24
1 He said to Moses [Drawn out], “Come up to Adonai, you, and Aaron [Light-bringer], Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel [God prevails]; and worship from a distance. 2 Moses [Drawn out] alone shall come near to Adonai, but they shall not come near. The people shall not go up with him.”
3 Moses [Drawn out] came and told the people all Adonai’s words, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which Adonai has spoken will we do.”
4 Moses [Drawn out] wrote all Adonai’s words, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel [God prevails]. 5 He sent young men of the children of Israel [God prevails], who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of cattle to Adonai. 6 Moses [Drawn out] took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Adonai has spoken will we do, and be sh'ma ·hear obey·.”
8 Moses [Drawn out] took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant ·binding contract between two or more parties·, which Adonai has made with you * concerning all these words.”
9 Then Moses [Drawn out], Aaron [Light-bringer], Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel [God prevails] went up. 10 They saw the God of Israel [God prevails]. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness. 11 He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel [God prevails]. They saw God, and ate and drank.
12 Adonai said to Moses [Drawn out], “Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the stone tablets † (of sapphire) with the Torah ·Teaching· and the mitzvot ·instructions· that I have written, that you may teach them.”
13 Moses [Drawn out] rose up with Joshua [Yah Salvation], his servant, and Moses [Drawn out] went up onto God’s Mountain. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us, until we come again to you. Behold, Aaron [Light-bringer] and Hur are with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them.”
(S: Maftir ·Conclusion·) 15 Moses [Drawn out] went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. (A: Maftir ·Conclusion·) 16 Adonai’s shekhinah [manifest weighty glory and presence of God] settled on Mount Sinai [Thorn], and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses [Drawn out] out of the middle of the cloud. 17 The appearance of the kavod Yahweh ·weighty glory of He sustains breathing· was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel [God prevails]. 18 Moses [Drawn out] entered into the middle of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses [Drawn out] was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Haftarah Mishpatim ·Taking leave ·Judgments, Rulings·:
Yirmeyahu / Jeremiah 34:8-22, 33:25-26
B'rit Hadashah ·New Covenant·: Luke 7:1-8:3
* 24:8 . Quoted in Heb 9:20 † 24:12 R. Note: Some Rabbis teach the original stone tablets came from the very throne of God or the pavement below his throne. God’s throne is described as made of sapphire in (Ex 24:10) and then “the stone” is directly referenced following in (Ex 24:12); see also (Ex 24:10, 24:12, 31:18, 32:16). God’s throne is described as made of sapphire (Ex 24:10; Ez 1:26, 10:1). Midrash teaches the tablets of heavenly words, the Ten Commandments, were tablets of sapphire cut from the Throne of Glory (Midrash Lekakh Tov, Ex. 31.18). See also (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, ch 46; Tanchuma, Parashat Ekev 9; Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 31:18). Some scholars say the Hebrew word rendered as sapphire more accurately relates to the modern lapis lazuli gemstone.