Bible Strands
Exodus 21:1
“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Moses to deliver specific legal directives to the Israelites immediately following the Sinai covenant narrative. This verse functions as an introductory header for the subsequent case laws.
The words — מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpa.Tim) translates literally as judgments or ordinances, while תָּשִׂים (ta.Sim) means you will set or place. Together they frame the following instructions as binding legal standards to be positioned before the community.
The thread — The phrasing recurs in Exodus 24:3 when Moses relays the words and ordinances to the people. It also appears in Deuteronomy 4:14 and Deuteronomy 6:20 as Moses instructs Israel on the statutes and ordinances they must follow.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate attention to the legal material that follows by presenting it as a formal body of rulings. It requires the reader to treat the subsequent regulations as authoritative standards for communal life.
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
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 4:14 At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
- Deuteronomy 6:20 In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?”
- Exodus 24:3 When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the LORD has spoken, we will do.”
- Exodus 19:7 So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him.
- Leviticus 18:5 Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD.
- Leviticus 18:26 But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you.
- Leviticus 19:37 You must keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and follow them. I am the LORD.”
- Leviticus 20:22 You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
- Numbers 35:24 then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.
- Numbers 36:13 These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.