Returning to consider Exodus 34, notice its clear statement about the contents of the covenant.
The Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 34:27-28)
The Ten Commandments were stated in detail in Exodus 20, when God Himself spoke them from Mount Sinai. Written on the two stone tablets, they were the very heart of the covenant. Moses, of course, gave many other laws from God, all of which were part of the covenant. Notice in Exodus 24 the emphasis on all God’s words and laws given through Moses.
Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel…. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Exodus 24:3-4,7-8)
“…in accordance with all these words.”
“All these words” were essential to the covenant. Among them, the Ten Commandments were the foundation on which all other duties toward God and man were built. For this reason, the covenant could simply be called the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:27-28; Deuteronomy 4:13; 9:9).