You are to be blameless before the Lord your God.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God.
- KJV Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
- BSB You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
- NKJV You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.
- NLT But you must be blameless before the Lord your God.
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 is to be wholly devoted and blameless before the LORD. God calls His people to undivided, sincere allegiance.
Overview
In contrast to the divided loyalties of occult practice, Israel was to be wholehearted and complete in their commitment to Yahweh. This integrity is not sinless perfection but undivided faithfulness. It anticipates the call to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48), a standard ultimately met for us in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Matt 5:48Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
- Gen 17:1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be blameless.
- Gen 6:9This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
- Ps 37:37Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.
- Phil 3:12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
- Job 1:8Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”
- Job 1:1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.
- Phil 3:15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.
- Rev 3:2Wake up, and keep the things that remain, which you were about to throw away, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.
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 18:13 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.