You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
- KJV And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
- BSB Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
- NASB You shall also tie them as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.
- NLT 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 is to bind God's words on hand and forehead as a constant reminder. God's word should govern thought and action.
Overview
The command to bind the words on hand and between the eyes calls for God's word to direct one's deeds and mind. Jews later observed this literally with phylacteries, while many read it as vivid imagery for total devotion. Either way, the point is that God's word should pervade the whole life, a devotion fulfilled in hearts captive to Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 6:21Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.
- Deut 11:18Therefore 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.
- Prov 3:3Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
- Prov 7:3Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
- Exod 13:9It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Yahweh’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt.
- Num 15:38–39“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue:
- Exod 13:16It shall be for a sign on your hand, and for symbols between your eyes: for by strength of hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.”
- Matt 23:5But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
- Heb 2:1Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away.
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 6:8 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.