deuteronomy-6:4-9,-deuteronomy-6:20-25

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:7

Thou shalt teach them diligently - שננתם shinnantam , from שנן shanan , to repeat, iterate, or do a thing again and again; hence to whet or sharpen any instrument, which is done by reiterated friction or grinding. We see here the spirit of this Divine injunction. God's testimonies must be taught to our children, and the utmost diligence must be used to make them understand them. This is a most difficult task; and it requires much patience, much prudence, much judgment, and much piety... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:8

Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thins hand - Is not this an allusion to an ancient and general custom observed in almost every part of the world? When a person wishes to remember a thing of importance, and is afraid to trust to the common operations of memory, he ties a knot on some part of his clothes, or a cord on his hand or finger, or places something out of its usual order, and in view, that his memory may be whetted to recollection, and his eye affect his heart. God, who knows how... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:9

Write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates - The Jews, forgetting the spirit and design of this precept, used these things as superstitious people do amulets and charms, and supposed, if they had these passages of Scripture written upon slips of pure parchment, wrapped round their foreheads, tied to their arm, or nailed to their door-posts, that they should then be delivered from every evil! And how much better are many Christians, who keep a Bible in their house merely that it... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:4

Verse 4 4.Hear, O Israel. When Moses proclaims that God is One, the statement is not confined to His sole essence, which is incomprehensible, but must be also understood of His power and glory, which had been manifested to the people; as though he had said, that they would be guilty of rebellion unless they abode in the One God, who had laid them under such obligations to Himself. Therefore he not only calls him Jehovah, but at the same time infers that He is the God of that people whom he... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:6

Verse 6 6.And these words. In these four next verses God again commands (as before) the study of His Law. And first, indeed, He would have it implanted in their hearts, lest forgetfulness of it should ever steal over them; and by the word “heart” He designates the memory and other faculties of the mind; as though He had said that this was so great a treasure, that there was good cause why they should hide it in their hearts, or so fix this doctrine deeply in their minds that it should never... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 6:4

These words form the beginning of what is termed the “Shema” (“Hear”) in the Jewish Services, and belong to the daily morning and evening office. They may be called “the creed of the Jews.”This weighty text contains far more than a mere declaration of the unity of God as against polytheism; or of the sole authority of the revelation that He had made to Israel as against other pretended manifestations of His will and attributes. It asserts that the Lord God of Israel is absolutely God, and none... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 6:5

Since there is but One God, and that God is Israel’s God, so Israel must love God unreservedly and entirely. The “heart” is mentioned as the seat of the understanding; the “soul” as the center of will and personality; the “might” as representing the outgoings and energies of all the vital powers.The New Testament itself requires no more than this total self-surrender of man’s being to his maker Matthew 22:37. The Gospel differs from the Law not so much in replacing an external and carnal... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 6:8-9

By adopting and regulating customary usages (e. g. Egyptian) Moses provides at once a check on superstition and a means of keeping the Divine Law in memory. On the “frontlets,” the “phylacteries” of the New Test. Matthew 23:5, see Exodus 13:16. On Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 11:20 is based the Jewish usage of the mezuzah. This word denotes properly a door-post, as it is rendered here and in Exodus 12:7, Exodus 12:22; Exodus 21:6 etc. Among the Jews however, it is the name given to the square... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Deuteronomy 6:4

Deuteronomy 6:4. Hear, O Israel! The passage contained in this and the following verse, the Jews reckoned one of their choicest portions of Scripture. They wrote it on their phylacteries, (or slips of parchment bound on their foreheads, their necks, their breasts, or wrists,) and thought themselves not only obliged to repeat it twice every day, but very happy in being so obliged; having this saying among them, “Blessed are we who, every morning and evening, say, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Deuteronomy 6:5

Deuteronomy 6:5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart And is this only an external commandment? Can any then say that the Sinai covenant was merely external? With all thy heart It is not only the external action, but the internal affection of the mind that God requires; an affection which influences all our actions, in secret as well as in public. We must love him, 1st, With a sincere love; not in words and in tongue only; saying that we love him, when our hearts are not... read more

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:7

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:8

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:9

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:4

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 6:6

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 6:4

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 6:5

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 6:8-9

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Deuteronomy 6:4

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Deuteronomy 6:5

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