Exodus 34:10 - Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

10. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant It is not specified with whom God would make the covenant. Some interpreters, (386) therefore, supply the name of Moses, and this they seem to do on probable grounds, especially since it is added at the end of the verse “the work (387) that I will do with thee.” But, inasmuch as Moses stipulated in the name of all, the meaning comes to the same thing, if we read, I will make a covenant openly with the whole people. By this promise, then, God, as it were, entirely restored the Israelites, for He declares that He will deal so marvellously in the discomfiture of the nations, as to prove that He is the peculiar God of that people; and this was to distinguish them from other nations, according to the prayer of Moses. he says that they shall all be eye-witnesses of this, that, being thus at length convinced by their own senses, they might sincerely and faithfully submit themselves to his dominion.

(386) Thus the LXX.; Καὶ εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσὢν, ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ τίθημί σοι διαθήκην

(387) “The thing.” — A.V.

Exodus 34:10

10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.