Sinai / Mosaic Covenant

The Sinai Covenant is the comprehensive agreement between God and Israel mediated by Moses - encompassing not just commandments but the entire solar calendar, festival system, and sacred history as revealed in Jubilees. In the rich narrative traditions of these ancient texts, the encounter between the divine and the people of Israel at the holy mountain marks a profound renewal of earlier covenants with figures like Noah and Abraham. This event establishes Israel as a consecrated nation bound to observe divine ordinances that govern both ethical conduct and the rhythms of sacred time. Drawing from the Book of Jubilees, the account opens with Moses ascending the mountain to receive instructions that must be inscribed on tablets of testimony, ensuring that future generations remember their obligations amid the cycles of history and judgment. Central to this framework is the emphasis on a solar calendar and the appointed feasts, presented as immutable laws inscribed from creation itself. Jubilees details how these observances, including the festivals of weeks and booths, serve to align human worship with heavenly patterns, preventing the errors of lunar reckonings that lead to corruption. The text portrays the covenant not merely as a legal code but as a living testimony, with blessings for fidelity and warnings of exile for neglect, echoing the eternal heavenly tablets shown to Enoch in earlier visions. The Book of Jasher complements this by recounting the dramatic theophany, where thunder, fire, and the sounding of trumpets accompany the giving of the law, underscoring the awe and separation required of the people. Within the broader Enochian tradition, this covenant extends the primordial revelations granted to the Watchers and patriarchs, positioning the Sinai event as a restoration of cosmic order disrupted by sin. It invites readers to see the law as a bridge between heaven and earth, preserved for those who seek to walk in the paths of righteousness outlined across these interconnected writings.

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Covenant Details

Parties: God and Israel
Sign: The Law / Tablets

Key Chapters

The Book of Jubilees 1 God's Revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai 9 min read The Book of Jubilees 50 Laws regarding the Jubilees and the Sabbath 4 min read

Key Passages

The Covenant at Sinai

The Book of Jubilees 1:1-29

And it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the s...

A¹nd it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month, 2450 Anno Mundi that God spake to Moses, saying: 'Come up to Me on the Mount, and I will give thee two tables of stone of the law and of the commandment, which I have written, that thou mayst teach them.'

² And Moses went up into the mount of God, and the glory of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai, and a cloud overshadowed it six days. ³ And He called to Moses on the seventh day out of the midst of the cloud, and the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a flaming fire on the top of the mount. ⁴ And Moses was on the Mount forty days and forty nights, and God taught him the earlier and the later history of the division of all the days of the law and of the testimony. ⁵ And He said: 'Incline thine heart to every word which I shall speak to thee on this mount, and write them in a book in order that their generations may see how I have not forsaken them for all the evil which they have wrought in transgressing the covenant which I establish between Me and thee for their generations this day on Mount Sinai. ⁶ And thus it will come to pass when all these things come upon them, that they will recognise that I am more righteous than they in all their judgments and in all their actions, and they will recognise that I have been truly with them. ⁷ And do thou write for thyself all these words which I declare unto, thee this day, for I know their rebellion and their stiff neck, before I bring them into the land of which I sware to their fathers, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: ' Unto your seed will I give a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁸ And they will eat and be satisfied, and they will turn to strange gods, to (gods) which cannot deliver them from aught of their tribulation: and this witness shall be heard for a witness against them. For they will forget all My commandments, (even) all that I command them, and they will walk after the Gentiles, and after their uncleanness, and after their shame, and will serve their gods, and these will prove unto them an offence and a tribulation and an affliction and a snare. ⁹ And many will perish and they will be taken captive, and will fall into the hands of the enemy, because they have forsaken My ordinances and My commandments, and the festivals of My covenant, and My sabbaths, and My holy place which I have hallowed for Myself in their midst, and My tabernacle, and My sanctuary, which I have hallowed for Myself in the midst of the land, that I should set my name upon it, and that it should dwell (there). ¹⁰ And they will make to themselves high places and groves and graven images, and they will worship, each his own (graven image), so as to go astray, and they will sacrifice their children to demons, and to all the works of the error of their hearts. ¹¹ And I will send witnesses unto them, that I may witness against them, but they will not hear, and will slay the witnesses also, and they will persecute those who seek the law, and they will abrogate and change everything so as to work evil before My eyes. ¹² And I will hide My face from them, and I will deliver them into the hand of the Gentiles for captivity, and for a prey, and for devouring, and I will remove them from the midst of the land, and I will scatter them amongst the Gentiles. ¹³ And they will forget all My law and all My commandments and all My judgments, and will go astray as to new moons, and sabbaths, and festivals, and jubilees, and ordinances. ¹⁴ And after this they will turn to Me from amongst the Gentiles with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength, and I will gather them from amongst all the Gentiles, and they will seek me, so that I shall be found of them, when they seek me with all their heart and with all their soul. ¹⁵ And I will disclose to them abounding peace with righteousness, and I will remove them the plant of uprightness, with all My heart and with all My soul, and they shall be for a blessing and not for a curse, and they shall be the head and not the tail. ¹⁶ And I will build My sanctuary in their midst, and I will dwell with them, and I will be their God and they shall be My people in truth and righteousness. ¹⁷ And I will not forsake them nor fail them; for I am the Lord their God.' ¹⁸ And Moses fell on his face and prayed and said, 'O Lord my God, do not forsake Thy people and Thy inheritance, so that they should wander in the error of their hearts, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies, the Gentiles, lest they should rule over them and cause them to sin against Thee. ¹⁹ Let thy mercy, O Lord, be lifted up upon Thy people, and create in them an upright spirit, and let not the spirit of Beliar rule over them to accuse them before Thee, and to ensnare them from all the paths of righteousness, so that they may perish from before Thy face. ²⁰ But they are Thy people and Thy inheritance, which thou hast delivered with thy great power from the hands of the Egyptians: create in them a clean heart and a holy spirit, and let them not be ensnared in their sins from henceforth until eternity.' ²¹ And the Lord said unto Moses: 'I know their contrariness and their thoughts and their stiffneckedness, and they will not be obedient till they confess their own sin and the sin of their fathers. ²² And after this they will turn to Me in all uprightness and with all (their) heart and with all (their) soul, and I will circumcise the foreskin of their heart and the foreskin of the heart of their seed, and I will create in them a holy spirit, and I will cleanse them so that they shall not turn away from Me from that day unto eternity. ²³ And their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfil My commandments, and I will be their Father and they shall be My children. ²⁴ And they all shall be called children of the living God, and every angel and every spirit shall know, yea, they shall know that these are My children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that I love them. ²⁵ And do thou write down for thyself all these words which I declare unto thee on this mountain, the first and the last, which shall come to pass in all the divisions of the days in the law and in the testimony and in the weeks and the jubilees unto eternity, until I descend and dwell with them throughout eternity.' ²⁶ And He said to the angel of the presence: Write for Moses from the beginning of creation till My sanctuary has been built among them for all eternity. ²⁷ And the Lord will appear to the eyes of all, and all shall know that I am the God of Israel and the Father of all the children of Jacob, and King on Mount Zion for all eternity. And Zion and Jerusalem shall be holy.' ²⁸ And the angel of the presence who went before the camp of Israel took the tables of the divisions of the years -from the time of the creation- of the law and of the testimony of the weeks of the jubilees, according to the individual years, according to all the number of the jubilees according, to the individual years, from the day of the new creation when the heavens and the earth shall be renewed and all their creation according to the powers of the heaven, and according to all the creation of the earth, until the sanctuary of the Lord shall be made in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and all the luminaries be renewed for healing and for peace and for blessing for all the elect of Israel, and that thus it may be from that day and unto all the days of the earth.

The Law and the Sabbath

The Book of Jubilees 50:1-13

And after this law I made known to thee the days of the Sabbaths in the desert of Sinai, which is between Elim and Sinai...

A¹nd after this law I made known to thee the days of the Sabbaths in the desert of Sinai, which is between Elim and Sinai.

² And I told thee of the Sabbaths of the land on Mount Sinai, and I told thee of the jubilee years in the sabbaths of years: but the year thereof have I not told thee till ye enter the land which ye are to possess. ³ And the land also shall keep its sabbaths while they dwell upon it, and they shall know the jubilee year. ⁴ Wherefore I have ordained for thee the year-weeks and the years and the jubilees: there are forty-nine jubilees from the days of Adam until this day, 2410 A.M. and one week and two years: and there are yet forty years to come (lit. 'distant') for learning the 2450 A.M. commandments of the Lord, until they pass over into the land of Canaan, crossing the Jordan to the west. ⁵ And the jubilees shall pass by, until Israel is cleansed from all guilt of fornication, and uncleanness, and pollution, and sin, and error, and dwells with confidence in all the land, and there shall be no more a Satan or any evil one, and the land shall be clean from that time for evermore. ⁶ And behold the commandment regarding the Sabbaths -I have written (them) down for thee- and all the judgments of its laws. ⁷ Six days shalt thou labour, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it ye shall do no manner of work, ye and your sons, and your men- servants and your maid-servants, and all your cattle and the sojourner also who is with you. ⁸ And the man that does any work on it shall die: whoever desecrates that day, whoever lies with (his) wife, or whoever says he will do something on it, that he will set out on a journey thereon in regard to any buying or selling: and whoever draws water thereon which he had not prepared for himself on the sixth day, and whoever takes up any burden to carry it out of his tent or out of his house shall die. ⁹ Ye shall do no work whatever on the Sabbath day save what ye have prepared for yourselves on the sixth day, so as to eat, and drink, and rest, and keep Sabbath from all work on that day, and to bless the Lord your God, who has given you a day of festival and a holy day: and a day of the holy kingdom for all Israel is this day among their days for ever. ¹⁰ For great is the honour which the Lord has given to Israel that they should eat and drink and be satisfied on this festival day, and rest thereon from all labour which belongs to the labour of the children of men save burning frankincense and bringing oblations and sacrifices before the Lord for days and for Sabbaths. ¹¹ This work alone shall be done on the Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the Lord your God; that they may atone for Israel with sacrifice continually from day to day for a memorial well-pleasing before the Lord, and that He may receive them always from day to day according as thou hast been commanded. ¹² And every man who does any work thereon, or goes a journey, or tills (his) farm, whether in his house or any other place, and whoever lights a fire, or rides on any beast, or travels by ship on the sea, and whoever strikes or kills anything, or slaughters a beast or a bird, or whoever catches an animal or a bird or a fish, or whoever fasts or makes war on the Sabbaths: ¹³ The man who does any of these things on the Sabbath shall die, so that the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbaths according to the commandments regarding the Sabbaths of the land, as it is written in the tablets, which He gave into my hands that I should write out for thee the laws of the seasons, and the seasons according to the division of their days. Herewith is completed the account of the division of the days.

Did You Know?

Jubilees presents the Law as already known and observed by the patriarchs before Sinai.

The full history is given along with the commandments.

Jubilees presents Moses receiving not just law but the entire history of creation through the angel of the presence.

The 364-day solar calendar is given as part of the covenant, making timekeeping a religious obligation.

The covenant includes consequences extending forty-nine jubilees into the future.