Exodus 24:9-11

24:9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up, ¹  24:10 and they saw ²  the God of Israel. Under his feet ³  there was something like a pavement ⁴  made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself. ⁵  24:11 But he did not lay a hand ⁶  on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, ⁷  and they ate and they drank. ⁸ 

Leviticus 10:12-14

Perpetual Statutes Moses spoke to Aaron

10:12 Then Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his remaining sons, “Take the grain offering which remains from the gifts of the Lord and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy. 10:13 You must eat it in a holy place because it is your allotted portion ⁹  and the allotted portion of your sons from the gifts ¹⁰  of the Lord, for this is what I have been commanded. ¹¹  10:14 Also, the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution offering you must eat in a ceremonially ¹²  clean place, you and your sons and daughters with you, for they have been given as your allotted portion and the allotted portion of your sons from the peace offering sacrifices of the Israelites. ¹³ 

[24:9]  ¹ tn The verse begins with “and Moses went up, and Aaron….” This verse may supply the sequel to vv. 1-2. At any rate, God was now accepting them into his presence.

[24:10]  ² sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 254) wishes to safeguard the traditional idea that God could not be seen by reading “they saw the place where the God of Israel stood” so as not to say they saw God. But according to U. Cassuto there is not a great deal of difference between “and they saw the God” and “the Lord God appeared” (Exodus, 314). He thinks that the word “God” is used instead of “Yahweh” to say that a divine phenomenon was seen. It is in the LXX that they add “the place where he stood.” In v. 11b the LXX has “and they appeared in the place of God.” See James Barr, “Theophany and Anthropomorphism in the Old Testament,” VTSup 7 (1959): 31-33. There is no detailed description here of what they saw (cf. Isa 6; Ezek 1). What is described amounts to what a person could see when prostrate.

[24:10]  ³ sn S. R. Driver suggests that they saw the divine Glory, not directly, but as they looked up from below, through what appeared to be a transparent blue sapphire pavement (Exodus, 254).

[24:10]  ⁴ tn Or “tiles.”

[24:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and like the body of heaven for clearness.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven” or “sky” depending on the context; here, where sapphire is mentioned (a blue stone) “sky” seems more appropriate, since the transparent blueness of the sapphire would appear like the blueness of the cloudless sky.

[24:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “he did not stretch out his hand,” i.e., to destroy them.

[24:11]  ⁷ tn The verb is חָזָה (khazah); it can mean “to see, perceive” or “see a vision” as the prophets did. The LXX safeguarded this by saying, “appeared in the place of God.” B. Jacob says they beheld – prophetically, religiously (Exodus, 746) – but the meaning of that is unclear. The fact that God did not lay a hand on them – to kill them – shows that they saw something that they never expected to see and live. Some Christian interpreters have taken this to refer to a glorious appearance of the preincarnate Christ, the second person of the Trinity. They saw the brilliance of this manifestation – but not the detail. Later, Moses will still ask to see God’s glory – the real presence behind the phenomena.

[24:11]  ⁸ sn This is the covenant meal, the peace offering, that they are eating there on the mountain. To eat from the sacrifice meant that they were at peace with God, in covenant with him. Likewise, in the new covenant believers draw near to God on the basis of sacrifice, and eat of the sacrifice because they are at peace with him, and in Christ they see the Godhead revealed.

[10:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “statute” (cf. 10:9, 11); cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “due”; NIV “share”; NLT “regular share.”

[10:13]  ¹⁰ tn For the rendering of the Hebrew אִשֶׁה (’isheh) as “gift” rather than “offering [made] by fire,” see the note on Lev 1:9.

[10:13]  ¹¹ sn Cf. Lev 2:3 and 6:14-18 [6:7-11 HT] for these regulations.

[10:14]  ¹² tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the cleanness of the place specified is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

[10:14]  ¹³ sn Cf. Lev 7:14, 28-34 for these regulations.