A reading from the book of Exodus.

Then he said to Moses,

Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abayhu, and 70 of the elders of Israel,

in worship from afar.

Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people

shall not come up with them.

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the rules,

and all the people answered with one voice and said,

All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.

And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.

He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain

and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of

Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half

of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the

book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, all that the Lord has

spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said,

Behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.

Then Moses and Aaron, Naydab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the

God of Israel. There was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very

heaven for clearness, and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the

people of Israel. They beheld God, and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the

mountain, and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment,

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