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He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.
Exodus 24:11 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.
  • BSB But God did not lay His hand on the nobles of Israel; they saw Him, and they ate and drank.
  • NKJV But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
  • NASB Yet He did not reach out with His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.
  • NLT And though these nobles of Israel gazed upon God, he did not destroy them. In fact, they ate a covenant meal, eating and drinking in his presence!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God did not strike the leaders down, and they ate and drank in His presence. The covenant meal celebrates fellowship and peace with God.

Overview

That God 'didn't lay his hand' on the nobles is remarkable, since sinful people normally cannot survive His presence; this mercy rests on the covenant blood. Eating and drinking before God signifies reconciliation, communion, and shared fellowship. It is a covenant meal sealing the relationship just established. This anticipates the table fellowship believers enjoy with God through Christ, climaxing in the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 21

  • Luke 15:23–24Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;
  • Exod 18:12Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron came with all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
  • Gen 31:54Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.
  • Gen 16:13She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?”
  • Deut 12:7There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.
  • 1 Cor 10:16–18The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ?
  • Eccl 9:7Go your way — eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
  • Exod 19:21Yahweh said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to Yahweh to gaze, and many of them perish.
  • Gen 32:24–32Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day.
  • Judg 13:22Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”
  • Exod 33:20–23He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.”
  • Num 21:18the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;
  • Gen 18:18since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?
  • Jer 14:3Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.
  • Neh 2:16The rulers didn’t know where I went, or what I did. I had not as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest who did the work.
  • Deut 4:33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
  • Exod 24:9–10Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.
  • 1 Kgs 21:8So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, who lived with Naboth.
  • Exod 24:1He said to Moses, “Come up to Yahweh, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship from a distance.
  • Judg 5:13“Then a remnant of the nobles and the people came down. Yahweh came down for me against the mighty.
  • 2 Chr 23:20He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from Yahweh’s house. They came through the upper gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Exodus videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Exodus 24:11YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ExodusMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.

How Exodus 24:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.