Bible Strands
Exodus 23:25
So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Israel within the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20–23), immediately after the command to demolish the Canaanite gods and their sacred stones (v. 24).
The words — עָבַד (ʿāvad), "serve/work," is the verb of covenant obligation; it carries the same sense as labor or toil, not abstract devotion. The response verb בָּרַךְ (bārak), "bless," is the standard term for material prosperity.
The thread — Deuteronomy 7:15 repeats the removal of sickness as a covenant promise; Exodus 15:26 ties health to listening to Yahweh's voice; Joshua 22:5 commands the same exclusive service to the LORD.
Why it lands — The verse makes the covenant's structure explicit: exclusive service is the condition, and the stated outcomes are concrete (bread, water, freedom from sickness), not merely spiritual. It asks the reader to take seriously that the text presents material well-being as a direct consequence of covenant fidelity.
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 ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 7:15 And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.
- Exodus 15:26 saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
- Joshua 22:5 But be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
- Isaiah 33:24 And no resident of Zion will say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell there will be forgiven of iniquity.
- Psalms 103:3 He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,
- Deuteronomy 7:13 He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.
- 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,
- Deuteronomy 6:13 Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.
- 1 Samuel 12:20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “Even though you have committed all this evil, do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.
- Matthew 4:10 “Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”