“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:
Parallel translations
- WEB “Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
- KJV Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
- NKJV “Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them:
- NASB “Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:
- NLT “These are the regulations you must present to Israel.
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 introduces the ordinances Moses is to set before the people. The Ten Commandments are now applied in detailed case laws for daily life.
Overview
This verse opens the "Book of the Covenant" (chs. 21-23), applying God's moral law to specific situations in Israel's society. These laws reveal God's concern for justice, mercy, and order in everyday relationships. They display the righteous character God desires, fully embodied in Christ and worked out in the lives of His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 26
- Deut 4:14At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
- Deut 6:20In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?”
- Exod 24:3–4When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the LORD has spoken, we will do.”
- Lev 18:5Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD.
- Ps 147:19He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel.
- Num 35:24then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.
- Deut 4:5See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
- Lev 18:26But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you.
- 1 Th 4:1Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more.
- 2 Chr 19:10For every dispute that comes before you from your brothers who dwell in their cities—whether it regards bloodshed or some other violation of law, commandments, statutes, or ordinances—you are to warn them, so that they will not incur guilt before the LORD and wrath will not come upon you and your brothers. Do this, and you will not incur guilt.
- Ezek 20:25I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.
- Neh 10:29hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to carefully obey all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord.
- Exod 19:7So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him.
- Num 36:13These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.
- Deut 4:45These are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances that Moses proclaimed to them after they had come out of Egypt,
- 1 Kgs 6:12“As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David.
- Matt 28:20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
- Lev 20:22You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
- Lev 19:37You must keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and follow them. I am the LORD.”
- Deut 4:8And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?
- Deut 5:31But you stand here with Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and statutes and ordinances you are to teach them to follow in the land that I am giving them to possess.”
- Ezek 20:11And I gave them My statutes and made known to them My ordinances—for the man who does these things will live by them.
- Neh 9:13–14You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.
- Deut 5:1Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.
- Mal 4:4“Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb.
- Deut 6:1These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 21:1 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.