So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Parallel translations
- WEB Moses entered into the middle of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
- KJV 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.
- BSB Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
- NASB Then Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
- NLT Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
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
Moses entered the cloud and remained on the mountain forty days and nights. The mediator stays in God's presence to receive His full instructions.
Overview
Moses' bold entry into the cloud shows his unique role as mediator who meets God face to face on the people's behalf. The forty days, a period associated with testing and preparation, allow God to give the detailed pattern of the tabernacle. This prolonged communion underscores the depth of revelation entrusted to Moses. The motif of forty days reappears with Christ in the wilderness, the greater Mediator prepared for His saving work.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Deut 9:9When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
- Deut 10:10I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights: and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh would not destroy you.
- Exod 34:28He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
- Deut 9:25So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.
- Deut 9:18I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger.
- Matt 4:2When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
- Exod 9:29Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to Yahweh. The thunders shall cease, and there will not be any more hail; that you may know that the earth is Yahweh’s.
- Exod 9:33Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands to Yahweh; and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth.
- 1 Kgs 19:8He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s Mountain.
- Exod 19:20Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
- Exod 24:17The appearance of Yahweh’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
- Luke 4:2for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.
- Mark 1:13He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals; and the angels were serving him.
- Prov 28:1The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
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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 24:18 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
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