34:27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down 4 these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; 5 he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 6
1 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 34, 40, 48, 53, 57, 58).
2 tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).
3 sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.
4 tn Once again the preposition with the suffix follows the imperative, adding some emphasis to the subject of the verb.
5 tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.
6 tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.
7 sn This is the first occurrence of the word בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”) in the Book of Deuteronomy but it appears commonly hereafter (4:23, 31; 5:2, 3; 7:9, 12; 8:18; 9:9, 10, 11, 15; 10:2, 4, 5, 8; 17:2; 29:1, 9, 12, 14, 15, 18, 21, 25; 31:9, 16, 20, 25, 26; 33:9). Etymologically, it derives from the notion of linking or yoking together. See M. Weinfeld, TDOT 2:255.
8 tn Heb “the ten words.”