Deuteronomy 6:9

door posts It was the custom of the ancient Egyptians to inscribe on lintels and door-posts sentences of good omen (Wilkinson-Birch, Anc. Egyptians2, 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 inscribed tablets from Assyria in Brit. Mus. see King, Z.A.11:50) and prevails among modern Egyptians (Lane, Mod. Egypt.ed. 1896, 262 f.), and among the fellahin of Ḥauran, who in their belief in the magical efficacy of the written word will place the most inappropriate ancient Greek inscriptions (tombstones and the like) above or beside their doors, sometimes upside down! Later Jews have given the name mezuzah(door-post) to the small metal box or skin-bag containing the above inscription and hung on the right-hand door-post inside. As he enters the pious Jew touches or salutes it (Driver, i. l.). It is not necessary to interpret even this verse in so literal a sense (Driver); even this the deuteronomist may have intended to be metaphorical (Marti in Kautzsch's Heil. Schr. des A. T.).