Deuteronomy 6:1

The Greatest Commandment

1 "Now this is ¹the commandment, the statutes and the rules^[a] that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it,

Deuteronomy 6:1 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 6:1

Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the
judgments
Not the ten commandments repeated in the preceding chapter, but all others, whether moral, ceremonial, or judicial, afterwards declared; for what Moses now did was only to give a repetition and fresh declaration of such laws as he had before received, and delivered to the people; and so the Targum of Jonathan thus paraphrases this clause,

``this is a declaration of the commandments, statutes, and judgments:''

which the Lord your God commanded to teach you;
that is, which he commanded him, Moses, to teach them, though not fully expressed, as may be learned from ( Deuteronomy 4:1 Deuteronomy 4:5 ) ( 5:31 )

that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it;
this is often observed, to imprint upon their minds a sense of their duty, even of obedience to the laws of God, which they were carefully and diligently to perform in the land of Canaan they were going into, and by which they were to hold their possession of it.

Deuteronomy 6:1 In-Context

1 "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it,

2 that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.

3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 5:31; Deuteronomy 12:1

Footnotes

• [a]. Or just decrees; also verse 20