Exodus 24:8

Exo 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.

Ver. 8. On the people.] The representative people, the elders: or, as others will, the twelve pillars. {See Trapp on "Exo 24:4"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24:8 Look, this blood confirms the covenant (literally behold the blood of the covenant): Jesus repeated this sentence almost verbatim at the Last Supper (Matt 26:28), when he said, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant” (literally “This is my blood of the covenant”). See also Heb 9:20.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Which blood signifieth that the covenant broken cannot be satisfied without blood shedding.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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 Co1 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).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(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 (Heb_9:19).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. the blood of the covenant] the blood by which the covenant is ratified. Cf. Heb_9:20; Heb_12:24 (noting vv. 18–21); 1Pe_1:2, with Hort’s note (p. 23 f.); and the ‘blood of the’ new ‘covenant,’ founded by Christ, Mat_26:28 = Mar_14:24 (cf. Luk_22:20, 1Co_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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, Heb 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 Mat 26:28.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The blood which sealed the covenant was the blood of burnt offerings and peace offerings. The sin-offering Lev. 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. Rom 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. Psa 50:5; Zec 9:11.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Covenant. Thus Christ confirmed the new covenant, by the effusion of his blood. (Tirinus) --- This is daily renewed upon our altars for ever. (Calmet) --- Our Saviour alludes to this transaction in the consecration of the chalice. (Du Hamel) --- If wine alone had been substituted instead of blood, the figure would have surpassed the reality. (Isichius.) (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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

On the people; either upon the twelve pillars representing the people; or upon the people’s representatives, to wit, the elders mentioned Exo 24:1, as when the people are commanded to lay on their hands, the elders do it in their name and stead, Lev 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 Heb 9:20,22; 13:20.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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". (Heb_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; Lev 1:24 Lev 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 (Heb 1:74; Heb 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.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ויזרק means sprinkling — he sprinkled it on the people (not he threw it against the people, as this word might imply; cf. e. g., Exodus 9:8: וזרקו משה השמימה). The Targum, however, renders it by: and he poured it (the blood) upon the altar as atonement for (על) the people, adding the words “upon the altar”, and taking על העם to denote “on behalf of the people”, i. e. he poured it out to atone for the people.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.