The 613 commandments
Jewish tradition counts 613 commandments in the five books of Moses: 248 positive commands and 365 prohibitions, a count recorded in the Talmud (Makkot 23b). In Maimonides' list, Leviticus supplies 243 of them, Deuteronomy 203, Exodus 109, Numbers 56 and Genesis 2. The number 613 itself never appears in the Bible.
Updated October 25, 2026. The book and chapter counts are ours, from the 613 references in Maimonides' list. Verses are quoted from the King James Version and checked against it, and word counts cover the full King James Version and World English Bible.
Where the 613 commandments come from, book by book
Every one of the 613 comes from the five books of Moses. Leviticus and Deuteronomy together supply 446, 73% of the list. Genesis supplies only 2.
| Book | Commandments | Share | KJV words | Per 1,000 words | Chapter with most |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis | 2 | under 1% | 38,307 | 0.1 | Genesis 1, 32 (1 each) |
| Exodus | 109 | 18% | 32,692 | 3.3 | Exodus 22 (20) |
| Leviticus | 243 | 40% | 24,543 | 9.9 | Leviticus 19 (48) |
| Numbers | 56 | 9% | 32,930 | 1.7 | Numbers 6 (11) |
| Deuteronomy | 203 | 33% | 28,365 | 7.2 | Deuteronomy 22 (21) |
Leviticus is the shortest of the five books by words but has the most commandments: 9.9 for every 1,000 King James words, against 7.2 in Deuteronomy, 3.3 in Exodus and 1.7 in Numbers. Of the 187 chapters in the Torah, 77 hold at least one commandment. Genesis has only two. The first is having children, from "Be fruitful, and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). The second is not eating the sinew of the thigh, after Jacob wrestled through the night (Genesis 32:24): "Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank" (Genesis 32:32, numbered 32:33 in Hebrew Bibles).
The chapters with the most commandments
Leviticus 19, the chapter that opens "Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy", has 48 commandments drawn from 24 of its 37 verses, nearly twice as many as any other chapter.
Leviticus 19 is where "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" stands (verse 18), beside laws on gleaning, wages, honest weights and respect for the old. Leviticus 18 is the chapter of forbidden unions, Leviticus 23 the calendar of feasts, and Leviticus 25 the sabbath year and the jubilee. Chapters here follow the King James numbering. In Hebrew Bibles a few Torah chapters break in different places, and 69 of the 613 references carry a different chapter or verse number there. The 16 references from Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, the chapters of the Ten Commandments, are numbered more than one way even among Hebrew editions, so this page places them by chapter only.
248 positive and 365 negative: where the number comes from
The count comes from the Talmud, not the Bible. In tractate Makkot 23b, Rabbi Simlai teaches that 613 commandments were given to Moses, "365 prohibitions corresponding to the number of days in the solar year, and 248 positive mitzvot corresponding to the number of a person's limbs." Rav Hamnuna then points to Deuteronomy 33:4, "Moses commanded us a law". The letters of the Hebrew word Torah add up to 611, the commandments taught through Moses, and the first two of the Ten Commandments, heard from God himself, bring the total to 613.
The Talmud gives the total but no list. Later rabbis drew up lists of their own. The best-known is Maimonides', which Judaism 101 calls probably the most widely accepted, though not the only one. It is the list counted on this page, using the verse references as Wikipedia gives them. Each commandment is placed at one verse, the first the list cites for it.
| Who | Reduced to | Verse | KJV words |
|---|---|---|---|
| David | 11 | Psalm 15 | "LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?" |
| Isaiah | 6 | Isaiah 33:15 | "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly" |
| Micah | 3 | Micah 6:8 | "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God" |
| Isaiah | 2 | Isaiah 56:1 | "Keep ye judgment, and do justice" |
| Amos | 1 | Amos 5:4 | "Seek ye me, and ye shall live" |
| Habakkuk | 1 | Habakkuk 2:4 | "the just shall live by his faith" |
The same passage goes on (Makkot 23b-24a): David reduced the 613 to eleven in Psalm 15, Isaiah to six, Micah to three, Isaiah again to two, and Amos to one, "Seek ye me, and ye shall live". A rabbi objects to Amos, and the Talmud settles on Habakkuk 2:4, "the just shall live by his faith". Paul quotes the same line in Romans 1:17.
Are the Ten Commandments part of the 613?
Yes. Maimonides' list cites Exodus 20 16 times: 13 from the Ten Commandments and 3 from the laws that follow them.
| Commandment (our summary) | KJV verse | In the 613 |
|---|---|---|
| Know that God exists | Exodus 20:2 | 1 |
| Have no other gods | Exodus 20:3 | 1 |
| Make no carved image | Exodus 20:4 | 1 |
| Do not bow down to idols (two rows) | Exodus 20:5 | 2 |
| Do not take God's name in vain | Exodus 20:7 | 1 |
| Keep the Sabbath holy | Exodus 20:8 | 1 |
| Do no work on the Sabbath | Exodus 20:10 | 1 |
| Honor father and mother | Exodus 20:12 | 1 |
| Do not murder | Exodus 20:13 | 1 |
| Do not steal (read as kidnapping) | Exodus 20:15 | 1 |
| Do not bear false witness | Exodus 20:16 | 1 |
| Do not covet | Exodus 20:17 | 1 |
"Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14) is the one of the ten the list places elsewhere, at Leviticus 18:20. The tenth gets a second row from its repetition in Deuteronomy 5:21, "Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife". The list reads "Thou shalt not steal" as a ban on kidnapping and places theft of property at Leviticus 19:11. The three laws after the ten are: no gods of silver or gold beside God (Exodus 20:23), which the list reads as a ban on making human figures even for decoration; no altar of hewn stone (20:25); and no steps up to the altar (20:26).
The Bible itself uses the words "ten commandments" three times, in both translations: Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13 and Deuteronomy 10:4. Deuteronomy 4:13 says God "declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone."
Examples from the list
A sample from across the five books, in our own words, with the King James verse each is drawn from. Where Hebrew Bibles number the verse differently, the Hebrew reference is given too.
| Commandment (our summary) | Verse | KJV words |
|---|---|---|
| Have children | Genesis 1:28 | "Be fruitful, and multiply" |
| Do not eat the sinew of the thigh | Genesis 32:32Hebrew 32:33 | "eat not of the sinew which shrank" |
| Set the calendar by the new month | Exodus 12:2 | "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months" |
| Do not commit adultery | Leviticus 18:20 | "thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife" |
| Do not hold back a worker's wages overnight | Leviticus 19:13 | "the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night" |
| Do not trip up the blind | Leviticus 19:14 | "nor put a stumblingblock before the blind" |
| Love your neighbor | Leviticus 19:18 | "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" |
| Rise for the elderly | Leviticus 19:32 | "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head" |
| Wear fringes on your garments | Numbers 15:38 | "fringes in the borders of their garments" |
| Love God | Deuteronomy 6:5 | "thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart" |
| Bind the words on your hand and head | Deuteronomy 6:8 | "bind them for a sign upon thine hand" |
| Write them on your doorposts | Deuteronomy 6:9 | "write them upon the posts of thy house" |
| Put a railing around your roof | Deuteronomy 22:8 | "make a battlement for thy roof" |
| Pay what you vowed | Deuteronomy 23:21Hebrew 23:22 | "thou shalt not slack to pay it" |
| Write out a Torah scroll | Deuteronomy 31:19 | "write ye this song for you" |
Not all of the 613 can be kept today. Judaism 101 (jewfaq.org) notes that the ones that cannot be observed mostly concern the Temple, its sacrifices and services, because the Temple no longer stands, and criminal procedure, because the ancient state of Israel no longer exists.
What the Bible itself counts
"Commandment" or "commandments" appears 348 times in the King James Version, in 333 verses, and 308 times in the World English Bible. Only 95 of the King James uses fall in the five books of Moses (89 in the WEB), where the laws themselves are written. Deuteronomy has the most of any book, 49. The phrase "six hundred and thirteen" appears in neither translation.
Asked "which is the great commandment in the law?", Jesus answered with two of the 613: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart", from Deuteronomy 6:5. The second was "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself", from Leviticus 19:18. "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:36-40). Paul quotes several of the Ten Commandments and sums them up the same way: "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:9-10).
Questions about the 613 commandments
What are the 613 commandments?
They are the laws Jewish tradition finds in the Torah, the five books of Moses. The Talmud says "613 mitzvot" were "stated to Moses in the Torah" (Makkot 23b). The best-known list is Maimonides'. In Torah order it begins with Genesis 1:28, "Be fruitful, and multiply", and ends with Deuteronomy 32:38, read as a ban on wine poured out to idols.
How many of the 613 commandments are positive and negative?
There are 248 positive and 365 negative. Rabbi Simlai in the Talmud matches the 365 prohibitions to the days of the solar year and the 248 positive commands to the limbs of the human body (Makkot 23b). The split is the tradition's count, not something the Bible states.
Which books of the Bible do the 613 commandments come from?
All five books of Moses. In Maimonides' list, Leviticus has 243, Deuteronomy has 203, Exodus has 109, Numbers has 56 and Genesis has 2. Leviticus is the densest: 9.9 commandments for every 1,000 King James words, and Leviticus 19 alone has 48.
Are the Ten Commandments part of the 613?
Yes. Of the 613, 13 cite the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, with one verse yielding two. Adultery is listed at Leviticus 18:20 instead, and Deuteronomy 5:21 adds one more on desire. The Talmud counts the first two, "I am the LORD thy God" and "Thou shalt have no other gods before me", as the two Israel heard from God directly.
Do Christians keep the 613 commandments?
The New Testament speaks to the question in a few places. Jesus names loving God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and loving one's neighbor (Leviticus 19:18) as the two greatest commandments and says "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:40). The council in Jerusalem asked Gentile believers for "no greater burden than these necessary things": to abstain from food offered to idols, blood, things strangled, and fornication (Acts 15:28-29). Paul writes that "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10).
Does the Bible say there are 613 commandments?
No. The phrase "six hundred and thirteen" appears 0 times in the King James Version and the World English Bible. The Talmud ties the number to Deuteronomy 33:4, "Moses commanded us a law": the Hebrew word Torah adds up to 611, and the first two of the Ten Commandments make 613.
Sources
- The King James Version (1769) and the World English Bible, both public domain: every verse quoted and every word count on this page, from the text at github.com/seven1m/open-bibles, checked and counted by scripts/lists/613-commandments.mjs (read and counted 2026-10-25).
- Wikipedia, "613 commandments", section "Maimonides' list, canonical order": the 613 verse references counted by book and chapter on this page (read 2026-10-25). Only the references are used; the summaries are our own.
- Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b and 24a, William Davidson Edition English translation, on Sefaria: Rabbi Simlai's 613, 365 and 248, Rav Hamnuna's 611 plus 2, and the reductions to eleven, six, three, two and one (read 2026-10-25).
- Judaism 101, "A List of the 613 Mitzvot": Maimonides' list as the most widely accepted but not the only one, and the commandments that cannot be observed today (read 2026-10-25).
Read the books the commandments come from: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and where they sit on the Old Testament books in order. The events around them are on the ten plagues of Egypt and the twelve tribes of Israel. Word counts: Moses, sabbath and love. More counts are on the Bible by the numbers.
Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-25.