To them now was “the word preached” (v. 2), or, literally, “the word of hearing.” It means that, even as the Exodus generation heard the word, so too this generation; so they are without excuse. One cannot condemn the men who left Egypt without condemning oneself. There is the same ingratitude and obtuseness to reality. The Sabbath rest of God is not something handed to a people for their readiness to give merely verbal assent to God. It recalls us to God’s triumphant rest after creating all things.