Albert Barnes Commentary Deuteronomy 6:10-25

"And it shall be, when Jehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee, great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full; then beware lest thou forget Jehovah, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; and him shalt thou serve, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are round about you; for Jehovah thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God; lest the anger of Jehovah thy God be kindled against thee, and he destroy thee from off the face of the earth. Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of Jehovah; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which Jehovah sware unto thy fathers, to thrust out all thine enemies from before thee, as Jehovah hath spoken. When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah our God hath commanded you? then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh`s bondmen in Egypt: and Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and Jehovah showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his house, before our eyes; and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. And it shall be righteousness unto us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Jehovah our God, as he hath commanded us." — Deuteronomy 6:10-25 (ASV)

The Israelites were at the point of quitting their previous nomadic life for a fixed and settled abode in the midst of other nations; they were exchanging a condition of comparative poverty for great and fine cities, houses, and vineyards. Therefore, they faced a double danger:

1. A God-forgetting worldliness, and
2. A false tolerance of the idolatries practiced by those about to become their neighbors.

Moses strives to guard against the former error in the verses now before us, and against the latter in Deuteronomy 7:1-11.

Regarding Deuteronomy 6:13, the command to swear by His Name is not inconsistent with the Lord’s injunction in Matthew 5:34, Swear not at all. Moses refers to legal swearing; our Lord refers to swearing in common conversation. It is not Moses’s purpose to encourage the practice of taking oaths, but to forbid that, when taken, they should be taken in any other name than that of Israel’s God. The oath involves an invocation of Deity and so a solemn recognition of Him whose Name is used in it. Therefore, it particularly falls within the scope of the commandment Moses is enforcing.

Concerning Deuteronomy 6:25, It shall be our righteousness — that is, God will esteem us as righteous and deal with us accordingly. From the very beginning, Moses made the whole righteousness of the Law depend entirely on a right state of the heart—in one word, upon faith.