The Covenant Is Sealed

¹He said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and worship from a distance." ²Only Moses shall come near the LORD, but the others must not come close, and the people must not go up with him. ³Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. All the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words that the LORD has said, we will do." ⁴Moses wrote down everything the LORD had said. Early the next morning, he built an altar at the base of the mountain and set up 12 stone pillars — one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. ⁵He sent young men of the Israelites to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice oxen as peace offerings to the LORD. ⁶Moses collected half of the blood and put it in basins. The other half he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷Then he took the book of the covenant and read it out loud to all the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said. We will obey." ⁸Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Look at the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words." ⁹Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up. ¹⁰There they saw the God of Israel. Beneath his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear and brilliant as the sky itself. ¹¹He did not harm the leaders of the children of Israel; they saw God and ate and drank.