And the Lord said unto Moses
Being still with him on the mount:
write thou these words;
expressed in the preceding verses, from ( Exodus 34:11-27 ) , as he before had written in a book all those laws, contained in ( Exodus 21:1-23:33 ) called the book of the covenant, ( Exodus 24:4 Exodus 24:7 ) 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.