John Calvin Commentary Exodus 34:10

"And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of Jehovah; for it is a terrible thing that I do with thee." — Exodus 34:10 (ASV)

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 work³⁸⁷ that I will do with thee.” But, since Moses stipulated in the name of all, the meaning comes to the same thing if we understand it to mean that He 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 defeat of the nations as to prove that He is the God who is uniquely theirs; and this was to distinguish them from other nations, according to the prayer of Moses.

He says that they will all be eyewitnesses of this, so that, being eventually 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.