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This term in the O.T. generally signifies that which God 'ordered' for His people to observe. "They kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them." Ps. 99: 7. "Ye are gone away from mine ordinances." Mal. 3: 7. It is also applied to things in creation: God giveth "the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night." Jer. 31: 35. David made an ordinance. Ezra 3: 10: cf. Neh. 10: 32. In the N.T. it refers especially to the enactments of the law: "ordinances of divine service," Heb. 9: 1, 10; "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances." Col. 2: 14. It is also applied to human laws, Rom. 13: 2; 1 Peter 2: 13; and to the rules of the moralists. Col. 2: 20. The directions that Paul had given to the Corinthians are in the A.V. called 'ordinances,' 1 Cor. 11: 2; margin, 'traditions.'