What Scripture Says About Torah
by Christine Egbert
The Hebrew word “תּוֹרָה” (Strong’s H8451) is translated into English as Torah. Torah can refer to the first five books of Scripture (Genesis through Deuteronomy) but Torah gets translated most often as “law”. More accurately Torah means “instruction”, God’s instruction to mankind. These instructions fall into two categories: loving God and loving our fellow man.
Those who misunderstand Paul’s writings often take him out of context and teach that the Torah is a curse, that the Torah is bondage. In this article, I will quote God’s Word to clarify this important subject.
Isaiah 42:21 – The LORD (Yahweh) was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness, to make Torah great and glorious.
Deuteronomy 4:8 – What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances that are righteous like all of this Torah that I am setting before you today?
Exodus 12:49 – The same Torah applies to the native as well as the outsider who dwells among you.
Genesis 26:4-5 – I will multiply your seed like the stars of the sky and I will give your seed all these lands, and in your seed all the nations of the earth will continually be blessed, because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My decrees, and My Torah.
Proverbs 28:4 – Those who forsake Torah praise the wicked, but those who keep Torah stir them up.
Hosea 4:6 – My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being My priest. Since you forgot the Torah of your God, just so I will forget your children.
Hosea 8:12 – Though I were to write out for him ten thousand things from My Torah, they are regarded as something strange.
Psalms 19:7-8 – The Torah of the LORD (Yahweh) is perfect, converting the soul. The Testimony of the LORD (Yahweh) is sure, making the simple wise. The precepts of the LORD (Yahweh) are right, rejoicing the heart. The commands of the LORD (Yahweh) are pure, giving light to the eyes.
Isaiah 51:7 – Listen to Me, you who know justice, a people with My Torah in their heart: Do not fear the taunt of men, nor be dismayed at their insults.
Jeremiah 31:33 – But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days—it is a declaration of the LORD (Yahweh)—I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart. I will be their God and they will be My people.
Proverbs 28:9 – One who turns his ear from hearing Torah—even his prayer is an abomination.
Psalms 119:1 – Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Torah of the LORD (Yahweh).
Psalms 119:142 – Your justice is righteousness forever, and Your Torah is truth.
Psalms 1:1-2 – Happy is the one who has not walked in the advice of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the Torah of the LORD (Yahweh) and on His Torah he meditates day and night.
Psalms 119:18 – Open my eyes, so I may behold wonders from Your Torah.
Psalms 119:165 – Great peace have they who love Your Torah and nothing causes them to stumble.
Proverbs 29:18 – Where there is no divine vision people cast off restraint, but blessed is the one who keeps Torah.
Psalms 119:18 – Open my eyes, so I may behold wonders from Your Torah.
Ezekiel 37:23-24 – [My people] will not still be defiled with their idols, even with their filthy idols, nor with all of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places where they have sinned in them, and I will cleanse them. So, they shall be for a people to Me, and I will be for God to them. They shall walk in My judgments and keep My statutes and do them!
Jeremiah 6:19 – Hear, O earth! See, I will bring disaster on this people—fruit of their schemes—for they did not listen to My words and rejected My Torah.
Isaiah 5:24 – Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw, and as chaff collapses into the flame, so their root will be like rot, and their blossom will go up like dust. For they have rejected the Torah of the LORD (Yahweh) of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 30:8-9 – Now go, write it on a tablet for them and inscribe it in a scroll, so that it may be as a witness for the last day, forever! For this is a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to obey the Torah of the LORD (Yahweh).
Isaiah 51:4 – Pay attention to Me, My people, give ear to Me, My nation. For Torah will go out from Me, My justice as a light to the peoples.
Isaiah 2:2-3 – It will come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the LORD’s (Yahweh’s) House will stand firm as head of the mountains and will be exalted above the hills. So, all nations will flow to it. Then many peoples will go and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD (Yahweh), to the House of the God of Jacob! Then He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.’ For Torah will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD (Yahweh) from Jerusalem.
Matthew 5:17-19 – “Do not think that I came to abolish the Torah or the Prophets! I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Amen, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or serif shall ever pass away from the Torah until all things come to pass. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 7:21-3 – “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, and drive out demons in Your name, and perform many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you workers of Torah-lessness!’”
Romans 3:26-31 – Through God’s forbearance, He demonstrates His righteousness at the present time—that He Himself is just and also justifies those who put their trust in Jesus (Yeshua). Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what principle? Of works? No, but by the principle of faith. For we consider a person to be set right apart from Torah observance. Is God the God of the Jewish people only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since God is One, He will set right the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then nullify Torah through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we uphold Torah!
Romans 2:25-26 – Circumcision is, indeed, worthwhile, if you keep the Torah, but if you break the Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcised keeps the righteous decrees of the Torah, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
1 John 3:4 – Everyone practicing sin practices Torah-lessness—indeed, sin is Torah-lessness!
Romans 2:12-16 – …all who have sinned outside of Torah will also perish outside of Torah, and all who have sinned according to Torah will be judged by Torah. For it is not the hearers of Torah who are righteous before God; rather, it is the doers of Torah who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the Torah, do by nature the things of the Torah, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the Torah. They show that the work of the Torah is written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts switching between accusing or defending them on the day when God judges the secrets of men according to my Good News through Christ Jesus (Messiah Yeshua).
James 4:12 – There is only one Lawgiver and Judge—the One who is able to save and to destroy.
Luke 16:15-17 – He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before the people, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable in God’s sight. The Torah and the Prophets were proclaimed until John, since then, the Good News of the kingdom of God is being proclaimed, and everyone tries forcing his way in, but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single serif of the Torah to fail.
Ezekiel 11:19-21 – Then I will give them one heart. I will put a new Spirit within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my Torah, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be My people and I will be their God. As for those whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and abominations, I will bring their ways upon their heads. It is a declaration of the Lord GOD (Yahweh)!
Leviticus 18:26 – You, however, are to keep My Statutes and My Ordinances, and do none of these abominations, neither the native-born, nor the outsider dwelling among you.
