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 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.”

Pseudo Jonathan Exodus 24:10

Targum

And he took the Book of the Covenant of the Law and read before the people; and they said, All the words which the Lord hath spoken we will perform and obey. And Mosheh took half of the blood which was in the basins, and sprinkled upon the altar, to expiate the people, and said, Behold, this is the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you upon all these words. And Mosheh and Aharon, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, went up. And Nadab and Abihu lifted up their eyes, and saw the glory of the God of Israel; and under the footstool of His feet which was placed beneath His throne, was like the work of sapphire stone a memorial of the servitude with which the Mizraee had made the children of Israel to serve in clay and bricks, (what time) there were women treading clay with their husbands; the delicate young woman with child was also there, and made abortive by being beaten down with the clay. And thereof did Gabriel, descending, make brick, and, going up to the heavens on high, set it, a footstool under the cathedra of the Lord of the world whose splendour was as the work of a precious stone, and as the power of the beauty of the heavens when they are clear from clouds.

 Notes and References

"... Pseudo-Jonathan is the only Targum of this verse to specify that Nadab and Abihu (but not Moses) saw the Glory of God; see Exodus Rabbah 3:1; Leviticus Rabbah 20:10; PRK 26; Tanchuma A, Ahare Mot 6. See also Pseudo-Jonathan’s version of verse 11 ... According to Jerusalem Sukkot 4:54c and Leviticus Rabbah 23:8, the pavement, which was a reminder of the harsh slavery of Egypt, dis­ appeared when Israel was redeemed ... Pirke Rabbi Eliezar identified the angel as Michael. Gabriel is mentioned by Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 37:15; Deuteronomy 32:9; 34:6 ..."

McNamara, Martin Targum Neofiti 1, Exodus (pp. 231-232) Liturgical Press, 1994

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