3 Then Moses came and put before the people all the words of the Lord and his laws: and all the people, answering with one voice, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do.
And all the people, answering together, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do. And Moses took back to the Lord the words of the people.
And he took the book of the agreement, reading it in the hearing of the people: and they said, Everything which the Lord has said we will do, and we will keep his laws.
Now these are the laws which you are to put before them. If you get a Hebrew servant for money, he is to be your servant for six years, and in the seventh year you are to let him go free without payment. If he comes to you by himself, let him go away by himself: if he is married, let his wife go away with him. If his master gives him a wife, and he gets sons or daughters by her, the wife and her children will be the property of the master, and the servant is to go away by himself. But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free: Then his master is to take him to the gods of the house, and at the door, or at its framework, he is to make a hole in his ear with a sharp-pointed instrument; and he will be his servant for ever. And if a man gives his daughter for a price to be a servant, she is not to go away free as the men-servants do. If she is not pleasing to her master who has taken her for himself, let a payment be made for her so that she may go free; her master has no power to get a price for her and send her to a strange land, because he has been false to her. And if he gives her to his son, he is to do everything for her as if she was his daughter. And if he takes another woman, her food and clothing and her married rights are not to be less. And if he does not do these three things for her, she has the right to go free without payment. He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to death. But if he had no evil purpose against him, and God gave him into his hand, I will give you a place to which he may go in flight. But if a man makes an attack on his neighbour on purpose, to put him to death by deceit, you are to take him from my altar and put him to death. Any man who gives a blow to his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death. Any man who gets another into his power in order to get a price for him is to be put to death, if you take him in the act. Any man cursing his father or his mother is to be put to death. If, in a fight, one man gives another a blow with a stone, or with the shut hand, not causing his death, but making him keep in bed; If he is able to get up again and go about with a stick, the other will be let off; only he will have to give him payment for the loss of his time, and see that he is cared for till he is well. If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant blows with a rod, causing death, he is certainly to undergo punishment. But, at the same time, if the servant goes on living for a day or two, the master is not to get punishment, for the servant is his property. If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with child, causing the loss of the child, but no other evil comes to her, the man will have to make payment up to the amount fixed by her husband, in agreement with the decision of the judges. But if damage comes to her, let life be given in payment for life,
And now give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I am teaching you, and do them; so that life may be yours, and you may go in and take for yourselves the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
I have been teaching you laws and decisions, as I was ordered to do by the Lord my God, so that you might keep them in the land to which you are going to take it for your heritage.
And Moses sent for all Israel, and said to them, Give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I give you today, and give attention to them so that you may keep and do them.
Do you go near: and after hearing everything which the Lord our God has to say, give us an account of all he has said to you, and we will give ear, and do it. Then the Lord, hearing your words to me, said to me, The words which this people have said to you have come to my ears: what they have said is well said.
Now these are the orders and the laws and the decisions which the Lord your God gave me for your teaching, so that you might do them in the land of your heritage to which you are going:
So have love for the Lord your God, and give him worship, and keep his laws and his decisions and his orders at all times.
What then is the law? It was an addition made because of sin, till the coming of the seed to whom the undertaking had been given; and it was ordered through angels by the hand of a go-between. Now a go-between is not a go-between of one; but God is one.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 24
Commentary on Exodus 24 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 24
Moses, as mediator between God and Israel, having received divers laws and ordinances from God privately in the three foregoing chapters, in this chapter,
Exd 24:1-8
The first two verses record the appointment of a second session upon mount Sinai, for the making of laws, when an end was put to the first. When a communion is begun between God and us, it shall never fail on his side, if it do not first fail on ours. Moses is directed to bring Aaron and his sons, and the seventy elders of Israel, that they might be witnesses of the glory of God, and that communion with him to which Moses was admitted; and that their testimony might confirm the people's faith. In this approach,
In the following verses, we have the solemn covenant made between God and Israel, and the exchanging of the ratifications; and a very solemn transaction it was, typifying the covenant of grace between God and believers through Christ.
This is the tenour of the covenant, That, if they would observe the foregoing precepts, God would perform the foregoing promises. "Obey, and be happy.' Here is the bargain made. Observe,
Exd 24:9-11
The people having, besides their submission to the ceremony of the sprinkling of blood, declared their well-pleasedness in their God and his law, again and again, God here gives to their representatives some special tokens of his favour to them (for God meets him that rejoices and works righteousness), and admits them nearer to him than they could have expected. Thus, in the New-Testament church, we find the four living creatures, and the four and twenty elders, honoured with places round the throne, being redeemed unto God by the blood of the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne, Rev. 4:4, 6; 5:8, 9. Observe,
Exd 24:12-18
The public ceremony of sealing the covenant being over, Moses is called up to receive further instructions, which we have in the following chapters.