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Reading Psalms 119, we see the following words:

  1. Commandments
  2. Law
  3. Way
  4. Testimonies
  5. Precepts
  6. Judgements
  7. Statutes
  8. Ordinances
  9. Word

Deut 26: 16 - 19 reads

16 “This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. 18 Also today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, 19 and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.”

Deut 6 : 1 reads


There are many other places in the Old Testament where these words appear, but I couldn't quite grasp distinctly what they mean.

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I marked your question up because it is a good question but maybe you should ask it on Mi Yodeya as it is more of a question for Judaism than Christianity. –  gideon marx May 27 '14 at 9:26
Sure. Will post it there –  Jabez May 27 '14 at 19:17
It should be noted that Jewish Poetry is just that--poetry. There are often couplets that say the same thing in two different ways. We should be careful to not read too much into the differences in words, since the variation is more for the purpose of eliminating redundancy. –  Narnian May 28 '14 at 15:40

2 Answers 2

The differences between the words you mention, and perhaps others, is more a matter of muance than substance. As an example, in the US there are two sets of documents, the US Code, which is the laws passed by Congress, and the Code of Federal regulations, which are regulations published by regulatory agencies of the executive branch. In technical legal parlance in the US, "Statutes" refers to items from the USC, regulations to items from CFR. Both give guidance to what a person should do. And both are different from testimonies, which are statements given under oath, for example in court, in front of a committee of the House of Representatives, or Senate, or in front of a Federal Regulatory Agency.

As to the words in your list, they are all ways of referring to God's communication with his chosen people.

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I think your answer misses an important point and it would have served you better to use the example of Common Law of Britain but that still does not explain Jewish law. There is a flow from commandment through law, interpretation, application, all the way to education of children. The question list these quite neatly. –  gideon marx May 27 '14 at 9:25

1) law-the first five books of the Old Testament; the Torah; the Pentateuch (Psalm 119:44)

2) testimonies-ordinances; God's standard of conduct according to the Ten Commandments (Psalm 119:2)

3) way- the pattern of life required by God's law (Psalm 119:30)

4) precepts- injunction;requirement; commandment (Psalm 119:69)

5) statutes- things inscribed; enacted laws (Psalm 119:8)

6) commandments- a distinct, authoritative order (Psalm 119:166)

7) judgments- a binding law; judicial decision (Psalm 119:7)

8) word-a general term for God's revelation (Psalm 119:11)

source: Nelson's NKJV Study Bible page 1003

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Hi and welcome to the site! We generally discourage 'link only' answers to questions (refer to our help centre for more on our site guidelines) - could you please summarize the main points and edit to include them in your answer? –  bruised reed Oct 6 '14 at 11:51

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