Bible Strands
Isaiah 29:13
Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord speaks through Isaiah to the people of Judah, within a series of woes against Jerusalem's spiritual blindness (Isaiah 29:9–14).
The words — נִגַּשׁ (nigash), "they have drawn near," is nifal, marking the people's own initiative in approaching God — yet the approach is confined to their mouth (פִּי, pi), not their heart.
The thread — Jeremiah 12:2 repeats the same contrast: "You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts." Jesus quotes this verse directly in Mark 7:6–7 against the Pharisees.
Why it lands — It forces a reader to check whether their religious life is a performance or a conviction, and to recognize that God sees the gap between the two.
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
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 12:2 You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.
- Ezekiel 33:31 So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.
- Mark 7:2 and they saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were defiled—that is, unwashed.
- Matthew 15:2 “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat.”
- Jeremiah 3:10 Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.
- Isaiah 58:2 For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”
- Proverbs 30:6 Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you and prove you a liar.
- Jeremiah 5:2 Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ they are swearing falsely.”
- Isaiah 48:1 “Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, who have descended from the line of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD, who invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness—
- Jeremiah 42:2 Jeremiah the prophet and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the LORD your God on behalf of this entire remnant. For few of us remain of the many, as you can see with your own eyes.