Deuteronomy 6

Translator Notes

1. Moses uses the singular hamitsvah ('the commandment') followed by the plural 'statutes and ordinances' — suggesting that everything that follows flows from a single core commandment, which the Shema (v4-5) will state. The Hebrew mishpatim is better rendered 'ordinances' or 'rules' than KJV's 'judgments,' since these are prescriptions for life, not court rulings.

Translator Notes

1. The multigenerational chain — 'you, your son, your grandson' — is central to Deuteronomy's vision: covenant faithfulness is transmitted across generations, not merely practiced individually. The verb tira ('fear, revere') is the same yir'ah that governed the midwives in Exodus 1:17 — awe that produces obedience. The promise of long days (ya'arikhun yamekha) links obedience to life itself.

Translator Notes

1. The verb shama ('hear, listen') appears here as a command and will return as the opening word of v4 — the Shema itself. Hearing in Hebrew is never passive; it always implies response. The phrase 'land flowing with milk and honey' (erets zavat chalav udevash) describes agricultural abundance: milk from livestock, honey from date palms (not bees, in the most likely reading). It is a promise of provision, not luxury.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. These six words are the most important sentence in Judaism. The Hebrew syntax is deliberately ambiguous — YHWH Elohenu YHWH echad can be parsed in multiple ways, and the tradition has preserved all of them. The word echad ('one') can mean 'one' (numerical), 'alone' (exclusive), or 'unified' (undivided). Jesus cites this verse as the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29). The rendering 'the LORD is one' preserves the ambiguity better than 'is one LORD' (which narrows the meaning to numerical oneness).

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The command to love God is not sentimental — ahavta ('you shall love') is a covenant verb. In ancient Near Eastern treaties, 'love' describes the vassal's total loyalty to the sovereign. Three dimensions of totality are named: levav (heart — the seat of will and thought, not emotion), nephesh (being, life, self — the whole person), and me'od (strength, might, abundance — everything you have). Together they leave no domain of human existence outside the scope of this command. Jesus identifies this as the greatest commandment in the Torah (Matt 22:37, Mark 12:30).

Translator Notes

1. The instruction moves from the declaration (v4) and the command (v5) to the method of internalization: these words must be al-levavekha — literally 'upon your heart.' The words are to rest on the heart until the heart absorbs them. The emphasis on 'today' (hayyom) runs throughout Deuteronomy — the covenant is always present-tense, always being renewed in the current moment.

Translator Notes

1. The verb shinantam (from shanan, 'to sharpen, repeat, engrave') implies intensive, repetitive teaching — not a single lesson but constant, woven-into-life instruction. The four situations (sitting, walking, lying down, rising up) form two merisms covering all of life: home and travel, rest and activity. There is no moment when these words are not relevant. This verse became the basis for reciting the Shema morning and evening in Jewish liturgy.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. This verse has been interpreted both literally (resulting in tefillin — small leather boxes containing scripture passages worn during prayer) and metaphorically (keep God's commands constantly visible in your actions and thoughts). The Hebrew totafot ('frontlets, emblems') is an unusual word of uncertain etymology, appearing only here and in Exodus 13:16 and Deuteronomy 11:18. 'Hand' and 'forehead' represent action and thought — what you do and what you focus on.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The word mezuzot ('doorposts') gave its name to the mezuzah — the small case containing a scroll of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21 affixed to Jewish doorframes to this day. The doorpost marks the threshold between public and private space; the gates mark the boundary of the community. God's words govern both the household and the city. The progression from v6-9 moves outward: heart (v6), speech to children (v7), body (v8), home and community (v9).

Translator Notes

1. The danger of prosperity begins here. The covenant promise is about to be fulfilled — Israel will inherit what they did not earn. The naming of the three patriarchs anchors the land promise in covenant history stretching back to Genesis 12, 26, and 28. The list that follows (v10-11) catalogs unearned abundance: cities, houses, wells, vineyards, olive trees — all received, not produced.

Translator Notes

1. Four gifts, each with the emphatic 'you did not': build, fill, hew, plant. The repetition makes the point unmissable — everything Israel receives in the land is grace, not achievement. The Hebrew borot chatsuvim ('hewn cisterns') refers to water storage cut into limestone, essential for survival in a land without reliable rivers. The list moves from infrastructure (cities, houses) to sustenance (water, food) — every layer of settled life is a gift.

Translator Notes

1. Hishamer lekha ('guard yourself') — the same verb used for guarding the garden in Genesis 2:15 and for the priestly duty of guarding the sanctuary. Self-guarding is an active spiritual discipline, not passive. The danger is forgetting — shakhach, the opposite of zakhar ('remember'). In Deuteronomy, forgetting God is the primal sin, more fundamental than any specific commandment violation. 'House of slavery' (beit avadim) is Deuteronomy's standard epithet for Egypt.

Translator Notes

1. Three verbs, each with emphatic word order (object before verb): revere, serve, swear by. The fronting of 'the LORD your God' gives it the force of 'It is the LORD — and no other — whom you shall revere.' The verb avad ('serve, worship') is the same word used for Israel's slavery in Egypt (avadim, v12) — Israel is transferred from Pharaoh's service to God's. Swearing by God's name acknowledges Him as the guarantor of truth and oaths.

Translator Notes

1. The prohibition is geographically specific: 'the gods of the peoples around you' (elohei ha'ammim asher sevivoteikhem). The threat is not abstract polytheism but the actual religious cultures Israel will encounter in Canaan. 'Going after' other gods (halakh acharei) is covenant-betrayal language — it describes a vassal who abandons their sovereign for a rival.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. El qanna ('jealous/zealous God') — qanna is used exclusively for God in the Hebrew Bible. It does not describe petty jealousy but the fierce, protective passion of a covenant partner who will not share loyalty with rivals. The phrase beqirbekha ('in your midst') is critical: God is not distant — He dwells among Israel, making idolatry not merely theological error but a personal offense against a present God. The consequence — destruction from the face of the ground (adamah) — echoes the Cain narrative (Gen 4:14).

Translator Notes

1. The verb nassah ('test, try, prove') and the place name Massah ('testing') share the same root — a wordplay the Hebrew reader would hear immediately. The reference is to Exodus 17:1-7, where Israel demanded water and asked 'Is the LORD among us or not?' — testing whether God's covenant commitment was real. Moses redefines the Massah incident as a permanent prohibition: demanding that God prove Himself is itself a failure of trust.

Translator Notes

1. The infinitive absolute construction shamor tishmerun intensifies the verb: 'you must really, truly keep.' Three categories of law are named: mitsvot ('commandments'), edot ('testimonies, decrees' — laws that witness to God's character), and chuqqim ('statutes' — prescribed regulations). The threefold classification suggests that God's law addresses every dimension of life.

Translator Notes

1. The pair hayyashar vehatov ('the right and the good') goes beyond mere legal compliance. Yashar ('right, straight, upright') and tov ('good, beneficial') together suggest both moral integrity and active goodness. The rabbis derived from this verse the principle of lifnim mishurat hadin — going beyond the strict letter of the law to do what is genuinely good, even when not explicitly commanded.

Translator Notes

1. The verb hadof ('drive out, thrust away') is forceful — God's action on Israel's behalf is not gentle persuasion but decisive removal. 'As the LORD has spoken' (ka'asher dibber YHWH) anchors the military promise in God's covenant word. The sentence completes v18: obedience leads to possession, and possession includes the removal of opposition.

Translator Notes

1. The catechetical question-and-answer pattern: a child asks, a parent answers. This is one of four 'son's questions' across the Torah (see also Exodus 12:26, 13:8, 13:14), which form the basis of the four questions in the Passover Haggadah. The word machar ('tomorrow') means 'in the future' — this instruction anticipates the next generation and all generations after. Faith must be transmissible, not merely personal.

Translator Notes

1. The answer to the child's question is not a legal explanation but a narrative — a story of rescue. 'We were slaves' (avadim hayinu) — the first-person plural is deliberate. Every generation tells the exodus story as its own experience, not as ancient history. This is the principle of liturgical identification: 'We were slaves,' not 'Our ancestors were slaves.' The 'mighty hand' (yad chazaqah) is Deuteronomy's standard phrase for God's power in the exodus (4:34, 5:15, 7:19, 26:8).

Translator Notes

1. The adjective ra'im ('evil, harmful, devastating') applied to God's wonders is striking — the plagues were good for Israel but devastating for Egypt. The phrase le'einenu ('before our eyes') continues the liturgical first-person: every generation 'sees' the exodus through the retelling. The comprehensive targeting — Egypt, Pharaoh, his entire house — leaves no level of Egyptian power untouched.

Translator Notes

1. The verse captures the double movement of redemption in a single sentence: hotsi ('brought out') and havi ('bring in'). Exodus is not an end in itself but a means — God rescued Israel from Egypt so that He could bring them to the promised land. The two verbs are linked by lema'an ('in order to'), making the purpose explicit. This is the exodus in miniature: out of slavery, into promise.

Translator Notes

1. The purpose of the law is stated with startling simplicity: letov lanu ('for our good'). The commandments are not arbitrary impositions but provisions for flourishing. Two purposes are given: 'for our good always' (comprehensive well-being) and 'to keep us alive' (sheer survival). Obedience and life are linked — not as reward but as cause and effect. The Deuteronomic vision: Torah is the path to life.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The chapter ends where it began (v1) — with 'this commandment' (hamitsvah hazzot), singular. The Shema and all that flows from it is one unified command. Tsedaqah ('righteousness') here means 'right standing, covenant faithfulness' — obedience to the commandment constitutes Israel's righteous status before God. Paul will later cite the relationship between righteousness and obedience/faith as a central theological question (Romans 10:5-6, citing Deut 30:12-14). The closing 'as He has commanded us' circles back to the covenant framework: God commands, Israel obeys, and the result is tsedaqah.