Limitless Word
I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and follow them.
Ezekiel 20:19 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB I am Yahweh your God. Walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them;
  • KJV I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;
  • BSB I am the LORD your God; walk in My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them.
  • NKJV I am the Lord your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them;
  • NLT ‘I am the Lord your God,’ I told them. ‘Follow my decrees, pay attention to my regulations,

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 called the children to know Him as the Lord their God and to walk in His statutes and ordinances. True worship means wholehearted obedience to Him alone.

Overview

The repeated declaration 'I am Yahweh your God' grounds the call to obedience in the covenant relationship. Keeping God's commands is the proper response to His grace, not a means of earning it. This gracious summons anticipates the new covenant, in which God writes His law on the hearts of His people (Jeremiah 31:33).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 19

  • Jer 3:22–23Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
  • Ps 105:45that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise Yah!
  • Deut 5:32You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
  • Ezek 36:27I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.
  • Deut 12:1These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth.
  • Ps 81:9–10There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god.
  • Ezek 37:24My servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them.
  • Ezek 11:20that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
  • Deut 5:6–7“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
  • Ps 19:7–11Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s testimony is sure, making wise the simple.
  • Deut 11:1Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.
  • Deut 8:1You shall observe to do all the commandments which I command you today, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers.
  • Deut 7:4–6For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
  • Titus 2:11–14For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
  • Deut 10:1–12At that time Yahweh said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood.
  • Exod 20:2–3“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
  • 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 4:1Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.
  • 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.”

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Ezekiel videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

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

  • VideoWatch teaching on Ezekiel 20:19YouTube · 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 EzekielMatthew 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 promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.

How Ezekiel 20:19 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.