Bible Commentaries

Now 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:

Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord ... commanded.

The grand design of all the institutions prescribed to Israel was to form a religious people, whose national character should be distinguished by that fear of the Lord their God which would insure their divine observance of His worship and their steadfast obedience to His will.

That 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.

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Hear 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.

As the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee. The reference is to Genesis 15:5; Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:17.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord - or, as the words may perhaps be better translated, 'Hear, O Israel: Yahweh is our God ( 'Elohiym , plural), Yahweh alone.' [The Septuagint has: kurios ho Theos heemoon kurios heis estin (cf. Zechariah 14:9).] The basis of their religion was an acknowledgment of the unity of God with the understanding, and the love of God in the heart (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). [ l

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

No JFB commentary on these verses.

And 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.

Thou shalt teach them diligently , [ w

And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Thou shalt bind them for a sign , [ l

And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

No JFB commentary on these verses.

Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.

Shalt swear by his name. The reference is to solemn and judicial oaths, an appeal to God being evidently sanctioned by the terms of the third commandment, though limited in practice to grave occasions, and directed by serious considerations. (Cf. Matthew 5:33-37; James 5:12, which refer to swearing in common conversation.

Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;

No JFB commentary on this verse.

(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.

(For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) - literally, in the midst of you. The threatening in this verse, annexed to Deuteronomy 6:14, was probably applicable to violations both of the first and second commandments, (see the notes at Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:1-35.)

Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

No JFB commentary on these verses.

And 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?

When thy son asketh thee. The directions given for the instruction of their children form only an extension of the preceding counsels In referring to the laws, institutions, and observances special to their nation, the Israelites were taught to recognize the right of Yahweh to enact these as founded on His special relations to them as a people. Indeed, in no passage of Scripture is God's right to prescribe laws for the Hebrew nation ascribed to His being the Creator and moral Governor of the world, but to His character as King in Israel, who founded and upheld their theocratic polity, (cf. Exodus 20:23 : see Michaelis, 'Commentary,' arts. 33: and

xxxiv.)

And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments. Every Israelite who yielded an external obedience to the Mosaic law was termed righteous, and had a claim, in virtue of that obedience, to the land of Canaan; so that doing these things, he lived by them (Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 5:33). The import of the statement in these verses, then, is, that a faithful observance of "all these commandments" should constitute their title to the promised blessings of the covenant.