Deuteronomy 5-6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 5
The Covenant at Horeb. 1 Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I proclaim in your hearing this day, that you may learn them and take care to observe them.(A) 2 The Lord, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb; 3 not with our ancestors[a] did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, all of us who are alive here this day. 4 (B)Face to face, the Lord spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire,(C) 5 while I was standing between the Lord and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the Lord, since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain:
The Decalogue. 6 (D)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,(E) out of the house of slavery. 7 (F)You shall not have other gods beside me. 8 You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; 9 [b]you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous[c] God, bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation, 10 but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 You shall not invoke the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.(G) For the Lord will not leave unpunished anyone who invokes his name in vain.
12 (H)Observe the sabbath day—keep it holy, as the Lord, your God, commanded you. 13 Six days you may labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey or any work animal, or the resident alien within your gates, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. 15 Remember that you too were once slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord, your God, brought you out from there with a strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the Lord, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
16 (I)Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
18 (K)You shall not commit adultery.
19 (L)You shall not steal.
20 (M)You shall not bear dishonest witness against your neighbor.
21 (N)You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
You shall not desire your neighbor’s house or field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Moses as Mediator. 22 These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire and the dense black cloud, and added no more. He inscribed them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.(O) 23 But when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came near to me, all your tribal heads and elders, 24 and said, “The Lord, our God, has indeed let us see his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire.(P) Today we have found out that God may speak to a mortal and that person may still live. 25 Now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord, our God, any more, we shall die.(Q) 26 For what mortal has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, as we have, and lived? 27 You go closer and listen to all that the Lord, our God, will say, and then tell us what the Lord, our God, tells you; we will listen and obey.”(R)
28 The Lord heard your words as you were speaking to me and said to me, I have heard the words these people have spoken to you, which are all well said.(S) 29 Would that they might always be of such a mind, to fear me and to keep all my commandments! Then they and their descendants would prosper forever. 30 Go, tell them: Return to your tents. 31 Then you stand here near me and I will give you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances; you must teach them, that they may observe them in the land I am giving them to possess.(T)
32 Be careful, therefore, to do as the Lord, your God, has commanded you, not turning aside to the right or to the left, 33 but following exactly the way that the Lord, your God, commanded you that you may live and prosper, and may have long life in the land which you are to possess.(U)
Chapter 6
1 This then is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances,(V) which the Lord, your God, has commanded that you be taught to observe in the land you are about to cross into to possess, 2 so that you, that is, you, your child, and your grandchild, may fear the Lord, your God, by keeping, as long as you live, all his statutes and commandments(W) which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. 3 Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly; for the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.(X)
The Great Commandment.[e] 4 (Y)Hear, O Israel![f] The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! 5 Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.(Z) 6 (AA)Take to heart these words which I command you today.(AB) 7 Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.(AC) 8 Bind them on your arm as a sign[g] and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.(AD) 9 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.(AE)
Fidelity in Prosperity. 10 (AF)When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,(AG) 11 with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat and are satisfied,(AH) 12 (AI)be careful not to forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery. 13 (AJ)The Lord, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve,[h] and by his name shall you swear. 14 (AK)You shall not go after other gods, any of the gods of the surrounding peoples— 15 for the Lord, your God who is in your midst, is a passionate God—lest the anger of the Lord, your God, flare up against you and he destroy you from upon the land.
16 You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test, as you did at Massah.(AL) 17 But keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, and the decrees and the statutes he has commanded you. 18 Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and you may enter in and possess the good land which the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, 19 driving all your enemies out of your way, as the Lord has promised.(AM)
Instruction to Children. 20 (AN)Later on, when your son asks you, “What do these decrees and statutes and ordinances mean?”(AO) which the Lord, our God, has enjoined on you, 21 (AP)you shall say to your son, “We were once slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand(AQ) 22 and wrought before our eyes signs and wonders, great and dire, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and his whole house. 23 He brought us from there to bring us in and give us the land he had promised on oath to our ancestors.(AR) 24 (AS)The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes in fear of the Lord, our God, that we may always have as good a life as we have today. 25 This is our justice before the Lord, our God: to observe carefully this whole commandment he has enjoined on us.”
Notas al pie
- 5:3 Not with our ancestors: in fact, the covenant was made with the ancestors, but these had died out during the “forty” years. The covenant is considered to be ongoing—for Israel in Moab and beyond.
- 5:9–10 Israel is confronted with a choice, to “love” or to “hate” the Lord, and with the consequences of each choice. “Wickedness” works destruction not only on those who do it but also down the generations, in a sort of ripple effect. Yet, if Israel keeps the commandments, they will experience the Lord’s hesed (“love”) down to the thousandth generation. Thus the Lord’s merciful love is disproportionate to the evil results of iniquity (“down to the third and fourth generation”). To the thousandth generation: lit., “to thousands”; cf. 7:9.
- 5:9 Jealous: see note on 4:24.
- 5:17 Kill: see note on Ex 20:13.
- 6:4–5 This passage, an expansion of the first commandment (5:6–10), contains the basic principle of the whole Mosaic law, the keynote of the Book of Deuteronomy: since the Lord alone is God, Israel must love him with an undivided heart. Jesus cited these words as “the greatest and the first commandment,” embracing in itself the whole law of God (Mt 22:37–38; Mk 12:29–30; Lk 10:27).
- 6:4 Hear, O Israel!: in Hebrew, shema yisra’el; hence this passage (vv. 4–9), containing the Great Commandment, is called the Shema. In later Jewish tradition, 11:13–21 and Nm 15:37–41 were added to form a prayer recited every evening and morning. The Lord is our God, the Lord alone: other possible translations are “the Lord our God is one Lord”; “the Lord our God, the Lord is one”; “the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”
- 6:8 Bind them…as a sign: these injunctions were probably meant merely in a figurative sense; cf. Ex 13:9, 16. In the late postexilic period, they were taken quite literally, and devout Jews tied on their arms and foreheads “phylacteries,” boxes containing strips of parchment on which these words were inscribed; cf. Mt 23:5.
- 6:13 Him shall you serve: the verb could be translated as either “serve” or “worship” (cf. 5:9).
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