Exodus - 34:27



27 Yahweh said to Moses, "Write you these words: for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Exodus 34:27.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
And the Lord said to Moses, Put all these words in writing; for on them is based the agreement which I will make with you.
And the Lord said to Moses, "Write these words to you, through which I have formed a covenant, both with you and with Israel."
Et dixit Jehova ad Mosen, Scribe tibi verba haec: quia secundum verba haec pepigi foedus tecum, et cum Israele.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Write thou these words - Either a transcript of the whole law now delivered, or the words included from Exodus 34:11 to Exodus 34:26. God certainly wrote the ten words on both sets of tables. Moses either wrote a transcript of these and the accompanying precepts for the use of the people, or he wrote the precepts themselves in addition to the ten commandments which were written by the finger of God. See Clarke on Exodus 34:1 (note). Allowing this mode of interpretation, the accompanying precepts were, probably, what was written on the back side of the tables by Moses; the ten commandments, what were written on the front by the finger of Jehovah: for we must pay but little attention to the supposition of the rabbins, that the letters on each table were cut through the stone, so as to be legible on each side. See Clarke on Exodus 32:15 (note).

And the Lord said unto Moses,.... Being still with him on the mount:
write thou these words; expressed in the preceding verses, from Exodus 34:11, as he before had written in a book all those laws, contained in Exodus 21:1 called the book of the covenant, Exodus 24:4 and which perhaps might be destroyed, as well as the two tables were broken; and therefore upon the renewal of the covenant here, there is a repetition made of the principal laws before given, which are ordered also to be written in a book, which may very well be called by the same name, since it follows:
for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel, with Moses, as their representative and mediator, and with them represented by him: what is above related carries in it the form of a covenant between them, God having declared on his part what he would do for them, and what laws and rules he required to be observed on their part; which Moses assented to in their name, and was ordered to write them down, that he might repeat them to them.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words--that is, the ceremonial and judicial injunctions comprehended above (Exodus. 34:11-26); while the rewriting of the ten commandments on the newly prepared slabs was done by God Himself (compare Deuteronomy 10:1-4).

Moses was to write down these words, like the covenant rights and laws that had been given before (Exodus 24:4, Exodus 24:7), because Jehovah had concluded the covenant with Moses and Israel according to the tenor of them. By the renewed adoption of the nation, the covenant in ch. 24 was eo ipso restored; so that no fresh conclusion of this covenant was necessary, and the writing down of the fundamental conditions of the covenant was merely intended as a proof of its restoration. It does not appear in the least degree "irreconcilable," therefore, with the writing down of the covenant rights before Knobel).

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