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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 6:7 and Psalm 1:1

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy requires teaching and speaking the commandments at all times, while sitting, walking, lying down, and waking up. Psalm 1 echoes this by describing the righteous person as one who meditates on the Torah day and night.

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

Psalm 1:1

Hebrew Bible
1 How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the assembly of scoffers. 2 Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands; he meditates on his commands day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by flowing streams; it yields its fruit at the proper time, and its leaves never fall off. He succeeds in everything he attempts.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... In the ideology of the implied author of Psalm 1, then, there is only one way to be truly happy, prosperous, successful, and honorable, and that is to shy away from the company of bad people and to immerse oneself in the Torah of Yahweh. Those who are like-minded, who honor Yahweh above all else by holding his instruction in high regard, also form a community. They are the ‘congregation of righteous’ (verse 5), and they can be spoken of collectively as a group, using a plural like that for the ‘community’ of wicked people and sinners (verses 5-6). The social status of the party whose interests are promoted in Psalm 1 cannot be very low. The possibility of being able to meditate on the Torah ‘day and night’ could be taken as an indication that the more basic human needs, such as that for food and clothing, have been provided for. The similarities with Deuteronomy 6:7 and Joshua 1:8, on the other hand, remind one that meditating on the Torah of Yahweh is not necessarily an activity that requires uninterrupted study. Joshua is about to indulge in a military campaign of tremendous size when he is exhorted by Moses to ‘recite [the Torah] by day and by night’. Recital of the Torah should be done when one sits; but also when one is on one’s way, when lying down and when getting up (Deuteronomy 6:7) ..."
Phil J. Botha, “The Ideological Interface Between Psalm 1 and Psalm 2,” OTE 18.2 (2005): 189–203.

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 Psalm 1:1

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