The elders are leaders of families or tribes. They are mostly older men with wisdom and experience who give advice and judgment. We read more about them later. It may be that they are referred to in Exodus 18:1–27, where wise men are chosen to counsel and judge the Israelites—the task of the elders. In Exodus 24, after the confirmation of the covenant on Sinai, Moses and seventy of the elders climb up the mountain to meet the Lord (Exodus 24:1, Exodus 24:9). In Numbers 11:1–35, seventy of the elders receive God’s Spirit: Moses gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it
(Numbers 11:24–25). This is a foretaste of Pentecost (Numbers 11:29)!
16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,