Exodus 24:11 Kommentar

Moses, as mediator between God and Israel, having received divers laws and ordinances from God privately in the three foregoing chapters, in this chapter, I. Comes down to the people, acquaints them with the laws he had received, and takes their consent to those laws (Exo 24:3), writes the laws, and reads them to the people, who repeat their consent (Exo 24:4-7), and then by sacrifice, and the sprinkling of blood, ratifies the covenant between them and God (Exo 24:5, Exo 24:6, Exo 24:8). II. He returns to God again, to receive further directions. When he was dismissed from his former attendance, he was ordered to attend again (Exo 24:1, Exo 24:2). He did so with seventy of the elders, to whom God made a discovery of his glory (Exo 24:9-11). Moses is ordered up into the mount (Exo 24:12, Exo 24:13); the rest are ordered down to the people (Exo 24:14). The cloud of glory is seen by all the people on the top of mount Sinai (Exo 24:15-17), and Moses is therewith God forty days and forty nights (Exo 24:18).

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 24 In this chapter we have an account that Moses was ordered to come up to the Lord alone, Exo 24:1, but that before he did go up, he related to the people all the above laws delivered to him, which they promised obedience to, and so a covenant was made between God and the people by sacrifice, and by the sprinkling of blood, Exo 24:3, upon which he and Aaron, and his two sons and seventy elders of Israel, went up part of the mountain, and had a vision of God, Exo 24:9, when Moses with Joshua was called, and went up higher, until at length he entered into the cloud where the Lord was, and continued forty days and forty nights, Exo 24:12.

And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand,.... Which some interpret of his hand of prophecy, and of the measure of the Spirit, such an one as Moses had, and by virtue of which he lived forty days and nights without eating and drinking; but these not having such a measure of the Spirit, were obliged to eat and drink to support nature, as in the next clause: but it is rather to be understood of the hand of God; he did not inflict any disease or death upon them on their sight of him, it being a notion that no man could see God and live; but these men did live, not only Moses, and Aaron and his two sons, but the seventy elders, who were the principal choicest persons among the children of Israel; wherefore the Targum of Jonathan wrongly restrains this to Nadab and Abihu: also they saw God, and did eat and drink: though they saw God, they continued alive and well, and in good health, of which their eating and drinking were a sign and evidence; or they ate, as Abendana, the sacrifices of the peace offerings, which were usually eaten by the priests and the people; and as a feast was common at covenant making, here was a feast kept by the elders, the representatives of the people, when they covenanted with God. Onkelos favours this sense,"and they rejoiced in their sacrifices, which were accepted with good will, as if they had ate and drank.''

Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders, are commanded to go to the mount to meet the Lord, Exo 24:1. Moses alone to come near to the Divine presence, Exo 24:2. He informs the people, and they promise obedience, Exo 24:3. He writes the words of the Lord, erects an altar at the foot of the hill, and sets up twelve pillars for the twelve tribes, Exo 24:4. The young priests offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, Exo 24:5. Moses reads the book of the covenant, sprinkles the people with the blood, and they promise obedience, Exo 24:6-8. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel, go up to the mount, and get a striking display of the majesty of God, Exo 24:9-11. Moses alone is called up into the mount, in order to receive the tables of stone, written by the hand of God, Exo 24:12. Moses and his servant Joshua go up, and Aaron and Hur are left regents of the people during his absence, Exo 24:13, Exo 24:14. The glory of the Lord rests on the mount, and the cloud covers it for six days, and on the seventh God speaks to Moses out of the cloud, Exo 24:15, Exo 24:16. The terrible appearance of God's glory on the mount, Exo 24:17. Moses continues with God on the mount forty days, Exo 24:18.

Upon the nobles of - Israel he laid not his hand - This laying on of the hand has been variously explained. 1. He did not conceal himself from the nobles of Israel by covering them with his hand, as he did Moses, Exo 33:22. 2. He did not endue any of the nobles, i.e., the seventy elders, with the gift of prophecy; for so laying on of the hand has been understood. 3. He did not slay any of them; none of them received any injury; which is certainly one meaning of the phrase: see Neh 13:21; Psa 55:20. Also they saw God, i.e., although they had this discovery of his majesty, yet they did eat and drink, i.e., were preserved alive and unhurt. Perhaps the eating and drinking here may refer to the peace-offerings on which they feasted, and the libations that were then offered on the ratification of the covenant. But they rejoiced the more because they had been so highly favored, and were still permitted to live; for it was generally apprehended that God never showed his glory in this signal manner but for the purpose of manifesting his justice; and therefore it appeared a strange thing that these should have seen God as it were face to face, and yet live. See Gen 16:13; Gen 33:10; and Jdg 13:22, Jdg 13:23.

DELIVERY OF THE LAW AND COVENANT. (Exo. 24:1-18) Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord--The rehearsal of the foregoing laws and the ten commandments, together with the promises of special blessings in the event of their obedience, having drawn forth from the people a unanimous declaration of their consent, it was forthwith recorded as the conditions of the national covenant. The next day preparations were made for having it (the covenant) solemnly ratified, by building an altar and twelve pillars; the altar representing God, and the pillars the tribes of Israel--the two parties in this solemn compact--while Moses acted as typical mediator.

upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand--The "nobles," that is, the elders, after the sprinkling of the blood, were not inspired with terror in presence of the calm, benign, radiant symbol of the divine majesty; so different from the terrific exhibitions at the giving of the law. The report of so many competent witnesses would tend to confirm the people's faith in the divine mission of Moses. eat and drink--feasted on the peace offering--on the remnants of the late sacrifices and libations. This feast had a prophetic bearing, intimating God's dwelling with men.

These two verses form part of the address of God in Ex 20:22-23:33; for אמר משׁה ואל ("but to Moses He said") cannot be the commencement of a fresh address, which would necessarily require מ אל ויּאמר (cf. Exo 24:12; Exo 19:21; Exo 20:22). The turn given to the expression מ ואל presupposes that God had already spoken to others, or that what had been said before related not to Moses himself, but to other persons. But this cannot be affirmed of the decalogue, which applied to Moses quite as much as to the entire nation (a sufficient refutation of Knobel's assertion, that these verses are a continuation of Exo 19:20-25, and are linked on to the decalogue), but only of the address concerning the mishpatim, or "rights," which commences with Exo 20:22, and, according to Exo 20:22 and Exo 21:1, was intended for the nation, and addressed to it, even though it was through the medium of Moses. What God said to the people as establishing its rights, is here followed by what He said to Moses himself, namely, that he was to go up to Jehovah, along with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders. At the same time, it is of course implied that Moses, who had ascended the mountain with Aaron alone (Exo 20:21), was first of all to go down again and repeat to the people the "rights" which God had communicated to him, and only when this had been done, to ascend again with the persons named. According to Exo 24:3 and Exo 24:12 (? 9), this is what Moses really did. But Moses alone was to go near to Jehovah: the others were to worship afar off, and the people were not to come up at all.