who have formed a fellowship for learning to desire to see him; and, if they are unable to do that, at least to see his image, the most sacred word, and, next to that, the most perfect work of all the things perceptible by the outward senses, namely, the world? For to philosophise is nothing other than to desire to see things accurately.
20–50 CE Read in Philo, On the Confusion of Tongues

References

“... At other times, Scripture presents the experience of seeing God in more active, physical terms. In Genesis 32:25-33—the all-important passage for Philo’s thought that narrates Jacob’s change of name to ‘Israel’—the patriarch wrestles with a man. Afterwards, however, in naming Peniel, he says, ‘I have seen God face to face.’ Another passage, Exodus 24:9-11, also describes physical sight, though God Himself is not directly seen. It says, ‘And Moses went up, and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the place where the God of Israel was standing; and there was under His feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, just like the appearance of the firmament of heaven in purity. And not one of the chosen ones of Israel perished; and they appeared in the place of God and ate and drank.’ (my translation) ...”
Ellen Birnbaum, The Place of Judaism in Philo’s Thought: Israel, Jews, and Proselytes (Atlanta: Scholars, 1996), 78.

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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LXX Exodus 24:10 and Philo, On the Confusion of Tongues 95–97

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