Not Exactly

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”  Exodus 24:7  ESV

Be Obedient – The translation “be obedient” makes sense.  It’s pretty much repeated in the other English translations.  But it isn’t what the Hebrew says.  The Hebrew doesn’t make sense (at least not on the surface) because it reads, “we will do and we will hear.”  What?  How can we do and then hear?  In fact, the verse is so strange that another rendering of the same event reads as we would expect, namely, “we will hear and we will do.”  But not in this verse.  In this verse, our ordinary logic is upside down—on purpose.  No, it’s not a malapropism.  Not even a spoonerism.  This is Hebrew, not English, and Hebrew logic isn’t Greco-Roman-Western logic.  The word in question is šāmaʿ, primarily receiving an audible message or sound.  Only secondarily does it imply obedience.  It’s the first meaning that matters here, and why it matters really matters.

Zornberg notes:

“Focusing on the core utterance to God, na’aseh ve-mishma—We shall do and we shall hear! R. Meir declares that this was a moment of ‘seduction’; heart and mouth are at odds, inner experience pulling away from language.  Or, more strongly, language being used by the wayward in order to beguile God.”[1]

“Obedience to the law is not the final goal; that is why it is written first, as preamble to the larger demand.  For Sefat Emet, the purpose of the Exodus and the Revelation at Sinai is to acquire this position of listening.  When the people desire to return to Egypt, to the condition of slavery, they resist this divine demand.  To return to Egypt is the easy option, falling back on habit, on the constricted life of the slave for whom obedience is all.  Freedom means a turning toward the future and its possibilities, its difficult demands.  Always hoping to hear more from God, one realizes the exodus project in its fullness.”[2]

Forgiveness is not intended to remove your guilt.  It is intended to make you free—free to listen (šāmaʿ) for more than obedience—for the voice of God instructing us in the effort of the restoration of His creation, including ourselves.

“We will do” is the first step toward “we will hear.”  There is more coming.  Are you listening?

Topical Index:  šāmaʿ, hear, listen, obey, Exodus 24:7

[1] Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Hidden Order of Intimacy: Reflections on the Book of Leviticus (Schocken Books, 2022), p. xv.

[2] Ibid., p. xvi.