Numbers 15:40
in Numbers 15Then you will remember and obey all My commandments, and you will be holy to your God.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
that ye may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.
KJV
That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.
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This verse in Numbers 15
Commentary
4 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
the LORD said to Moses
on Numbers 15:37-41
The tassels come with their reason, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD. The verb behind following your own heart and your own eyes is the verb used of the spies at 13:2.
This site's exposition
you will be holy to your God
The chain runs from seeing to remembering to obeying. Korah will argue at 16:3 that everyone in the congregation is already holy. Matthew Henry calls the tassels reminders of duty, and this verse makes holiness the fruit of that duty kept.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Be ye holy - Purged from sin and sincerely devoted to God.
That ye may remember and do all my commandments,.... Which is repeated, that the end and use of these fringes might be particularly taken notice of, and attended to; that so they might not satisfy themselves with and rest in this ceremony of wearing the fringes, but be found in the observance of every moral precept, and of every religious ordinance and duty: and be holy unto your God: as in his presence, according to his will, and for his honour and glory, by keeping his holy commands, and living an holy life and conversation, well pleasing in his sight.
How the passage was read
On Numbers 15:37-41On Numbers 15:37-41
The tassels Jesus Himself wore
This passage commands tzitzit: tassels tied to the four corners of one's garment, with a thread of blue, “that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD.” Observant Jews keep the command to this day on the tallit, the fringed prayer shawl worn in synagogue, and many wear a fringed undergarment daily. The Mishnah records that when the blue dye became unobtainable, the white threads alone still fulfill the command: the absence of the sky-blue “does not prevent” the white (Menachot 4:1), which is why most tassels today are all white.
Two Gospel moments turn on this passage. The woman who touched “the hem of his garment” (Matthew 9:20) took hold of the kraspedon, the tassel: she reached for the corner of Jesus' garment where the commandment hangs, which means Jesus wore tzitzit. And His woe against fringes “made long” (Matthew 23:5) targets enlarging the tassels for show; the practice itself was His own.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְמַ֣עַן | lemaan | so that | H4616 → | 272 times |
| תִּזְכְּר֔וּ | tizkeru | you may remember | H2142 → | 230 times |
| וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם | vaasitem | and you will observe | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| מִצְוֹתָ֑י | mitzvotai | commandments my | H4687 → | 181 times |
| וִהְיִיתֶ֥ם | vihyitem | and you will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| קְדֹשִׁ֖ים | kedoshim | holy | H6918 → | 116 times |
| לֵֽאלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃ | leloheikhem | to God your | H430 → | 2601 times |
לְמַ֣עַןso that
lemaanH4616 →272 times
תִּזְכְּר֔וּyou may remember
tizkeruH2142 →230 times
וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖םand you will observe
vaasitemH6213 →2628 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
מִצְוֹתָ֑יcommandments my
mitzvotaiH4687 →181 times
וִהְיִיתֶ֥םand you will be
vihyitemH1961 →3559 times
קְדֹשִׁ֖יםholy
kedoshimH6918 →116 times
לֵֽאלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃to God your
leloheikhemH430 →2601 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Romans 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.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 2:5
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- Romans 6:13
Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of…
- Hebrews 13:15–16
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.
- Romans 6:19
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now…
- Ephesians 4:1
As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received:
- 1 Peter 2:5
Through
1 Thessalonians 4:7For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
it leads to
- Leviticus 11:44
For 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 Peter 2:9–12
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Ephesians 1:4
For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love
- Leviticus 11:44
Where this verse is studied
By subject
Holiness35 verses
On this page
About Numbers
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.