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“‘Each one of you shall respect his mother and his father. You shall keep my Sabbaths. I am Yahweh your God.
Leviticus 19:3 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
  • BSB Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must keep My Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.
  • NKJV ‘Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
  • NASB Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep My Sabbaths; I am the Lord your God.
  • NLT “Each of you must show great respect for your mother and father, and you must always observe my Sabbath days of rest. 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

Each person is to respect mother and father and keep God's Sabbaths.

Overview

This verse pairs honoring parents with keeping the Sabbath, joining the fifth and fourth commandments and showing the moral law's continuity. Notably, mother is named first, affirming the honor due to both parents. Reverence for family and for God's holy rhythms together express a life ordered around God's character.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 23

  • Exod 20:12“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
  • Exod 20:8“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
  • Heb 12:9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
  • Eph 6:1–3Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
  • Ezek 22:7–8In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.
  • Lev 11:44For I am Yahweh your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth.
  • Prov 30:17“The eye that mocks at his father, and scorns obedience to his mother: the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, the young eagles shall eat it.
  • Deut 21:18–21If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them;
  • Exod 16:29Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
  • Prov 23:22Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
  • Prov 30:11There is a generation that curses their father, and doesn’t bless their mother.
  • Matt 15:4–6For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’
  • Isa 58:13“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
  • Exod 31:13–17“Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Most certainly you shall keep my Sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.
  • Exod 21:17“Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
  • Deut 27:16‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
  • Exod 21:15“Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.
  • Mal 1:6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
  • Ezek 20:12Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.
  • Lev 26:2“‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.
  • Prov 6:20–21My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
  • Isa 56:4–6For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant:
  • Prov 1:8My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching:

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Leviticus videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

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

  • VideoWatch teaching on Leviticus 19:3YouTube · 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 LeviticusMatthew 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

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 19:3 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.