Revelation to the Elders at Sinai/2

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The Elders at Sinai

Exegetical Approaches

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Meritorious

Blameworthy

Though they were granted a stay of punishment, the elders at Sinai were deserving of death.  This position differs regarding why:

Inappropriate Seeing

The elders were deserving of death either because they lacked the proper respect when granted the privilege of seeing Hashem, or for the very act of seeing itself.

"לֹא שָׁלַח יָדוֹ" – These sources understand the phrase to mean that Hashem did not send forth His hand to punish the elders, learning from this that they must have been deserving of death. They were granted a stay of execution only because Hashem did not want to ruin the happiness of the Giving of the Torah with the tragedy of their deaths.
"וַיֹּאכְלוּ וַיִּשְׁתּוּ" – These sources divide regarding whether the eating and drinking of this verse is literal1 or metaphoric,2 but all agree that it signified that the people did not have proper respect for the encounter with God. They either approached the revelation from literal food and drink, or as if from food and drink, belittling the gravity of the experience and treating Hashem as a friend before whom you are comfortable eating rather than a king before whom you are not.
Seeing Hashem – Rashi suggests that the elders saw Hashem directly and were therefore liable for death, as Hashem says, "לֹא יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם וָחָי".  According to this reading

Flawed Perception

Due to insufficient preparation, the elders attained a flawed perception of God, deserving them death.

Different levels  

The verses differentiate between two groups, one of which attained prophecy and merited to comprehend the Divine at a fairly high level, while the other received only a very low level of or no prophecy at all.