“This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Parallel translations
- WEB Today Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
- KJV This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
- BSB The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these statutes and ordinances. You must be careful to follow them with all your heart and with all your soul.
- NKJV “This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
- NASB “This day the Lord your God commands you to perform these statutes and ordinances. Therefore you shall be careful to perform them with all your heart and with all your soul.
- NLT “Today the Lord your God has commanded you to obey all these decrees and regulations. So be careful to obey them wholeheartedly.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
God commands Israel to keep these statutes wholeheartedly, with all their heart and soul. Obedience must be inward and total, not merely external.
Overview
This verse calls for keeping God's laws from the heart, engaging the whole inner person, not mere outward conformity. It echoes the great command to love God with all one's heart and soul (Deuteronomy 6:5). Such wholehearted devotion is what God has always sought and what He works in His people through the new covenant, writing His law on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- John 14:15If you love me, keep my commandments.
- Deut 12:1These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth.
- 1 Jn 5:2–3By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.
- Deut 4:1–6Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.
- Deut 6:1Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it;
- Deut 6:5You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
- Deut 13:3–4you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Deut 6:17You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
- Deut 11:8Therefore you shall keep all the commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it;
- Deut 12:32Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
- Deut 4:29But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- John 14:21–24One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
- Deut 8:2You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.
- Deut 11:1Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.
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 26:16 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.