Exodus 24:3

Summary

Moses comes and reports to the people all the words of Yehovah and all the judgments. The entire people responds with one voice, agreeing to do everything Yehovah has spoken.

Key words

• va-i.Ya.'an ("it answered", H6030B) — qal narrative verb, singular form though the subject kol-ha'am ("all the people") is treated grammatically as one collective unit.
• Kol 'e.Chad ("a voice one", H6963A + H0259) — the noun kol ("voice") is masculine, but 'echad ("one") appears in the text as feminine singular per the morphological tag; together the phrase describes the manner of the people's response.
• div.Rei Yah.weh ("words of Yehovah", H1697G construct + H3068G) — construct chain: "words of" bound to the divine name, marking these as Yehovah's own utterances relayed by Moses.
• na.'a.Seh ("we will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, first person plural, expressing an action not yet completed but committed to.
• di.Ber ("he has spoken", H1696G) — piel perfect, completed action, contrasting grammatically with the imperfect na'aseh that follows it in the same clause.

What the text says

The verse is built from four consecutive narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive (H9001): va-yavo ("and he went", H0935G), va-yesapper ("and he recounted", H5608A, piel), va-ya'an ("and it answered", H6030B), and va-yomeru ("and they said", H0559). This chain moves the action forward step by step: Moses arrives, Moses speaks, the people answers, the people says. Note that yesapper is in the piel stem, marking an intensive or extended act of recounting/narrating, distinct from a simple report.

The object of Moses' speech is split into two direct objects, each marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated object marker): kol div.rei Yah.weh ("all the words of Yehovah") and kol ha-mishpatim ("all the judgments", H4941G). The construct chain div.rei Yah.weh attaches the words directly to the divine name, while ha-mishpatim carries the definite article, referring to "the judgments" as an already-known set.

The people's answer occurs in two grammatical stages: first va-ya'an ("it answered") is singular, agreeing with kol ha-'am ("all the people") as a grammatically singular collective noun, followed by the phrase kol 'echad ("one voice"), reinforcing this unity. Then va-yomeru ("and they said") shifts to plural, since direct speech naturally requires plural agreement for the "words" spoken. The final commitment uses na'aseh ("we will do", imperfect, H6213A), grammatically distinguished from dibber ("he has spoken", perfect, H1696G) — the perfect marks Yehovah's speaking as completed, while the imperfect marks the people's doing as pending/future.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds a second verb at the end: ποιήσομεν καὶ ἀκουσόμεθα ("we will do and we will hear/obey"), where the Hebrew has only na.'a.Seh ("we will do", H6213A). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew with a single verb, faciemus ("we will do"). Additionally, the LXX renders div.rei Yah.weh ("words of Yehovah") as τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ θεοῦ ("the words of God"), using θεός instead of the divine name found in the Hebrew Yah.weh (H3068G).