Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 6

These are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord ... commanded ... that ye might do them in the land. —After the Decalogue itself has been recapitulated, Moses proceeds to apply its principles to the conduct of Israel in the promised land. The first part of the application is more general, and concerns the relation of Israel to Jehovah, who has brought them from Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land. This portion concludes with Deuteronomy 11:0. The precepts that follow are particular, and concern the land of Israel viewed as the seat of (1) the worship and (2) the kingdom of Jehovah. But the whole discourse, from Deuteronomy 4:44 to the end of Deuteronomy 26:0 is presented to us as one unbroken whole. (See Introduction for a complete analysis.)

The commandments. —Literally, this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments. The “commandment” is the duty imposed on Israel by the covenant of the ten words—its application to their daily lives. This application includes (1) statutes, religious ordinances, or institutions; and (2) judgments, requirements, actual rules of behaviour. The two words “statutes” and “judgments,” in the original, may sometimes represent two aspects of the same thing. For example, the Passover is an ordinance, or “statute,” or, as we should say, an “institution.” The rules for its observance are “judgments,” or requirements.

The thing itself is permanent; the rules for its observance may vary. It was originally eaten standing, and in haste. But after Israel was at rest, it was eaten by them reclining, and in an attitude of repose. Again, the moral law as a whole was eternal; but its application to the life of Israel was very different from its application to ourselves. The word here rendered “commandments” is now commonly employed by the Jews to signify any religious duty or good work.

That you may increase mightily ... in the land. —The position of Israel in the land, and their continuance in it, depended entirely on their fulfillment of the purpose for which they were brought there—the observance of the Law of Jehovah, as it applied to their specific situation.

Hear, O Israel ... —These two verses are called by our Lord the first and great commandment in the Law. The first words of the Talmud concern the hours when this form should be recited in daily morning or evening prayer—Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. The unity of Jehovah, as opposed to the belief in gods many and lords many, is the keynote of the Jewish faith.

“We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.” But this truth, though visible in the Old Testament by the light of the New, was not explicitly revealed until it came forth in history, when the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, and both sent the Holy Spirit to represent Him in the Church.

With all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. —The word “heart” has been taken both as “thought” and “affection.” Hence, perhaps, the four terms, “heart, mind, soul, and strength,” which we find in Mark 12:30.

Bashi says upon the expression “all your heart”—“with both natures” (the good and evil nature). “With all your soul” he expounds thus: “Even though He take it (your life) from you.” And “with all your might” he paraphrases in a truly practical and characteristic fashion, “With all your money, for you sometimes find a man whose money is dearer to him than his life (or body).” Or, as an alternative, “in every condition which He allots to you, whether prosperity or chastisement.”

And so He says in David, I will take the cup of salvation (deliverances), and I will call on the name of the Lord (Psalms 116:13); and again. I shall find trouble and heaviness, and I will call on the name of the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:3–4). It is an interesting illustration of the passage, though the verbal connection on which it is based will not hold.

And you shall teach them diligently. —The same Jewish commentator remarks that there should be no hesitation in answering anything that anyone might ask. Had this system of education been carried on from the first, the history of Israel would have been very different from what it is.