Exodus 24:7-8

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

1 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.

2 tn Heb “read it in the ears of.”

3 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.

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

5 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.