And he took the book of the covenant
Which contained the words of the Lord he is said to write, ( Exodus 24:4 ) , and consisted both of laws and judgments required of the people, and to which they had given their assent, and promised obedience to; and of promises made by the Lord of sending his angel before them to guide them in the way, and bring them to Canaan, and to drive the Canaanites from thence, and put the Israelites into the possession of it; so that here were promises on both sides, a restipulation of parties, which made a formal covenant:
and read in the audience of the people;
he had rehearsed what was contained in it from his memory, by word of mouth, to which they had assented, ( Exodus 24:3 ) and having written the same in a book, he read it to them distinctly, that they might the better take notice of the contents of it:
and they said, all that the Lord hath said will we do,
and be obedient; which is a repetition and confirmation of what they had before said, and is expressed in stronger terms; so that this was not done suddenly and inconsiderately, and yet they seem not to be so well apprised of their own inability to keep the laws of God, and of the treachery of their own hearts as to their regard to them; see ( Deuteronomy 5:28 Deuteronomy 5:29 ) .