18 verses. God instructs Moses to exercise an awe producing ritual. Moses, and his brother Aaron and his sons (the high priests) are instructed to approach Mt. Sinai but only Moshe (Moses) approaches God, receives the law, and disseminates it to the people. This story seems to be the summary of the matter. Moses builds an altar to honor the great historic event.
Then the book tells how only Moses and his servant Yehoshua were approaching to climb the mountain, the rest, even the priests were left behind. A big cloud hovered over the mountain. Only Moshe did the actual climbing to receive the law, and he was away for forty days.
