Exodus 24:2

And Moses alone shall come near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Moses	מֹשֶׁ֤ה mo.Sheh	H4872	Mosheh · proper noun, a man's name
near	וְנִגַּ֨שׁ ve.ni.Gash	H5066	to be or come (causatively · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD	יְהוָ֔ה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
nigh	יִגָּ֑שׁוּ yi.Ga.shu	H5066	to be or come (causatively · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
people	וְהָעָ֕ם ve.ha.'Am	H5971	a people (as a congregated unit) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
up	יַעֲל֖וּ ya.'a.Lu	H5927	to ascend · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Exodus 24:13 And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.
Exodus 24:15 And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.
Exodus 24:18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
Hebrews 10:21-22 And having an high priest over the house of God;
Numbers 16:5 And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him…
Jeremiah 30:21 And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he…
Jeremiah 49:19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away…
Hebrews 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 24:1-8

The first two verses record the appointment of a second session upon mount Sinai, for the making of laws, when an end was put to the first. When a communion is begun between God and us, it shall never fail on his side, if it do not first fail on ours. Moses is directed to bring Aaron and his sons, and the seventy elders of Israel, that they might be witnesses of the glory of God, and that communion with him to which Moses was admitted; and that their testimony might confirm the people's faith. In this approach, 1. They must all be very reverent: Worship you afar off, Exo 24:1. Before they came near, they must worship. Thus we must enter into God's gates with humble and solemn adorations, dra…

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Adam Clarke on Exodus 24:2

Moses alone shall come near - The people stood at the foot of the mountain. Aaron and his two sons and the seventy elders went up, probably about half way, and Moses alone went to the summit.

John Gill on Exodus 24:2

And Moses alone shall come near the Lord,.... Into the cloud where he was, and talk with him face to face, as a man talketh with his friend; which was great nearness indeed, and a peculiar favour and high honour was this: but they shall not come nigh; Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel: neither shall the people go up with him; not any of them, much less the whole body. It seems, by this account, that Moses had been down from the mount after he had received the laws recorded in the two preceding chapters; though as yet he had not related them to the people, but did before he went up again by the above order, as appears from what follows.

John Calvin on Exodus 24:2-3

And Moses alone shall come near the Lord. Three gradations are here marked. A station is prescribed for the people, from whence they may "worship afar off;" the elders and the priests are appointed to be the companions of Moses, to come closer, and thus to be witnesses to the people of all the things which we shall afterwards see to be shewn them; whilst, as they were separated from the multitude, so finally Moses alone was received up into the higher glory; for he was caught up on high in the covering of the cloud. This [307] distinction is marked in the words, "Moses alone shall come near...; but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up." Some translators render the verbs i…

The Church Fathers

For it is not everyone who may draw near to God but only one who, like Moses, can bear the glory of God. Moreover, before this, when the law was first given, the trumpet blasts, and lightnings, and thunders, and darkness, and the smoke of the whole mountain, and the terrible threats that if even a beast touched the mountain it should be stoned, and other like alarms kept back the rest of the people, for whom it was a great privilege, after careful purification, merely to hear the voice of God. But Moses actually went up, and entered into the cloud, and was charged with the law and received the tables. For the multitude, the tables of law are viewed according to the letter. But for those who are above the multitude, these are viewed according to the spirit.
— Gregory of Nazianzus, ORATION 2.92

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Access To God · Exemplified: Moses — Exemplified: Moses

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Exodus 24:2

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 24:1-8

Adam Clarke on Exodus 24:2

John Gill on Exodus 24:2

John Calvin on Exodus 24:2-3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Exodus 24:2

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 24:1-8

Adam Clarke on Exodus 24:2

John Gill on Exodus 24:2

John Calvin on Exodus 24:2-3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Exodus 24:1-18

Rashi on Exodus 24:2