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Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me.
Exodus 19:5 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB Now 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;
  • KJV Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
  • BSB Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
  • NKJV Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
  • NASB Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;

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

If Israel obeys and keeps the covenant, they will be God's treasured possession among all peoples. Belonging to God carries the call to faithful obedience.

Overview

God offers Israel a unique status as His own treasured people, conditioned on covenant faithfulness, yet all the earth remains His. This special relationship anticipates the church, called God's "special possession" purchased by Christ (1 Pet. 2:9; Titus 2:14), where obedience flows from grace already received.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 38

  • 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.
  • Deut 7:6For 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.
  • Deut 26:18Yahweh has declared today that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments.
  • Mal 3:17They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
  • Exod 15:26and he said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”
  • Ps 135:4For Yah has chosen Jacob for himself; Israel for his own possession.
  • Deut 10:14Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein.
  • Deut 4:20But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today.
  • Exod 23:22But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.
  • Titus 2:14who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
  • Exod 9:29Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to Yahweh. The thunders shall cease, and there will not be any more hail; that you may know that the earth is Yahweh’s.
  • Ps 24:1A Psalm by David. The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein.
  • Deut 5:2Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
  • Job 41:11Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.
  • 1 Cor 10:26for “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.”
  • Jer 31:31–33“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
  • Deut 32:8–9When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
  • 1 Kgs 8:53For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh.”
  • Ps 25:10All the paths of Yahweh are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
  • Heb 11:8By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
  • 1 Sam 15:22Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
  • Josh 24:24The people said to Joshua, “We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his voice.”
  • Dan 4:34–35At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.
  • Isa 43:1But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.
  • Ps 103:17–18But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children;
  • Isa 41:8“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend,
  • Exod 24:7He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken will we do, and be obedient.”
  • Deut 28:1It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
  • Isa 1:19If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
  • Jer 11:4–7which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace,’ saying, ‘Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so you shall be my people, and I will be your God;
  • Deut 11:27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today;
  • Isa 56:4For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant:
  • Jer 7:23but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
  • Deut 14:21You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
  • Ps 50:11–12I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
  • 1 Cor 10:28But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” don’t eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness.”
  • Jer 10:16The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
  • Song 8:12My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon; two hundred for those who tend its fruit.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Exodus videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

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

  • VideoWatch teaching on Exodus 19:5YouTube · 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 ExodusMatthew 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

The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.

How Exodus 19:5 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.