Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 5:10
but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Israel at Horeb, mid-Decalogue, immediately after warning that iniquity is visited on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Him (v.9).
The words — חֶסֶד (chesed, H2617) is the operative term: covenant loyalty, the binding obligation of a party to a covenant to act faithfully toward the other. The contrast with "third and fourth generations" in v.9 is sharpened by לָאֲלָפִים (la'alfim, "to thousands"), a hyperbolic expression for an indefinitely extended lineage.
The thread — Jeremiah 32:18 pairs the same chesed language with the same generational contrast: "You show loving devotion to thousands but lay the iniquity of the fathers into the laps of their children."
Why it lands — The verse conditions God's extended faithfulness on two things the reader must supply: love and the keeping of commandments. It is not a promise of blanket blessing; it is a covenant stipulation that names the reciprocal obligation.
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 shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Cross-references
- Romans 8:28 And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
- 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
- Jeremiah 32:18 You show loving devotion to thousands but lay the iniquity of the fathers into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the LORD of Hosts,
- Deuteronomy 6:5 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
- Daniel 9:4 And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments,
- John 15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
- Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
- Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. What matters is faith expressing itself through love.
- James 1:25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.
- Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,