The Torah · Old Testament
Deuteronomy 6
Loving the Lord and teaching the story of deliverance
General context
Moses calls Israel to hear that the Lord their God is one Lord and to love him with all heart, soul and strength. The commanded words are to be kept in the heart, taught to children and spoken about throughout daily life. They are also to be bound as signs and written on houseposts and gates. Moses warns that receiving well-stocked cities, houses, wells and vineyards may lead the people to forget their deliverer. He forbids following other gods and testing the Lord as at Massah. When a child asks what the commands mean, the required answer recounts slavery, deliverance and the purpose of life in the promised land.
Cited passages: Deuteronomy 6:1, Deuteronomy 6:2, Deuteronomy 6:3, Deuteronomy 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 6:6, Deuteronomy 6:7, Deuteronomy 6:8, Deuteronomy 6:9, Deuteronomy 6:10, Deuteronomy 6:11, Deuteronomy 6:12, Deuteronomy 6:13, Deuteronomy 6:14, Deuteronomy 6:15, Deuteronomy 6:16, Deuteronomy 6:17, Deuteronomy 6:18, Deuteronomy 6:19, Deuteronomy 6:20, Deuteronomy 6:21, Deuteronomy 6:22, Deuteronomy 6:23, Deuteronomy 6:24, Deuteronomy 6:25
Deuteronomy 6 (KJV)
1Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
2That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
3Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
4Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
5And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
10And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
11And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
12Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
13Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
14Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
15(For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
16Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
17Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.
18And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers,
19To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken.
20And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you?
21Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand:
22And the Lord shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:
23And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.
24And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.
25And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
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Historical context
The address is oriented toward the land Israel is about to possess and toward children and grandchildren who must learn the commands. Its picture of settlement includes cities the listeners did not build, wells they did not dig and vineyards and olive trees they did not plant. The household instruction names sitting, walking, lying down and rising. The final question-and-answer scene is a prescribed future conversation, not a record of a particular named child asking Moses.
Cited passages: Deuteronomy 6:1, Deuteronomy 6:2, Deuteronomy 6:3, Deuteronomy 6:6, Deuteronomy 6:7, Deuteronomy 6:8, Deuteronomy 6:9, Deuteronomy 6:10, Deuteronomy 6:11, Deuteronomy 6:12, Deuteronomy 6:20, Deuteronomy 6:21, Deuteronomy 6:22, Deuteronomy 6:23, Deuteronomy 6:24, Deuteronomy 6:25
Literary context
Hearing leads into love, memory, speech and action. The daily pairings carry instruction across the rhythms of home and travel, while the visible signs extend it to body, doorway and gate. The warning about fullness turns prosperity into a possible occasion for forgetting. The child's future question receives a historical answer before an explanation of obligation: the people were brought out so that they might be brought into the promised land.
Cited passages: Deuteronomy 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 6:6, Deuteronomy 6:7, Deuteronomy 6:8, Deuteronomy 6:9, Deuteronomy 6:10, Deuteronomy 6:11, Deuteronomy 6:12, Deuteronomy 6:20, Deuteronomy 6:21, Deuteronomy 6:22, Deuteronomy 6:23, Deuteronomy 6:24, Deuteronomy 6:25
Key moments
- Love with the whole person (Deuteronomy 6:5). The command calls for love of the Lord with all heart, soul and might.
- Words in daily life (Deuteronomy 6:7). The people are told to teach their children and discuss the words through the day's routines.
- A child's question (Deuteronomy 6:20). Moses anticipates a child asking what the commands mean.
For reflection
Which ordinary parts of life does this chapter connect with remembering? How does answering a child's question through the deliverance story differ from giving only a rule?