¹ He then said to Moses, 'Come up to Yahweh, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel and bow down at a distance.

² Moses alone will approach Yahweh; the others will not approach, nor will the people come up with him.'

³ Moses went and told the people all Yahweh's words and all the laws, and all the people answered with one voice, 'All the words Yahweh has spoken we will carry out!'

⁴ Moses put all Yahweh's words into writing, and early next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.

⁵ Then he sent certain young Israelites to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice bullocks to Yahweh as communion sacrifices.

⁶ Moses then took half the blood and put it into basins, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.

⁷ Then, taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the listening people, who then said, 'We shall do everything that Yahweh has said; we shall obey.'

⁸ Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it over the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant which Yahweh has made with you, entailing all these stipulations.'

⁹ Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy elders of Israel then went up,

¹⁰ and they saw the God of Israel beneath whose feet there was what looked like a sapphire pavement pure as the heavens themselves,

¹¹ but he did no harm to the Israelite notables; they actually gazed on God and then ate and drank.

¹² Yahweh said to Moses, 'Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets -- the law and the commandment -- which I have written for their instruction.'

¹³ Moses made ready, with Joshua his assistant, and they went up the mountain of God.

¹⁴ He said to the elders, 'Wait here for us until we come back to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you; if anyone has any matter to settle, let him go to them.'

¹⁵ Moses then went up the mountain. Cloud covered the mountain.

¹⁶ The glory of Yahweh rested on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day Yahweh called to Moses from inside the cloud.

¹⁷ To the watching Israelites, the glory of Yahweh looked like a devouring fire on the mountain top.

¹⁸ Moses went right into the cloud and went on up the mountain. Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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