Exodus 24:8

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it . . . —Half of the blood had been sprinkled upon the altar, which symbolised Jehovah; the other half was now sprinkled upon the people, or rather upon their representatives—the elders and others who stood nearest to Moses. Thus the two parties to the covenant, sprinkled with the blood of the same sacrifices, were brought into sacramental union. Rites somewhat similar, involving blood communion, were common throughout the East in connection with covenants (Horn. Il. iii. 298, xix. 252; Herod. I. 74, iii. 8, iv. 70; Xen. Anab. ii. 2, § 9; Lucian. Toxar. 37; Pomp. Mel. ii. 1; Tac. Ann. xii. 47; &c), and were regarded as adding to their force and sacredness.

On the people.—It has been suggested (Abarbarnel) that the blood was really sprinkled on the twelve pillars which represented the people; but the words used scarcely seem to admit of such an interpretation. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews understood the passage as declaring that the people were sprinkled (Hebrews 9:19).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:1-8 A solemn covenant was made between God and Israel. Very solemn it was, typifying the covenant of grace between God and believers, through Christ. As soon as God separated to himself a peculiar people, he governed them by a written word, as he has done ever since. God's covenants and commands are so just in themselves, and so much for our good, that the more we think of them, and the more plainly and fully they are set before us, the more reason we may see to comply with them. The blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the altar, on the book, and on the people. Neither their persons, their moral obedience, nor religious services, would meet with acceptance from a holy God, except through the shedding and sprinkling' of blood. Also the blessings granted unto them were all of mercy; and the Lord would deal with them in kindness. Thus the sinner, by faith in the blood of Christ, renders willing and acceptable obedience.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The blood which sealed the covenant was the blood of burnt offerings and peace offerings. The sin-offering Leviticus 4 had not yet been instituted. That more complicated view of human nature which gave to the sin-offering its meaning, had yet to be developed by the law, which was now only receiving its ratification. The covenant between Yahweh and His people therefore took precedence of the operation of the law, by which came the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20.

Upon the people - Either upon the elders or those who stood foremost; or, upon the twelve pillars representing the Twelve tribes, as the first half had been cast upon the altar, which witnessed to the presence of Yahweh. The blood thus divided between the two parties to the covenant signified the sacramental union between the Lord and His people. Cf. Psalm 50:5; Zechariah 9:11.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people—probably on the twelve pillars, as representing the people (also the book, Heb 9:19), and the act was accompanied by a public proclamation of its import. It was setting their seal to the covenant (compare 1Co 11:25). It must have been a deeply impressive, as well as instructive scene, for it taught the Israelites that the covenant was made with them only through the sprinkling of blood—that the divine acceptance of themselves and services, was only by virtue of an atoning sacrifice, and that even the blessings of the national covenant were promised and secured to them only through grace. The ceremonial, however, had a further and higher significance, as is shown by the apostle (see as above).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Moses took the blood; the other half of the blood, which was put in the basons for this end, Exodus 24:6.

On the people; either upon the twelve pillars representing the people; or upon the people’s representatives, to wit, the elders mentioned Exodus 24:1, as when the people are commanded to lay on their hands, the elders do it in their name and stead, Leviticus 4:15 Deu 21:2; or upon those of the people which are nearest him, which was imputed to all the rest, and was to be taken by them as if it had reached unto them all. Now this sprinkling of the blood upon the people did signify,

1. Their ratification of the covenant on their parts, and their secret wishing of the effusion of their own blood if they did not keep it.

2. Their sprinkling of their consciences with the blood of Christ, and their obtaining redemption, justification, and access to God through it alone. See Hebrews 9:20,22 13:20.

The blood of the covenant, whereby the covenant is made and confirmed, as was usual both in Scripture, Matthew 26:28 Luke 22:20, and among heathens.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Moses took the blood,.... The other half of the blood which was in the basins:

and sprinkled it on the people; not on the whole body of the people, who could not be brought nigh enough, and were too numerous to be all sprinkled with it; though the apostle so expresses it, a part being put for the whole, Hebrews 9:19 either this was sprinkled on the young men that offered the sacrifices in the name of all the people; or on the seventy elders, as the heads of them, so Aben Ezra; or upon the twelve pillars, which answered to the twelve tribes, and represented them as the altar did the Lord:

and said, behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words; being a ratification of the covenant on both sides, having been sprinkled both upon the altar, and upon the people. In allusion to which, the blood of Christ is sometimes called the blood of sprinkling, and which, sprinkled upon the mercy seat, calls for pardon for men; and sprinkled on their consciences, speaks peace and pardon to them, and cleanses from all sin; and sometimes the blood of the everlasting covenant, the covenant of grace made with him, by which it is ratified and confirmed; and our Lord may have regard to this rite and mode of expression in Matthew 26:28.

Geneva Study Bible

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the {d} blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

(d) Which signifies that the covenant broken cannot be satisfied without shedding of blood.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. the blood of the covenant] the blood by which the covenant is ratified. Cf. Hebrews 9:20; Hebrews 12:24 (noting vv. 18–21); 1 Peter 1:2, with Hort’s note (p. 23 f.); and the ‘blood of the’ new ‘covenant,’ founded by Christ, Matthew 26:28 = Mark 14:24 (cf. Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25).

concerning] upon (the basis of). The marg. paraphrases correctly.

9–11 (J). The sequel to vv. 1–2. Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders, as directed in v. 1, go up into the mount, and have a vision of Jehovah’s glory.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Moses then proceeded to the final act - He took the blood from the basins, and sprinkled it - not certainly upon all the people, who numbered above two millions - but upon their leaders and representatives, the "elders" and other chief men, drawn up at the head of each tribe, and thus brought within his reach. It has been supposed by some that he merely sprinkled the blood on the twelve pillars, as representing the twelve tribes; but, had this been the case, the expression in the text would probably have been different. We read, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that he "sprinkled both the book, and all the people" (Hebrews 9:19). As he sprinkled, he said, Behold the blood of the covenant, etc. It was a common practice among the nations of antiquity to seal covenants with blood. Sometimes the blood was that of a victim, and the two parties to the covenant prayed, that, if they broke it, his fate might be theirs (Hom. 1l. 3:298; 19:252; Leviticus 1:24; 21:45; etc.). Sometimes it was the blood of the two parties themselves, who each drank of the other's blood, and thereby contracted a blood-relationship, which would have made their breaking the covenant more unpardonable (Herod. 1:74; 4:70; Tacit. Ann. 12:47). Moses seems to have followed neither practice at all closely, but, adopting simply the principle that a covenant required to be sealed with blood, to have arranged the details as he thought best. By the sprinkling of both the altar and the people the two parties to the covenant were made partakers of one and the same blood, and so brought into a sort of sacramental union.

CHAPTER 24:9-11 Exodus 24:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The blood was divided into two parts. One half was swung by Moses upon the altar (זרק to swing, shake, or pour out of the vessel, in distinction from הזּה to sprinkle) the other half he put into basins, and after he had read the book of the covenant to the people, and they had promised to do and follow all the words of Jehovah, he sprinkled it upon the people with these words: "Behold the blood of the covenant, which Jehovah has made with you over all these words." As several animals were slaughtered, and all of them young oxen, there must have been a considerable quantity of blood obtained, so that the one half would fill several basins, and many persons might be sprinkled with it as it was being swung about. The division of the blood had reference to the two parties to the covenant, who were to be brought by the covenant into a living unity; but it had no connection whatever with the heathen customs adduced by Bhr and Knobel, in which the parties to a treaty mixed their own blood together. For this was not a mixture of different kinds of blood, but it was a division of one blood, and that sacrificial blood, in which animal life was offered instead of human life, making expiation as a pure life for sinful man, and by virtue of this expiation restoring the fellowship between God and man which had been destroyed by sin. But the sacrificial blood itself only acquired this signification through the sprinkling or swinging upon the altar, by virtue of which the human soul was received, in the soul of the animal sacrificed for man, into the fellowship of the divine grace manifested upon the altar, in order that, through the power of this sin-forgiving and sin-destroying grace, it might be sanctified to a new and holy life. In this way the sacrificial blood acquired the signification of a vital principle endued with the power of divine grace; and this was communicated to the people by means of the sprinkling of the blood. As the only reason for dividing the sacrificial blood into two parts was, that the blood sprinkled upon the altar could not be taken off again and sprinkled upon the people; the two halves of the blood are to be regarded as one blood, which was first of all sprinkled upon the altar, and then upon the people. In the blood sprinkled upon the altar, the natural life of the people was given up to God, as a life that had passed through death, to be pervaded by His grace; and then through the sprinkling upon the people it was restored to them again, as a life renewed by the grace of God. In this way the blood not only became a bond of union between Jehovah and His people, but as the blood of the covenant, it became a vital power, holy and divine, uniting Israel and its God; and the sprinkling of the people with this blood was an actual renewal of life, a transposition of Israel into the kingdom of God, in which it was filled with the powers of God's spirit of grace, and sanctified into a kingdom of priests, a holy nation of Jehovah (Exodus 19:6). And this covenant was made "upon all the words" which Jehovah had spoken, and the people had promised to observe. Consequently it had for its foundation the divine law and right, as the rule of life for Israel.