פּירוש אויף שמות 24:11

ואל אצילי AND UPON THE NOBLES — these were Nadab and Abihu and the elders —

לא שלח ידו, “He did not raise His hand;” G-d had reason to punish the people who had been granted this vision because they carried on as if this was nothing extraordinary, by eating and drinking. [According to this interpretation, at this time, immediately before the giving of the Torah, G-d did not wish to spoil the joyous mood of the people. An alternate approach to these lines: all the Torah tells us is that in spite of having been granted such visions, and one could have expected that this would have made them temporarily like angels, like Moses who on Mount Sinai went for 40 days and nights without food or drink, these “nobles” of the people had not attained that level of prophecy. They could continue to eat and drink without thereby harming themselves.

He did not lay his hand. He did not stretch out his hand to place it before his face so that they would not see him as with Moses in the cleft of the rock, as it is written (Exodus 33:22) "and I will cover you with My palm" etc. And therefore (Exodus 24:11) "they saw the God."