Deuteronomy 6:1-7:11

New King James Version

The Greatest Commandment

6 “Now this is ^(A)the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, ^2 (B)that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, ^(C)and that your days may be prolonged. ³ Therefore hear, O Israel, and ^[a]be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may ^(D)multiply greatly ^(E)as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—^(F)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

^4 (G)“Hear, O Israel: ^[b]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! ^5 (H)You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, ^(I)with all your soul, and with all your strength.

⁶ “And ^(J)these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ^7 (K)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^8 (L)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (M)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Caution Against Disobedience

¹⁰ “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He ^[c]swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities ^(N)which you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—^(O)when you have eaten and are full— ¹² then beware, lest you forget the ^(P)Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall ^(Q)fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and ^(R)shall take oaths in His name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, ^(S)the gods of the peoples who are all around you ¹⁵ (for ^(T)the Lord your God is a jealous God ^(U)among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

^16 (V)“You shall not ^[d]tempt the Lord your God ^(W)as you ^[e]tempted Him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall ^(X)diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you ^(Y)shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, ^19 (Z)to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

^20 (AA)“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(AB)with a mighty hand; ²² and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. ²³ Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He ^[f]swore to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to ^[g]observe all these ^[h]statutes, ^(AC)to fear the Lord our God, ^(AD)for our good always, that ^(AE)He might preserve us alive, as it is ^[i]this day. ²⁵ Then ^(AF)it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

A Chosen People^(AG)

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to ^(AH)possess, and has cast out many ^(AI)nations before you, ^(AJ)the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers ^(AK)them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. ^(AL)You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. ^3 (AM)Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; ^(AN)so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. ⁵ But thus you shall deal with them: you shall ^(AO)destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their ^[j]wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For you are a ^[k]holy people to the Lord your God; ^(AP)the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. ⁷ The Lord did not set His ^(AQ)love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were ^(AR)the least of all peoples; ⁸ but ^(AS)because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep ^(AT)the oath which He swore to your fathers, ^(AU)the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of ^[l]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, ^(AV)the faithful God ^(AW)who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not ^[m]be ^(AX)slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.