Exodus 24:3-4

"And Moses came and told the people all the words of Jehovah, and all the ordinances: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which Jehovah hath spoken will we do. And Moses WROTE ALL THE WORDS OF JEHOVAH, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the mount, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel."

"Moses told the people ..." It was absolutely necessary that the people should have been told specifically exactly what was expected of them. It is not clear whether these words refer to something Moses had already done (which he certainly had done) or to a recapitulation of"all the ordinances." Either way, it was thoroughly and effectively done.

"All the words which Jehovah hath spoken will we do ..." Esses, a believing Rabbi, renders this: "All that the Lord has spoken and all that he will speak we will do and obey."[7] Even if this rendition should not be allowed, it is certain that the acceptance on the part of the people of God's commands was unanimous, enthusiastic, and complete. What a tragedy that their subsequent actions cast a dark shadow over what they did here. Within a month they would reject Moses, make a golden calf, and rebel against God!

"And Moses WROTE ALL THE WORDS OF JEHOVAH ..." We have capitalized these letters because, apparently, no critic on earth has ever noticed them. The ridiculous fancy that the Exodus record is dependent upon "oral traditions" handed down for centuries until some self-serving priests decided to write it can be nothing except nonsense. Writing had been known for a least five or six centuries at this time. The Code of Hammurabi (2100-2000 B.C.) is written in the most detailed and circumstantial fashion, and to suppose that Moses, brought up in the palace of Pharaoh was unfamiliar with writing is merely an elephant error that only a fool could swallow. "MOSES WROTE IT ALL DOWN." Of course, he did! Only Moses knew the facts presented here; only Moses was present when the events mentioned occurred. Have Noth, Clements, Davies, or any of the unbelieving critics established "their favorite authors," such as E, J, P, or D, as having been present at these events? Certainly not! The following words of Allis are appropriate:

"Hammurabi, writing centuries BEFORE Moses, codified his laws and reduced them to writing. He had them carved on blocks of diorite stone. Would Moses have done anything less? The neocritic who PREFERS oral tradition is forced to admit that a written code was quite possible."[8]

We marvel at the "possible" in Allis' quotation above. The written record was not merely possible but certain, being the only possible way that the exceedingly extensive and complicated records of the O.T. could ever have reached down the centuries. "MOSES WROTE ALL THE WORDS OF JEHOVAH!" (Exodus 24:3). It is an axiom of true O.T. interpretation that EVERY APPEAL to "oral tradition" or "tradition," by which the same thing is meant, is merely a confession on the part of critics that they prefer their own vain imaginations to God's written record. The fact of Moses' actually writing down the laws of God is here affirmed: "hence the laws received the designation `Book of the Covenant'"[9]

"And builded an altar under the mount ..." The ratification of the covenant took place not on Mount Sinai, but at the foot of it. That is where the blood was sprinkled.

"Twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel ..." The mention of these has the utility of proving that there were indeed "twelve tribes of Israel" who participated in the Exodus. The erroneous view that some of the tribes of Israel did not descend into Egypt is denied by this. To be sure the critics find all kinds of superstitions about those pillars, but that their use was symbolic only, and not superstitious, is indicated by the fact that, "The blood was dashed over the people themselves, and not upon the pillars (Exodus 24:8)."[10] Dummelow's opinion that the "pillars were smeared with blood"[11] is unsupported by the Biblical account here.