Exodus 24:13

24:13 So Moses set out ¹  with ²  Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up the mountain of God.

Exodus 24:1

The Lord Ratifies the Covenant

24:1 ³ But to Moses the Lord ⁴  said, “Come up ⁵  to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from a distance. ⁶ 

Exodus 19:3

19:3 Moses ⁷  went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, “Thus you will tell the house of Jacob, and declare to the people ⁸  of Israel:

Exodus 19:21

19:21 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down and solemnly warn ⁹  the people, lest they force their way through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish. ¹⁰ 

Exodus 19:2

19:2 After they journeyed ¹¹  from Rephidim, they came to the Desert of Sinai, and they camped in the desert; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. ¹² 

Exodus 3:11

3:11 Moses said ¹³  to God, ¹⁴  “Who am I, that I should go ¹⁵  to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Matthew 20:26

20:26 It must not be this way among you! Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant,

Matthew 20:2

20:2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, ¹⁶  he sent them into his vineyard.

Matthew 4:11

4:11 Then the devil left him, and angels ¹⁷  came and began ministering to his needs.

[24:13]  ¹ tn Heb “and he arose” meaning “started to go.”

[24:13]  ² tn Heb “and.”

[24:1]  ³ sn Exod 24 is the high point of the book in many ways, but most importantly, here Yahweh makes a covenant with the people – the Sinaitic Covenant. The unit not only serves to record the event in Israel’s becoming a nation, but it provides a paradigm of the worship of God’s covenant people – entering into the presence of the glory of Yahweh. See additionally W. A. Maier, “The Analysis of Exodus 24 According to Modern Literary, Form, and Redaction Critical Methodology,” Springfielder 37 (1973): 35-52. The passage may be divided into four parts for exposition: vv. 1-2, the call for worship; vv. 3-8, the consecration of the worshipers; vv. 9-11, the confirmation of the covenant; and vv. 12-18, the communication with Yahweh.

[24:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “And he;” the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:1]  ⁵ sn They were to come up to the Lord after they had made the preparations that are found in vv. 3-8.

[24:1]  ⁶ sn These seventy-four people were to go up the mountain to a certain point. Then they were to prostrate themselves and worship Yahweh as Moses went further up into the presence of Yahweh. Moses occupies the lofty position of mediator (as Christ in the NT), for he alone ascends “to Yahweh” while everyone waits for his return. The emphasis of “bowing down” and that from “far off” stresses again the ominous presence that was on the mountain. This was the holy God – only the designated mediator could draw near to him.

[19:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and Moses went up.”

[19:3]  ⁸ tn This expression is normally translated as “Israelites” in this translation, but because in this place it is parallel to “the house of Jacob” it seemed better to offer a fuller rendering.

[19:21]  ⁹ tn The imperative הָעֵד (ha’ed) means “charge” them – put them under oath, or solemnly warn them. God wished to ensure that the people would not force their way past the barriers that had been set out.

[19:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and fall”; NAB “be struck down.”

[19:2]  ¹¹ tn The form is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive, “and they journeyed.” It is here subordinated to the next clause as a temporal clause. But since the action of this temporal clause preceded the actions recorded in v. 1, a translation of “after” will keep the sequence in order. Verse 2 adds details to the summary in v. 1.

[19:2]  ¹² sn The mountain is Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, the place where God had met and called Moses and had promised that they would be here to worship him. If this mountain is Jebel Musa, the traditional site of Sinai, then the plain in front of it would be Er-Rahah, about a mile and a half long by half a mile wide, fronting the mountain on the NW side (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 169). The plain itself is about 5000 feet above sea level. A mountain on the west side of the Arabian Peninsula has also been suggested as a possible site.

[3:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “And Moses said.”

[3:11]  ¹⁴ sn When he was younger, Moses was confident and impulsive, but now that he is older the greatness of the task makes him unsure. The remainder of this chapter and the next chapter record the four difficulties of Moses and how the Lord answers them (11-12, 13-22; then 4:1-9; and finally 4:10-17).

[3:11]  ¹⁵ tn The imperfect tense אֵלֵךְ (’elekh) carries the modal nuance of obligatory imperfect, i.e., “that I should go.” Moses at this point is overwhelmed with the task of representing God, and with his personal insufficiency, and so in honest humility questions the choice.

[20:2]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.”

[4:11]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and behold, angels.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).