Exodus 24:7

Summary

Exodus 24:7 narrates that Moses took the "book of the covenant," read it aloud to the assembled people, and the people responded with a declaration of commitment, using two verbs describing future action and attentive response to what Yehovah has spoken.

Key words

• Sefer ("book of", H5612H) — construct noun linking to ha-berit, forming the phrase "book of the covenant"; the construct state means it cannot stand alone and depends on the following noun.
• Berit ("covenant", H1285) — feminine singular noun, the object defined by the article ha (H9009), naming the content of the sefer.
• dibber ("he has spoken", H1696G) — piel perfect verb, indicating a completed act of speaking attributed to Yehovah (H3068G); the piel stem here carries an intensive nuance of authoritative speech.
• na'aseh ("we will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, first person plural, expressing an action projected into the future or as ongoing intention.
• nishma' ("we may obey", H8085H) — qal imperfect prefixed with the conjunction ve (H9002), forming a sequence with na'aseh; the imperfect with vav here marks continuation or purpose following the first verb.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a chain of narrative verbs (va-yiqqach, va-yiqra, va-yomru), each marked by the narrative vav (H9001) that sequences the actions: Moses "took" (yiqqach, H3947G), then "read aloud" (yiqra, H7121J), then the people "said" (yomru, H0559). This chain reports three consecutive completed events without ambiguity about their order.

The object read is called sefer ha-berit, literally "book of the covenant," where sefer (H5612H) stands in construct relationship to the definite noun ha-berit (H1285 with article H9009). The reading occurs be-oznei ha-'am ("in the ears of the people," H0241H construct + H5971A), a dual-noun idiom denoting audible, direct address to the assembled group rather than private reading.

The people's response is introduced by kol asher dibber Yehovah ("all that Yehovah has spoken"), where dibber (H1696G) is a piel perfect, marking the speaking act as already completed and authoritative. The response itself uses two imperfect verbs in sequence: na'aseh (H6213A, "we will do") followed by ve-nishma' (H8085H, "we may obey"), joined by the simple conjunction ve (H9002). This pairing places the verb of action (na'aseh) before the verb rendered "obey," which in Hebrew (H8085H) is the same root elsewhere translated "hear/listen" — here inflected as qal imperfect, suggesting continued or resultant listening/heeding rather than a separate, distinct concept from hearing.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders dibber with ἐλάλησεν (aorist, "spoke"), matching the completed sense of the Hebrew piel perfect. For nishma' (H8085H, "we may obey"/"we will hear"), the LXX gives ἀκουσόμεθα ("we will hear/listen"), preserving the auditory root sense. The Vulgate renders the same word as "erimus obedientes" ("we will be obedient"), shifting from an auditory verb to an explicit obedience construction, a divergence also reflected in the English BSB ("we will be obedient") and RV1909 ("obedeceremos"), whereas the Hebrew root H8085H itself denotes "hearing/listening" rather than a distinct term for "obedience."