What Does Deuteronomy 10:13 Mean?
To guard the commandments of the LORD and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?THE KEY
The verse places your good inside the purpose of the command itself.
THE MEANING
The instruction given to you today is presented as serving your good. Keeping it means holding it in your attention and care, with your well-being inside its purpose. The verse speaks into this day: the command meets you now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that God’s commands are indifferent to your well-being; the verse explicitly names your good as their aim.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹר
lishmor
GROWS FROM
שמר
To guard, watch, or keep.
“guard” in this verse is lishmor. The Hebrew word binds keeping to watching and guarding. That gives the verse a living image: the commandment is held in view, and that attentive keeping serves your good.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: A keeper, guardian, or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The same root makes keeping an active form of watchfulness, illuminating the attention involved in keeping the commandments.
mishmeret: A guard, charge, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch carries the sense of something entrusted to one’s care, adding depth to the verse’s language of keeping.
מִצְוֹת
mitzvot
GROWS FROM
צוה
To command or charge.
The noun translated ‘commandments’ and the verb translated ‘I command’ share the root צוה. The verse links what is charged to you with the act of charging you, framing instruction as directed guidance.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: A commandment or charge.
מִצְוָה
This singular form shows that each commandment belongs to the same word-family as the act of commanding.
metzavveh: Commanding or charging.
מְצַוֶּה
This is the word-family behind ‘which I command thee,’ linking the speaker’s act to the commandments being kept.
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, beneficial, or pleasing.
The phrase places good as the direction of the instruction: it is ‘for good to you.’ The word holds together goodness and benefit, naming your well-being as the command’s aim.
ALSO GROWS
tovah: Goodness or benefit.
טוֹבָה
This feminine form shows the same word-family describing good as a quality or benefit.
hatov: The good.
הַטּוֹב
This form uses the same root to name what is good, echoing the verse’s stated destination.
THE PATTERN
Divine instruction is repeatedly presented as a path whose keeping serves life and well-being.
And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to stand in awe of the LORD our God, for our good all the days, so that he might keep us alive, as it is this day.You are good, and you do good; teach me your statutes.For this is the love of God, that we guard his commands; and his commands are not heavy.THE THREAD
The LORD watches over you from all harm; he watches over your living soul.The same Hebrew root, שמר (shamar, guard or keep), that names your keeping here appears twice in Psalm 121:7 for the LORD’s guarding of you and your living soul. The shared root lets the image face both ways: the instruction you keep and the life held in God’s keeping meet in the same word.
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