Deuteronomy 6

The Greatest Commandment// Matthew 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–34

¹These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that Yahweh your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess, ²so that you and your children and grandchildren may fear Yahweh your God all the days of your lives by keeping all His statutes and commandments that I give you, and so that your days may be prolonged. ³Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

⁴Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is One. ⁵And you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

• DT 6:4[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → MK 12:29-30
• DT 6:4[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → MK 12:32
• DT 6:4[NOTABLE]The Shema, named for its first Hebrew word, hear. Jews still pray it every morning and evening, and Jesus called the next verse the greatest commandment, Mark 12:29 to 30.
• DT 6:4[NOTE]THE SHEMA. Shema is Hebrew for hear. One is echad, the same word used when a man and wife become one flesh, Genesis 2:24.
• DT 6:5[HEART]Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength.
• DT 6:5[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → MT 22:37
• DT 6:5[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → MK 12:33
• DT 6:5[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → LK 10:27

⁶These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

• DT 6:6[HEART]These words are to be on your heart.
• DT 6:8[NOTE]Many Jews still tie small leather boxes called tefillin, with these verses inside, on the arm and forehead, and put a mezuzah on the doorpost, 6:9. Jesus mentions them in Matthew 23:5, and tefillin were found at Qumran.

¹⁰And when Yahweh your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build, ¹¹with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, ¹²be careful not to forget Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹³Fear Yahweh your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name. ¹⁴Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. ¹⁵For Yahweh your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of Yahweh your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

• DT 6:13[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → MT 4:10
• DT 6:13[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → LK 4:8
• DT 6:14[DEMONIC]Do not follow the gods of the peoples around you

¹⁶Do not test Yahweh your God as you tested Him at Massah. ¹⁷You are to diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you. ¹⁸Do what is right and good in the sight of Yahweh, so that it may be well with you and that you may enter and possess the good land that Yahweh your God swore to give your fathers, ¹⁹driving out all your enemies before you, as Yahweh has said.

• DT 6:16[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → MT 4:7
• DT 6:16[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → LK 4:12

Teach Your Children

²⁰In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that Yahweh our God has commanded you?” ²¹then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²²Before our eyes Yahweh inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household. ²³But He brought us out from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers.

²⁴And Yahweh commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear Yahweh our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day. ²⁵And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before Yahweh our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”