The Fundamental Principles of the Law: God's Nature and Israel's Duty Moses continues his discourse: After stating that he has now to give Israel the Charge (Miṣwah) given to him in Ḥoreb, and statutes and judgements for observance in the promised land (Deuteronomy 6:1); Moses explains the motives... [ Continue Reading ]
Not a fresh title, marking the beginning of a separate discourse, but the natural continuation of the discourse from the previous ch. and still couched in the Pl. AND _this is_ The conjunction not merely continues the discourse, but has an antithetic force, therefore not too strongly rendered _now_... [ Continue Reading ]
_fear_ JEHOVAH _thy God_ Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 10:20. _all his statutes and his commandments_ Note the variation from Deuteronomy 6:1. _which I command thee_ AM ABOUT TO COMMAND THEE. _that thy days may be prolonged_ See on Deuteronomy 5:33.... [ Continue Reading ]
Transition to the Sg. with a somewhat loose accumulation of common deuteronomic formulas; on these grounds regarded by some as an editorial addition. This is not certain, but very probable. Omit Deuteronomy 6:2, and Deuteronomy 6:4 follows naturally on Deuteronomy 6:1 as the beginning of the Miṣwah,... [ Continue Reading ]
_observe to do_ See on Deuteronomy 5:1. _that ye may increase mightily_ A partial return to the Pl., and, with such a verb, logical and natural. The phrase is not found elsewhere. This therefore may not be a mere editorial echo. But the idea of the multiplication of the people as a Divine blessing... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear, O Israel_ So Deuteronomy 9:1; Deuteronomy 20:3, and similarly Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 6:3; and nowhere else in the Hexateuch. The Sg. is to be explained as in Deuteronomy 5:1; but the continuance of the Sg. through the rest of this section is (especially if it is to follow immediately on... [ Continue Reading ]
The Essential Creed and Duty of Israel, with enforcement of them. Known from its initial word as The _Shĕma-_(_Hear_), this section (along with Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41) -has been for many ages the first bit of the Bible which Jewish children have learned to say and to read, just as... [ Continue Reading ]
_and thou shalt love_ JEHOVAH _thy God_ Love, mentioned in JE as an affection between human beings (father and son, husband and wife, slave and master) and in H as a duty both to neighbour-Israelites and to strangers (Leviticus 19:18; Leviticus 19:34), is never in the Hexateuch described as entering... [ Continue Reading ]
_these words_ WITH WHICH I AM CHARGING _thee this day_ Elsewhere the phrase in whole or part refers to the whole discourse of Moses (e.g. Deuteronomy 11:18), but here it must mean the two preceding verses as the essence of the law. _shall be upon thine heart_ Deuteronomy 11:18, _lay up in your hear... [ Continue Reading ]
Further enforcement of this greed and duty.... [ Continue Reading ]
_teach them diligently_ lit. _whet_or _sharpen_, Deuteronomy 32:41; make incisive and impress them on thy children; rub them in, Germ. einschärfen. The Eng. metaphorical use of -sharpen" or -whet" (-whet on," -whet forward") has usually for object the mind, not the material employed on it. Yet cp. S... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou shalt bind them for a sign … for frontlets_, etc.] See for the exact meanings the notes on Exodus 13:9; Exodus 13:16. As there, so here probably the injunction is to be taken metaphorically and not literally, as the later Jews understood it, though they carried it out not by tattooing, which s... [ Continue Reading ]
_door posts_ It was the custom of the ancient Egyptians to inscribe on lintels and door-posts sentences of good omen (Wilkinson-Birch, _Anc. Egyptians_2, i. 361 f.); but we are not to infer that it was thence derived by the Hebrews (Driver), for it was the custom too in the Semitic world (for two in... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it shall be, when_ JEHOVAH _thy God shall bring thee into_, etc.] A formula partly derived from J (Exodus 13:5; Exodus 13:11, _the land of the Canaanite_), but varied by D, which adds _thy God_and otherwise characteristically expands it. Similarly Deuteronomy 7:1; Deuteronomy 11:29. See also De... [ Continue Reading ]
The chief temptations to forget the duties just enforced will meet Israel when they enter upon the enjoyment of the civilisation of the land they are about to reach: a civilisation to which they have not contributed, and which they may be moved to impute to other gods than their own who is bringing... [ Continue Reading ]
_and houses … and cisterns … vineyards and olive trees …_ With Sam. and LXX omit _and_before _houses_and _cisterns_. Such things form the principal wealth of the _cities_, better TOWNS, of Deuteronomy 6:10. That grain and flocks are not also mentioned (as in Deuteronomy 32:14) is not surprising. The... [ Continue Reading ]
_beware give heed to thyself_or _be on guard with respect to thyself_, apparently a common phrase from one person to another, Exodus 10:28 (J), etc.; addressed to Israel in the editorial passage, Exodus 34:12 and frequently in D: Deuteronomy 4:9; Deuteronomy 8:11 (both followed, as here, _by lest th... [ Continue Reading ]
_him shalt thou fear … serve … swear by his name_ Intended to cover the whole sphere of religion: the spiritual temper (on the frequent enforcement of the fear of God and its meaning see on Deuteronomy 4:10); acts of worship (the Hebrew term, though technically used of these, may cover other duties... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye shall not go after other gods_, etc.] only states explicitly what is implicit in the preceding verses. As it is superfluous and introduces the Pl. form into a Sg. context, it may be confidently regarded as an editorial addition. _Other gods_, specially characteristic of D and deuteronomic passag... [ Continue Reading ]
_in the midst of thee_ So Deuteronomy 7:21; Deuteronomy 23:14 (contr. Deuteronomy 1:42). Hosea has the same thought, Hosea 11:9, and Jeremiah, Jeremiah 14:9. _a jealous God_ As in Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 5:9; see note on Exodus 20:5. _lest the anger_, et [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye shall not tempt_, etc.] Rather, TRY, or _put to the proof_. On Massah cp. Deuteronomy 9:22; Deuteronomy 33:8, and see on Exodus 17:2; Exodus 17:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
Another interruption by the Pl. Because of this; because the reference to Massah is hardly relevant to the context, and because the perfect, _he hath commanded_, is not yet true of the separate laws; these sentences seem to be a later editorial insertion. The return to the Sg. at their close is expl... [ Continue Reading ]
_do that which is right_, etc.] Cp. Deuteronomy 12:25. _mayest go in and possess_ See above on Deuteronomy 6:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
Resumption of the Sg. address; in spite of this the originality of these verses also has been doubted. It is at least curious that we have in them the divine name alone without the addition _thy God_, characteristic of D.... [ Continue Reading ]
_to thrust out_, etc.] The Heb. is used of this event only here and Deuteronomy 9:4 (Sg.); also in the deuteronomic Joshua 23:5. _as_ JEHOVAH _hath spoken_ Exodus 23:27 ff.... [ Continue Reading ]
_When_, etc.] Read, with Sam. and LXX, AND IT SHALL BE WHEN, as in the opening of Deuteronomy 6:10 and in Exodus 13:14 (J), which the rest of this clause follows. _the testimonies … the statutes, and the judgements_ as in Deuteronomy 4:45 _q.v._With Sam. omit _and_before _the statutes_; the statute... [ Continue Reading ]
These verses return to a favourite theme of Deut.: the close relation between Jehovah's Laws and His Deeds. When a future generation shall ask the meaning of the Laws it shall be referred to the Lord's deliverance of the nation from bondage in Egypt and His conduct of them to the land He promised. H... [ Continue Reading ]
_bondmen_ See on Deuteronomy 5:6. _mighty hand_ See on Deuteronomy 4:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
_signs and wonders … before our eyes_ See on Deuteronomy 4:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and he brought us out_ This translation stifles the emphatic and even exultant note of the order in the original: _But us He brought out from thence_, cp. Deuteronomy 4:20. _that he might bring us in_ See on Deuteronomy 6:10; some LXX codd. omit. _which he sware_ Deuteronomy 1:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
JEHOVAH _commanded us to do all these statutes_ This phrase is natural to the time and standpoint assumed throughout Deuteronomy 6:20, viz. those of the later generation before which the statutes will already have been published. Notice, too, how naturally _Jehovah_is used instead of the deuteronom... [ Continue Reading ]
_it shall be righteousness unto us_ The thought of the previous verse shows that righteousness here does not mean goodness, uprightness, but rather justification, vindication, the right to live, and by consequence their life itself. Cf. the post-exilic Isaiah 61:11; Isaiah 62:1-2, in which righteous... [ Continue Reading ]