Then you will remember and obey all My commandments, and you will be holy to your God.
Parallel translations
- WEB that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.
- KJV That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.
- NKJV and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
- NASB so that you will remember and do all My commandments and be holy to your God.
- NLT The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to 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
The purpose was that they would remember and do all God's commandments and be holy to him. Remembrance was meant to produce obedient holiness.
Overview
The aim of the tassels was a life consecrated to God, marked by remembering and doing his will. Holiness is the goal of God's commands and the calling of his people. This call to be holy is echoed for the church, set apart in Christ and summoned to holiness because God is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Rom 12:1Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
- Lev 11:44–45For 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.
- 1 Th 4:7For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
- 1 Pet 1:15–16But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do,
- Col 1:2To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
- Lev 19:2“Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
- Eph 1:4For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 15:40 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.