Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Deuteronomy 6

Moses binds wholehearted love for YHWH to obedience, household teaching, and remembrance of his rescue from slavery.

Moses addresses Israel before the people enter the land God promised their fathers. He commands them to love YHWH with their whole being and keep his words at the center of household life. Children are to learn these commands through conversation and the account of Israel’s rescue from Egypt. Moses also warns that full houses and abundant food can lead to forgetfulness. Israel must serve YHWH alone and must not test him as they did at Massah.

parentinggratitudean ordinary day
Read
1Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess;
2that you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you—you, your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.
3Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4Hear, Israel: The LORD is our God. The LORD is one.
5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
6These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;
7and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
8You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
9You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.
10It shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you–a land with great and good cities which you didn’t build,
11and houses full of all good things which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full;
12then beware lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
13You shall fear the LORD your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.
14You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you,
15for the LORD your God among you is a jealous God, lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
16You shall not tempt the LORD your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
17You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
18You shall do that which is right and good in the LORD’s sight, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to your fathers,
19to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.
20When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD our God has commanded you mean?”
21then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand;
22and the LORD showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes;
23and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers.
24The 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 we are today.
25It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Deuteronomy 6:5The command to love YHWH with the whole person stands at the center of Israel’s covenant loyalty.
Deuteronomy 6:6God’s commands belong on the heart, shaping the people who will teach them to the next generation.
Deuteronomy 6:7Teaching children belongs within the ordinary rhythms of home and travel, from waking to lying down.
Where this chapter reaches

Mark and Matthew quote the command to love God with the whole person as the greatest commandment. Exodus recounts the rescue from Egypt and the testing at Massah recalled here, while Matthew and Luke quote the prohibition against testing God during Jesus’ temptation.

Deuteronomy 6's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What connection do you see between keeping God’s words on your heart and teaching them to children?

Write on this

Which gifts in your life could become occasions to forget the God who gave them?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 6

What is the Shema in Deuteronomy 6?

The name Shema comes from the Hebrew word for “Hear,” which opens verse 4. The verse declares that YHWH is Israel’s God and that YHWH is one. Verses 5–9 connect this confession with wholehearted love, keeping God’s words on the heart, and teaching them to children.

Why does Deuteronomy 6 warn Israel not to forget God?

Moses anticipates Israel receiving cities, homes, and cultivated land they did not produce. Once they have eaten their fill, they may forget YHWH who rescued them from slavery. The warning concerns covenant loyalty: forgetting God can lead to serving other gods, which brings his anger and judgment.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Deuteronomy 6. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Deuteronomy · 34 chapters
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334
What the Bible says about parenting →What the Bible says about gratitude →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).