And you shall keep My statutes and practice them. I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall keep my statutes, and do them. I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.
- KJV And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.
- NKJV And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
- NASB So you shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
- NLT Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the Lord who makes you holy.
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
Israel must keep and do God's statutes, for it is the Lord who sanctifies them. God Himself makes His people holy.
Overview
Obedience is commanded, yet the verse roots holiness in God's own sanctifying work: 'I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.' Israel does not make itself holy by effort alone; God sets them apart and enables their obedience. This anticipates the gospel reality that believers are sanctified by God in Christ, called to live out what He has made them (1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 2:12-13).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Exod 31:13“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.
- Jas 1:22Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
- 1 Th 5:23Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Lev 19:37You must keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and follow them. I am the LORD.”
- Lev 21:8You are to regard him as holy, since he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, because I the LORD am holy—I who set you apart.
- 2 Th 2:13But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.
- Matt 5:19So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
- Matt 12:50For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
- Matt 7:24Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
- Rev 22:14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.
- 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.
- Ezek 37:28Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.’”
- 1 Cor 1:30It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
- John 13:17If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
- Lev 18:4–5You are to practice My judgments and keep My statutes by walking in them. I am the LORD your God.
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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 20:8 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.