Deuteronomy 6:3-25

6:3 Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number ¹  – as the Lord, God of your ancestors, ²  said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.

The Essence of the Covenant Principles

6:4 Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! ³  6:5 You must love ⁴  the Lord your God with your whole mind, ⁵  your whole being, ⁶  and all your strength. ⁷ 

Exhortation to Teach the Covenant Principles

6:6 These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, 6:7 and you must teach ⁸  them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, ⁹  as you lie down, and as you get up. 6:8 You should tie them as a reminder on your forearm ¹⁰  and fasten them as symbols ¹¹  on your forehead. 6:9 Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and gates. ¹² 

Exhortation to Worship the Lord Exclusively

6:10 Then when the Lord your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you – a land with large, fine cities you did not build, 6:11 houses filled with choice things you did not accumulate, hewn out cisterns you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant – and you eat your fill, 6:12 be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, that place of slavery. ¹³  6:13 You must revere the Lord your God, serve him, and take oaths using only his name. 6:14 You must not go after other gods, those ¹⁴  of the surrounding peoples, 6:15 for the Lord your God, who is present among you, is a jealous God and his anger will erupt against you and remove you from the land. ¹⁵ 

Exhortation to Obey the Lord Exclusively

6:16 You must not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. ¹⁶  6:17 Keep his ¹⁷  commandments very carefully, ¹⁸  as well as the stipulations and statutes he commanded you to observe. 6:18 Do whatever is proper ¹⁹  and good before the Lord so that it may go well with you and that you may enter and occupy the good land that he ²⁰  promised your ancestors, 6:19 and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the Lord said.

Exhortation to Remember the Past

6:20 When your children ²¹  ask you later on, “What are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God commanded you?” 6:21 you must say to them, ²²  “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt in a powerful way. ²³  6:22 And he ²⁴  brought signs and great, devastating wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on his whole family ²⁵  before our very eyes. 6:23 He delivered us from there so that he could give us the land he had promised our ancestors. 6:24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these statutes and to revere him ²⁶  so that it may always go well for us and he may preserve us, as he has to this day. 6:25 We will be innocent if we carefully keep all these commandments ²⁷  before the Lord our God, just as he demands.” ²⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “may multiply greatly” (so NASB, NRSV); the words “in number” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 10, 18, 23).

³ tn Heb “the Lord, our God, the Lord, one.” (1) One option is to translate: “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone” (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT). This would be an affirmation that the Lord was the sole object of their devotion. This interpretation finds support from the appeals to loyalty that follow (vv. 5, 14). (2) Another option is to translate: “The Lord is our God, the Lord is unique.” In this case the text would be affirming the people’s allegiance to the Lord, as well as the Lord’s superiority to all other gods. It would also imply that he is the only one worthy of their worship. Support for this view comes from parallel texts such as Deut 7:9 and 10:17, as well as the use of “one” in Song 6:8-9, where the starstruck lover declares that his beloved is unique (literally, “one,” that is, “one of a kind”) when compared to all other women.

⁴ 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.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ sn For NT variations on the Shema see Matt 22:37-39; Mark 12:29-30; Luke 10:27.

⁸ tn Heb “repeat” (so NLT). If from the root I שָׁנַן (shanan), the verb means essentially to “engrave,” that is, “to teach incisively” (Piel); note NAB “Drill them into your children.” Cf. BDB 1041-42 s.v.

⁹ tn Or “as you are away on a journey” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT); NAB “at home and abroad.”

¹⁰ sn Tie them as a sign on your forearm. Later Jewish tradition referred to the little leather containers tied to the forearms and foreheads as tefillin. They were to contain the following passages from the Torah: Exod 13:1-10, 11-16; Deut 6:5-9; 11:13-21. The purpose was to serve as a “sign” of covenant relationship and obedience.

¹¹ sn Fasten them as symbols on your forehead. These were also known later as tefillin (see previous note) or phylacteries (from the Greek term). These box-like containers, like those on the forearms, held the same scraps of the Torah. It was the hypocritical practice of wearing these without heartfelt sincerity that caused Jesus to speak scathingly about them (cf. Matt 23:5).

¹² sn The Hebrew term מְזוּזֹת (mÿzuzot) refers both to the door frames and to small cases attached on them containing scripture texts (always Deut 6:4-9 and 11:13-21; and sometimes the decalogue; Exod 13:1-10, 11-16; and Num 10:35-36). See J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy (JPSTC), 443-44.

¹³ tn Heb “out of the house of slavery” (so NASB, NRSV).

¹⁴ tn Heb “from the gods.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹⁵ tn Heb “lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and destroy you from upon the surface of the ground.” Cf. KJV, ASV “from off the face of the earth.”

¹⁶ sn The place name Massah (מַסָּה, massah) derives from a root (נָסָה, nasah) meaning “to test; to try.” The reference here is to the experience in the Sinai desert when Moses struck the rock to obtain water (Exod 17:1-2). The complaining Israelites had, thus, “tested” the Lord, a wickedness that gave rise to the naming of the place (Exod 17:7; cf. Deut 9:22; 33:8).

¹⁷ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb to emphasize the statement. The imperfect verbal form is used here with an obligatory nuance that can be captured in English through the imperative. Cf. NASB, NRSV “diligently keep (obey NLT).”

¹⁹ tn Heb “upright.”

²⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 17.

²¹ tn Heb “your son.”

²² tn Heb “to your son.”

²³ tn Heb “by a strong hand.” The image is that of a warrior who, with weapon in hand, overcomes his enemies. The Lord is commonly depicted as a divine warrior in the Book of Deuteronomy (cf. 5:15; 7:8; 9:26; 26:8).

²⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 17.

²⁵ tn Heb “house,” referring to the entire household.

²⁶ tn Heb “the Lord our God.” See note on the word “his” in v. 17.

²⁷ tn The term “commandment” (מִצְוָה, mitsvah), here in the singular, refers to the entire body of covenant stipulations.

²⁸ tn Heb “as he has commanded us” (so NIV, NRSV).