Therefore you shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
Parallel translations
- KJV Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
- BSB Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
- NKJV “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
- NASB “You shall therefore take these words of mine to heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.
- NLT “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel must store God's words in heart and soul and keep them ever before them. God's word is to saturate their inner life.
Overview
Moses urges that God's commands be laid up inwardly and kept symbolically on hand and forehead. The aim is constant, heartfelt attention to God's word. This devotion to Scripture anticipates the new covenant, in which God writes His law on the heart through Christ and His Spirit.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Col 3:16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
- Deut 6:6–9These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;
- Prov 3:1My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:
- Ps 119:11I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
- 2 Pet 3:1–2This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you;
- Exod 13:9It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Yahweh’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt.
- Prov 6:20–23My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
- 2 Pet 1:12Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth.
- Prov 7:2–3Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
- Exod 13:16It shall be for a sign on your hand, and for symbols between your eyes: for by strength of hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.”
- Deut 32:46He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
- Heb 2:1Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away.
- Matt 23:5But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 11:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.