Deuteronomy 6

De 6:1-25.

MOSES

EXHORTS

ISRAEL TO

HEAR

GOD AND TO

KEEP

HIS

COMMANDMENTS.

1-9. Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments,

which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do

them . . . whither ye go to possess it--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 ensure their divine observance of His worship and

their steadfast obedience to His will. The basis of their religion was

an acknowledgment of the unity of God with the understanding and the

love of God in the heart

(De 6:4, 5).

Compared with the religious creed of all their contemporaries, how

sound in principle, how elevated in character, how unlimited in the

extent of its moral influence on the heart and habits of the people!

Indeed, it is precisely the same basis on which rests the purer and

more spiritual form of it which Christianity exhibits

(Mt 22:37;

Mr 12:30;

Lu 10:27).

Moreover, to help in keeping a sense of religion in their minds, it was

commanded that its great principles should be carried about with them

wherever they went, as well as meet their eyes every time they entered

their homes. A further provision was made for the earnest inculcation

of them on the minds of the young by a system of parental training,

which was designed to associate religion with all the most familiar and

oft-recurring scenes of domestic life. It is probable that Moses used

the phraseology in

De 6:7

merely in a figurative way, to signify assiduous, earnest, and frequent

instruction; and perhaps he meant the metaphorical language in

De 6:8

to be taken in the same sense also. But as the Israelites interpreted

it literally, many writers suppose that a reference was made to a

superstitious custom borrowed from the Egyptians, who wore jewels and

ornamental trinkets on the forehead and arm, inscribed with certain

words and sentences, as amulets to protect them from danger. These, it

has been conjectured, Moses intended to supersede by substituting

sentences of the law; and so the Hebrews understood him, for they have

always considered the wearing of the Tephilim, or frontlets, a

permanent obligation. The form was as follows: Four pieces of

parchment, inscribed, the first with

Ex 13:2-10;

the second with

Ex 13:11-16;

the third with

De 6:1-8;

and the fourth with

De 11:18-21,

were enclosed in a square case or box of tough skin, on the side of

which was placed the Hebrew letter (shin), and bound round the

forehead with a thong or ribbon. When designed for the arms, those four

texts were written on one slip of parchment, which, as well as the ink,

was carefully prepared for the purpose. With regard to the other usage

supposed to be alluded to, the ancient Egyptians had the lintels and

imposts of their doors and gates inscribed with sentences indicative of

a favorable omen [WILKINSON]; and this is still

the case, for in Egypt and other Mohammedan countries, the front doors

of houses (in Cairo, for instance) are painted red, white, and green,

bearing conspicuously inscribed upon them such sentences from the

Koran, as "God is the Creator," "God is one, and Mohammed is his

prophet." Moses designed to turn this ancient and favorite custom to a

better account and ordered that, instead of the former superstitious

inscriptions, there should be written the words of God, persuading and

enjoining the people to hold the laws in perpetual remembrance.

20-25. when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying--The

directions given for the instruction of their children form only an

extension of the preceding counsels.