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Psalm 119 · a question people ask

Law, statutes, testimonies, precepts, commandments, ordinances: do these words mean different things?

In the text

The lexicons give each its own sense. Brown-Driver-Briggs gives torah as "direction, instruction, law", piqqud as "precept", mitsvah as "commandment", choq as "something prescribed, a statute", and mishpat as "judgment", with "ordinance" among its senses; for edut and edah it gives "testimony" and "testimonies" (tap each word). But the psalm doesn't define them or set one against another. It uses them side by side, sometimes in one verse: "I have obeyed your precepts and your testimonies" (119:168), and "I reach out my hands for your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes" (119:48). And the WEB doesn't keep them apart in English (see Ten Hebrew words, and the WEB's English). Psalm 1's notes ask which writings "the LORD’s law" meant (Psalm 1:2); Psalm 119 doesn't say either. These notes don't draw lines between the words beyond what the lexicons give.

The verses

“I reach out my hands for your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes. ZAYIN”
Psalm 119:48 · World English Bible
“I have obeyed your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you. TAV”
Psalm 119:168 · World English Bible
“but his delight is in the LORD’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.”
Psalm 1:2 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 119

Psalm 119: Your word is a lamp to my feet

In Hebrew, Psalm 119 gives each of the alphabet's 22 letters eight verses in a row, and it prays one word, "Revive me" (119:25), nine times. Its last verse uses the verb of "I haven’t gone astray from your precepts" (119:110) to say, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant" (119:176).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions