Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.
- KJV Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
- NKJV You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
- NASB So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, which, if a person follows them, then he will live by them; I am the Lord.
- NLT If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.
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
Whoever keeps God's statutes will live by them, a promise of life through obedience.
Overview
This verse holds out life as the fruit of faithful obedience, a principle later cited by Paul to illustrate the law's demand for perfect righteousness. It expresses the goodness of God's commands as the path of true flourishing. Yet the New Testament shows that no sinner keeps the law perfectly, driving us to Christ, who alone fulfilled it and gives life to those who trust him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Gal 3:12The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- Rom 10:5For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- 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.
- Ezek 20:21But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.
- Ezek 20:13Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.
- Luke 10:28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”
- Exod 6:2God also told Moses, “I am the LORD.
- Exod 6:6Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
- Exod 6:29He said to him, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I say to you.”
- Mal 3:6“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 18:5 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.