Exodus 24:4

And Moses wrote] see on Exodus 17:14. The altar symbolised the presence of Jehovah, the twelve pillars represented the twelve tribes of Israel. These pillars were single unhewn stones which were smeared with the blood of the sacrificial animal or with the oil of a vegetable offering: see on Genesis 28:18. The use of pillars is an evidence of the antiquity of the rite of sealing the covenant recorded here, as they were afterwards forbidden owing to their association with heathen worship: see Deuteronomy 16:22, and see on Exodus 34:13.