Exodus 24:3

24:3 Moses came ¹  and told the people all the Lord’s words ²  and all the decisions. All the people answered together, ³  “We are willing to do ⁴  all the words that the Lord has said,”

Exodus 24:8

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.”

Exodus 34:1

The New Tablets of the Covenant

34:1 ⁷ The Lord said to Moses, “Cut out ⁸  two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write ⁹  on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed.

Exodus 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ¹⁰  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ¹¹ 

[24:3]  ¹ sn The general consensus among commentators is that this refers to Moses’ coming from the mountain after he made the ascent in 20:21. Here he came and told them the laws (written in 20:22-23:33), and of the call to come up to Yahweh.

[24:3]  ² sn The Decalogue may not be included here because the people had heard those commands themselves earlier.

[24:3]  ³ tn The text simply has “one voice” (קוֹל אֶחָד, qol ’ekhad); this is an adverbial accusative of manner, telling how the people answered – “in one voice,” or unanimously (see GKC 375 §118.q).

[24:3]  ⁴ tn The verb is the imperfect tense (נַעֲשֶׂה, na’aseh), although the form could be classified as a cohortative. If the latter, they would be saying that they are resolved to do what God said. If it is an imperfect, then the desiderative would make the most sense: “we are willing to do.” They are not presumptuously saying they are going to do all these things.

[24:8]  ⁵ tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).

[24:8]  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.

[34:1]  ⁹ sn The restoration of the faltering community continues in this chapter. First, Moses is instructed to make new tablets and take them to the mountain (1-4). Then, through the promised theophany God proclaims his moral character (5-8). Moses responds with the reiteration of the intercession (8), and God responds with the renewal of the covenant (10-28). To put these into expository form, as principles, the chapter would run as follows: I. God provides for spiritual renewal (1-4), II. God reminds people of his moral standard (5-9), III. God renews his covenant promises and stipulations (10-28).

[34:1]  ¹⁰ tn The imperative is followed by the preposition with a suffix expressing the ethical dative; it strengthens the instruction for Moses. Interestingly, the verb “cut out, chisel, hew,” is the same verb from which the word for a “graven image” is derived – פָּסַל (pasal).

[34:1]  ¹¹ tn The perfect tense with vav consecutive makes the value of this verb equal to an imperfect tense, probably a simple future here.

[34:28]  ¹³ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

[34:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.