2 Kings 23:3

23:3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed ¹  the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow ²  the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, ³  by carrying out the terms ⁴  of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 4:29

4:29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 6:5

6:5 You must love ⁷  the Lord your God with your whole mind, ⁸  your whole being, ⁹  and all your strength. ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 6:1

Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Principles

6:1 Now these are the commandments, ¹¹  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ¹² 

Deuteronomy 2:4

2:4 Instruct ¹³  these people as follows: ‘You are about to cross the border of your relatives ¹⁴  the descendants of Esau, ¹⁵  who inhabit Seir. They will be afraid of you, so watch yourselves carefully.

Deuteronomy 8:1

The Lord’s Provision in the Desert

8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments ¹⁶  I am giving ¹⁷  you today so that you may live, increase in number, ¹⁸  and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ¹⁹ 

Deuteronomy 15:5

15:5 if you carefully obey ²⁰  him ²¹  by keeping ²²  all these commandments that I am giving ²³  you today.

Jeremiah 29:13

29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, ²⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”

² tn Heb “walk after.”

³ tn Or “soul.”

⁴ tn Heb “words.”

⁵ tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”

⁶ tn Or “mind and being.” See Deut 6:5.

⁷ tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “to love”) in this setting communicates not so much an emotional idea as one of covenant commitment. To love the Lord is to be absolutely loyal and obedient to him in every respect, a truth Jesus himself taught (cf. John 14:15). See also the note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

⁸ tn Heb “heart.” In OT physiology the heart (לֵב, לֵבָב; levav, lev) was considered the seat of the mind or intellect, so that one could think with one’s heart. See A. Luc, NIDOTTE 2:749-54.

⁹ tn Heb “soul”; “being.” Contrary to Hellenistic ideas of a soul that is discrete and separate from the body and spirit, OT anthropology equated the “soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) with the person himself. It is therefore best in most cases to translate נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) as “being” or the like. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 10-25; D. Fredericks, NIDOTTE 3:133-34.

¹⁰ sn For NT variations on the Shema see Matt 22:37-39; Mark 12:29-30; Luke 10:27.

¹¹ tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.

¹² tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”

¹³ tn Heb “command” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “charge the people as follows.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “brothers”; NAB “your kinsmen.”

¹⁵ sn The descendants of Esau (Heb “sons of Esau”; the phrase also occurs in 2:8, 12, 22, 29). These are the inhabitants of the land otherwise known as Edom, south and east of the Dead Sea. Jacob’s brother Esau had settled there after his bitter strife with Jacob (Gen 36:1-8). “Edom” means “reddish,” probably because of the red sandstone of the region, but also by popular etymology because Esau, at birth, was reddish (Gen 25:25).

¹⁶ tn The singular term (מִצְוָה, mitsvah) includes the whole corpus of covenant stipulations, certainly the book of Deuteronomy at least (cf. Deut 5:28; 6:1, 25; 7:11; 11:8, 22; 15:5; 17:20; 19:9; 27:1; 30:11; 31:5). The plural (מִצְוֹת, mitsot) refers to individual stipulations (as in vv. 2, 6).

¹⁷ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).

¹⁸ tn Heb “multiply” (so KJV, NASB, NLT); NIV, NRSV “increase.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).

²⁰ tn Heb “if listening you listen to the voice of.” The infinitive absolute is used for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “carefully.” The idiom “listen to the voice” means “obey.”

²¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 15:4.

²² tn Heb “by being careful to do.”

²³ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB); NAB “which I enjoin you today.”

²⁴ tn Or “If you wholeheartedly seek me”; Heb “You will seek me and find [me] because you will seek me with all your heart.” The translation attempts to reflect the theological nuances of “seeking” and “finding” and the psychological significance of “heart” which refers more to intellectual and volitional concerns in the OT than to emotional ones.