Exodus 24:8

Summary

Moses takes the blood, sprinkles it on the people, and declares it to be the blood of the covenant that Yehovah has cut with them, based on all these words. The verse combines a narrative action (taking and sprinkling blood) with a direct speech that interprets the ritual act.

Key words

• va-yiZrok ("and he sprinkled", H2236) — qal narrative verb, continuing the chain of sequential actions ("and then he sprinkled") begun by va-yiKach ("and he took").
• dam ("blood of", H1818) — here in construct form, linking directly to ha-beRit ("the covenant", H1285): "blood of the covenant," a bound phrase rather than two separate nouns.
• kaRat ("he has made/cut", H3772H) — qal perfect, indicating a completed action prior to or coinciding with the speech; the verb literally means "to cut," commonly used with covenants in Hebrew.
• 'imMakhem ("with you", H5973A + H9036) — preposition with second-person masculine plural suffix, specifying the human party to the covenant Yehovah has made.
• hinNeh ("here!", H2009) — interjection introducing Moses's declarative statement, drawing attention to the blood as a visible, present sign.

What the text says

The verse is built on three sequential narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive construction: va-yiKach ("and he took", H3947G), va-yiZrok ("and he sprinkled", H2236), and va-yoMer ("and he said", H0559). This chain presents the actions as a single continuous sequence: taking, sprinkling, speaking. The direct object et-ha-Dam ("the blood", H1818) is marked explicitly with the object marker 'et (H0853), which is standard Hebrew syntax and carries no independent meaning in translation.

The speech itself pivots on the construct phrase dam-ha-beRit ("blood of the covenant"), where dam (H1818) stands in construct relation to ha-beRit (H1285), tightly binding the two nouns into a single conceptual unit rather than presenting them as separate ideas joined by "of." The relative clause 'aSher kaRat Yehovah 'imMakhem ("which Yehovah has cut with you") uses the perfect verb kaRat (H3772H), indicating the covenant-making is treated as an accomplished fact at the moment of speech, not a simultaneous or future action. The final phrase 'al kol-ha-devaRim ha-'Elleh ("on/according to all these words", H5921A + H3605 + H1697G + H0428) uses the preposition 'al to indicate the basis or content of the covenant — the words previously spoken constitute the covenant's terms.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders kaRat ("he has cut", H3772H) with diethento ("he arranged/established"), using a different verb concept (from diatithēmi, "to dispose/arrange") rather than the Hebrew's more concrete "cutting" imagery. The Vulgate's pepigit ("he has struck/made [a covenant]") similarly shifts from the cutting metaphor to a Latin idiom for covenant-making. The Hebrew hinNeh ("here!", H2009) is rendered as Ἴδου in the LXX and Hic est ("this is") in the Vulgate — both convey attention-drawing force, though the Vulgate's phrasing is more declarative than the Hebrew interjection.