Deuteronomy 6

— with all thine heart, &c.] For there being no other God but He alone, none else could have any right to their love and service, but He only, whose nature is so excellent, that it requires the utmost we can do to testify our regard to Him. By the “heart” here may be meant the will, which is the original of all a man’s actions, whether good or evil; by the “soul,” the affections; to which St. Mark adds the “mind,” that is, the understanding or rational faculty; and by “might” or “strength” is meant the power of the body for action: which four, all together, make up the whole man. The word “all,” added to each of these, does not exclude all other things from any share in our thoughts and affections; but only from an equal interest in them. “The love of God” ought to be superiour, and to direct all our other motions to serve Him. Bp. Patrick. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.] Under all the Divine dispensations from the beginning, no duty is set higher, or more insisted on, than that of instructing children in the knowledge of religion. “Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.” What more or greater can be said of any mere man? Attend to the reason, which immediately follows, “For I know him, that he will command his children after him, &c.” See Gen. xviii. 18. Thus again in the passage before us from the Law: “These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:” for what purpose, or for whose sake? For the sake of themselves alone? By no means:—“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, &c.” Children on their part are supposed to be often asking questions upon these subjects, and so to put their parents, teachers, or friends, upon conversation of this kind. See Exod. xii. 26. Respecting Christian parents, they are most expressly enjoined to “bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord:” and to the praise of young Timothy, as well as of those relations who had been his instructors, it is said, “that from a child he had known the holy Scriptures, able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Bp. Horne. — and shalt talk of them when thou sittest &c.] As much as to say, they should take all occasions to inculcate this great lesson, at home and abroad, night and day; never ceasing their most earnest endeavours, to persuade their children, not to worship any other god; nor to fail to worship the Loan their God, with sincere affection. Bp. Patrick. This injunction of God to the Jews cannot be in less force among Christians. It does not mean, that our conversation should be of nothing besides religion: but it must mean, that religion should have a due share in it: and doubtless then a peculiar share on the day, which God hath hallowed. Employing a part of that day in giving those about us the obvious proofs of Christianity, just notions of the holiness of the Divine law, and their need of a Redeemer and a Sanctifier; instruction in their various duties to God, and man, and themselves; joyful expectations of the rewards of piety; An exhortation to obedience. Before CHRIST 1451.

Deuteronomy 6:2

2. — utterly destroy them.] One of the reasons which made this destruction more necessary and more general, than it would have otherwise been, was the consideration, that if any of the old inhabitants were left, they would prove a snare to those who succeeded them in the country: would draw and seduce them by degrees into the vices and corruptions which prevailed among themselves. Vices of all kinds, but vices especially of the licentious kind, are astonishingly infectious. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” A small number of persons addicted to them, and allowed to practise them with impunity or encouragement, will spread them through the whole mass. This reason is formally and expressly assigned, not simply for the punishment, but for the extent to which it was carried, namely, extermination. “Thou shalt utterly destroy them: that they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods,” chap. xx. 17, 18. Archdeacon Paley.

Deuteronomy 6:3

3. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them.] The true reason of providing against a too familiar conversation between the Hebrews and their idolatrous neighbours, was not ill-will towards them: but it was a measure of self-preservation from a very great evil; no less than a loss of the true religion, and therewith of their happiness, in the favour of Jehovah, as their God. “For they will turn away thy son, &c.” see the 4th verse.

Communion with the nations forbidden for fear of idolatry. Before CHRIST 1451. daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

Deuteronomy 6:8

8. And thou shalt bind them &c.] See the note on Exod. xiii. 9.

Deuteronomy 6:9

9. And thou shalt write them upon the posts &c.] The Jews give the name “Mexusoth” to certain pieces of parchment, which they fix on the door-posts of their houses, understanding this precept in a literal sense. They pretend, that to avoid making themselves ridiculous by writing the commandments of God without their doors, or rather to avoid exposing them to profanation, they ought to write them on parchment, and to inclose it in a piece of cane or other hollow wood. Therefore they write on a square piece of parchment, prepared on purpose, with a particular ink, and a square kind of character, the following texts: Deut. vi. 4—9; then after a little space, Deut. xi. 13—20. They then roll up the parchment, put it into a case, and write on it, “Shaddai,” which is one of the names of God: they put it at the doors of their houses, and chambers, to the knockers of their doors on the right side; and as often as they pass, they touch this place with their finger, which they afterwards kiss. The Hebrew word “Mexusa” properly signifies the door of a house; but it is also given to this roll of parchment. Calmet.

This wise and holy lawgiver well knew, how much men’s hearts are alienated from goodness, and that it is requisite to work upon them with incessant applications of the word of God, before they can be impressed with a due sense of religion. It is no easy matter to dispossess the vanities of the world and the lusts of the flesh, of that dominion, which they have naturally over us. A few cold prayers, and unsettled meditations, and formal hearings of the word of God, will never subdue them. But a daily assiduity and constancy in these duties will gradually weaken them and drive them out. For constancy will beget zeal; and zeal will make us delight in drawing nigh to God: and then He will draw nigh to us, and will daily appear to us more good and gracious, more excellent, and more worthy of our love. Whilst by often raising our hearts to heaven, and setting our affections on it, and laying up our treasure in it, our ideas and conceptions of its society, of its enjoyments, of its most noble exercises, and undisturbed peace and tranquility, will be continually strengthened and enlarged. Reading.

Deuteronomy 6:12

12. Then beware lest thou forget &c.] Prosperity is generally very dangerous to mankind. Hence it is, that they are warned, at such times of plenty and af-

fluence of worldly things, to “beware.” Such things are a great snare, and occasion of pride and haughtiness, and many other vices. Bp. Kidder.

Deuteronomy 6:13

13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God.] There is no perfection in the Divine nature, which is not a proper foundation, and may not suggest motives, for a religious “fear of God.” God is most holy, and abhors iniquity as entirely opposite to His pure and undefiled nature. He is every where present, and from Him nothing can be hid. He is all-wise, and cannot be deceived. He is the just governour of the world, and as such He cannot but observe the actions of men, and will certainly “render to every man according to his works:” and though He be good and merciful to all His creatures, yet He must be supposed so to love them as to love justice and righteousness also. He is almighty, and can punish the rebellious many ways, by turning them out of being, or by making that being a pain to them for as long a time as He sees proper. He is also supremely good; and though this of all His perfections may seem the least suited to make us dread Him, yet whosoever judgeth so is much mistaken; for indeed there is not any one quality of the Divine nature so adapted to strike us with an ingenuous fear, with the fear of a child towards a parent, as this, and of such efficacy to deter us from sin, and to make us avoid incurring His just displeasure. Sin against God, as He is almighty, is the excess of madness and folly; but, as He is most kind and merciful, it is the basest ingratitude. The greater His goodness is, the greater is our guilt, if we be undutiful servants; and the greater will be our punishment, and that remorse and horrour, which St. John in so strong and eloquent a manner expresses in the Revelation, when he makes the wicked say to the mountains, “Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb.” He says not, from the wrath of the lion, though in the same book he calls Christ the Lion of the tribe of Judah; but from the wrath of the lamb; from long-despised patience, and much-injured mercy. Dr. Jortin. There is nothing more terrible than goodness slighted, and patience abused. Dr. Isaac Barrow.

— and shalt swear by His name.] That is, only by His name. This is the only reasonable interpretation. Swearing could never be lawful, but when it was necessary; and all that the Israelites were obliged to from these words was this, that when they did swear, they should do it by the name of God only, and not by any creature, Matt. v. 34. The words in this verse, thou shalt “serve Him,” Christ expresses by “Him only shalt thou serve,” Matt. iv. 10. The doctrine of Christ is always at harmony with the moral precepts of Moses. Bp. Kidder.

An exhortation to obedience. CHAP. VI, VII. Communion with the nations forbidden.

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.

Deuteronomy 6:25

25. And it shall be our righteousness.] Both the Latin and the Greek translations understand “righteousness” to import “mercy.” And then the meaning of the sentence is, “God will be merciful to us for the future, if we obey His laws.” Bp. Kidder. “If we observe to do all these commandments, God will account us a righteous people, and be kind to us.” Bp. Patrick.

Chap. VII. ver. 1. — the Hittites, &c.] In Abraham’s days the land was occupied by ten nations: the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, eastwards of Jordan; and westwards, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites, Gen. xv. 18—21. These latter in the days of Moses were called by the same names; the Hivites being substituted for the Rephaims. These seven nations were thus distributed: “The Hittites,” or sons of Heth, “the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwelt in the mountains,” or in the hill country of Judea, southwards: “the Canaanites” dwelt in the midland, “by the sea,” westwards, and “by the coast of Jordan,” eastwards; and “the Girgashites,” or Gergesenes, along the eastern side of the sea of Galilee; and “the Hivites” in mount Lebanon, under Hermon, in the land of Mispah, or Gilead, northwards. Compare Numb. xiii. 29; Josh. xi. 3; Judg. iii. 3; and Matt. viii. 28. Dr. Hales.