Deuteronomy 6

The Greatest Command

¹“This is the command — the statutes and ordinances — the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess.²³Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life.⁴⁵Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.⁶

⁷“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.⁸⁹Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.¹⁰¹¹These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.¹²¹³Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.¹⁴¹⁵Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.¹⁶¹⁷Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.¹⁸

Remembering God through Obedience

¹⁹“When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give you — a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build,²⁰²¹houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant — and when you eat and are satisfied,²²²³be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.²⁴²⁵Fear the Lord your God, worship him, and take your oaths in his name.²⁶²⁷Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you,²⁸²⁹for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise, the Lord your God will become angry with you and obliterate you from the face of the earth.³⁰³¹Do not test the Lord your God as you tested him at Massah.³²³³Carefully observe the commands of the Lord your God, the decrees and statutes he has commanded you.³⁴³⁵Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your ancestors,³⁶³⁷by driving out all your enemies before you, as the Lord has said.³⁸

³⁹“When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’⁴⁰⁴¹tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.⁴²⁴³Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household,⁴⁴⁴⁵but he brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that he swore to our ancestors.⁴⁶⁴⁷The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today.⁴⁸⁴⁹Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’⁵⁰