“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the LORD your God.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘I am Yahweh your God.
- KJV Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God.
- NKJV “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God.
- NASB “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your God.
- NLT “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the Lord your God.
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 identifies himself as 'Yahweh your God,' the basis for the commands that follow.
Overview
The repeated self-declaration roots Israel's obedience in their covenant relationship with the Lord. Morality is not arbitrary rule-keeping but a response to who God is and what he has done in redeeming them. This refrain, woven throughout the chapter, reminds Israel that their conduct must reflect the holy God who claims them as his own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Exod 6:7I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
- Lev 11:44For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any creature that crawls along the ground.
- Ezek 20:5and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt. With an uplifted hand I said to them, ‘I am the LORD your God.’
- Lev 20:7Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.
- Ezek 20:19–20I am the LORD your God; walk in My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them.
- Lev 19:3–4Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must keep My Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.
- Exod 20:2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
- Lev 19:34You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
- Lev 18:4You are to practice My judgments and keep My statutes by walking in them. I am the LORD your God.
- Gen 17:7I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
- Ezek 20:7And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’
- Ps 33:12Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His inheritance!
- Lev 19:10You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 18:2 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.