Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 6:5-25
Context6:5 You must love 1 the Lord your God with your whole mind, 2 your whole being, 3 and all your strength. 4
6:6 These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, 6:7 and you must teach 5 them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, 6 as you lie down, and as you get up. 6:8 You should tie them as a reminder on your forearm 7 and fasten them as symbols 8 on your forehead. 6:9 Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and gates. 9
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. 10 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 11 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. 12
6:16 You must not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. 13 6:17 Keep his 14 commandments very carefully, 15 as well as the stipulations and statutes he commanded you to observe. 6:18 Do whatever is proper 16 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 17 promised your ancestors, 6:19 and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the Lord said.
6:20 When your children 18 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, 19 “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt in a powerful way. 20 6:22 And he 21 brought signs and great, devastating wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on his whole family 22 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 23 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 24 before the Lord our God, just as he demands.” 25
[6:5] 1 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
[6:5] 2 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.
[6:5] 3 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.
[6:5] 4 sn For NT variations on the Shema see Matt 22:37-39; Mark 12:29-30; Luke 10:27.
[6:7] 5 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.
[6:7] 6 tn Or “as you are away on a journey” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT); NAB “at home and abroad.”
[6:8] 7 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.
[6:8] 8 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).
[6:9] 9 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.
[6:12] 10 tn Heb “out of the house of slavery” (so NASB, NRSV).
[6:14] 11 tn Heb “from the gods.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
[6:15] 12 tn Heb “lest the anger of the
[6:16] 13 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
[6:17] 14 tn Heb “the commandments of the
[6:17] 15 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).”
[6:18] 17 tn Heb “the
[6:21] 19 tn Heb “to your son.”
[6:21] 20 tn Heb “by a strong hand.” The image is that of a warrior who, with weapon in hand, overcomes his enemies. The
[6:22] 21 tn Heb “the
[6:22] 22 tn Heb “house,” referring to the entire household.
[6:24] 23 tn Heb “the
[6:25] 24 tn The term “commandment” (מִצְוָה, mitsvah), here in the singular, refers to the entire body of covenant stipulations.
