Bible Strands
Exodus 24:12
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, so that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Moses at the mountain immediately after the elders witnessed His presence and ate and drank. He commands Moses to ascend and remain there to receive stone tablets containing written law and commandments.
The words — עֲלֵה ('a.Leh) means "come up," and וֶ/הְיֵה (ve/h.yeh) means "and be/stay." These verbs establish the dual requirement of physical ascent and continued residence on the mountain for divine instruction.
The thread — This summons directly precedes the delivery of the Testimony tablets in Exodus 31:18 and their physical descent in Exodus 32:15, echoing the earlier proclamation of the law in Deuteronomy 5:22.
Why it lands — The text records a specific divine command to ascend and remain, positioning the mountain as the exclusive location where written instruction is transferred from God to the mediator.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 5:22 The LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
- Exodus 31:18 When the LORD had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
- Exodus 32:15 Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.
- Hebrews 9:4 containing the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
- Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- 2 Corinthians 3:3 It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
- Exodus 24:2 Moses alone shall approach the LORD, but the others must not come near. And the people may not go up with him.”
- Exodus 24:15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it,
- Exodus 24:18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
- Deuteronomy 4:14 At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.