Exodus 24:6-8

24:6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. ¹  24:7 He took the Book of the Covenant ²  and read it aloud ³  to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey ⁴  all that the Lord has spoken.” 24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on ⁵  the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant ⁶  that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Deuteronomy 29:10-15

29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ⁷  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ⁸  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. ⁹  29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, ¹⁰  just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors ¹¹  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29:14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath, 29:15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today. ¹² 

Deuteronomy 29:25-26

29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 31:32

31:32 It will not be like the old ¹⁴  covenant that I made with their ancestors ¹⁵  when I delivered them ¹⁶  from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” ¹⁷  says the Lord. ¹⁸ 

¹ sn The people and Yahweh through this will be united by blood, for half was spattered on the altar and the other half spattered on/toward the people (v. 8).

² tn The noun “book” would be the scroll just written containing the laws of chaps. 20-23. On the basis of this scroll the covenant would be concluded here. The reading of this book would assure the people that it was the same that they had agreed to earlier. But now their statement of willingness to obey would be more binding, because their promise would be confirmed by a covenant of blood.

³ tn Heb “read it in the ears of.”

⁴ tn A second verb is now added to the people’s response, and it is clearly an imperfect and not a cohortative, lending support for the choice of desiderative imperfect in these commitments – “we want to obey.” This was their compliance with the covenant.

⁵ tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).

⁶ 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.

⁷ tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”

⁸ tn Heb “your.”

⁹ tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

¹¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

¹² tn This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

¹³ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

¹⁴ tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

¹⁷ tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”