This chapter focuses on three interpretative trends that address the vision at the ratification of the Sinai covenant. The Israelite leaders ascended Mount Sinai where they saw "the God of Israel: under his feet there was the likeness of brick-work of sapphire [lapis lazuli], like the very sky for purity" (Exod. 24:10). The Aramaic translations gloss over the implication that God can be seen; the leaders only see the "throne of Glory". One midrashic tradition claims that what or how they saw was forbidden and the leaders were punished. Another links the vision to a horrific, yet pivotal moment in the Israelites' oppression in Egypt.