A command , whether human or divine (collectively, the Law )
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מִצְוָה (mitsvah) is the Hebrew word for commandment — the specific directive from YHWH to his covenant people that defines faithful life. The local Hebrew artifact indexes it at about 184 occurrences, concentrated in the Torah and Psalm 119.
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Full entry for מִצְוָה (H4687) · Open the biblical lexicon
מִצְוָה (mitsvah) is the Hebrew word for commandment — the specific directive from YHWH to his covenant people that defines faithful life. The local Hebrew artifact indexes it at about 184 occurrences, concentrated in the Torah and Psalm 119.
The BSB source-word alignment has 181 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the commandments (31), His commandments (21), My commandments (20), Your commandments (18), commandments (15).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 26:5. Its strongest book concentrations include Deuteronomy (43), Psalms (26), 2 Chronicles (19), Nehemiah (14).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
מִצְוָה (mitsvah) is the Hebrew word for commandment — the specific directive from YHWH to his covenant people that defines faithful life. The local Hebrew artifact indexes it at about 184 occurrences, concentrated in the Torah and Psalm 119. The mitsvah is not a constraint on freedom but the form in which covenant relationship expresses itself: to have a mitsvah is to stand in relationship with the One who gives it.
Deuteronomy 6:25 gives mitsvah its most important relational-theological framing: 'And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this mitsvah before YHWH our God, as he has commanded us.' The mitsvah done before YHWH produces tsedaqah (righteousness) — not as merit but as conformity to the covenant relationship. The mitsvah is the shape of the relationship, and doing it before YHWH is the lived form of covenant faithfulness. The preceding verses (Deut 6:4-9, the Shema) establish the context: 'Hear, O Israel: YHWH our God, YHWH is one. You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.' The mitsvot flow from the Shema: they are the practical expression of the love commanded in verse 5.
Numbers 15:39 gives mitsvah its memory-and-holiness function: the tassels (tsitsit) on garments are for Israel 'to look at and remember all the mitsvot of YHWH and do them, not following after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my mitsvot, and be holy to your God.' The mitsvot remembered and done is the path to holiness — the tsitsit are a physical mnemonic for the mitsvot, and the mitsvot are the content of covenant holiness.
Psalm 119 is the supreme meditation on mitsvah, using it as one of eight synonyms for YHWH's word throughout the psalm's 176 verses. Verse 35: 'Make me walk in the path of your mitsvot, for I delight in it.' Verse 47: 'I will delight myself in your mitsvot, which I have loved.' Verse 93: 'I will never forget your precepts, for with them you have revived me.' The mitsvah in Psalm 119 is not experienced as burden but as life: the psalmist meditates on it all day (v. 97), it is sweeter than honey (v. 103), and the soul that walks in it is revived (v. 93).
Exodus 20:6 and Deuteronomy 7:9 give mitsvah its love-and-covenant-keeping framing: YHWH shows 'steadfast love (hesed) to thousands of those who love me and keep my mitsvot.' The mitsvah is the covenant-keeping side of the love-relationship — not the condition of love but the natural expression of it. Those who love YHWH keep his mitsvot; those who keep his mitsvot receive his hesed to a thousand generations.
For the preacher, מִצְוָה (mitsvah) is the specific form of covenant love: the mitsvah is not law imposed on strangers but direction given to the beloved. The New Testament's 'new commandment' — love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34) — is the NT mitsvah, and Jesus's summary of 'all the law and the prophets' in the two great mitsvot (Matt 22:36-40) is the heart of the covenant relationship given its clearest possible form.
מִצְוָה (mitsvah) is indexed in the local Hebrew artifact at about 184 occurrences, concentrated in the Torah and Psalms. The mitsvah is the specific directive of YHWH to Israel — singular (a specific command), plural (the sum of the commandments), and comprehensive (the full body of covenant obligation). Deuteronomy uses mitsvah intensively: the commands are to be taught to children (6:7), written on doorposts (6:9), and kept as the path of righteousness (6:25).
Psalm 119 is the sustained meditation on the mitsvah as the object of love and delight. The prophets use mitsvah sparingly but pointedly — its absence explains judgment (Jer 9:13, 'they have forsaken my Torah and have not obeyed my voice or walked in it').
And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”
The mitsvah as righteousness: 'it shall be tsedaqah (righteousness) for us, if we are careful to do all this mitsvah before YHWH our God.' The mitsvah done before YHWH produces righteousness — not as performance-merit but as covenant-conformity. The context is the Shema and the love-command of Deuteronomy 6:4-5: the mitsvot are the practical form of loving YHWH with all the heart, soul, and strength.
The 'doing it before YHWH' is the key phrase: the mitsvah is not mere compliance but relationship — performed in YHWH's presence, as part of the covenant relationship with him.
Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight.
The mitsvah as delight: 'make me walk in the path of your mitsvot, for I delight (chaphats) in them.' Psalm 119's fundamental posture toward the mitsvah is delight, not reluctant compliance. The psalmist asks to be led into the mitsvah — the direction is inward (make me walk), not outward (show me what I must do). The delight-in-mitsvah is the sign of a covenant heart that has been transformed, not merely externally compliant.
Jesus's 'my yoke is easy and my burden is light' (Matt 11:30) is the NT form of Psalm 119's mitsvah-delight: the commandment of the one who loves us is the path of life, not the chain of obligation.
These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.
The mitsvah-mnemonic: the tsitsit (tassels) are worn so Israel 'may remember and do all the mitsvot of YHWH.' Memory is the intermediary between the mitsvah and its doing: the path from hearing to doing runs through remembering. The alternative to remembering the mitsvot is following 'your own heart and your own eyes' — the autonomous self that wanders from the covenant relationship.
The NT form of mitsvah-remembering is the Spirit's role: 'the Holy Spirit... will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you' (John 14:26).
But showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
The mitsvah and YHWH's hesed: 'showing steadfast love (hesed) to thousands of those who love me and keep my mitsvot.' The mitsvah-keeping community is the community that receives YHWH's hesed to a thousand generations. This is not a transaction (keep commands, receive hesed) but a description of the covenant relationship: those who love YHWH keep his mitsvot, and those who keep his mitsvot live in the sphere of his covenant love.
John 14:15 is the NT parallel: 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments' — the love-mitsvah relationship is preserved in Jesus's teaching.
This is the first and greatest commandment.
The summary mitsvah: Jesus is asked about the great mitsvah (megale entole in Greek, translating the great mitsvah concept of Deuteronomy). His answer quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 (love YHWH with all heart/soul/mind) and Leviticus 19:18 (love your neighbor as yourself) and says: 'On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets' (v. 40). The mitsvot of the entire Torah and Prophets are concentrated in the double love-commandment — not eliminated but fulfilled and recapitulated in their core logic.
This is the NT's commandment theology: faithful commandment-keeping is summed up in love (Deut 6:4-5), and the NT makes that explicit.
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Hebrew word. Divine command carrying covenantal weight; OT's primary term for God's binding directives and obligations under the Law.
Divine command carrying covenantal weight; OT's primary term for God's binding directives and obligations under the Law.
a command, whether human or divine (collectively, the Law) BDB: commandment Usage: (which was) commanded(-ment), law, ordinance, precept.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 184 lexical occurrence verses.
מִצְוָה is built from this root:
Receiving instruction reflects submission to wisdom and ultimately to God. Proverbs 10:8
Instruction functions as a guiding light for moral life. Proverbs 6:20-35
The passage emphasizes preserving divine instruction as a guiding authority. Proverbs 7:1-5
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
מִצְוָה (mitsvah) is the commandment that flows from covenant love and returns to covenant love. Deuteronomy's structure makes this unavoidable: the Shema ('YHWH is one; love YHWH with all your heart') comes before the mitsvot, not after. The commandments are not the condition of YHWH's love — they are the form of Israel's response to it. Psalm 119's psalmist loves the mitsvah (v.
47), Meditates on it all day (v. 97), is revived by it (v. 93), and delights to walk in its path (v. 35). The mitsvah for the psalmist is not a burden but bread — which is why this session pairs it with H3899 lechem. YHWH's word, including his mitsvot, is the deeper food that sustains covenant life (Deut 8:3). For the preacher, the great pastoral move with mitsvah is to recover the Deuteronomic logic: the congregation keeps the mitsvot not to earn YHWH's love but because they have received it.
When Jesus says 'if you love me, you will keep my commandments' (John 14:15), he is not adding a condition to his love — he is describing what love for him looks like in practice. The 'new commandment' (John 13:34, the NT's new mitsvah: 'love one another as I have loved you') grounds the community's ethics in Christological imitation, not rule-keeping. Love is both the source and the summary of the mitsvah.
Deut.6.25
מִצְוָה (mitsvah) is from צָוָה (tsavah, H6680, to command, charge). The noun appears both in the singular (a specific commandment) and the plural מִצְוֹת (mitsvot, the commandments as a body). It is one of eight synonyms used in Psalm 119 for YHWH's word/instruction: Torah (H8451), edut (H5715, testimony), piqqudin (H6490, precepts), choq (H2706, statute), mishpat (H4941, judgment/ordinance), mitsvah (commandment), devar (H1697, word), and imrah (H565, saying).
The eight synonyms are not strictly distinct — they overlap in meaning and are used for poetic variation throughout Psalm 119's 22 stanzas (one per Hebrew letter). In the NT, the Greek equivalent entole (G1785, commandment) directly translates mitsvah in the LXX and is used by Jesus for his own commands (John 13:34, 14:15, 15:10-12) and for the commandments of the Torah (Matt 22:36-40).
The NT's mitsvah-theology is explicit and deliberate. John 13:34 introduces 'a new commandment (entole)': 'love one another as I have loved you.' The newness is not that love was absent from the OT mitsvot (Lev 19:18, Deut 6:5) but that the measure of the love is now Christ's own love — 'as I have loved you.' John 14:15 is the Shema-echo: 'if you love me, you will keep my commandments (entolas)' — the love-commandment structure of Deuteronomy 6 is now Christological.
John 15:10: 'If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.' The Father-Son love-commandment relationship is the model for the Christ-disciple relationship. 1 John 5:3: 'this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome' — Psalm 119's delight-in-mitsvah becomes the NT's 'not burdensome.'
Romans 13:8-10 and Galatians 5:14 summarize all the mitsvot in the love-command: 'the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.'
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