Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 24 is the covenant-ratification at Sinai — arguably the single most important chapter in the Hebrew Bible for New Testament Eucharistic theology. The 'blood of the covenant' formula at 24:8 is cited verbatim by Jesus at the Last Supper in all three Synoptic Gospels (Matt 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20) and by Paul at 1 Corinthians 11:25. Hebrews 9:18–22 explicitly builds its argument on this chapter's covenant-blood ritual.
Notable Variants
The 'blood of the covenant' formula at 24:8 (to haima tēs diathēkēs) — the core Exodus-text cited in every NT Last Supper account and in Heb 9:20; the theophanic 'they saw the God of Israel' at 24:10 — one of the few biblical texts that directly affirms human sight of God; the sapphire-pavement imagery at 24:10 echoed at Ezek 1:26 and Rev 4:6; the forty-day mountain stay at 24:18 — the template for Jesus' forty-day wilderness temptation (Matt 4:2).
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 24 preserves MT's 18-verse structure.
Then He said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD — you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel — and worship from a distance.
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders summoned tracks MT. The seventy-elders motif recurs at Num 11:16 and carries into Luke 10:1's seventy disciples.
Moses alone shall come near to the LORD; the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him."
Moses alone permitted full approach tracks MT. This sets up the mediator-hierarchy that 1 Timothy 2:5 ('one mediator between God and men') and Hebrews 8:6 ('a more excellent ministry, as the mediator of a better covenant') transpose Christologically.
Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do."
The people's unanimous 'all the words that the LORD has spoken we will do' tracks MT. The vow-formula (poiēsomen kai akousometha, 24:7) is the covenantal response.
Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
'Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD' — the Pentateuch's first explicit writing of Torah. Twelve pillars for the twelve tribes institutes the sanctuary-around-altar pattern.
He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD.
Young men offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings tracks MT. 'Young men' (neaniskoi) — before the priesthood is formally instituted at chapter 29, cultic action falls to lay Israelite males.
Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he threw against the altar.
The half-blood / altar-threw ritual tracks MT. The specific double-application (altar half + people half) sets up the parallel ratification-in-blood ritual of v. 8.
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. They said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will obey."
The 'Book of the Covenant' reading and the people's response ('all the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will obey') tracks MT. The LXX's poiēsomen kai akousometha — 'we will do and we will hear' — preserves the distinctive covenantal order where obedience precedes understanding.
Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."
Masoretic (WLC)
הִנֵּה דַם־הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת יְהוָה עִמָּכֶם
Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you
Septuagint (LXX)
ἰδοὺ τὸ αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης ἧς διέθετο κύριος πρὸς ὑμᾶς
Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has established with you
The single most NT-important phrase in Exodus. 'Blood of the covenant' — to haima tēs diathēkēs — is cited in every Last Supper account: Matt 26:28 ('this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many'), Mark 14:24 ('this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many'), Luke 22:20 ('this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood'), and 1 Cor 11:25 ('this cup is the new covenant in my blood').
Hebrews 9:18–22 cites Exodus 24:8 explicitly: "For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats … and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.'" The whole Hebrews 9 argument depends on this LXX text.
Jesus' institution of the Eucharist is programmatically Sinaitic: the 'blood of the covenant' inaugurates the New Covenant as Moses' did the Sinai covenant. The LXX is the scriptural substrate on which the Eucharistic theology of the NT stands.
Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders' ascent tracks MT.
and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַיִּרְאוּ אֵת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
they saw the God of Israel
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ εἶδον τὸν τόπον οὗ εἱστήκει ἐκεῖ ὁ θεὸς τοῦ Ισραηλ
they saw the place where the God of Israel stood
The MT boldly states that the elders saw God — one of only a handful of biblical texts to assert direct divine vision. The LXX softens it: they saw 'the place where the God of Israel stood.'
The LXX's interpretive move is typical of its approach to divine-appearance texts: the Greek translators were uncomfortable with literal seeing-God claims and inserted mediating vocabulary.
Even the LXX retains the sapphire-pavement imagery. Ezekiel 1:26 ('a sapphire stone, with the likeness of a throne') and Revelation 4:6 ('before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass, like crystal') both echo this Exodus 24:10 sapphire-pavement theophany.
John 1:18 ('no one has ever seen God') and 1 John 4:12 assert the invisibility-of-God theme that the LXX Exodus 24:10 partly supports — though they clearly depart from the MT's bolder vision-claim.
He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel. They beheld God, and they ate and drank.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְאֶל־אֲצִילֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא שָׁלַח יָדוֹ
He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ τῶν ἐπιλέκτων τοῦ Ισραηλ οὐ διεφώνησεν οὐδὲ εἷς
And of the chosen of Israel not one was wanting
The LXX reads the verse as a numerical preservation-note ('not one was missing') rather than as an aggression-restraint note. Significant divergence.
Both MT and LXX preserve the extraordinary image of 'they beheld God, and they ate and drank' — the covenantal meal on the mountain, prefiguring the Eucharistic meal that 1 Corinthians 10 develops.
The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment that I have written for their instruction."
The summons to receive 'the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment' tracks MT. The plaxi tou lithou ('tablets of stone') vocabulary carries into 2 Corinthians 3:3 (Paul contrasts 'tablets of stone' with 'tablets of human hearts').
Moses rose with Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.
Joshua as Moses' attendant (leitourgos) tracks MT.
He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them."
The delegation of authority to Aaron and Hur for disputes tracks MT.
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
Moses' ascent and the cloud-covering of the mountain tracks MT.
The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
The six-days cloud-cover and seventh-day divine call tracks MT. The pattern (six/seven) echoes the creation-rest pattern of Genesis 1–2.
The appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the sons of Israel.
The 'consuming fire' (pyr phlegon) imagery tracks MT. Hebrews 12:29 ('our God is a consuming fire') quotes LXX Deuteronomy 4:24 — the same fire-image in parallel Pentateuchal vocabulary. The LXX's theophanic fire is the consistent Exodus-Sinai visual.
Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Moses' forty-days-and-forty-nights on the mountain tracks MT. The forty-day / forty-night pattern echoes in Elijah (1 Kgs 19:8), Jesus (Matt 4:2, Mark 1:13, Luke 4:2), and the resurrection-ascension interval (Acts 1:3). LXX Exodus 24:18 establishes the foundational 40-day template.