'Obey' in the Bible

But his mother said to him, “May your curse be on me, my son; only listen and obey me, and go, bring the young goats to me.”

The elders [of the tribes] will listen and pay attention to what you say; and you, with the elders of Israel, shall go to the king of Egypt and you shall say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; so now, please, [we ask and plead with you,] let us go on a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

Then Moses answered [the Lord] and said, “What if they will not believe me or take seriously what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”

saying, “If you will diligently listen and pay attention to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and listen to His commandments, and keep [foremost in your thoughts and actively obey] all His precepts and statutes, then I will not put on you any of the diseases which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

Now therefore, if you will in fact obey My voice and keep My covenant (agreement), then you shall be My own special possession and treasure from among all peoples [of the world], for all the earth is Mine;

Be on your guard before Him, listen to and obey His voice; do not be rebellious toward Him or provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgression, since My Name (authority) is in Him.

But if you will indeed listen to and truly obey His voice and do everything that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

You shall put some of your authority and honor on him, so that all the congregation of the Israelites will obey him.

Like the nations which the Lord causes to perish before you, so shall you perish; because you would not listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God.

And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and you did not believe and rely on Him, nor did you obey His voice.

the blessing, if you listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today;

and the curse, if you do not listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following (acknowledging, worshiping) other gods which you have not known.

“Be careful to listen to all these words which I am commanding you, so that it may be well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

You shall walk after the Lord your God and you shall fear [and worship] Him [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], and you shall keep His commandments and you shall listen to His voice, and you shall serve Him, and cling to Him.

because you have listened to and obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to obey these statutes.

“If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or of his mother, and when they reprimand and discipline him, he will not listen to them,

They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’

So you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God, and do His commandments and statutes which I am commanding you today.”

“But it shall come about, if you do not listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

“So all these curses will come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He has commanded you.

Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, you who were as numerous as the stars of heaven shall be left few in number.

and you have returned to the Lord your God and have listened to and obeyed His voice with all your heart and with all your soul, in accordance with everything that I am commanding you today, you and your children,

And you shall again listen to and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all His commandments which I command you today.

if you listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul (your entire being).

in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments (precepts), so that you will live and multiply, and that the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to possess.

by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding closely to Him; for He is your life [your good life, your abundant life, your fulfillment] and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord promised (swore) to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and we will listen to and obey His voice.”

They were [allowed to remain] for the testing of Israel, to determine whether Israel would listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers (ancestors) through Moses.

Why did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but [instead] swooped down on the plunder [with shouts of victory] and did evil in the sight of the Lord?”

Samuel said,“Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrificesAs in obedience to the voice of the Lord?Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,And to heed [is better] than the fat of rams.

Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day.

Then Jehu wrote a second letter to them, saying, “If you are with me and will obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons, and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow about this time.” Now the [dead] king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were rearing them.

To this day they act in accordance with their former [pagan] customs: they do not [really] fear the Lord, nor do they obey their statutes and ordinances, nor the law, nor the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons (descendants) of Jacob, whom He named Israel;

because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but broke His covenant, everything that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; and they would not listen nor do it.

And he commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers [to inquire of and for Him and seek Him as a vital necessity], and to observe the law [given to Moses] and the commandment.

“They refused to listen and obey,And did not remember Your wondrous acts which You had performed among them;So they stiffened their necks and [in their rebellion] appointed a leader in order to return them to slavery in Egypt.But You are a God of forgiveness,Gracious and merciful and compassionate,Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness;And You did not abandon them.

“If they hear and serve Him,They will end their days in prosperityAnd their years in pleasantness and joy.

“But if they do not hear and obey, they will die by the sword [of God’s destructive judgments]And they will die [in ignorance] without [true] knowledge.

Sacrifice and meal offering You do not desire, nor do You delight in them;You have opened my ears and given me the capacity to hear [and obey Your word];Burnt offerings and sin offerings You do not require.

I considered my waysAnd turned my feet to [follow and obey] Your testimonies.

My eyes weep streams of waterBecause people do not keep Your law.

Qoph.I cried with all my heart; answer me, O Lord!I will observe Your statutes.

The wise in heart [are willing to learn so they] will accept and obey commands (instruction),But the babbling fool [who is arrogant and thinks himself wise] will come to ruin.

The eye that mocks a fatherAnd scorns a mother,The ravens of the valley will pick it out,And the young vultures will devour it.

Guard your steps and focus on what you are doing as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the [careless or irreverent] sacrifice of fools; for they are too ignorant to know they are doing evil.

Ephraim and Judah will [unite and] swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines toward the west;Together they will plunder the sons (Arabs) of the east.They will possess Edom and Moab,And the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.

I will destine you for the sword, [says the Lord],And all of you will bow down to the slaughter,Because when I called, you did not answer;When I spoke, you did not listen or obey.But you did [what was] evil in My sightAnd chose that in which I did not delight.”

So I will choose their punishments,And will bring the things they dread upon themBecause I called, but no one answered;I spoke, but they did not listen or obey.But they did evil in My sightAnd chose that in which I did not delight.”

“For long ago you broke your yoke [in deliberate disobedience]And tore off your bonds [of the law that I gave you];You said, ‘I will not serve and obey You!’For on every high hillAnd under every green treeYou have lain down [in idolatrous worship] like a [compliant] prostitute.

To whom shall I (Jeremiah) speak and give warningThat they may hear?Behold, their ears are closed [absolutely deaf to God]And they cannot listen.Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reprimand and an object of scorn to them;They have no delight in it.

“I have set watchmen (prophets) over you,Saying, ‘Listen and pay attention to the [warning] sound of the trumpet!’But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

But this thing I did command them: ‘Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, so that it may be well with you.’

But they did not obey Me or bend their ear [to hear Me], but followed the counsels and the stubbornness of their [own] evil heart (mind), and [they turned and] went backward instead of forward.

Yet they did not listen to Me and obey Me or bend their ear [to hear Me], but stiffened their neck; they did more evil and behaved worse than their fathers.

“You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall [also] call to them, but they will not answer you.

You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction and warning; truth and faithfulness have perished and have completely vanished from their mouths.

For I solemnly warned your fathers at the time that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning them persistently, saying, “Obey My voice.”

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear [to listen to Me], but everyone walked in the stubborn way of his [own] evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all [the suffering threatened in] the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.’”

But if [any nation] will not listen and obey, I will [completely] uproot and destroy that nation, says the Lord.”

For as the waistband clings to the body of a man, so I caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,’ says the Lord, ‘that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory; but they did not listen and obey.’

But if you will not listen and obey,My soul will weep in secret for your pride;My eyes will weep bitterlyAnd flow with tears,Because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.

and because you have done worse [things] than your fathers. Just look, every one of you walks in the stubbornness of his own evil heart, so that you do not listen [obediently] to Me.

Yet they would not listen and obey and control their behavior; but they were stiff-necked in order not to hear and take instruction.

But it will come about, if you listen diligently to Me,” says the Lord, “to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy by doing no work on it,

For if you will indeed obey this word, then kings will enter through the gates of this palace, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people.

And you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, “If you will not listen to Me and obey My law which I have set before you,

and listen and follow [carefully] the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you repeatedly—though you have not listened—

Therefore, now change your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will relent and reverse His decision concerning the misfortune which He has pronounced against you.

“At the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself [into servitude] or who has been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall release him from [serving] you; but your forefathers did not listen [submissively] to Me or obey Me.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words and honoring them?” says the Lord.

I have also sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them repeatedly, saying, ‘Let every one of you turn now from his evil way and alter your behavior, and do not follow other gods to worship and serve them; and then you will live in the land which I have given to you and to your forefathers. But you have not submitted or listened to Me.

But Jeremiah said, “They will not hand you over [to them]. Please obey [the voice of] the Lord [who speaks to you through me] in what I am saying to you. Then it will go well with you and you will live.

Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to and honor the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the Lord our God.”

So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people disobeyed the voice of the Lord [which told them] to stay in the land of Judah.

But they did not listen or turn [obediently] from their wickedness, and stop burning sacrifices and incense to other gods.

“As for the word (message) that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you.

yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you and obey you, since they are not willing to listen to Me and obey Me, for the entire house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate.

Then the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints (believers) of the Most High; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’

Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, even turning aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us and the oath which is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.

My God will reject them and cast them awayBecause they did not listen to Him;And they will be wanderers (fugitives) among the nations.

“And in anger and wrath I shall execute vengeanceOn the nations which have not obeyed [such vengeance as they have not known before].”

“Then it will come about on the day of the Lord’s sacrificeThat I will punish the princes and the king’s sonsAnd all who are clothed in [lavish] foreign apparel [reflecting their paganism].

And those who are far away will come and [help] build the temple of the Lord.” Then you shall know [without any doubt] that the Lord of hosts sent me (Zechariah) to you. And it will come about if you will diligently obey the [voice of the] Lord your God.