Limitless Word
Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must keep My Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 19:3 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB “‘Each one of you shall respect his mother and his father. You shall keep my Sabbaths. I am Yahweh your God.
  • KJV Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and 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 20:12Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
  • Exod 20:8Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
  • Heb 12:9Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?
  • Eph 6:1–3Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
  • Ezek 22:7–8Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
  • 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.
  • Prov 30:17As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.
  • Deut 21:18–21If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,
  • Exod 16:29Understand that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day He will give you bread for two days. On the seventh day, everyone must stay where he is; no one may leave his place.”
  • Prov 23:22Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
  • Prov 30:11There is a generation of those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.
  • Matt 15:4–6For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
  • Isa 58:13If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,
  • Exod 31:13–17“Tell the Israelites, ‘Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
  • Exod 21:17Anyone who curses his father or mother must surely be put to death.
  • Deut 27:16‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
  • Exod 21:15Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.
  • Mal 1:6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
  • Ezek 20:12I also gave them My Sabbaths as a sign between us, so that they would know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.
  • Lev 26:2You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.
  • Prov 6:20–21My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
  • Isa 56:4–6For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My covenant—
  • Prov 1:8Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

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.