Exodus 24:4

4 Then Moses wrote down everything the LORD had said. Moses got up early the next morning. He built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He set up 12 stone pillars. They stood for the 12 tribes of Israel.

Exodus 24:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 24:4

And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord
Jarchi says, all from the creation, to the giving of the law, and the commands at Marah; but though these were written by him, yet not at this time; but as Aben Ezra more truly observes, what are mentioned in this "parashah", or section, or what is contained in the two preceding chapters, he not only related to them from his memory, but he wrote them in a book, which is after mentioned, that they might be seen and read hereafter; for these were not the ten commands, they were written as well as spoken by the Lord himself, but the judicial laws before mentioned:

and rose up early in the morning:
not on the fifth of Sivan, as Jarchi, the day before the giving of the law, but on the eighth of that month, two days after it:

and built an altar under the hill:
under Mount Sinai, about the place where the bounds were set, beyond which the people were not to go:

and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel:
to answer to them, and which were to represent them, as seems by the following account; these probably were made of marble stone, of which Mount Sinai consisted, and of which there was plenty thereabout.

Exodus 24:4 In-Context

2 Only Moses can come close to me. The others must not come near. And the people may not go up with him."

3 Moses went and told the people all of the LORD's words and laws. They answered with one voice. They said, "We will do everything the LORD has told us to do."

4 Then Moses wrote down everything the LORD had said. Moses got up early the next morning. He built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He set up 12 stone pillars. They stood for the 12 tribes of Israel.

5 Then he sent young Israelite men to offer burnt offerings. They also sacrificed young bulls as friendship offerings to the Lord.

6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls. He sprinkled the other half on the altar.