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300 To hear the booming divine voice coming from atop the mount had to be an awesome experience. Indeed, we read that as "all the people perceived the thundering and flashes and the Shofar's sound and the mountain engulfed in smoke, they were seized with fear and moved away and stood at a distance. And they said unto Moses: 'Speak thou with us and we will listen, but let not the Elohim himself speak to us, lest we die'.". And having asked Moses to be the conveyor of the divine words rather than hearing them directly, "the people stood farther away; and Moses went toward the thick fog where the Elohim was," for the Lord had summoned him: And Yahweh said unto Moses: Come up to me, on the Mount, and remain there; And I will give thee the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written, to be taught to them. This (in Exodus chapter 24) is the first mention of the Tablets of the Law and the assertion that they were inscribed by Yahweh himself. This is restated in chapter 31, where the number of Tablets is stated to be two, "made of stone, in- scribed by the finger of Elohim"; and again in chapter 32: "Tablets inscribed on both of their sides—on the one side and on the other side were they inscribed; and the Tablets were the craftwork of Elohim and the writing was the script of Elohim, engraved upon the Tablets." (This is reasserted in Deuteronomy). Written on the Tablets were the Ten Commandments as well as more detailed ordinances to govern daily conduct by the people, some rules of worship of Yahweh, and strict prohibitions against the worship or even uttering the names of the gods of Israel's neighbors. All that the Lord intended to give Moses as Tablets of the Covenant, to be kept forever in the Ark of the Covenant that was to be built according to detailed specifications. The granting of the Tablets was an event of lasting signifi- cance, embedded in the memory of the Children of Israel and therefore requiring witnesses of the highest standing. There- fore Yahweh instructed Moses to come up to receive the DIVINE ENCOUNTERS