NOTES for Deu 6:1-25

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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.

The Book of Deuteronomy calls every believing Jew to remember the words of the Torah, to study them himself and teach them to his children, to bind them on the hand and on the forehead, to fasten them to the doorpost. It should be noted that Orthodox Jews still observe all these prescriptions quite literally today. At the time when they were given, they contained a special meaning. In those days various kinds of amulets, sacred images, and statuettes were very widespread in the pagan world. Such amulets were worn on the hand or on the forehead (usually as a band), fastened to the doorpost, and sometimes placed on the roof of a house, more precisely on the ridge. Of course, simply replacing one pagan amulet with another, Yahwist one, could turn into an empty formality that obligated no one to anything; but if people cannot manage without amulets, then it is better for them to be reminded of the Torah and the God of Israel than of pagan gods and spirits.

The main thing, however, was the call to study the Torah and to teach the Torah. Here the matter concerns commandments and laws: things connected, but at the same time fundamentally different. A commandment remains a commandment for all times; it does not change; it is given once and for all. For a commandment to be fully understood, it must be received by a person as an inner spiritual and moral imperative, as God's intention addressed to the human being. Only in this case does the commandment open itself as such, in the fullness in which it has been given to us by God.

Law is another matter. As the text of the Pentateuch shows us, laws can change over time, and some laws in the Book of Exodus, for example, differ from the laws in the Book of Deuteronomy even when the same crimes are in question. Obviously, both kinds of laws are based on the commandments of the Decalogue, but the commandments are interpreted differently depending on concrete circumstances, which can change over time, just as the motivation of the legislator can change when he proposes one or another way to carry out one or another commandment in life. Unlike the unchanging commandments, laws are variable and changeable according to place and time. According to place and time, the motivation of the legislator can also change when he proposes one or another way of observing a commandment, as well as one or another measure as a sanction for its violation. Thus, thanks to changing laws and unchanging commandments, the Torah receives the possibility of existing in history, changing according to the age and at the same time remaining itself in what matters most.

Other notes

For Deu 6:1-25