“Indeed, He loves the people; All Your holy ones are in Your hand, And they followed in Your steps; Everyone takes of Your words.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yes, he loves the people. All his saints are in your hand. They sat down at your feet. Each receives your words.
- KJV Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.
- BSB Surely You love the people; all the holy ones are in Your hand, and they sit down at Your feet; each receives Your words—
- NKJV Yes, He loves the people; All His saints are in Your hand; They sit down at Your feet; Everyone receives Your words.
- NLT Indeed, he loves his people; all his holy ones are in his hands. They follow in his steps and accept his teaching.
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 loves His people and holds His saints securely in His hand, and they sit at His feet to receive His words. God's love and Israel's discipleship frame the blessing.
Overview
This verse affirms God's covenant love for Israel and His protective hold over His own, an early picture of the security believers have in God's hand (John 10:28-29). Sitting at His feet to receive His words pictures the posture of the disciple, later seen in Mary at Jesus' feet (Luke 10:39). The Hebrew of this verse is difficult and translations vary, but its message of God's love and the people's reception of His word is clear.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 26
- Luke 10:39She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
- Mal 1:2“I have loved you,” says Yahweh. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says Yahweh, “Yet I loved Jacob;
- Deut 7:6–8For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
- 1 Pet 1:5who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- Luke 8:35People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.
- Rom 8:35–39Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
- Col 3:3–4For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
- Acts 22:3“I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today.
- Eph 2:4–5But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
- Ps 31:15My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
- Ps 50:5“Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
- Ps 147:19–20He shows his word to Jacob; his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
- Jer 32:40and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.
- John 17:11–15I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.
- Jer 31:3Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
- Rom 9:11–13For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,
- Hos 11:1“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
- 1 Sam 2:9He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; for no man shall prevail by strength.
- Ps 47:4He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
- John 10:28–29I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
- Luke 2:46After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the middle of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions.
- Exod 19:5–6Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;
- Prov 2:1My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;
- Deut 14:2For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
- 1 Jn 4:19We love him, because he first loved us.
- 1 Th 1:6You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 33:3 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.