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About this book

Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 6

1 Now these are the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed 2 and that you may so revere the Lord your God that you will keep all his statutes and commandments that I am giving you—you, your children, and your grandchildren—all your lives, to prolong your days. 3 Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number—as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.⁠ 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!⁠ 5 You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.⁠ 6 These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, 7 and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.⁠ 8 You should tie them as a reminder on your forearm and fasten them as symbols on your forehead.⁠ 9 Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and gates.⁠ 10 Then when the Lord your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you—a land with large, fine cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with choice things you did not accumulate, hewn-out cisterns you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—and you eat your fill, 12 be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, that place of slavery. 13 You must revere the Lord your God, serve him, and take oaths using only his name. 14 You must not go after other gods, those of the surrounding peoples, 15 for the Lord your God, who is present among you, is a jealous God—his anger will erupt against you and remove you from the land. 16 You must not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.⁠ 17 Keep his commandments very carefully, as well as the stipulations and statutes he commanded you to observe. 18 Do whatever is proper and good before the Lord so that it may go well with you and that you may enter and occupy the good land that he promised your ancestors, 19 and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the Lord said. 20 When your children ask you later on,⁠ “What are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God commanded you?”⁠ 21 you must say to them, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt in a powerful way. 22 And he brought signs and great, devastating wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on his whole family before our very eyes. 23 He delivered us from there so that he could give us the land he had promised our ancestors. 24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these statutes and to revere him so that it may always go well for us and he may preserve us, as he has to this day. 25 We will be innocent if we carefully keep all these commandments before the Lord our God, just as he demands.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 6:16 and Isaiah 7:12

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy warns Israel not to test God, recalling the incident at Massah where doubt led to conflict. Isaiah echoes this when King Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign, saying he will not test God, connecting Israel’s past disobedience with the present.

Passages

Deuteronomy 6:16

Hebrew Bible
14 You must not go after other gods, those of the surrounding peoples, 15 for the Lord your God, who is present among you, is a jealous God—his anger will erupt against you and remove you from the land. 16 You must not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. 17 Keep his commandments very carefully, as well as the stipulations and statutes he commanded you to observe. 18 Do whatever is proper and good before the Lord so that it may go well with you and that you may enter and occupy the good land that he promised your ancestors,
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Isaiah 7:12

Hebrew Bible
10 The Lord again spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask for a confirming sign from the Lord your God. You can even ask for something miraculous.” 12 But Ahaz responded, “I don’t want to ask; I don’t want to put the Lord to a test.” 13 So Isaiah replied, “Pay attention, family of David. Do you consider it too insignificant to try the patience of men? Is that why you are also trying the patience of my God? 14 For this reason the Lord himself will give you a confirming sign. Look, this young woman is pregnant and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him Immanuel.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

References

"... Psalm 81:7 refers to the Massah and Meribah episode and reverses the roles of God and the people, ignoring Moses’s role. Psalm 106:32–33 also criticizes Moses’s role as leader, together with the people. The Israelites make God angry at Meribah but also entice Moses to say “words that were rash.” The Book of Deuteronomy includes several passages with the testing theme, which may even go back to traditions that are earlier than the Exodus passages. Nevertheless, they read like flashbacks to episodes in the wilderness narrated before in Exodus and Numbers. Moses’s instructions to the Israelites for the period in the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 6:4–8:20) include the commandment not to test God in the future and refers twice to the Massah and Meribah episode: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah” (compare Ahaz's implementation of this commandment in Isaiah 7:12) ..."
Silvia Castelli and Jan Willem van Henten, “Massah and Meribah Re-interpreted: Biblical Accounts, Judith, and Josephus,” in The Early Reception of the Torah, ed. Kristin De Troyer et al. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2020), 19–48.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 6:16 and Isaiah 7:12

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