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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 6:3 and LXX Deuteronomy 6:3

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Deuteronomy 6:3 leads naturally into the declaration of Shema in 6:4, but the Septuagint translation, perhaps to emphasize its importance, inserts language from Deuteronomy 4:45 just before it, showing a willingness to alter the text.

Passages

Deuteronomy 6:3

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

LXX Deuteronomy 6:3

Septuagint
1 And these are the commands, and the ordinances, and the judgments, as many as the Lord our God gave commandment to teach you to do so in the land on which you enter to inherit it. 2 That you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all his ordinances, and his commandments, which I command you today, you, and your sons, and your sons' sons, all the days of your life, that you may live many days. 3 Hear, therefore, Israel, and observe to do them, that it may be well with you, and that you may be greatly multiplied, as the Lord God of your fathers said that he would give you a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 And these are the ordinances, and the judgments, which the Lord commanded the children of Israel in the wilderness, when they had gone forth from the land of Egypt. Hear, Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord. 5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your strength.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

References

"... The translator here is more aware of context, bringing different passages into line with each other. He is concerned with halakic matters (that is, with the correct observance of the law). Sometimes he appears to 'update' his translation. In 23:18, for instance, he apparently adds initiation into the Greek mysteries to the list of forbidden practices. He, too, translates rather literally and his Greek is less polished and innovative than that, say, of the Genesis or Exodus translators. Other interesting passages include 6.4, where the Shema is preceded by an echo of 4:45 (perhaps associating 6:4 with the Decalogue), and 32:43 (the end of the Song of Moses). This has expansions similar to 4Q31 ..."
Jennifer M. Dines, The Septuagint (London: T&T Clark, 2004), 15.

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 6:3 and LXX Deuteronomy 6:3

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