TORAH · COVENANT AT SINAI · 2 OF 2
A covenant read and answered
Words are spoken, written, read and answered. At Sinai, our people's commitment belongs to a covenant made through both words and actions.
In this lesson
Bring one answer with you
In Exodus 19:3–8, Hashem recalls bringing Israel out of Egypt and calls our people to listen to his voice and keep his covenant. The people answer together: “All that Hashem has spoken, we will do.” A covenant, or brit, is a solemn bond with commitments.
Now turn to chapter 24 of Exodus, the second book of the Torah, the five books of Moshe (Moses). In the book's arrangement, the Ten Commandments in chapter 20 and the laws of chapters 21–23 stand between our two passages. We will follow each passage's own account and compare its words.
Hashem, “the Name,” is our reverent way of referring to God. Israel names our people. The numbers in Exodus 24:3–8 identify chapter 24, verses 3 through 8. You can follow the complete English passage below without reading Hebrew.
1. Before reading on, what did the people promise in Exodus 19:8?
To do all that Hashem had spoken. The words express a commitment, not a report that every future act has already been completed. Keep the phrase “we will do” in mind as you listen to the next passage.
Spoken words become a written record
כל הדברים אשר דבר יהוה נעשה
3. Moshe came and told the people all Hashem's words and all the laws. All the people answered with one voice, saying, “All the words that Hashem has spoken, we will do.”
4. Moshe wrote all Hashem's words. He rose early in the morning, built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
5. He sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as peace offerings to Hashem.
6. Moshe took half the blood and put it in basins; the other half he splashed against the altar.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Mishpatim, rendered “laws” in verse 3, names the judgments or ordinances Moshe tells the people. The verse says “all Hashem's words and all the laws,” then records the people's commitment. In the next verse, Moshe writes.
An altar is a place for offering sacrifices in worship. The twelve pillars are standing markers, one for each of Israel's twelve tribes, the groups that make up our people. Burnt offerings and peace offerings are two kinds of animal offerings; the blood in the following verse belongs to this sacrificial setting.
2. Compare Exodus 19:8 with Exodus 24:3. What is shared?
Both give a shared answer of the people, both refer to what Hashem has spoken and both end with “we will do.” Exodus 19 says “together”; Exodus 24 says “with one voice.” The similar commitment is now placed within an account that also describes writing and covenant actions.
3. What does the number twelve refer to? Does the passage describe twelve altars?
Twelve pillars correspond to the twelve tribes of Israel. The passage names one altar and twelve pillars, not twelve altars. Read each number with its own noun rather than combining all the objects into one kind.
The book is read; the people answer
ויקח ספר הברית ויקרא באזני העם
ויאמרו כל אשר דבר יהוה נעשה ונשמע7. He took the book of the covenant and read it in the people's hearing. They said, “All that Hashem has spoken, we will do and we will listen.”
הנה דם הברית אשר כרת יהוה עמכם
על כל הדברים האלה8. Moshe took the blood and splashed it on the people. He said, “Here is the blood of the covenant that Hashem has made with you on the basis of all these words.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Sefer ha-brit, ספר הברית, means “book of the covenant.” Here “book” names a written text that Moshe reads aloud. Follow the words through the scene: he tells them, writes them and reads the covenant book in the people's hearing. The people answer what they hear.
The actions and the words belong together. Half the blood goes against the altar in verse 6. Verse 7 gives the public reading and response. In verse 8, Moshe applies blood to the people and names it “the blood of the covenant.” His declaration connects the covenant to “all these words.” The ceremony does not replace the spoken commitments.
4. What happens between the blood being applied to the altar and to the people?
Moshe reads the book of the covenant in the people's hearing, and the people say they will do and listen. Verse 7 stands between the two blood actions. The passage deliberately gives us both the actions and the words that accompany them.
Keep the objects distinct
A careful reader does not merge the altar, pillars, covenant book and blood into a vague picture of “religious things.” Each has a place in the account.
- Altar and pillars
Moshe builds the altar at the mountain; the pillars correspond to the tribes. Their description keeps worship and the people gathered before Hashem in view.
- The covenant book
It is read aloud, and the people respond to Hashem's words. The narrative makes reading part of the covenant scene.
- The blood
It is divided, applied to the altar and then to the people. Moshe identifies it in his declaration as the blood of the covenant Hashem makes with them.
The stone tablets are a different object. Later in this chapter, verse 12 speaks separately of Hashem giving Moshe the stone tablets. Calling the covenant book “the tablets” would erase a distinction the text makes. Likewise, these verses give us a written covenant text without naming its first and last lines; identifying its full contents is a further question for study.
5. A learner writes, “Moshe reads the stone tablets to the people in verse 7.” What needs changing?
Verse 7 names the book of the covenant, not the tablets. Verse 4 says Moshe writes Hashem's words; verse 12 separately speaks of the stone tablets Hashem will give him. A stronger sentence is, “Moshe reads the covenant book in the people's hearing.”
“We will do and we will listen”
The Hebrew pair is na'aseh ve-nishma, נעשה ונשמע. Na'aseh means “we will do”; ve-nishma means “and we will listen.” Listening here carries the force of heeding or obeying, not merely hearing a sound. That is why translations may render the second word “obey.”
Compare the answers inside chapter 24. Verse 3 ends with “we will do.” Verse 7 adds “and we will listen.” Yet verse 7 itself first says that Moshe reads in the people's hearing. The order of the words in their answer and the order of events in the scene are two different things to notice.
6. Does the Torah say the people had heard no words before saying na'aseh ve-nishma?
No. Verse 3 says Moshe tells the people Hashem's words and laws. Verse 7 says he reads the covenant book in their hearing before they answer. “We will do” comes before “we will listen” within the answer; that does not erase the telling and reading already described.
Read the word order with Rabbi Elazar
Our sages linger over the people's answer. The Babylonian Talmud preserves discussion of the Mishnah, an early collection of our sages' teachings, alongside other teachings and interpretations of biblical passages. A tractate is a named division of this literature. In the tractate Shabbat, Rabbi Elazar draws attention to putting “we will do” before “we will listen.”
אמר רבי אלעזר: בשעה שהקדימו ישראל נעשה לנשמע, יצתה בת קול ואמרה להן: מי גילה לבני רז זה שמלאכי השרת משתמשין בו?
Rabbi Elazar said: When Israel put “we will do” before “we will listen,” a heavenly voice went forth and said to them, “Who revealed to my children this secret that the ministering angels use?”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
The teaching continues by citing Psalm 103:20, where angels are described as doing Hashem's word and listening to its voice. Rabbi Elazar notices doing before listening in that wording too. He celebrates Israel's ready commitment through the comparison with heavenly service.
This is an interpretation of the Torah's wording, preserved in the Talmud. The heavenly voice belongs to Rabbi Elazar's teaching; it is not an additional sentence printed in Exodus 24:7. Naming the source lets us learn from both the Torah's account and our sage's reading without confusing their voices.
In the reference 88a, 88 is the folio, or numbered leaf, and a is its first side. It is a Talmud page reference, not chapter 88, verse 1. On the linked Hebrew chapter page, look for דף פח,א, then Rabbi Elazar's name, רבי אלעזר.
7. Which source supplies the public reading, and which supplies the heavenly voice praising the answer?
The public reading is in Exodus 24:7. The heavenly voice praising Israel's word order appears in Rabbi Elazar's teaching in Shabbat 88a. The two sources contribute different things: the Torah narrates the covenant scene, and the Talmud preserves a sage's interpretation of the answer.
Commitment does not cancel learning
A student says, “The people put doing first, so learning the words must be unnecessary.” Work through the claim rather than accepting its confident tone.
- Read the Torah's whole sentence. The covenant book is read aloud before the people answer. Learning what Hashem says is present in the scene.
- Keep both commitment words. The answer includes “we will listen,” not “we will refuse to listen.”
- Hear the sage's emphasis. Rabbi Elazar praises ready commitment, through a comparison with the angels. He does not tell us to discard the Torah's words.
- Revise the conclusion. Readiness to serve Hashem and continued attention to his teaching belong together.
8. Which study response better carries this lesson forward: “I will act on my guess,” or “I will take the teaching seriously and learn how to carry it out”?
The second keeps commitment and listening together. It gives learning a purpose without pretending that a guess is already knowledge. For a practice you do not understand, ask a teacher a precise question and learn what faithful action requires.
This is our application of the sources, not a new quotation from Exodus or Rabbi Elazar.
Return tomorrow
Cover the source cards. Recall the shared ending of Exodus 19:8 and 24:3, the addition in 24:7 and the action immediately before that answer. Then name the source of Rabbi Elazar's teaching and explain why it does not make reading unnecessary.
10. Check your recall.
The shared ending is “we will do.” Exodus 24:7 adds “and we will listen,” after Moshe reads the covenant book in the people's hearing. Rabbi Elazar's teaching appears in Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 88a and praises the order of the commitment words through a comparison with the angels.
The Torah includes telling and reading, and the answer itself includes listening. Ready commitment and learning belong together. Finally, recall one object carefully: one altar, twelve pillars, the covenant book or the blood identified with the covenant.
Return to the sources
- Exodus 19:3–8: the message and shared answer from the first lesson.
- Exodus 24:3–8: the complete passage rendered here; verse 12 separately names the stone tablets. The Hebrew writes God's four-letter name; our English uses Hashem.
- Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 88a: Rabbi Elazar's teaching on the order of “we will do” and “we will listen.”
- Psalm 103:20: the verse about the angels cited in that teaching.