Exodus 24:1-8

The Covenant Confirmed

1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance,

2 but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”

3 When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.”

4 Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD.

6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar.

7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”

8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Exodus 24:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 24

In this chapter we have an account that Moses was ordered to come up to the Lord alone, Ex 24:1,2, but that before he did go up, he related to the people all the above laws delivered to him, which they promised obedience to, and so a covenant was made between God and the people by sacrifice, and by the sprinkling of blood, Ex 24:3-8, upon which he and Aaron, and his two sons and seventy elders of Israel, went up part of the mountain, and had a vision of God, Ex 24:9-11, when Moses with Joshua was called, and went up higher, until at length he entered into the cloud where the Lord was, and continued forty days and forty nights, Ex 24:12-18.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 19:24
• 2. S Exodus 6:23; Leviticus 10:1-2
• 3. ver 9; Numbers 11:16
• 4. Numbers 12:6-8
• 5. S Exodus 21:1; Galatians 3:19
• 6. S Exodus 19:8; Joshua 24:24; Deuteronomy 5:27
• 7. S Exodus 17:14; Deuteronomy 31:9
• 8. S Genesis 8:20
• 9. S Genesis 28:18; S Deuteronomy 27:2
• 10. Leviticus 1:3
• 11. S Genesis 31:54
• 12. Exodus 14:15; Exodus 32:31; Psalms 99:6
• 13. Hebrews 9:18
• 14. Leviticus 1:11; Leviticus 3:2,8,13; Leviticus 5:9; Matthew 26:28
• 15. 2 Kings 23:2,21; Hebrews 9:19
• 16. Exodus 19:8; Jeremiah 40:3; Jeremiah 42:6,21; Jeremiah 43:2
• 17. Hebrews 9:19; 1 Peter 1:2
• 18. Leviticus 26:3; Deuteronomy 5:2-3; Joshua 24:25; 2 Kings 11:17; Jeremiah 11:4,8; Jeremiah 31:32; Jeremiah 34:13; Zechariah 9:11; S Matthew 26:28; S Luke 22:20; Hebrews 9:20*; 1 Peter 1:2