Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- 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.
- 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 richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
- Deut 6:6–9These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.
- Prov 3:1My son, do not 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 3:1–2Beloved, this is now my second letter to you. Both of them are reminders to stir you to wholesome thinking
- Exod 13:9It shall be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For with a mighty hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.
- Prov 6:20–23My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
- 2 Pet 1:12Therefore I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have.
- Prov 7:2–3Keep my commandments and live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
- Exod 13:16So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead, for with a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”
- Deut 32:46he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.
- Heb 2:1We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
- Matt 23:5All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.