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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 6:5 and Sirach 7:29

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Sirach reshapes the command in Deuteronomy to love God with heart and strength by connecting devotion to God with honor for the priests. Each act for God is mirrored with an obligation to the priests, showing how Sirach elevates priestly authority.

Passages

Deuteronomy 6:5

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

Sirach 7:29

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
27 Honor your father with your whole heart, and don’t forget the birth pangs of your mother. 28 Remember that you were born of them. What will you repay them for the things that they have done for you? 29 Fear the Lord with all your soul; and revere his priests. 30 With all your strength love him who made you. Don’t forsake his ministers. 31 Fear the Lord and honor the priest. Give him his portion, even as it is commanded you: the first fruits, the trespass offering, the gift of the shoulders, the sacrifice of sanctification, and the first fruits of holy things.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

"... We find Ben Sira’s views about the priesthood articulated most succinctly in 7:29–31. In this passage he adapts the language of Deuteronomy 6:5 in order to encourage that the priests get their due. He says, “With all your heart fear the Lord and regard his priests as holy. With all your might love your maker and do not forsake his servants. Give glory to God, honor the priest, and give them their portion as you are commanded.” It is striking here that each action intended for God has a parallel one for the priests. Ben Sira employs Deuteronomy to give significant symbolic and rhetorical weight to how important honoring the priests is." ..."
Benjamin G. Wright, “1 Enoch and Ben Sira: Wisdom and Apocalypticism in Relationship,” in The Early Enoch Literature, ed. Gabriele Boccaccini and John J. Collins (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 159–176.

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 6:5 and Sirach 7:29

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