Leviticus 19:37

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

You shall observe all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them. I am Yahweh.'"

World English Bible · Public Domain

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חֻקֹּתַי֙

chuqqâh

H2708

“statutes · my”

Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular

Appears 105× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 26:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H2706

TWOT: 728b

statute, ordinance, limit, enactment, something prescribed - statute

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

11: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns
1 pronoun
3 particles

Verb forms

וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֤ם Qal · Sequential Perfect
וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

כָּל all H3605 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 22 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 11 Hebrew tokens and 20 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Leviticus 19:37 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 8:1 All the commandment which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers.
Leviticus 18:4–5 You shall do my ordinances, and you shall keep my statutes, and walk in them: I am Yahweh your God.
Deuteronomy 5:1 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.
Psalms 119:34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.
1 John 3:22–23 and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.
Deuteronomy 4:1–2 Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.
Deuteronomy 4:5–6 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land where you go in to possess it.
Deuteronomy 6:1–2 Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it;

Psalms 119:4 You have commanded your precepts, That we should fully obey them.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Leviticus 19:37 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֤ם אֶת כָּל חֻקֹּתַי֙ וְאֶת כָּל מִשְׁפָּטַ֔י וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם אֲנִ֖י יְהוָֽה

You shall observe all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them. I am Yahweh.'"

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Leviticus 19:37 Septuagint · lemma form

καί φυλάσσω πᾶς ὁ νόμος ἐγώ καί πᾶς ὁ πρόσταγμα ἐγώ καί ποιέω αὐτός ἐγώ εἰμί κύριος ὁ θεός σύ

And you⌃ shall keep all my law and all my ordinances, and you⌃ shall do them: I am the Lord your God.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְתִטְרוּן יָת כָּל קְיָמַי וְיָת כָּל דִינַי וְתַעְבְּדוּן יָתְהוֹן אֲנָא יְיָ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְתִיטְרוּן יַת כָּל קְיָימַי וְיַת כָּל סִדְרֵי דִינַי וְתַעַבְדוּן יַתְהוֹן אֲנָא יְיָ

and you shall observe all My statutes, and all the ordinations of My judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Leviticus 19:37 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Lev 19:37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 37. And do them.] For they are verba vivenda, non legenda. Words not so much to be read as lived.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Lev 19:37. Therefore — Because my blessings and deliverances are not indulgences to sin, but greater obligations to all duties to God and men.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

I am the Lord--This solemn admonition, by which these various precepts are repeatedly sanctioned, is equivalent to "I, your Creator--your Deliverer from bondage, and your Sovereign, who have wisdom to establish laws, have power also to punish the violation of them." It was well fitted to impress the minds of the Israelites with a sense of their duty and God's claims to obedience.

Next: Leviticus Chapter 20

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 37. Shall ye observe all my statutes] חקתי chukkothi, from חק chak, to describe, mark, or trace out; the righteousness which I have described, and the path of duty which I have traced out. Judgments, משפטי mishpatai, from shaphat, to discern, determine, direct, c. that which Divine Wisdom has discerned to be best for man, has determined shall promote his best interest, and has directed him conscientiously to use. See Clarke on Le 26:15.

1. MANY difficulties occur in this very important chapter, but they are such only to us; for there can be no doubt of their having been perfectly well known to the Israelites, to whom the precepts contained in this chapter were given. Considerable pains however have been taken to make them plain, and no serious mind can read them without profit.

2. The precepts against injustice, fraud, slander, enmity, c., c., are well worth the notice of every Christian and those against superstitious usages are not less so and by these last we learn, that having recourse to astrologers, fortune-tellers, &c., to get intelligence of lost or stolen goods, or to know the future events of our own lives, or those of others, is highly criminal in the sight of God. Those who have recourse to such persons renounce their baptism, and in effect renounce the providence as well as the word of God.

3. The precepts of humanity and mercy relative to the poor, the hireling, and the stranger, are worthy of our most serious regard. Nor are those which concern weights and measures, traffic, and the whole system of commutative justice, less necessary to be observed for the benefit and comfort of the individual, and the safety and prosperity of the state.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments,.... Delivered in this and the preceding chapters, and elsewhere, whether ceremonial or judicial, or moral, as there were of each, which had been delivered to them; and which are all comprehended in these two words, "statutes", or ordinances, which were the determinations of his sovereign will, and of mere positive institution; and "judgments", which were such laws as respected their civil or religious conduct, formed according to the rules of justice and equity: "all" and everyone of which were to be "observed", taken notice of, and regarded, in order to be put in practice, as follows:

and do them; act according to them, in civil, moral, and religious life:

I am the Lord; who enjoined all these things, and had a right to do so, and expected obedience to them, which it was right fit that they should give.

Next: Leviticus Chapter 20

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Therefore; because my blessings and deliverances are not indulgences to sin, but greater obligations to all duties to God and men. So that if religion and righteousness were utterly lost in the world, they ought in all reason to be found among you as my peculiar people and freed men.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Moral precepts are rested on their right foundation the command of God and the religious motive.

Moral commandments have a double sanction.

They are to be obeyed

(1) because they carry their own sanction with them,

(2) because they are commanded.

In the latter respect all Divine injunctions stand on a level. All transgressions of what is commanded are equally sin, but they are not equal sins. A man who steals is not guilty of an equally heinous sin with the man who commits murder, but he is equally guilty of sin, because both murder and theft are forbidden. All God"s statutes, and all his judgments are to be observed without exception, in order to be righteous according to the righteousness of the Law. "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them". (Rom_10:5) "This do, and ye shall live". (Luk_11:28)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Therefore - Because my blessings and deliverances are not indulgences to sin, but greater obligations to all duties to God and men.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

Concluding exhortation, summing up all the rest.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Leviticus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 11 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is chuqqâh (“statute”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “statute” (chuqqâh) shape what this verse is saying?
Deuteronomy 8:1 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“all” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֤ם» is Qal Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 20 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
“all” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.