Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 27:3
Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker commands the Israelites to inscribe the law on plastered stones immediately after crossing the Jordan and entering the land the LORD is giving them.
The words — The Hebrew verb כָּתַבְתָּ (kha.tav.Ta) means "you will write," paired with עֲלֵי/הֶ֗ן (a.lei./Hen) for "on them," directing a physical inscription of the law's words (דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה) onto the prepared stones.
The thread — This command to inscribe the law on plastered stones is fulfilled in Joshua 8:32, where Joshua writes a copy of the law on the stones at Mount Ebal. The phrase "a land flowing with milk and honey" also echoes the promises recorded in Deuteronomy 26:9 and the survey report in Numbers 13:27.
Why it lands — The text requires immediate, tangible obedience to the written law upon entering the new territory, establishing public accountability and remembrance rather than relying on oral tradition alone.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee.
Cross-references
- Joshua 8:32 And there in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.
- Deuteronomy 26:9 And He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
- Numbers 13:27 And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit!
- Numbers 14:8 If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us.
- Joshua 5:6 For the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness forty years, until all the nation’s men of war who had come out of Egypt had died, since they did not obey the LORD. So the LORD vowed never to let them see the land He had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
- Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
- 2 Corinthians 3:2 You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
- Hebrews 10:16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”
- Leviticus 20:24 But I have told you that you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you as an inheritance—a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the peoples.
- Deuteronomy 6:8 Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.