“These are the regulations you must present to Israel.
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.
- BSB “These are the ordinances that you are to 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:
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 4:14Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.
- Deut 6:20When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean?”
- Exod 24:3–4Moses came and told the people all Yahweh’s words, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which Yahweh has spoken will we do.”
- Lev 18:5You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.
- Ps 147:19He shows his word to Jacob; his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
- Num 35:24then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.
- Deut 4:5Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it.
- Lev 18:26You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you;
- 1 Th 4:1Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.
- 2 Chr 19:10Whenever any controversy comes to you from your brothers who dwell in their cities, between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and ordinances, you must warn them, that they not be guilty towards Yahweh, and so wrath come on you and on your brothers. Do this, and you will not be guilty.
- Ezek 20:25Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live;
- Neh 10:29they joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of Yahweh our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;
- Exod 19:7Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which Yahweh commanded him.
- Num 36:13These are the commandments and the ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
- Deut 4:45These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt,
- 1 Kgs 6:12“Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.
- Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Lev 20:22“‘You shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them; that the land, where I am bringing you to dwell, may not vomit you out.
- Lev 19:37“‘You shall observe all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them. I am Yahweh.’”
- Deut 4:8What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you today?
- Deut 5:31But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.”
- Ezek 20:11I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them.
- Neh 9:13–14“You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,
- Deut 5:1Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears today, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.”
- Mal 4:4“Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.
- Deut 6:1Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it;
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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.