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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 6:7 and Proverbs 3:23

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Proverbs uses the same pattern from Deuteronomy, describing times of walking, lying down, and rising. In Deuteronomy, these moments are for teaching and meditating on the Torah, and Proverbs turns them into moments when wisdom offers guidance and safety.

Passages

Deuteronomy 6:7

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

Proverbs 3:23

Hebrew Bible
21 My child, do not let them escape from your sight; safeguard sound wisdom and discretion. 22 So they will become life for your soul and grace around your neck. 23 Then you will walk on your way with security, and you will not stumble. 24 When you lie down you will not be filled with fear; when you lie down your sleep will be pleasant. 25 Do not be afraid of sudden disaster or when destruction overtakes the wicked;
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Proverbs

References

"... Proverbs 6:22 not only provides a key to the motifs invoked by R. Yehoshuʿa b. Levi, it also further illuminates his teaching by its close links to another text: the Shema. A brief look at the affinities between these texts will inform our reading of Yehoshuʿa b. Levi’s teaching, for these textual dynamics underlie his midrash of the “garland of grace.” The resonance between the two texts, which has engrossed both ancient and modern scholars, is also strikingly apparent even to the casual reader (particularly those many for whom the words of the Shema are familiar and ingrained). It is perhaps impossible to read the Proverbial words “When you walk, it will lead you; when you lie down, it will watch over you; when you awaken, it will talk with you” without hearing the command, “Speak [these words] when you are sitting in your home, when you are walking on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up.” Perhaps most striking is the fact that both passages mark experience by the same three acts, and in the same order: walking, lying down, and arising. It is among these coordinates that speech occurs; if Proverbs indicates stations at which personified Wisdom guides, guards and speaks, Deuteronomy (which adds the fourth action, “sitting at home”) commands speech at all of these points (The addition of a fourth point creates marked difference from the “walk / lie down” of Proverbs 3:23-24, and the list in Proverbs 6:22, to the matched pairs of Deuteronomy 6:7) ..."
Ruth Ellen Haber, “Rabbis on the Road: Exposition En Route in Classical Rabbinic Texts” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2014), 69.

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 6:7 and Proverbs 3:23

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