What Does Exodus 24:7 Mean?
And he took the scroll of the covenant, and called it out in the ears of the people, and they said, All that the LORD has said we will do, and we will hear and respond.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.THE KEY
What English separates as “do” and “be obedient” is joined in Hebrew: act on the word and keep hearing it.
THE MEANING
The covenant word reaches you as a call that joins action with listening. Your response has both a doing and a hearing: you act on what you receive while remaining attentive to it. The verse gives that commitment a shared voice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that obedience is only outward compliance: the Hebrew also says “we will hear,” keeping response rooted in attentive listening.
THE ROOT
וְנִשְׁמָע
ve-nishma
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed; in context, hear and respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is ve-nishma. The Hebrew word holds hearing, heeding, and responsive attention in one root. Here the people pledge both to act and to keep listening, joining their response to the word they receive.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; listen.
שְׁמַע
This is the form that opens Deuteronomy 6:4; the same root appears here as a pledge to hear and respond.
shemuʿah: A report; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
Isaiah 53:1 uses this related word for “report,” showing that the root can name both the act of hearing and what reaches the hearer.
נַעֲשֶׂה
naʿaseh
GROWS FROM
עשה
Do, make, bring about.
“do” in this verse is naʿaseh. Asah can describe doing as well as making. Beside “we will hear,” it gives the pledge two movements: the word takes shape in action, and the hearer stays receptive to it.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaseh: A deed; work.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun names the work that is done, giving the promise to act a concrete shape.
asah: Do; make.
עָשָׂה
The same verb describes making in Genesis 1, carrying a sense of bringing something into being as well as carrying out an action.
THE PATTERN
A covenant response holds hearing and action together, so what is received takes shape in what is done.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Deuteronomy’s opening “Hear” is shema, from the same שׁמע root behind “be obedient” in Exodus. The shared root lets you hear the promise as a commitment to keep listening as well as to act.
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