Then the Lord said to Moses, "Come up to Me, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel's elders. You shall worship from a distance, but only you, Moses, may come near. The others must not approach, nor may the people come up with you."
Moses came down later, and told the people all the words and laws of the Lord, and they answered together, "Everything the Lord has spoken, we will do." Moses wrote down all the Lord's commands. Early the next morning, he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars, one for each tribe of Israel. Young men of Israel presented burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord.
Moses collected half of the blood in bowls and sprinkled the other half on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant, read it aloud to the people, and they declared, "We will do all that the Lord has said. We will obey." Moses sprinkled the blood on the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."
After this, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Beneath His feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. Though they saw God, He did not strike them down. They beheld Him, and they ate and drank in His presence.
Then the Lord called Moses higher: "Come up the mountain and remain with Me, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandments I have written for their instruction." So Moses called his assistant Joshua, and set out with him. They both climbed the mountain of God and he told the elders, "Wait here until we return. Aaron and Hur are with you—anyone who has a dispute may go to them."
When Moses went up, the cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of the Lord rested upon Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud remained, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within it. To the Israelites watching below, the glory of the Lord appeared like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. Then Moses entered the cloud, but Joshua didn't follow him, as the Lord had requested for only Moses. He went higher, remaining on the mountain forty days and forty nights.