Limitless Word
You shall also write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:9 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates.
  • KJV And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
  • BSB Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
  • NKJV You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
  • NLT Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

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's words are to be written on doorposts and gates. The home and community should be marked by God's word.

Overview

Israel is to inscribe God's commands on the doorposts and gates, so that home and public life are saturated with his word. Later Jewish practice fulfilled this with the mezuzah. The principle is that no sphere of life is exempt from God's word, which now dwells richly in the homes and hearts of Christ's people (Colossians 3:16).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 6

  • Deut 11:20You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates;
  • Isa 30:8Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
  • Isa 57:8You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts; for you have exposed yourself to someone besides me, and have gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them. You loved what you saw on their bed.
  • Hab 2:2Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it.
  • Exod 12:7They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.
  • Job 19:23–25“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (10)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Deuteronomy videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Deuteronomy 6:9YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on DeuteronomyMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 6:9 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.