Exodus 24:10
Hebrew Bible
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.”
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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LXX Exodus 24:10
Septuagint
8 And Moses, taking the blood, sprinkled it over the people and said, “Look, the blood of the covenant, which the Lord established with you concerning all these matters.” 9 And Moses and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up. 10 And they saw the place where the God of Israel stood and what was under his feet just like brickwork of lapis lazuli, and like the appearance of the firmament of the heavens in purity. 11 And not even one of the chosen leaders of Israel was missing, and they appeared in the place of God, and they ate and drank. 12 And the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me into the mountain and be there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the law, and the commandments that I wrote to instruct them.”
Date: 3rd Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In the closing scene of the Sinai narrative, Moses and a group of priests and elders experience a visio Dei and eat and drink on the mountaintop (Exodus 24:9-11). The Masoretic text indicates twice that they actually 'see God' (verse 10, 11), with no further explanation. Along with several other departures from a strictly literal translation, the LXX reports instead that they see God's 'place' ... It is not uncommon for the LXX to render active Hebrew verbs as passive and vice versa. In this case, however, a theological element is at stake. Even in the Masoretic text, some occurrences seem to be forms originally intended as qal ('to see') but later vocalized as niphal ('to appear') to attenuate the idea of humans seeing God. Point 7 not only tones down the idea of seeing God, but also avoids any possible contradiction with Torah commands and harmonizes 24:11 with its literary context. Earlier in the Sinai narrative, Moses is told that he must warn the people not to try to look at God, or else many will perish (19:21) ..."
Wyckoff, Eric John
When Does Translation Become Exegesis? Exodus 24:9-11 in the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint
(pp. 675-693) The Catholic Bible Quarterly 74, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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