So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
- KJV Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
- NKJV “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
- NASB So you shall be careful to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left.
- NLT So Moses told the people, “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail.
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 obey carefully, not turning aside to the right or left. Faithfulness means undeviating obedience to God's word.
Overview
Moses exhorts the people to do exactly as God commanded, without departing in any direction. Wholehearted, undivided obedience is the path of covenant faithfulness. This call to walk the straight way is perfectly kept by Christ and, by his Spirit, increasingly by those who follow him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Prov 4:27Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.
- Josh 23:6Be very strong, then, so that you can keep and obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, not turning aside from it to the right or to the left.
- Josh 1:7Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
- Deut 17:20Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.
- Deut 28:14Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them.
- Deut 24:8In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them.
- Deut 12:32See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
- Ezek 37:24My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes.
- Deut 11:32be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.
- Deut 8:1You must carefully follow every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.
- Deut 6:3Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
- Deut 6:25And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”
- 2 Pet 2:21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.
- Deut 4:1–2Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
- Ps 125:5But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.
- 2 Kgs 21:8I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they are careful to do all I have commanded them—the whole Law that My servant Moses commanded them.”
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 5:32 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.