But one portion only of the ceremony was complete. The victims had yielded up their life. The blood, the source of life, had been sprinkled on the altar and accepted by Jehovah. It was now necessary that the sacrificers should join in the Covenant-feast. To celebrate this, Moses, accompanied by Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders, as representatives of the people, ascended to a level spot near the summit of Sinai. There they saw the glory of the God of Israel, under whose feet there was, as it were, _a paved work of a sapphire-stone, and the body of heaven in its clearness_. But instead of suffering any harm from such close proximity to the majesty of the Supreme, they ate and drank in His presence of the Covenant-feast, and thereby were assured of His mercy and loving-kindness (Ex. xxiv. 9–11). CHAPTER VI. _MOSES IN THE MOUNT――THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CALF._ EXOD. XXIV.–XXXIV. B.C. 1491. THUS the Covenant was formally ratified, and the nation solemnly devoted itself to the service of the God of Israel. Further revelations, however, awaited Moses, and after committing the charge of the people to Aaron and Hur (Ex. xxiv. 14), he again went up into the mount accompanied only by Joshua, his minister and attendant. After an interval of six days the voice of God summoned him to ascend alone yet higher into the midst of the cloud that still overhung the mount, and for forty days and forty nights he there remained in mysterious converse with Jehovah. During this period the Lord showed him in vision a representation of the sanctuary (Heb. viii. 5), which He required should be the solemn place of meeting between Him and the people, and gave him the necessary instructions for its erection (Ex. xxv.–xxviii.), together with full particulars respecting the order of its services and ritual (Ex. xxix. xxx.), as also the names of the two men who were to be employed in building it, viz. BEZALEEL of the tribe of Judah, and AHOLIAB of the tribe of Dan (Ex. xxxi. 1–11). At the same time Moses received two tables of stone, on which the Ten Commandments had been written by the finger of God.