24:3 Moses came 6 and told the people all the Lord’s words 7 and all the decisions. All the people answered together, 8 “We are willing to do 9 all the words that the Lord has said,”
29:1 (28:69) 18 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. 19
8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put 20 my laws in their minds 21 and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. 22
8:11 “And there will be no need at all 23 for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. 24
1 tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.
2 tn Heb “fathers.”
3 tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”
4 tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.
5 tn Heb “Oracle of the
6 sn The general consensus among commentators is that this refers to Moses’ coming from the mountain after he made the ascent in 20:21. Here he came and told them the laws (written in 20:22-23:33), and of the call to come up to Yahweh.
7 sn The Decalogue may not be included here because the people had heard those commands themselves earlier.
8 tn The text simply has “one voice” (קוֹל אֶחָד, qol ’ekhad); this is an adverbial accusative of manner, telling how the people answered – “in one voice,” or unanimously (see GKC 375 §118.q).
9 tn The verb is the imperfect tense (נַעֲשֶׂה, na’aseh), although the form could be classified as a cohortative. If the latter, they would be saying that they are resolved to do what God said. If it is an imperfect, then the desiderative would make the most sense: “we are willing to do.” They are not presumptuously saying they are going to do all these things.
10 tn The noun “book” would be the scroll just written containing the laws of chaps. 20-23. On the basis of this scroll the covenant would be concluded here. The reading of this book would assure the people that it was the same that they had agreed to earlier. But now their statement of willingness to obey would be more binding, because their promise would be confirmed by a covenant of blood.
11 tn Heb “read it in the ears of.”
12 tn A second verb is now added to the people’s response, and it is clearly an imperfect and not a cohortative, lending support for the choice of desiderative imperfect in these commitments – “we want to obey.” This was their compliance with the covenant.
13 tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).
14 sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.
15 tn Heb “the
16 tn Heb “fathers.”
17 tn Heb “the
18 sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
19 sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
20 tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”
21 tn Grk “mind.”
22 tn Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.
23 tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”
24 tn Grk “from the small to the great.”