Exodus 24:3-4

3, 4. Moses came and told After receiving the laws as so many words of the Lord, he put them in writing, and thus codified the judgments (comp . Exodus 21:1) which were to govern the people . Whether he wrote all the words of the Lord before he descended from the mountain, or after he appeared again among the people, is not said . We most naturally suppose that they would have been written in the mountain, but the order of this narrative seems to imply that he first reported them orally to the people, who answered with one voice, and pledged obedience .

Thereupon he wrote all the words, occupying, perhaps, a part of the night in this labour, and rose up early in the morning of the following day to ratify and seal the covenant by appropriate offerings and a reading of the laws from the book in which he had written them.

Builded an altar under the hill In accord with the directions of Exodus 20:24-26.

Twelve pillars Significant of the tribal divisions of the nation, and their common interest in the covenant. Comp. Joshua 4:1-9.